This is especially important with short lead times. While this data is very valuable, it can also be a challenge to navigate it while continuing production.

Included in the Overall Equipment Effectiveness paper

In this white paper, we guide you through how to make the most of OEE data with important checkpoints:

• Where to Start
• Roadmap to Increasing OEE Performance
• Lessons Learned from Improving OEE Performance

Once you finish reading this white paper, you will have a strong outline of the steps needed to implement OEE with confidence and how DELMIAWorks software can help you.

Fill out the form to download the white paper instantly! 

There are many discussions about how IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) can benefit your business and they cover all the main features, but how are you supposed to implement it? What technologies would work best with your production process? Often times, these discussions are so vague they leave you to do your own research and offer little when it comes to an actual plan of action. It is important to know what is available and how it will improve your efficiency with smart shop floor devices and generating high-level analytics.

Learn more about IIoT

This white paper will walk you through the steps that three manufactures used to determine what the needed to implement Industrial Internet of Things successfully with DELMIAWorks. Here are some of the steps they used:

• Determine a specific problem and a have fix in mind
• Look past the hype
• Pilot one process or cell at first
• Keep the initial scope simple
• Create an investment and roll-out plan

Once you finish reading this white paper, you will have a strong outline of the steps needed for implementation with confidence.

Fill out the form to download the whitepaper instantly! 

The DELMIAWorks Sales tools allow the automation of the quote to sales order and generation of the work order, without continuously pushing them to the design and engineering teams. Allowing the design team to focus on new products, solving ECR’s and continuous improvement tasks, not creating sales configurations.

About this Sales Configuration On-Demand Webinar

TriMech’s Systems Architect, Rob Hauser, provides an overview of the Sales tools available within the DELMIAWorks ERP / MES solution.

• The capabilities of DELMIAWorks
• Overview of DELMIAWorks Sales Quoting and Estimating Module
• How you can improve productivity

Alfred was born out of research into developing robots that can manipulate deformable materials, which change their shape when you interact with them (think guacamole or ice cream). Using a variety of utensils, such as scoops, ladles, and tongs, Alfred handily puts together meals based on the programmed instructions of the kitchen staff.

Why do we need a robot sous chef?

Dexai’s mission is to protect the food service industry from difficult labour shortages and help insulate it from economic ups and downs. At the same time, Alfred can reduce the risk of food-borne illnesses. Everything that Dexai designs meets the standards of the public health and safety organization NSF and each mechanical part in the complex design must be built with safe food handling and safe working conditions in mind.

Controlling Alfred the Robot Sous Chef

Supporting a startup

Dexai CEO David Johnson explained that when he and Anthony Tayoun started the company, they worked out of Greentown Labs in Somerville, Massachusetts. The incubator space has a great relationship with TriMech, which provides and supports software tools that are used across every stage of product development.

“TriMech answered all of our questions,” David said. “How do we get SOLIDWORKS licenses? How do we get a data management solution? TriMech has been with us from the very beginning.”

That beginning was four years ago; as Dexai took the challenging steps of turning an idea into a product, adding to its team, and scaling up production, Hardware Team Lead Justin Rooney said that TriMech became a trusted – and responsive – partner.

“There’s a big human component that I really appreciate about TriMech. It’s very easy to get on the phone with them or email them and get an answer. Even as we were researching 3DEXPERIENCE and comparing it with other products on the market, they seemed to have unlimited time to go through the decision-making process, which was amazing. And later, TriMech allowed me, as an individual with no IT experience, to roll out a PLM product to a big team.”

— Rana Odabas, Mechanical Engineer, Dexai Robotics

“When we were vetting a few different PLM options, TriMech stuck out to me as very available. They offered their services countless times to go through the functionality of 3DEXPERIENCE Works. Understanding that TriMech was always going to be there to answer questions veered us toward choosing 3DEXPERIENCE.”

One shared platform

3DEXPERIENCE Works PDM by Dassault Systèmes is a cloud-based platform that connects engineering and business activity in one real-time, collaborative environment.

Dexai design with 3DEXPERIENCE Works

Rana gave one example of how using the 3DX platform has improved productivity, when each designer is working on different parts, yet they all have access to the digital twin of the product.

