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What has happened? How did we lose the process view? Specialization! Since the beginning of this century, specialization has made barriers between the different functional fields. Everyone has become a specialist. This is owing to the incredible amount of knowledge an individual must utilize in their function. What have we lost because of this specialization? We have lost the ability to look at a problem from a broader viewpoint. This myopia, this single minded purpose in automotive industry created the wall between Design Engineering and Manufacturing.

What have we re-discovered? Multi-functional teams can create a better product in shorter time and lower total cost than each of the individual groups working separately.

An example is the automotive industry which brings product, process, and production people together at the beginning of the design phase. Equipment and part vendors, marketing, sales and distribution are also included on the team. They collaborate on each phase of the design process. A sample result of the rapid prototyping utilization: GM Canada manufactured a new sports car engine in 4 years rather than the customary 7 years. An example from a Hewlett-Packard team effort produced a new printer, conceived and brought to a high volume market in under a year from the traditional 3 year development cycle period.

“… the single most important reason for delays in development activities is the absence of multi-functional (and outsider) representation on development projects from the start”, Quote from Tom Peters book Thriving on Chaos ­ Handbook for a Management Revolution.

One objective of DFM is improved communication, either through electronic means or face-to-face. A benefit of the flow of information from a CAD system is that the geometry is delivered directly to a post processor that creates the program for a arithmetical control (NC) machine and the tooling used to verify the part is done correctly. Alternatively, the information can be passed to a rapid prototyping instrument (aka 3D Fax machine) or a simulation program to verify component design. This electronic communication can happen side by side or around the world. It helps improve the communication between the designer, the manufacturing engineer and the machine operator.

Output from the CAD system can also be developed through a Computerized Process Planning (CAPP) system to produce operator instructions for the rapid prototyping instrument. At materialise.com we can demonstrate how these may be displayed when needed at the operator’s computer or via a wireless interface to a portable device. No more lost or obsolete drawings!

A product that pulls all the information in the manufacturing knowledge base together with the other factors mentioned above with reference to materialise.com/rapid-prototyping, achieves DFM via another acronym, CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) or otherwise CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) or else PIM (Product Information Management).

There are many products in automotive industry that provide excellent examples of this state of art integration. Visit materialise.com to see how the artificial intelligence and natural language are being used to simplify their use.

Innovate Faster. Today’s economy, particularly, compels innovation and a rapid series of new models in order to remain vital and profitable in the market. The aptitude to reduce development cycles and development costs can be achieved by sharing expensive engineering capabilities, and dynamic, cost-effective teamwork to design quickly and efficiently more and multiple products. Effectively using the latest rapid prototyping technology including 3D design to suit your specific needs can help produce more accurate, more complex designs at the automotive industry in much shorter lead times at an average of 22% and reduce non-conformance issues up to 40% when compared to standard 2D methods.

Collaborate Better. Effective and early collaboration is totally critical, with up to 70% of a product’s total lifecycle costs being defined during the early phases of product development. Having a vendor that understands the demands and challenges of the product rapid prototyping development process and is able to help meet those challenges lends itself to faster innovation capacity and capability. Even when you are already implementing the latest CAD in-house, a professional design services company can provide the ability to increase your capacity by seamlessly integrating with your team to manage the demand with focused expertise.

Manage data efficiently. The development of new automotive industry products and methods is no easy task. A host of design, product, and process data should be captured and managed. The better managed, and more this data can be condensed into an easy-to-search repository, the higher the quality of development process that can be achieved and the more this data can be influenced for future designs. Vital to this end is the creation of completely associative 2D production drawings, 3D solid models and 3D visualizations, rapid prototyping models, BOM’s, products with several configurations and model variants, simulations and investigation reports, and project management documents such as revision lists and drawing lists.

Manage Engineering Changes. Engineering changes naturally occur at a rapid rate during the design, assembly, and testing phases. A change to the project can affect many documents. Utilizing the latest CAD technology can help avoid costly mistakes by ensuring that changes made anywhere within the process automatically update all product information, including parts, assemblies, and systems drawings.

With engineering services proposed at Rapid Prototyping Website you can analyze the physical performance of designs through simulation to improve time to market and decrease errors later in the development cycle, conduct quick stress investigation to make sure that parts can carry anticipated loads, improve automotive industry drafts by reducing weight without sacrificing strength. Collision detection can be invaluable, particularly in the engine area where clearances can be a major problem. These capabilities help reduce developments cost by reducing the number of required physical prototypes.

At materialise.com/rapid-prototyping we effectively harness the parametric design solutions and sound engineering principles to minimize costly mistakes. Driven by passion, materialise.com is focused on creating long term relationships that provide value for our clients and ourselves. Please contact us if you are interested in such a relationship or any of our services.