Are You Changing CAD Tools? What You Should Know shares survey results exploring the motivating factors behind changing CAD tools as well what companies can expect when making a change. The research examines the experiences of companies who have gone through a CAD change. It reveals key metrics such as the how much legacy data companies convert, how long to resume full productivity, and…
- Executive Overview
- Understand Business Needs for Design
- What Drives a Change in CAD?
- Set Expectations for the Change
- Identifying Top Performers
- Identify the Right CAD Solution
- Extend CAD
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
- About the Research
Executive Overview
If you are competing in today’s global economy, it is not easy. Significant global competition plus pressure from new entrants and innovative start-ups make it difficult to stand out. To improve competitiveness, Tech-Clarity’s study, Product Lifecycle Management Beyond Managing CAD, finds companies have shifted focus from market factors like time-to-market or cost to product-centric strategies. Design tools, especially CAD, are key to executing these product strategies. With the right design tools, companies are better positioned to quickly bring high-performing, high-quality, innovative products to market. Companies looking to upgrade these tools to keep up with competitors may want to consider switching CAD tools. So what should you do if you find your CAD tool is holding you back? What if your company needs to update CAD tools? Why would you consider a change? What should you expect? Is it worth the time to convert archived data into a new format? Most importantly, do the benefits outweigh potential risks? Tech-Clarity surveyed 192 companies to answer these questions. While there are many interesting findings, the most striking is that business reasons rather than problems with CAD tools have become more influential when choosing a CAD tool and are motivating factors behind the need to switch tools. Growing influencers include supply chains, relationships, the vendor’s vision for design, and the CAD vendors’ full breadth of offerings. This big picture view of CAD indicates higher levels of management make buying decisions and they view CAD as a strategic piece of a larger product development solution. The biggest challenges of switching CAD tools are overcoming the learning curve and reusing legacy data. However, not all legacy data needs to be converted and in fact, companies only convert about half of it, 52%. Despite the efforts involved, companies who have made a CAD change tend to be very happy. Eighty-three percent (83%) rate their satisfaction a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5. The study also identified what successful companies look for. When selecting a new CAD tool, Top Performers are more likely to consider ease of use, Technical Support, software quality, and market share, which includes the size of the user community. Since implementing their current CAD tools, Top Performers have reduced development time by 19%, development costs by15%, and the time to implement ECOs (engineering change orders) by 16%, putting them at a significant competitive advantage. They have also been able to increase the number of design iterations by 17%, which leads to greater innovation. [post_title] => Are You Changing CAD Tools? [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => changing-cad [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:47 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:47 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=4975 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 1 [filter] => raw ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 4961 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2016-01-11 15:17:25 [post_date_gmt] => 2016-01-11 20:17:25 [post_content] =>
Innovate Along the Digital Thread
CPG companies have the opportunity to step up their product innovation processes and productivity to compete in crowded, competitive markets. In order to do that, they can leverage the digital thread to:
- Enable individual contributors with the right tools
- Integrate design tools within a product innovation platform that serves as the digital thread backbone
- Keep resulting information in context from early ideas through production and commercialization
- Make product information readily searchable to leverage product IP company wide
- Enable easier, more social collaboration
- Automate and streamline product documentation
Of course this can’t be done with today’s disconnected tools, data, and office productivity tools like documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. As PLM for CPG, Personal Care, and Cosmetics advises, “Understand that spreadsheets and shared folders are not enough to fuel the speed and throughput requirements to remain competitive in formula-based industries.” Science Lifecycle Management in the Enterprise Ecosystem goes further, explaining that “Disjointed solutions and lack of integration leads to inefficiency, inability to reuse lab results, difficulty running analytics to find trends, and no mechanism to leverage scientific knowledge to become a ‘learning organization’ that leverages its scientific know-how.”
Instead, the digital thread removes the burden from innovators while creating a manageable IP asset that provides value well into the future, resulting in better corporate IP, more time for innovators to innovate, fewer recalls, faster time-to-market, higher productivity, and happy consumers. The time for the digital thread to transform product innovation and delight consumers has arrived. Consumer Packaged Goods Companies that don’t move toward a digital thread enabled by a product innovation platform will be at a disadvantage.