“If we have multiple people working on the robot head, they can design their parts in parallel while tracking dependencies in the context of the same assembly. All team members have access to the full assembly and visibility into the latest stage of development. I think this has been the biggest benefit of having 3DEXPERIENCE. It really motivates collaboration across the team.”

In Dexai’s early years, the small team of 10 worked on their own local devices and passed zipped CAD files back and forth, a process not conducive to understanding how one subsystem fits with the rest of the system. Today, with a team of more than 25, they are all connected to the same cohesive platform.

Rana said the productivity of the team has increased “exponentially.”

“I don’t think we would have been able to do the development that we did over the course of the past year or so, and the scaling up that we’re gearing up to do, without 3DEXPERIENCE. It just wouldn’t be feasible. After a week of using the platform, I knew I would never go back.”

Alfred the Robot Sous Chef

Dexai is online at dexai.com.

Highlights of Dexai’s Robot Sous Chef success with 3DEXPERIENCE

• Designing in familiar SOLIDWORKS remains at the core of Dexai’s product development work.
• A digital twin of the entire product is easily accessible to everyone on the team.
• One person’s changes are immediately visible and understood by others.
• No more passing massive files back and forth between designers’ individual devices.
• Cloud-based – there’s no need for a traditional server-based approach.
• Scalable – allows for growth in the number of team members and increases in production.
• Modular – when ready, Dexai began to take advantage of product lifecycle management (PLM) components, such as identifying, assigning, and managing issues, and creating and maintaining an accurate and up-to-date manufacturing bill of materials.

InFocus Energy Services, Inc. is an innovative Canadian company specializing in the development of solution-driven downhole products for the oil and gas industry. Committed to the development of high-performance, innovative drilling  and well-completion products, InFocus is primarily an R&D-based company that licenses its technology and products to strategic partners.

Staying on the cutting edge of the oil and gas industry requires robust design and engineering tools, which is why the company utilizes the integrated SOLIDWORKS® 3D product development suite. According to Founder/Director Allan Pearson, InFocus has utilized SOLIDWORKS tools from the start because the integrated solutions provide the power, agility, and flexibility that the company needs to consistently develop innovative products. “SOLIDWORKS is the core of our engineering group,” Pearson notes. “It’s the basis for everything we do: modeling, simulation, flow analysis, renderings. We rarely have to rely on other products.”

With its concentration on developing oil and gas products that are currently not available anywhere else, InFocus regularly pushes SOLIDWORKS tools, including simulation solutions, to the limit and remains on the lookout for emerging solutions. “We’ve used SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium software for certain types of analysis, but our work increasingly involves not only geometric and material nonlinearities but also complex contact problems,” explains Mechanical Engineer/Simulation Specialist Peter Kjellbotn.

“We needed more simulation power, as well as a solution that worked smoothly with SOLIDWORKS. When we heard that SOLIDWORKS was launching a new 3DEXPERIENCE® simulation solution that incorporated the SIMULIA® Abaqus solver, we signed up for the Lighthouse Program so we could start using the new Structural Performance Engineer immediately. As soon as we got our hands on it, we started testing it and benchmarking it against known test results.”

— Mechanical Engineer/Simulation Specialist Peter Kjellbotn

SIMULIA Simulation for tricky, complex contact analysis

InFocus first utilized SIMULIA Structural Performance Engineer on the bearing section of the company’s RE|FLEX Premium HP/HT Drilling Motor. The motor’s bearing section is a proprietary design that was developed to convert extreme loading parameters, including torque of over 30,000 foot-pounds, into efficient drilling action. The company’s initial concept design of the drive system, which utilized traditional ball bearings, resulted in failure during testing when the load crushed the bearings and the faces that load the bearings. SIMULIA Structural Simulation Engineer predicted the failure—with accurate correlation to actual test results—and helped the company develop a better, more innovative design.

SIMULIA drill analysis

“With Structural Performance Engineer, we were able to evaluate a range of geometric and material options, a process that helped us quickly optimize the tapered, barrel-shaped design of the bearings, and also decide the best high-strength steel for the design” Kjellbotn recalls.

Developing unique, innovative product quickly and affordably

The experience using SIMULIA Structural Performance Engineer software to develop the bearing section of the RE|FLEX Premium Drilling Motor is representative of the fast, focused development process that InFocus needs to introduce industry innovations in a timely, consistent fashion. “We can develop more products quicker and at lower cost by using Structural Simulation Engineer,” Kjellbotn stresses.

