Tech-Clarity

Making the value of technology clear

  • Published Research
    • eBooks
    • White Papers
    • Survey Results
    • Buyer’s Guides
    • Infographics
  • Research Invitations
    • Survey Invitations
    • Assessments
  • Presentations & Videos
    • Webinars
    • Live Presentations
    • Tech-Clarity TV
    • Virtual Events
  • Insights & Activity
    • In the News
    • Insights
  • About
    • Tech-Clarity Team
    • Jim Brown
    • Michelle Boucher
    • Julie Fraser
    • Arvind Krishnan
  • Search
  • Search
  • Date

Transforming Manufacturing Engineering

How can manufacturers improve manufacturing engineering? We surveyed 177 people directly involved with manufacturing engineering to find out.

Jim Brown - February 7, 2023

Transforming Manufacturing Engineering
Share

Transforming Manufacturing EngineeringHow can manufacturers improve manufacturing engineering performance despite increased complexity? We surveyed 177 people involved in manufacturing engineering to find out. The results show that the leaders in manufacturing engineering have increased maturity in the way they plan, validate, and communicate manufacturing operations. These Top Performers waste less time on non-value-added activities, find issues sooner, and spend less on physical prototypes. The eBook shares the best practices they use to do it.

Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systèmes DELMIA (registration required).

Table of Contents

  • Improve Manufacturing Engineering to Increase Profitability
  • Address Process Designer Challenges
  • Recognize the Opportunity
  • Quantify the Potential
  • Identify Performance Drivers
  • Find Issues Earlier in Design
  • Use more 3D and Simulation
  • Use More Advanced Ways to Support 3D / Simulation
  • Leverage More Integrated Solutions
  • Use More Advanced Communication and Collaboration
  • Quantify the Improvement
  • Recommendations and Next Steps
  • About the Research
  • Acknowledgments

Improve Manufacturing Engineering Performance

Improve Performance in the Face of Complexity

How can manufacturers improve manufacturing engineering? We surveyed 177 people directly involved with manufacturing engineering and found that modernizing processes and technology drives higher manufacturing engineering productivity and performance. These improvements are crucial to profitability as customers demand high quality, more personalized products at increasingly faster time to market; all despite rising product and manufacturing complexity.

Modernize Manufacturing Engineering

Survey results show that Top Performers (see definition in full eBook) in manufacturing engineering have increased maturity in the way they plan, validate, and communicate manufacturing operations. These leading companies waste less time on non-value-added activities, find issues sooner, and spend less on physical prototypes. They accomplish this through best practices, including:

  • More advanced collaboration and communication methods
  • Increased use of 3D and simulation to plan and validate manufacturing operations with virtual, digital twins

Recognize the Opportunity

Manufacturing Engineering is Ready for an Upgrade

It’s time for change. Manufacturers must digitalize production planning to reduce cycle times, increase efficiently, and deliver quality. Companies need to adopt new techniques to validate manufacturing earlier in the process, in parallel with product design.

Transforming Manufacturing EngineeringCurrent Processes can be Improved

There is significant room for improvement. The majority of companies validate process plans with time-consuming and expensive physical prototyping. Physical prototypes bring abstract designs into the real world so engineers can identify issues and improvement opportunities. Most companies also use spreadsheets, which are prone to errors and file-based so they are not conducive to collaboration. These approaches lead to late discoveries and expensive process validation.

Leverage Visual Approaches

Trading physical prototypes for digital validation reduces time and cost. A significant number of companies already use some form of virtual representations. Static visualizations can help engineers see an issue in the digital world before committing to a physical prototype or manufacturing equipment. 

Adopt Simulation

Beyond static images, virtual simulation helps designers go beyond “seeing” to virtually experiencing the production process. While only about one-quarter use either 2D or 3D simulation, it’s a promising technology and a potential for significant planning and validation improvement. 

Recommendations and Next Steps

Make a Strategic Improvement

Today’s product, manufacturing process, and market complexity demand new ways of working. The Top Performers are transforming manufacturing engineering through digitalization, better collaboration, 3D, and simulation allowing them to overcome efficiency, quality, and cost challenges. Using virtual, digital twins offers manufacturing engineers both the ability to improve their own performance and a strategic opportunity to increase overall product development profitability. These leaders spend 17% less time on non-value-added activities in manufacturing engineering, directly reducing development cycle times.

Improve Time to Market

Survey respondents report that they can reduce time to market by 37% by using 3D and simulation to plan and validate manufacturing operations. This is done, in part, by increasing efficiency, reducing time-consuming physical prototyping, and lowering rework by finding issues sooner in product development. 

Reduce Cost

Survey respondents share that they can eliminate 36% of their prototypes by increasing maturity, leading to significant cost savings per product. They do this by shifting validation and issue identification sooner in the product development process so they need fewer physical prototypes. 

Increase Quality

Responding companies also indicate that they can reduce ECOs by over one-third. They do this by improving manufacturing process design using virtual technologies. Top Performers are more likely to find physical manufacturing issues in a virtual model than Others who are more likely to discover them in physical prototypes and actual production. 

Get Started

It’s time to improve manufacturing engineering productivity and performance. Companies can follow the lead of the Top Performers to increase maturity in how they plan, validate, and communicate manufacturing plans. To increase maturity, manufacturers should adopt the best practices of the Top Performers, including using integrated solutions such as 3D and simulation for manufacturing engineering.

Transforming Manufacturing Engineering*This summary is an abbreviated version of the research and does not contain the full content. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systèmes DELMIA (registration required).

If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the report, please contact us.



Related Posts

  • Modernizing Manufacturing Engineering (survey invitation)
    Supply chain resilience

    How are leading companies modernizing manufacturing engineering? Tech-Clarity is conducting a research study on the…

  • Is it Time to Transform Manufacturing Engineering? (webcast)
    Manufacturing Engineering

    Is it time to change the way manufacturing processes are developed? Products have dramatically increased…

  • The Future of Manufacturing Engineering
    Manufacturing Engineering

    How are manufacturers improving manufacturing engineering performance with better practices and technology? Join this webcast…

Filed Under: Slideshow, Published Research, eBooks, Survey Results Tagged With: Process Engineering, 3D, Process Design, Simulation, Modernization, Best Practices, Digital Twins, Manufacturing Engineering, Digital Transformation, Virtual Build, Manufacturing Operations

Join our community to receive our newsletter and survey invitations.

Copyright © 2012-2024 – Tech-Clarity, Inc.

  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Date

  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook

Copyright © 2012-2024 – Tech-Clarity, Inc.