Engaging teams in collaborative design process

Although better known for its role as a major financial center, Hong Kong remains one of the world’s biggest producers of small household electrical appliances with many of the most popular personal care products, kitchen goods and domestic fans being designed by Hong Kong companies.

Capitalizing on low-cost production facilities in Southern China, the majority of products are developed in Hong Kong for volume production by subsidiaries on the mainland. These products are then supplied on original equipment manufacturing (OEM) basis to many of the world’s best known companies.

With product life cycles in many cases lasting only a few months, the OEM business demands extreme flexibility, and the ability to get products from concept to production and delivery in a matter of weeks – and often working with various parties across the globe.

Design engineers often have to juggle multiple, competing demands; improve the look but reduce production costs; and enhance safety and meet regulatory requirements without slowing design. Fortunately, technology advances are revolutionizing how project teams engage with each other and collaborate inside and outside their organizations. OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO COLLABORATION

Integral to keeping design costs in check and product development on schedule is ensuring that everyone — no matter how technical they are, where they are, or what computer hardware and applications they use — can work together easily. The goal is to give all stakeholders, including engineers, internal managers, suppliers, customers, and others, the tools they need to make informed decisions at every point in the design process. By catching flaws earlier in the design cycle and accelerating development, organizations can gain a competitive edge.

For most companies, this has been easier said than done. As project teams today encompass a wider variety of managers, suppliers, customers, and partners, sharing even the simplest information has become increasingly difficult. Different computing applications, an array of document types, incompatible visualization formats and viewers, and varying technology skills are just some of the things that can block effective collaboration.

Dealing with 3D models has been particularly problematic as more engineering teams use them to better communicate design intent. Typically, extended project teams have had to purchase full licenses of expensive 3D modeling applications or buy proprietary viewing software to open models originating from various sources. This presents several challenges. First, engineers frequently engage with many organizations worldwide, so it is difficult to ensure everyone has the means to buy the necessary software. Second, even if suppliers purchase an application, they might not have the skills to use it. And of course, if they buy a different version of a software program, files still might not view properly.

ADDING VALUE THROUGH SERVICES

Atrus Inc., a US-based contract engineering firm, understands firsthand the challenges and opportunities of improving design collaboration. Atrus serves a range of clients, including Diebold, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of ATMs, voting systems, and electronic and physical security products. The scope of Atrus’ services is broad, with the company handling everything from initial product designs to working with parts suppliers and manufacturers. Often, each step in the design process involves collaboration across internal Atrus design teams and externally with clients and partners.

For Atrus, streamlining workflows is a priority. With Acrobat 3D, Atrus engineers can communicate design intent to all project team members, regardless of their level of technical expertise or the proprietary CAD software applications on their computers.

Collaborating on 3D models in PDF brings new clarity and accuracy to Altrus’ work. Project teams have instant insight into design details and can rotate images, cut cross sections, and zoom in or out on designs simply using the free Adobe Reader.

For instance, when collaborating across teams, Atrus engineers easily convert Pro/Engineer designs to platform- and application-independent PDF files. The value of the 3D designs is retained, except now sales managers, design partners, and suppliers need only Adobe Reader to view, manipulate, and add digital comments to designs. An added benefit is that Atrus can encrypt and password-protect PDF files as needed to help safeguard intellectual property.

The improved workflows have boosted productivity and minimized design errors because project team members are regularly engaged in processes, providing more timely and comprehensive feedback. By distributing 3D designs in PDF, review cycles have accelerated by as much as 200 percent for Atrus.

SIMPLIFIED REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

Accelerated time-to-market and lower development costs are not the only reasons design engineers want to improve design collaboration. Increasingly complex government regulations also play a role. Design information such as user safety, product makeup, conformance to country design codes, and a host of other details often have to be communicated and reviewed by government regulators before products can be manufactured and marketed.

An added advantage to converting 3D models to PDF is that all critical project information — such as product specifications, spreadsheets, bills of materials, and large, complex assemblies — can be delivered in a single, highly compressed document package. Final information can be incorporated into product documentation that customers and support engineers use for ongoing reference or archived to meet regulatory requirements for long-term access to information.

VERSATILE 3D CAD MODELS

After finalizing drawings, engineers continue to face obstacles as they attempt to communicate designs to suppliers and manufacturing partners. In fact, the estimated costs associated with problems sharing product information are staggering: the US automotive supply chain loses approximately $1 billion annually due to imperfect data interoperability, according to a study done by RTI International. Even taking a more conservative approach to estimating losses in other industries, the need to better manage and share product information is undeniable.

Engineers today are all too familiar with the challenges of distributing product information to companies and specialists using a range of CAD, CAE, and CAM systems. Delays are common, even for routine processes. For example, outputting and sharing high-quality, neutral file formats such as STEP or IGES is difficult, as is including product manufacturing information such as dimensions, tolerances, and annotations with CAD details.

These issues often force engineering partners and suppliers to purchase several CAD systems or invest in costly translation software for each CAD format they deal with. For many smaller firms in China, this is unrealistic. The latest version of Acrobat 3D allows various CAD files received from customers to be converted into neutral formats like STEP or IGES without needing expensive CAD translators. Within Acrobat 3D Version 8, all translators for major CAD formats are included and a highly compressible, precise B-rep solid model is maintained.

ENGAGING PARTNERS AND SUPPLIERS ANYTIME

Design approaches built on collaborating early often result in quicker detection of problems — when they are cheaper and faster to fix — accelerated design cycles, reduced development costs, and happier customers. The key is finding tools that overcome traditional obstacles to sharing information and working on files, so that project teams can access details anytime and anyplace. In today’s dispersed environments, where dozens of people in downstream engineering and manufacturing processes rely on every project document produced, better collaboration strategies are necessities.



Click here for the illustrations:

Figure 1, Figure 2