RE|FLEX Premium HP/HT Drilling Motor

“For example, on the bearing section of the RE|FLEX Motor, if we had had to physically test all of our design options instead of evaluating them in Structural Simulation Engineer, it would have taken a lot more time and money,” Kjellbotn says. “To do all of those tests on a high-strength drive shaft—at a cost of thousands of dollars per test—would have blown both the schedule and budget. We saved tens of thousands of dollars, months of time, and extra labor costs by using Structural Simulation Engineer. It helped us condense a process that would usually take months into just a few weeks.”

Greater agility and flexibility fuel growth

The implementation of SIMULIA Structural Performance Engineer provides InFocus with the increased agility and flexibility that it needs to continue to innovate and grow. “Getting the products out and into the market faster is everything to us,” Pearson says. “Structural Simulation Engineer fits into our goal to go from concept to completion in a week. Our business needs change quickly, so having an agile system that gets results that we can trust quickly is extremely important for our continued growth.”

“Because Structural Performance Engineer is part of 3DEXPERIENCE Works in the cloud and is fully compatible with our SOLIDWORKS modeling data, it provides additional advantages”

— Mechanical Engineer/Simulation Specialist Peter Kjellbotn

“It’s hardware-independent, freeing up our workstations for other things, and utilizes SOLIDWORKS data, saving time and money because we don’t have to go through time-consuming import/export protocols. The solution also automatically stores data in the cloud and supports collaboration. With Structural Simulation Engineer, we are only limited by our imagination.”

Jabil Packaging Solutions

A key provider of precision molded plastic products, JPS offers healthcare and packaging customers the widest array of design and manufacturing capabilities in the industry.

With more than 40 years of experience, the company’s highly specialized teams meet the complex demands of the diagnostic, medical device and instrumentation, and pharmaceutical and consumer health markets, helping the world’s leading brands fulfill their market potential.

Healthcare and Packaging markets worldwide are in the midst of dynamic change. Technologies, regulations, patient and consumer behaviors, population demographics, and business models are all experiencing transformation that makes the future of healthcare difficult to predict and navigate. With this risk and disruption come great opportunities for companies that embrace change, manage complexity, and achieve greater agility, scale, intelligence, and control in manufacturing. Jabil Packaging Solutions, a Jabil company based in St. Petersburg, FL, is a prime example of a company taking the lead in this challenging market.

In 2013, Nypro was acquired by Jabil to provide new long-term solutions for Jabil customers as well as to continue to serve Nypro’s diversified customer base. Jabil’s experience in electronics and optics, combined with Nypro’s know-how in healthcare and consumables, combine for big opportunities.

Change and Continuity

“When we were acquired by Jabil, we moved to SAP, which was their core enterprise system; but we wanted to keep the real-time manufacturing enterprise system (MES) software we had been using,” says Jackie Potts, supply chain manager at JPS Iowa.

JPS Iowa had been using the complete DELMIAWorks solution (formerly IQMS) for nearly two decades, but was adamant about keeping the MES piece after moving over to the SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

“DELMIAWORKS gave us real-time visibility of what was happening on the shop floor, providing accurate metrics and information during our confirmations (production reporting) in SAP”.

While SAP does contain manufacturing functionality, Potts says it lacks the powerful, real-time capability of DELMIAWORKS. “SAP doesn’t link to the molding machines’ opening and closing, which gives us accurate data in terms of average cycle time versus actual cycle time and our true up and down time. We need the real-time connection to the machines to efficiently monitor their performance on the shop floor.”

The other part of DELMIAWORKS that JPS Iowa retained was its preventative maintenance package. “This has proven valuable to us because it calculates the cycles on all the machines and tools in operations,” notes Potts. “Plus, we can still use the work orders to track and trace all the maintenance work being done, whether it’s on a machine or a mold.”

Smooth Effective Integration

According to Potts, there were no integration issues in making sure that DELMIAWORKS MES worked seamlessly with SAP. JPS Iowa worked with DELMIAWORKS to create I-docs, reports that are transferred out of SAP and go to a folder on a shared drive.