[post_title] => The CPG Digital Thread [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => cpg-digital-thread [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:46 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:46 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=4961 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 1 [filter] => raw ) [2] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 4956 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2016-01-04 18:16:42 [post_date_gmt] => 2016-01-04 23:16:42 [post_content] =>













- If you already completed the survey –> please share with a colleague or on social media using the “Share/Save” options above.
- If you haven’t taken the survey –> please:
CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY NOW!

Interested in other Materials Research?
If you have interests in some of the latest trends in materials, you may also be interested in our Materials Trends Survey. We are researching how the use of new materials impacts the design and production process. For more information on the study go here or feel free to directly access the 10-15 minute survey here.Rules
To be eligible for this offer, you must complete the survey and be a professional with job responsibilities related to or supporting the development, release, or manufacture of products. Vendors and consultants who sell software, solutions, or services to support product development are not eligible. Students without relevant professional work experience are also not eligible. A valid work email is required to receive the gift card. To verify eligibility, your work email must include the domain of your place of employment. Email addresses will be kept confidential and will not be used for any direct sales or marketing purposes. Duplicate responses will be disqualified. Winners will be notified when the survey is closed.
[post_title] => Materials Innovation Survey [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => matrl_inn [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:28:31 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:28:31 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=4755 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [13] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 4743 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2015-09-15 09:34:06 [post_date_gmt] => 2015-09-15 13:34:06 [post_content] =>

Rules
To be eligible for this offer, you must complete the survey and be a professional with job responsibilities related to or supporting the development, release, or manufacture of products. Vendors and consultants who sell software, solutions, or services to support product development are not eligible. Students without relevant professional work experience are also not eligible. A valid work email is required to receive the gift card. To verify eligibility, your work email must include the domain of your place of employment. Email addresses will be kept confidential and will not be used for any direct sales or marketing purposes. Duplicate responses will be disqualified. Winners will be notified when the survey is closed.
[post_title] => Product Configuration and “To Order” Manufacturing Survey [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => eto-survey [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:28:30 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:28:30 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=4733 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [15] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 4728 [post_author] => 2572 [post_date] => 2015-08-31 22:26:35 [post_date_gmt] => 2015-09-01 02:26:35 [post_content] =>
Concept Design Survey
How do leading companies develop conceptual models?
Please share your experience. We are conducting new research on concept development. We are exploring questions such as, what are best practices for developing concepts? Are there approaches to concept development that will save time during detail design? Can technology help??
- If you already completed the survey –> please share with a colleague or on social media using the “Share/Save” options above.
- If you haven’t taken the survey –> please:
CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY NOW!

Interested in CAE Research?
If you have interests in simulation and analysis, you may also be interested in our CAE Survey. We are researching best approaches to pre and post processing. For more information on the study go here or feel free to directly access the 10-15 minute survey here.Rules
To be eligible for this offer, you must complete the survey and be a professional with job responsibilities related to or supporting the development, release, or manufacture of products. Vendors and consultants who sell software, solutions, or services to support product development are not eligible. Students without relevant professional work experience are also not eligible. A valid work email is required to receive the gift card. To verify eligibility, your work email must include the domain of your place of employment. Email addresses will be kept confidential and will not be used for any direct sales or marketing purposes. Duplicate responses will be disqualified. Winners will be notified when the survey is closed.
[post_title] => Concept Design Survey [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => concept-survey [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:28:30 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:28:30 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=4728 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 6 [filter] => raw ) [16] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 4697 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2015-08-18 11:45:26 [post_date_gmt] => 2015-08-18 15:45:26 [post_content] =>
PLM and Business Value
Product lifecycle management (PLM) drives significant business improvements that show up in investor calls and annual reports. PLM implementations enable important improvements, but the value is tactical and limited to improved efficiency and reduced cost. While these are worthwhile improvements (and often pay for the whole initiative), they fail to exploit the full potential of PLM. PLM can drive innovation, improve differentiation and lead to significant revenue growth. But most PLM implementations fall short of this. Why?
