The Promise of Collaboration Realized

By Steve Robbins

I recently met with a number of companieswho are focusing on bringing theirdesign engineers together with othermembers of their corporate teams. Thecircle of influence over the design processcontinues to grow. Often involved in thisprocess are industrial designers, management,manufacturing engineers, electricalengineers, even customers and otherswith a stake in a design’s success.

The ability for members of the team unversedin parametric MCAD to contributeto the up-front design process has becomea key component in the product-developmentcycle because it can shorten time tomarket and deliver a better product. Thetools that are emerging in this area are easyto use and dramatically improve the designprocess. Developing a detailed modelof a product and evaluating it before itmoves to the parametric stage can now beaccomplished easily and affordably.

I heard an interesting visualizationstory at SolidWorks World last month.Until recently, rendering was the domainof video and film production companies.Now, however, it is moving into engineeringrapidly because of success stories likethis: Maxwell Render has a client, ConceptCenter International (CCi), who demonstratedthat investment in the upfront designprocess can return great benefits.

In 2007, CCi’s design team was proposinga new pressure washer to Home Depot.The proposal was different becausethe team believed the pressure washercould be sold on its design merits the waycell phones or music devices are, ratherthan on its specs and power ratings. Thedesign team produced a pressure washerthat looked like a big toy, right down to its“mag” wheels. They had the design completed,but had not yet built a prototype.

Historically, that might have been a problemdue to the great differences betweenexisting pressure-washer designs andCCi’s new concept. CCi decided againstspending big money on making a prototypebefore securing the deal because theyhad access to emerging technology. Ratherthan simply present CAD screenshots ofthe design, CCi created high-resolutionrendered images of the pressure washerdeveloped from its CAD drawings usingmultiple, animated light sources. Theresults were so realistic that Home Depotsigned the order and CCi completed a designthat was quickly manufactured.

Using visualization software reducedthe risk and shortened the time to market.

The same benefits are available from directmodeling software and other 3D toolsthat help facilitate collaboration and allowdesign engineers to eliminate bottlenecksin the design-analyze-manufacture workflow.Tools are emerging that enable movingsimulation to the front of the designprocess, and free or low-cost 3D MCADpackages that are easy to learn are helpingtechnically minded individuals to innovatebefore moving designs into a parametricprocess. All of this makes for a faster andmore efficient design process, saving timein prototyping and manufacturing, andreducing operational overhead.

And it brings individuals who mightnot have been involved into the designprocess. Conceptual models can be sharedand easily edited by all who have a stake inthe design, and everyone can visualize it.In the long run, increasing the use of visualizationwill significantly expand the useof 3D modeling from the designer’s officeto the boardroom and from the marketer’sdesk to the manufacturing floor. Designswill improve and innovation will increase.Collaboration is the key to success in ourengineering future.

Steve Robbins is the CEO of Level 5 Communications and executive editor of DE. Send comments about this subject to [email protected].