“From there we use IQ Alert, which picks up those folders and distributes the process orders into scheduling for DELMIAWORKS.  Through this process, the orders are loaded onto each machine individually, and show up in real time on the supervisors’ monitors.”

“This allows us to watch and monitor our machines on a real-time basis as they’re running,” says Potts. “We know whether they’re behind schedule or on-time. We know it they’re running on a standard cycle time by comparing the actual cycle time in real time. Each of us can pull up this information on our computer and see how the shop floor is running.”

This feature is a particular advantage for production, allowing them to keep a close eye on machines and see when jobs are coming close to a change (e.g., label, colour, mold). It allows the prioritization of machine scheduling, making it easy for supervisors to see exactly what is needed to be done, and what machines to use, based on available assets, physical and human. “The MES also allows us to run reports like utilizations, OEEs, and cycle standard deviations,” adds Potts. “We use those every day.”

The power of Visualization for Plant Floor Operations

While JPS Iowa hasn’t quantified the ROI or hard benefits of running DELMIAWorks MES, Potts says those that use the solution immediately understand its value.

“It allows all of us to see real-time data,” she explains. “We can see when something is down and why. We see this immediately, and so can react quickly.”

By putting this information on screen in real time for supervisors, the MES saves the company the time and analysis that otherwise would be necessary if the information had to be mined rather than so easily captured and understood. “Without having the visuals at hand, we would have to do hours of manual processing on the shop floor,” she concludes. “That would be labour intensive and costly. The system also helps us do our verifications in SAP, which is important from a corporate perspective. The two systems have worked very well together.”

The key is having a solution that is specific to industry processes while providing a streamlined ERP MES integration. Through a robust integration layer, DELMIAWorks maps data from the ERP system to MES, enabling smooth, real-time data flow between the two systems. This improves shop floor visibility and increases responsiveness to customer and market demands.

EM Dynamics is a leading Canadian product development consultancy and contract manufacturer. With more than 40 years of experience, the company works with clients from around the world to design, engineer, manufacture, and integrate mechanical products and equipment. From its 80,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Toronto, EM Dynamics provides customers with a range of specialized product development capabilities, including high-precision sheet-metal design and fabrication, CNC machining, assembly, testing, and supply chain management.

The consultancy is committed to leveraging cutting-edge technology to provide clients with a high level of design, engineering, process control, and manufacturing support. This is why EM Dynamics standardized on the SOLIDWORKS® 3D product development environment more than a decade ago, according to Mechanical Engineer Sohaib Siddiqui.

“Our focus is on design, engineering, and manufacturing versus what it takes to use a particular tool,” Siddiqui says. “SOLIDWORKS is not only easy to use, which is why it’s been our only CAD system for the past 15 years, it also provides integrated sheet-metal design and simulation tools, which makes developing products and making refinements faster and easier.”

Although EM Dynamics has relied on SOLIDWORKS design and engineering solutions—including SOLIDWORKS Standard design, SOLIDWORKS Professional design, and SOLIDWORKS Simulation analysis software—the product development consultancy/contract manufacturer used third-party rendering tools to create photo-realistic renderings of proposed design concepts.

“When SOLIDWORKS Visualize rendering capabilities were added to SOLIDWORKS Professional software, we saw the application at a seminar put on by TriMech, our SOLIDWORKS reseller, began playing around with it, and found it extremely useful,” Siddiqui explains. “Management loved the renderings that we produced with SOLIDWORKS Visualize and asked if there was anything better. That’s when we purchased SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional. We knew we had to have it.”

Bringing metal fabrication to life with Visualize Professional

Using SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional software, EM Dynamics can quickly transform design concepts into compelling photo-realistic images that are indistinguishable from high-end photography. In the past, the company typically produced physical prototypes to present “life-like” design concepts to clients. With SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional, EM Dynamics has eliminated the need to produce presentation prototypes.

“The addition of SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional has given us a lot more creative freedom,” Siddiqui stresses. “Our clients challenge our creativity to produce innovative product designs. We need to be able to communicate our creativity to the customer. Before we had SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional, we often had to create physical prototypes for customers to understand the concept. Now, we can communicate our ideas more effectively, while simultaneously saving time and money.”