All PLM Initiatives Are Not Equal
This eBook explains how some get the most out of PLM and shares practical tips for how you can drive real business value from PLM in your business. Most of the companies surveyed report that PLM helped improve their top line and drive higher margins. But some did better than others. To find out why, we looked at the companies that rated themselves the highest on revenue growth, profit margin growth and percent of sales from new products (less than three years old) – the “Top Performers.”- Top Performers grew revenue almost twice as much as others while growing profit margins 29 percent more. This is a significant difference on the bottom line.
- Top Performers also grew revenue from new products more than Others, indicating better innovation and product development performance.



Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- Benefits of Product Lifecycle Management
- Putting PLM in the Business Perspective
- Battling Complexity
- Combatting the Business Impacts of Complexity
- Identifying the Top Performers
- Adopting a Process-Centric PLM Approach
- Expanding PLM Across the Enterprise
- Expanding PLM Across the Supply Chain
- Explore the Relationship Between PLM and PDM
- Integrating PLM with Other Systems
- Taking a Process versus Data-Centric View
- What about the Cloud?
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
- About the Research
Executive Overview
The concept of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software and the reality do not always match. PLM software started as a way to expand the value of Product Data Management (PDM) by adding additional information such as release status, BOMs, and ECOs. But the real promise of PLM – supporting enterprise-level processes for product innovation, product development, and engineering – offers much higher, strategic value. So why haven’t more companies taken advantage of the benefits of process-centric PLM? Some of the reason is historical, because most early PLM systems were really CAD data management with some added features. But another part is simply how important good data management is. As Tech-Clarity’s recent The Facts about Managing Product Data shows, “PDM’s ability to help companies control, access, and share product data is a powerful tool that helps companies improve top- and bottom-line performance.” PDM adds value on it’s own and is a logical starting point. But many implementations stop there, while others continue on to support more processes. Alternatively, today’s modern, enterprise-focused PLM systems offer the opportunity to start with processes in the first place. So which drives higher value, a data-centric or process-centric approach? We surveyed over 200 companies to understand if they take a data management or process-centric view of PLM to find out. We identified the “Top Performers,” those that excel beyond their peers in revenue growth, margin expansion, innovation, and cost reduction, and analyzed their PLM approach to see what leads to better performance. The survey results lead us to believe that process-centric, Enterprise PLM drives better business performance, but also finds that core PDM capabilities are an important value driver. Specifically, the survey finds that Top Performers are more likely to:- Execute processes that go beyond the technical definition of the product to the commercial aspects of the offering
- Leverage more advanced PLM processes including cost and quality management
- Have more departments and third parties using PLM
- Use core PDM capabilities more than “Others”
- Tightly integrate PDM and PLM
- Integrate PLM with other enterprise information systems and engineering tools

Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- Understand Business Needs for Design
- What Drives a Change in CAD?
