How can design engineers get even more value from simulation? What is the most effective way to aid design engineers in their ability to create more competitive products?
Our new eBook, How to Survive and Win New Markets by Getting Even More Value from Simulation explores these questions. Today’s challenging economic times, worsened by COVID-19, mean companies will need to work even harder to win over customers with products that stand out in the global economy. Therefore, engineers must make the right decisions as they create increasingly complex products. However, Tech-Clarity’s research finds that unfortunately, 44% of manufacturers find these crucial decisions are becoming even harder. Many rely on personal experience and guesswork, but is there a better way?
Based on a survey of 272 manufacturers, this research study examines best practices that allow engineers to make more informed design decisions, while overcoming the limitations of traditional engineering infrastructure and the role that CAE tools can play.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systemes SOLIDWORKS (registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Start with Your Customer
- But Design Decisions Have Gotten Harder
- What Makes Design Decisions Easier
- Solving Problems
- Identifying Best Practices
- Making Simulation Accessible to Design Engineers
- Using Simulation in the Cloud
- Cloud Computing
- How Faster Results Translates to Business Value
- Accessing Required Data to Support Simulation
- The Value of an Integrated Platform
- Conclusions
- Recommendations
- About the Research
- Acknowledgments
Executive Summary
Designing in a Modern Era
As products become more complex, engineering decisions are getting harder. The good news is that there is help. Respondents report that both experience and better software tools help. In fact, 74% of Top Performing companies empower their design engineers with simulation tools. The research explored best practices for supporting design engineers to adopt simulation.
Getting More Value from Simulation
While simulation offers many advantages, there are opportunities to get even more value. Often, it is the lack of knowledge that holds them back. This is likely why 83% of Top Performers say that if design engineers could collaborate more easily with a simulation expert, it would help them.
Better Collaboration
The majority of respondents, 54%, agreed that the best way to enable collaboration between analysts and design engineers is to send a link to collaborate on a model in real-time. A cloud platform is a way to allow this, which is probably a contributor to why Top Performing companies are 3.9 times more likely to use cloud software, including for simulation.
While better collaboration is a powerful benefit, the leading advantage of those using simulation in the cloud, reported by 71%, is the additional computing power and faster results. Top Performers would use this extra time to complete design work faster, innovate more, and conduct additional simulations. The research also finds that those using simulation in the cloud report more benefits than anticipated by those who don’t use it. This indicates that once you start using simulation in the cloud, it will likely help you in ways that you may not expect.
Easy Access to Needed Data
Another way to support design engineers is to make sure they have access to the required data to support simulations. The research finds that Top Performing companies are 63% more likely than Others to agree that the cloud is the ideal way to manage the different data types needed for simulation. Incidentally, those using the cloud for simulation are more likely to manage material data, best practices, test data, past simulations, and real-world performance data. Respondents identified all of these as data types that should be managed.
An Integrated Platform
The cloud is also a way of supporting an integrated platform. Companies reported many benefits of an integrated platform. Interestingly, the more complex the product, the more likely respondents were to report more benefits. Easier collaboration between design engineers and analysts, better traceability, more flexible licensing, ease of sharing and controlling access to results, and access to multiple physics were among the most commonly reported benefits.
Recommendations
Recommendations and Next Steps
Based on industry experience and research for this report, Tech-Clarity offers the following recommendations:
Empower design engineers to use simulation. Cloud simulation offers many advantages that can make that easier.- To support design engineers, facilitate easy and secure collaboration methods for them to connect with analysts. A cloud platform can support collaboration by merely sending a link to the model for real-time collaboration.
- Accelerate the time to get simulation results with cloud computing.
- Ensure design engineers have easy access to the needed data to support their simulations. Given the variety of different sources of data required to support simulation, the cloud is especially well suited to provide a single access point for the different data types.
- Consider an integrated platform to support simulation. Sudden market changes or supply chain disruptions can require significant changes to requirements. The traceability of an integrated platform to identify impacts, simulate new options, and update the design can be an invaluable way to adapt without hurting time to market.
Empower design engineers to use simulation. Cloud simulation offers many advantages that can make that easier.*This summary is an abbreviated version of the ebook and does not contain the full content. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systemes SOLIDWORKS (registration required).
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us.