Saving time while wowing clients

Since implementing SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional software, EM Dynamics has been able to shorten the design process by 30 percent because photo-realistic renderings enable the company to secure customer approval more quickly while “wowing” customers at the same time. For example, the company recently developed a new private lounge for King & Bay, a high-end Toronto-based bespoke custom-tailored clothier. Touted as “Toronto’s Finest Curated Custom Clothing Experience,” the new lounge at Brookfield Place in the heart of Toronto’s financial district is where customers seeking quality menswear meet with King & Bay Master Clothiers for selections and fittings. “On the King & Bay private lounge, the customer was upgrading to a much larger space, so we wanted to do something big,” Siddiqui recalls.

King & Bay private lounge

Opening up new business opportunities

With the ability to quickly create realistic design concepts with SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional software, new business opportunities have opened up for EM Dynamics. “While the majority of what we render doesn’t get made, the rendering speed and power of SOLIDWORKS Visualize software helps us win the projects that do,” Siddiqui says. “We don’t just do one design concept but at least 10 possibilities for most projects,” Siddiqui adds. “Because we have rendering power, we quickly create at least 10 fully realized concepts, which give us a lot more opportunity to win the business.”

The company has helped thousands of customers shred plastics, metals, wood, construction debris, white goods, tires, medical waste, green waste, e-waste, and office paper. Headquartered in Cambridge, Ontario, Shred-Tech also has facilities in North Carolina, England, and Thailand, and works with distributors in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan.

Since its founding in 1980, Shred-Tech has leveraged the latest design and manufacturing technologies to spark innovation. For example, Shred-Tech’s introduction of the Mobile Document Shredding Truck in the early 1980s revolutionized the document shredding industry and fueled the company’s rapid growth, making Shred-Tech the largest shredding-truck manufacturer in the world.

In keeping with the company’s commitment to innovation, Shred-Tech upgraded its development platform from AutoCAD® 2D design tools to the SOLIDWORKS® 3D mechanical design system many years ago. However, according to Controls Engineering Group Lead Rob Taylor, while the company’s mechanical design function performed well using SOLIDWORKS mechanical design tools, electrical designers struggled to use AutoCAD mechanical tools to create schematics of electrical panels for the company’s products, resulting in time, accuracy, and cost issues.

“I joined the company to help streamline the development of electrical schematics,” Taylor explains. “We were simply not efficient using AutoCAD mechanical drawing tools to develop electrical schematics, and we experienced significant inconsistencies in BOM [bill of materials] information and drawings. I was brought in to implement SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematics software, a package that I had never used.”

As a former EPLAN® and AutoCAD Electrical software user, Taylor says he was initially unsure that SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematics was the best solution for Shred-Tech. “I had no experience with the software, so I was a bit skeptical at first,” Taylor recalls. “But once I did some research and started playing around with it, I became convinced that management had made the right choice. When it comes to electrical design, SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematics is the cat’s meow.”

Faster BOM Generation with SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematics

Upon implementing SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematics, Shred-Tech immediately realized productivity gains in both schematics layout and electrical system BOM generation, cutting the time required to produce the latter from a full week to just a few hours. “SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematics cuts down on ordering time because we can generate BOM information more quickly,” Taylor notes.

“Before we implemented SOLIDWORKS Electrical, it used to take five days to generate the BOM because we had to finish all of the drawings to manually create the BOM,” Taylor says. “With SOLIDWORKS Electrical, we can generate the BOM in about four hours. Whenever you can reduce the time it takes to complete a task from a week to four hours, you’re streamlining the process. And because SOLIDWORKS Electrical is easy to use, we can utilize junior-level designers to complete tasks that required a senior-level designer in the past.”

Shred-Tech Electrical Schematic

Minimizing Errors and Reducing Footprints

Not only is Shred-Tech faster at generating BOMs and creating schematics with SOLIDWORKS Electrical, BOM and drawing content is much more accurate, further streamlining product development. “Before we implemented SOLIDWORKS Electrical, we experienced huge numbers of errors in both the schematics and BOM information,” Taylor recalls.

“The accuracy of our schematics and related information has improved dramatically, prompting us to redo all of our past schematics with SOLIDWORKS Electrical,” Taylor continues. “In developing our electrical panels, we used to err on making them bigger to account for potential errors. Because the accuracy of our schematics is so improved, we’ve been able to reduce the size of our panels by 10 percent overall, which saves our customers money by reducing the cost per square foot on the factory floor.”