- Set Expectations for the Change
- Identifying Top Performers
- Identify the Right CAD Solution
- Extend CAD
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
- About the Research
Executive Overview
If you are competing in today’s global economy, it is not easy. Significant global competition plus pressure from new entrants and innovative start-ups make it difficult to stand out. To improve competitiveness, Tech-Clarity’s study, Product Lifecycle Management Beyond Managing CAD, finds companies have shifted focus from market factors like time-to-market or cost to product-centric strategies. Design tools, especially CAD, are key to executing these product strategies. With the right design tools, companies are better positioned to quickly bring high-performing, high-quality, innovative products to market. Companies looking to upgrade these tools to keep up with competitors may want to consider switching CAD tools. So what should you do if you find your CAD tool is holding you back? What if your company needs to update CAD tools? Why would you consider a change? What should you expect? Is it worth the time to convert archived data into a new format? Most importantly, do the benefits outweigh potential risks? Tech-Clarity surveyed 192 companies to answer these questions. While there are many interesting findings, the most striking is that business reasons rather than problems with CAD tools have become more influential when choosing a CAD tool and are motivating factors behind the need to switch tools. Growing influencers include supply chains, relationships, the vendor’s vision for design, and the CAD vendors’ full breadth of offerings. This big picture view of CAD indicates higher levels of management make buying decisions and they view CAD as a strategic piece of a larger product development solution. The biggest challenges of switching CAD tools are overcoming the learning curve and reusing legacy data. However, not all legacy data needs to be converted and in fact, companies only convert about half of it, 52%. Despite the efforts involved, companies who have made a CAD change tend to be very happy. Eighty-three percent (83%) rate their satisfaction a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5. The study also identified what successful companies look for. When selecting a new CAD tool, Top Performers are more likely to consider ease of use, Technical Support, software quality, and market share, which includes the size of the user community. Since implementing their current CAD tools, Top Performers have reduced development time by 19%, development costs by15%, and the time to implement ECOs (engineering change orders) by 16%, putting them at a significant competitive advantage. They have also been able to increase the number of design iterations by 17%, which leads to greater innovation. [post_title] => Are You Changing CAD Tools? [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => changing-cad [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:47 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:47 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=4975 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 1 [filter] => raw ) [comment_count] => 0 [current_comment] => -1 [found_posts] => 789 [max_num_pages] => 40 [max_num_comment_pages] => 0 [is_single] => [is_preview] => [is_page] => [is_archive] => [is_date] => [is_year] => [is_month] => [is_day] => [is_time] => [is_author] => [is_category] => [is_tag] => [is_tax] => [is_search] => [is_feed] => [is_comment_feed] => [is_trackback] => [is_home] => 1 [is_privacy_policy] => [is_404] => [is_embed] => [is_paged] => [is_admin] => [is_attachment] => [is_singular] => [is_robots] => [is_favicon] => [is_posts_page] => [is_post_type_archive] => [query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => 72ce5951f538a613eaa63bdc98d55203 [query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] => 1 [thumbnails_cached] => [allow_query_attachment_by_filename:protected] => [stopwords:WP_Query:private] => [compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => query_vars_hash [1] => query_vars_changed ) [compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => init_query_flags [1] => parse_tax_query ) [query_cache_key:WP_Query:private] => wp_query:a722c29a7e1ac07e5626477800462106:0.48722100 17603792580.50025400 1760379258 )All Results for "All"
The CPG Digital Thread
The The CPG Digital Thread ebook shares how consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies can streamline their product innovation and commercialization practices by innovating along the digital thread. It shares how companies can simultaneously enable R&D to innovate more efficiently while capturing the resulting IP as a reusable corporate asset by leveraging an integrated product innovation platform to create the digital…
Choosing a PLM System? Start with Strategy!
Jim Brown offers some advice on selecting PLM systems in this TechTarget article Choosing a PLM System for Your Company? Start with Strategy. The report includes a requirements framework you can use to select the right vendor partner. This is part three of a four part series. Prior article What can PLM technology dor for Enterprises? explores the…
Solving the PLM Impasse for Midsize Manufacturers – Guest Post on Dassault Systemes
Jim Brown contributed a guest post to the Dassault Systèmes blog sharing some research on PLM for midsize manufacturing companies. The post explains how these smaller companies sometimes feel stuck between the need for a full featured PLM system to get their engineering and product development processes under control and less capable file-sharing systems that…
PLM Cures and Prevents Product Development Ailments – TechTarget Article
Jim Brown shares the value and benefits of PLM in this TechTarget article PLM tools can cure and prevent product development ailments, answering the question “who can benefit from Product Lifecycle Management?” in part two of this four part series.
What PLM can do for Enterprises – TechTarget Article
Jim Brown contributes his views on PLM and how it helps manufacturers in this TechTarget article What can PLM technology dor for Enterprises.
Webinar on PLM For Auto and Aero Suppliers
Jim Brown and Dassault Systémes‘ VP Kendall Pond will present on this Engineering.com webcast sharing insights on the value of PLM for aerospace and automative suppliers that have outgrown their informal data management approaches. Companies in the auto and aero supply chains can learn how to better manage data, processes, and collaboration with Product Lifecycle…
CFD Webcast
Michelle Boucher joins Engineering.com and Boris Marovic of Mentor Graphics as they discuss how tools like CFD, sliding meshes and parametric studies can help engineers simulate products such as pumps and turbochargers. Listen to the recording (free of charge, registration required). The webinar is October 27, 2015 at 2:00 EDT.
