Commentary: January 2005

A Crisis in Innovation?

By John J. McEleney

As the CEO of SolidWorks Corporation, I have the frequent opportunity to speak with engineers from around the world. In recent months, product developers have told me about a crisis in innovation related to consolidation and standardization in the 3D CAD market. Although today’s 3D CAD systems help many manufacturers shorten design cycles, reduce costs, and improve product quality, many product developers wonder what the next big innovation will be. Now that companies have standardized on 3D CAD, their concerns focus on the next great step forward.

Innovation generally comes in two forms: disruptive, revolutionary breakthroughs that alter the playing field and lead to market upheaval; and steady, incremental advances that improve productivity and expand markets over the long term. While the introduction of CAD technology a few decades ago certainly qualifies as an example of a disruptive technology—computers replaced drafting tables as an engineer’s main tool—all of the innovations in CAD since then, from the development of 3D technology to integrated manufacturing, constitute incremental gains. Quantum leaps in innovation like the creation of CAD are actually quite rare.

John J. McEleney, SolidWorks Corp.

Consider the example of the liquid-crystal display (LCD). Today, the application of LCD technology has become nearly ubiquitous for products ranging from laptop computers to home thermostats. Interestingly, the initial application of LCD technology involved a single product: the digital watch. Since then, LCD technology has become the standard for displaying data, and engineering has yielded applications unimaginable a few decades ago.

Likewise, standardization in the CAD market creates opportunities for engineers to leverage CAD technology and 3D data to boost productivity and enhance innovation. As more intuitive 3D CAD systems become the standard, engineers will consume less time learning how to use CAD. They’ll gain time to innovate products while leveraging solid modeling data to support applications like integrated analysis, knowledge-based engineering, CAM, sales support, and technical documentation.

Standardization has generated a proliferation of 3D CAD data, resulting in a wide range of commonly used component models that are available either through online links to suppliers, such as 3D ContentCentral (3dcontentcentral.com), or model libraries such as SolidWorks Toolbox. Engineers save time and ensure accuracy by downloading or accessing pre-made CAD models, and manufacturers can realize additional efficiencies by working with vendors that have standardized using a particular CAD format—as the firms that make up the SolidWorks Manufacturing Network have done.

The 3D data standard also supports innovative manufacturing and rapid prototyping technologies, enabling engineers to produce parts and prototypes faster than ever before. In fact, an engineer can model a part and produce a functional prototype in a single day. Automated print-to-tooling and rapid manufacturing technologies aren’t far off.

Just as standardization of LCD technology sparked a series of innovative applications standardization of 3D CAD for computer modeling will continue to support incremental advances that increase productivity and stretch market boundaries. An example is the recently introduced Cosmic Blobs (cosmicblobs.com) “Digital Modeling Clay” product from Dassault Systemes. This software extends 3D CAD to a broader consumer market. The same CAD technology that supports an engineer’s needs for complex product development has been reconstituted for artistic and entertainment purposes.

In short, I don’t believe there is a crisis in innovation regarding product development. While innovations in CAD may not turn the state of product development on its head like CAD’s introduction did decades ago, its standardization provides the fertile ground needed for the incremental development of a steady stream of productivity-enhancing applications.

John McEleney is CEO of SolidWorks Corporation. To contact him about this article, send an e-mail to [email protected]