Cloud-Native Agile Product Design

Dear DE Reader:

Management's infinite music loop goes “we need more speed and innovation in our product design cycle.” Its chorus is: “higher quality and higher performing products at lower cost get greater market share.” But like holiday season elevator music, nobody seems to know how to dial in something better. Today's Check it Out link offers a number that could get your product design process humming to a better tune.

No doubt you've heard of Onshape, the enterprise-class, professional-level 3D mechanical CAD system from many of the people who first brought you 3D modeling. It's fully cloud-based. It provides built-in data management and collaboration. It doesn't come with irritants like local installs, license fees, service packs and registration codes. “14 Reasons Why Today’s Best Manufacturers Are Adopting Full-Cloud CAD” describes what's in Onshape for you.

But it's more than a rundown of features and benefits. It's really about Onshape’s Agile Product Design process. Basically, that means a nimble process where design teams innovate in parallel, tightly communicate and respond to changes like customer feedback on a dime.

Don't equate “parallel” to traditional concurrent design. That's a serial process where multidisciplinary team members work on the same concept in order. In Onshape's Agile Product Design process, multidisciplinary team members work on the same model simultaneously from anywhere in the world as long as their workstation, phone or tablet can access the cloud.

See, the entire Onshape 3D CAD design environment is cloud native, so you're no longer operating under the rules of file-based applications, even those with some cloudiness to them. Onshape and your CAD model reside on the cloud. It handles all those “wait a sec” data management red flags like version and access control that just popped into your head. Its collaboration embraces and extends today's communications technologies from texting to e-mail.

Onshape, as a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), handles hardware, security and software updates. It has an understandable pricing structure (starting with a trial), and there's an entire ecosystem of analysis, rendering and manufacturing applications that work with it.

“14 Reasons Why Today’s Best Manufacturers Are Adopting Full-Cloud CAD” covers all this and more in detail. It includes multiple embedded links to deeper discussions on key points. Your takeaway: The potential of the Agile Product Design process and how Onshape leverages the cloud as it should be leveraged is fascinating. Hit today's Check it Out link to download your complimentary copy.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, DE