IoT Makes As Good as the Day I Bought It a Thing of the Past Guest Post on PTC’s Product Lifecycle Report
Jim Brown penned a post on evergreen design for PTC’s Product Lifecycle Report Blog. The report, IoT Makes “As Good as the Day I Bought It” a Thing of the Past, shares the exciting potential available from smart, connected products that can be updated in the field to correct issues, improve performance, or add new capabilities….
3D Printing Drives Manufacturing Location Independence (Guest Post on GrabCAD Blog)
Jim Brown shared his views on the value of location independence in this guest post titled Can’t beam me the part? Ok, how about just the 3D printing instructions? on the GrabCAD blog.
Webcast on Leveraging the Cloud in Engineering
Jim Brown joins Carl Smith of IMAGINiT as they discuss how to improve collaboration, time-to-market, and efficiency using the cloud in Engineering. View the recorded webcast (free of charge, registration required).
What Businesses will 3D Printing “Amazon” (Guest Blog Post on GrabCAD Blog)
Jim Brown contributed his views on the potential business impacts of 3D Printing in this guest blog post on the GrabCAD blog, What Businesses are about to get “Amazonned” by the 3D Printing Revolution?
Materials Innovation Survey
How are leading companies enabling their teams to be more innovative? How are they taking advantage of the latest material advancements? Please share your experience. We are conducting new research on product innovation. This survey is targeted at those who either develop new materials or look to use new materials to support their innovation goals. We are…
Webcast on Improving Product Development in CPG
Join Tech-Clarity’s Jim Brown and Dassault Systemes’ Raymond Wodar as they present on a CGT webcast, New Approaches to Improve Product Development. The presentation focuses on how to compete in today’s complex markets and ensure innovative products reach consumers quickly despite tight regulations, disperse supply chains, and severe cost pressure. Learn how Top Performing CPG companies are moving…
Product Configuration and “To Order” Manufacturing Survey
How do leading “to order” manufacturers support their sales, quote, and manufacturing processes? The survey is closed, thank you. Thank you for your help and support! Rules To be eligible for this offer, you must complete the survey and be a professional with job responsibilities related to or supporting the development, release, or manufacture of…
Concept Design Survey
Concept Design Survey How do leading companies develop conceptual models? Please share your experience. We are conducting new research on concept development. We are exploring questions such as, what are best practices for developing concepts? Are there approaches to concept development that will save time during detail design? Can technology help?? If you already completed the survey –>…
Getting Higher Strategic Value out of PLM
The Getting the Most from PLM – PLM Drives Tangible Business Value eBook is the result of a joint research project between research firm Tech-Clarity and innovation consulting firm Kalypso. We researched over 100 companies to determine how some companies get much higher levels of value from their Product Lifecycle Management implementations. The report shows that…
Cloud ERP / PLM: Gaining a Competitive Advantage with Connected Data
Tech-Clarity’s Michelle Boucher will share recent research on PDM, PLM and the cloud at an event put on by MasterGraphics, “Cloud ERP / PLM: Gaining a Competitive Advantage with Connected Data.” She will discuss some misconceptions and how to set the right foundation for incremental strategic improvement. The event will be held in Milwaukee on August…
On-Demand Webinar – Top Performers Do More than Manage CAD with PLM!
Jim Brown presented findings from his recent research on Enterprise PLM in this Engineering.com webcast, Top PLM Performers Manage More Than CAD. The recording is now available on-demand, including a very active Q&A session. Watch the replay now (no charge, registration required) Sponsored by Autodesk PLM 360
PLM Beyond Managing CAD
Product Lifecycle Management Beyond Managing CAD, The Business Value of PLM shares survey results exploring the value of PLM beyond managing design files such as CAD. While the research finds that most Top Performers manage CAD in PLM, they also do a lot more. The research shows that Top Performers – the ones that report higher…