The power of design has never been more important as the UK economy emerges from the shackles of the pandemic.
Manufacturers want to find ways where they can bring products to market and, whilst speed is always of the essence, there is an increasing need to minimise costs in the development stage and this is driving a surge in CAD adoption
Clients across aerospace, automotive, defence and renewables are all investing in the latest software solutions such as Creo, yet there are still many questions doing the rounds about how to maximise its true value
The answer lies in digital transformation. I realise this phrase has become somewhat of a cliché, but the fact is that customers have digital transformation initiatives across the board and transformation is happening. Nobody’s sitting around having more coffee and discussing it - clients are putting energy and money behind these initiatives.
Manufacturers want to be far more model-based in everything they do, not only in product design and product development. To see this, remember what Model-based Definition (MBD) is: it’s an approach to creating 3D CAD models so that these models effectively contain all the data needed to define a product.
That has two big implications.
- First, that the 3D model is the source authority for *everyone* and drives all engineering activities because the information is placed directly on the geometry – no more chasing outdated, ever-changing 2D models around the company!
- Second, that important complementary processes, such as simulation, or preparing models for manufacturing, run off that model.
Here’s what we’re also seeing in terms of market requirements. Customers are looking for technologies that help them get as far as they can in the digital environment before they commit to money, time, and togetherness in the lab developing prototypes.
It’s not just about COVID, it’s about cost. Our partner, Ansys, the world leader in simulation did research showing that upwards of 70% of product cost was already baked into the product by the time development reached the prototype stage. 70%! By the time you reach that number, any changes you’re making will only be able to have an impact on the margins.
Manufacturers who are doing as much as possible digitally are looking to simulation and generative design and I don’t think it’s any secret why they’d do that. With simulation, designers can experiment in real time, change their minds, change materials and approaches – all without spending a penny on materials or lab time until they need to.
Generative design takes this a step further. We’ve seen customers like Jacobs Engineering and Volvo Trucks use this with great success. The computing power is in the cloud so engineers set the problem, the system creates and ranks alternatives, and engineers can use a solution as-is or continue to evolve it on their own.
The Next Steps
Design engineers need to embrace digital. Full stop. I’d break that into several steps.
Step one, and this is more tactical. Simulation and generative design technologies will become more important because these technologies allow design engineers to do what they went into the field to do – design great products!
I have yet to meet the design engineer who says, ‘what I really want to do is spend more time preparing my model for analysis only to find out I made an avoidable mistake at the beginning.’ Let me tell you, analysts feel the same way – they want to spend their time on problems that require their specialised expertise. I’d tell designers to brush up on topics like stress, strain, heat transfer, structural analysis – what they’ll need to use these tools most effectively.
Second and higher-level, Model-based Definition will continue to increase in importance and is not simply a clerical shortcut. MBD is about expanding the influence of the CAD model up and down the value chain. This means the CEO is using a viewer to look at the model; the manufacturing engineer is running tool paths off that same model; and the design engineer is using that same model for simulation.
If you move even higher, MBD is foundational because it’s part of customers’ model-based enterprise strategy and, in turn, part of their digital transformation strategy. Both users and companies can start to open up a new world and it’s incredibly exciting to think about and to be part of that with customers.
Firms can start on their own journeys and see benefits no matter the size of their business. People don’t have to boil the ocean or build spaceships in their bathrooms or have miraculous insights at 3am to enjoy the benefits of digital transformation. Just begin.
The past two years have shown that it’s not worth trying to make predictions, but I can say we’re hopeful about how CAD and digital transformation can help our customers, and the businesses they serve in turn, to be productive and safe.
