Teco cuts motor design time by 50%

Motor manufacturer Teco Electric & Machinery has slashed the time it takes to design new products by 50% using IBM Dassault’s 3D CAD software, Catia v5. Dean Palmer reports

Motor manufacturer Teco Electric & Machinery has slashed the time it takes to design new products by 50% using IBM Dassault’s 3D CAD software, Catia v5. The project started in 2001 and involved the company’s Chung-Li plant in Taiwan having to migrate from its existing 2D software to Catia v5. There are also plans to do the same in China and Indonesia. By implementing Catia, Teco has been able to combine virtual product design and manufacturing, the key to managing the lifecycle of a product – hence the software acronym, product lifecycle management or PLM. “The key feature that helped us reduce production time is Catia v5’s ability to simulate the entire product lifecycle,” said Daniel Shih, technical and general manager, overseas industrial products business division at Teco. “Time previously spent on design, data sharing and data transfer was reduced, while the number of errors during the design process were also cut down. The seamless migration from our 2D CAD system enabled us to maintain the high levels of quality and efficiency in our design process.” Catia is a core part of IBM Dassault’s PLM software portfolio which consists of Catia v5 for 3D CAD, Enovia for product data management (PDM), Smarteam for collaborative design and information sharing, and Delmia for manufacturing simulation, layout planning, production management, robotics and ergonomics.