Automating Wiring and Cabling

Building upon the success of the SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematics implementation and working with an integrated mechanical/electrical design platform, Shred-Tech is planning to further streamline its development process by leveraging the automated wire and cable routing capabilities of SOLIDWORKS Premium software. “Now that we’ve sorted out our time and accuracy issues with SOLIDWORKS Electrical, we’re planning to use SOLIDWORKS Premium software to automate the routing of wiring and placement of cable harnesses during a major revamp of our mobile products line,” says Taylor.

“Working with a harmonized platform like SOLIDWORKS for mechanical and electrical design enables us to achieve additional efficiencies, like leveraging automation tools such as Routing, to continually improve and accelerate product time-to-market,” Taylor says.

MacLean’s Goals

• Faster turn around time required (time to market critical factor)
• Capacity/Capability to handle large assemblies
• Ability to do custom design work and easily incorporate design changes
• Compatibility with existing inventory system
• Provide more complete visualization prior to production

Mining Industry Results

• Selected SOLIDWORKS over CADKey, Creo, SolidEdge and Mechanical Desktop for functionality, parametric, price, ease of use and compatibility with existing inventory system
• Purchased 23 licenses (4 SOLIDWORKS Premium and 19 SOLIDWORKS Professional)
• Product designs 100% complete in 50% less time resulting in faster product turn around
• Improved product quality due to more thorough/complete designs, equates to approximate savings of 40%
• Ability to efficiently handle large assemblies
• Easily incorporate parametric changes
• 25% savings realized on parts manufacturing
• Efficiently and accurately evaluate cost of models with SOLIDWORKS Simulation FEA (Included in SOLIDWORKS Premium Package)
• Improved internal and external communications with SOLIDWORKS eDrawings (Professional/Premium Packages)
• Design validation and less rework attributed to SOLIDWORKS Simulation
• Currently experiencing growth in overseas markets as well as an increase in sales (approximately 10%) due to better product designs and faster turn around

Also recognized for underground utility vehicles including mobile scalers, scissors lifts, crane trucks, lube trucks, loaders, mixers and placers, cassette systems and personnel vehicles.

Accepted as the industry standard, Breaker Technology Ltd., enjoys a reputation for engineering products with the most advanced technologies available. Domestic and international markets include customers in Canada, the U.S., Sweden, South America, Africa, UK and Scandinavia.

Rock Breaker’s Goals

• Upgrade to solid modeling
• Improve quality of design
• Speed up overall design time as well as reduce design costs
• Reduce fabrication costs
• Improve customer communication

Construction Industry Results

• Replaced Personal Designer (Autodesk) with SOLIDWORKS Professional for functionality, retrievability, ease of use, competitive price and ability to read/translate other CAD software
• Purchased 14 SOLIDWORKS floating licenses
• Also implemented SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional and SOLIDWORKS Motion
• Reduced product design process by approximately 25-30% using SOLIDWORKS (compared to other 3D solid modeling systems)
• Efficiently handled large assemblies
• Reduced design costs by approximately 25%
• Substantially decreased the number of design errors
• Reduced scrap costs by 20%
• Improved quality of design with software’s engineering analysis features and enhanced capability for checking mistakes
• Also improved product esthetics
• Significantly benefited from SOLIDWORKS’ ability to read/understand other CAD software
• Optimized product development process using SOLIDWORKS Motion
• Aided in reducing fabrication costs by 20-25% using SOLIDWORKS Motion
• Improved internal/external communications with SOLIDWORKS eDrawings Professional

This reputation has made DV Systems the premier choice for many of North America’s leading independent distributors of air compressors. They have also assisted in the smooth operation of numerous manufacturing and service operations.

DV Systems Goals

Dynamic analysis, along with marketing and sales were some of DV Systems biggest goals, as is common for many industrial companies.

SOLIDWORKS helped DV Systems achieve these goals with SOLIDWORKS Simulation, the fully integrated and associative analysis program for design optimization. Advanced design features, especially SOLIDWORKS Motion Manager, were helpful not only in the design phase, but were also used as a valuable selling tool by sales and marketing in the field to set DV Systems apart from the competition.

SOLIDWORKS Solution

Engineering Assistant Jade Cho’s words best describe how they overcame their challenges in marketing/sales and design analysis: “SOLIDWORKS has helped our customers to have a better understanding of our compressor design criteria. We are the only manufacturer of Piston Air Compressors in Canada, and this has been a great tool to demonstrate our capability in designing a superior product.”

“SOLIDWORKS Simulation made dynamic analysis much more efficient as well, the ease of verifying the center of gravity on a complete pump assembly for dynamic analysis was much more efficient with SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS Simulation,” said Cho.

Industrial Products Results

• DV Systems capability in product development has been enhanced since they started using SOLIDWORKS in the last eight months.
• Material utilization in designing the components has reduced their material cost by 20% and also reduced their machining time by 15%.

As a leading manufacturer of Canadian aquatic sensors and instrumentation, Satlantic Inc. works closely with the ocean sciences community and many of the top research institutions around the world. The need to collaborate and communicate with partners and customers on the design of its products led the company to move to a 3D CAD system, replacing its AutoCAD® 2D design tools, first with Mechanical Desktop® software and then with the Autodesk Inventor® 3D CAD package. After using Inventor software for four years, Satlantic personnel began to notice that many of their collaborating research institutions, partners, and suppliers were using SOLIDWORKS® 3D CAD software, according to Donald MacPherson, mechanical engineering technologist.

“Everyone we work with was using SOLIDWORKS software, including research centers like the Monterey Bay Research Institute, which meant we had to spend a lot of time converting and translating files to exchange design data back and forth,” MacPherson recalls. “Whenever we tried to download component models, we rarely could obtain them in Inventor format. Not only were we out of step with the partners we worked with, but we also became increasingly dissatisfied with Inventor’s performance and stability. As a result, we continually struggled to find workaround solutions, and lost days’ worth of work due to system crashes on at least two occasions.”

HyperProII Photollum Aquatic Sensor

In 2005, Satlantic management asked MacPherson to evaluate SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD software as a potential replacement for Inventor. MacPherson taught himself how to use an evaluation version of SolidWorks software and then redid a project he had already completed. “It was clear that I could be more productive using SOLIDWORKS software,” MacPherson notes. “Creating design features is more straightforward, and working in assemblies is a lot faster.”

Satlantic decided in 2006 to switch to SOLIDWORKS Professional because of its ease of use, broad data compatibility, ability to utilize legacy data, and large assembly capabilities. The company also valued the SOLIDWORKS SimulationXpress integrated analysis application and design configuration functionality.

Working faster and better within an assembly

Since implementing SOLIDWORKS software, Satlantic has realized a significant boost in productivity, especially in the development of assemblies. By using SOLIDWORKS software, MacPherson estimates he has eliminated the time spent converting and translating files and has reduced modelling time by 25 to 30 percent.

“It’s a lot easier and faster to design parts within an assembly with SOLIDWORKS software,” MacPherson stresses. “Working within the context of an assembly, creating new parts is quick and easy. I no longer have to struggle to come up with a workaround to get the software to do what I want.”

“In my opinion, 99 percent of the functions in SOLIDWORKS software are easier to use, and they provide more options and versatility than in Autodesk Inventor. Since we now use the same platform as our various partners and suppliers, we achieve substantial gains in productivity.”

Boosting Aquatic sensor productivity via design configurations

In addition to improving its handling of assemblies, Satlantic employs SolidWorks design configuration capabilities to save even more time and broaden its design spectrum. “Although we never fully implemented configurations with Inventor, we have used configurations in SOLIDWORKS software from the very beginning,” MacPherson explains. “The versatility of configurations is a big plus that we use in a variety of ways.

PAR Aquatic Sensor designed with SOLIDWORKS

“For example, we have an instrument that can utilize six different configurations of printed circuit boards (PCBs) with six different bills of materials (BOMs),” he adds. “With SOLIDWORKS software, I have included all six configurations, as well as the accompanying BOMs, in a single model. I can then provide appropriate assembly drawings to our assembly technicians and technologists. Before implementing SOLIDWORKS software, we simply could not have done this.”

Integrating PCB layouts with mechanical assemblies

Moving to SOLIDWORKS Professional also enabled Satlantic to integrate its mechanical and electrical CAD system data, thereby improving design visualization and eliminating potential design errors. Before installing SOLIDWORKS software, the company’s mechanical and electrical designers and engineers could not effectively share MCAD and ECAD data. With SOLIDWORKS software, MacPherson can import IDF-format PCB layout files into SOLIDWORKS Professional, which allows engineers to see all the components within the context of the assembly. “Before we installed SOLIDWORKS Professional, our electrical designers could not visualize PCB components in 3D,” MacPherson points out. “They could see height values and drill-hole dimensions in their layout, but with SOLIDWORKS software they can now visualize the entire envelope in 3D.”

Mitchell Mill Systems transitioned from 2D to 3D, for their material handling equipment design

As the manufacturer grew, however, its equipment business included an increasing number of standard products. In addition to improving the development of custom material-handling systems, the company’s need for a 3D CAD application for realizing greater efficiencies in standard equipment assembly design became increasingly apparent, according to President Stephen Mitchell.

“We have been developing material-handling systems for some time, and the part of our business focused on standard product lines has grown to about 50 percent of the total,” Mitchell explains. “We began looking into 3D tools primarily to improve our standard equipment development efforts through greater efficiencies in the handling of assemblies. Design reuse and configurable assemblies were important goals, and we also believed 3D would improve interaction with our customers.”

Mitchell Mill Systems evaluated the Autodesk Inventor® and SOLIDWORKS® 3D CAD software packages before selecting SOLIDWORKS Professional. The company chose SOLIDWORKS software because of its ease of use, sheet-metal design features, and large assembly capabilities. Mitchell Mill Systems also values the software’s design configurations, interference detection, and advanced visualization functionality.

“After talking with others in our industry, we learned that a higher percentage of companies like ours prefer SOLIDWORKS software”.

“We believed that as a company Dassault Systemes SOLIDWORKS Corp. would provide better development and enhancements moving forward, as well as more responsive technical support.”

Enhanced visualization of material handling equipment assemblies boosts design innovation

Mitchell Mill Systems managed its transition from 2D to 3D in phases, starting all new development of standard equipment in SOLIDWORKS software, before moving on to existing design modifications and retrofits, and then to custom-designed projects. The company quickly realized the benefits of visualizing large assembly designs in 3D as part of its CAD migration.

“Because we can better visualize what we are designing—such as simulating motion to detect interferences—and because it’s easier and faster to make design changes, we not only are saving time and money but also boosting the level of innovation that we design into our systems,” Mitchell notes. “With SOLIDWORKS software, we can both see where a collision can occur, which eliminates errors and reduces development costs, and explore new ideas, innovative concepts, and better ways of doing things.”

Greater efficiency during manufacturing and assembly

With the implementation of SOLIDWORKS software, the company has also achieved greater efficiency during equipment manufacturing and assembly. “Having a 3D model to work from generates additional efficiencies throughout production,” Mitchell stresses. “Working from a 3D model makes it easier and faster to assemble our equipment. In manufacturing, our assembly time has improved since we moved to SOLIDWORKS software”.

“Having the 3D design and the 2D drawing as references gives our production personnel a better understanding of what they are building and manufacturing,” Mitchell adds. “There are fewer assumptions and back-and-forth questions, which saves time and contributes to our overall productivity. SOLIDWORKS software is a tremendous tool when used properly.”

Streamlining communication with customers

By moving to SOLIDWORKS software, Mitchell Mill Systems has improved the quality and effectiveness of its communications with existing and prospective customers. The company uses 3D visuals produced in SOLIDWORKS software as part of its sales presentations and proposals, and relies on eDrawings® design communication tools to communicate more effectively with customers.

“With eDrawings, we can design our systems and send 3D models to our customers so they can visually evaluate the design,” Mitchell points out. “Our customers can visualize the design better in 3D and typically see things in the initial design that they might not have caught in 2D. This capability results in much better feedback from our customers, which translates into fewer customer problems and misunderstandings.

“In addition to improving design communication with existing customers, 3D models certainly add pizzazz to our presentations and proposals,” Mitchell adds. “More and more of our customers expect to see what a system looks like without trying to envision a 3D image from a 2D line drawing. SOLIDWORKS software provides us with the tools we need to secure new customers, and better communicate effectively with the customers we have worked with for years.”