3D CAD Business Benefits:
Commercial Advantages and Productivity Increases

CAD Productivity Benefits

CAD Productivity Benefits

Significant Benefits of 3D CAD and Digital Engineering

Integrating CAD Engineering into the Product Development and Manufacturing Process

The following points list how small manufacturers can directly benefit from CAD Engineering activities. 3D CAD is most effective when integrated with the product development process, assisting key stages of design and manufacturing. Here it delivers real CAD productivity benefits. Depending on the level of skill and competence in the business, some themes below can be applied in the short term (e.g. rapidly generating 2D drawings) where as others are longer term goals for investigation (for example finite element analysis and computational fluid dynamics).

CAD Productivity Benefits

Commercial and Productivity Advantages –

General Business Benefits

• Quicker design cycle as 3D modelling allows assemblies to be constructed rapidly from individual parts. Additionally, 2D drawings can be quickly produced from 3D models. To illustrate this, pick a component and simply compare the time taken to draw all 2D orthographic views versus 3D modelling the same item. If you are paying somebody by the day (for example a contractor’s day-rate) the difference soon adds up.

• Faster development time provides the basis to get products to market quicker and therefore respond to and beat the competition. This generates higher margins.

• Greater productivity; Individual design engineers produce more per-day. They also contribute directly to a number of stages of the development and manufacturing process.

• Geographically dispersed design teams can work on CAD data at the same time, exchanging files when necessary and concurrently completing more work.

• Greater design accuracy and better quality. Fewer mistakes help avoid all the problems associated with resolving defects on the shop floor, such as hassle, inconvenience, wasted time and the associated costs. How much waste and scrap is the result of inaccurate dimensional information in your business?

• More efficient product design, as CAD data generated once can be used throughout the product development process and indeed further on through the product life-cycle. Additionally this discourages duplication of effort.

• The speed at which design modifications can be made in 3D CAD, provides the ability to respond to urgent client requests and customisations, for which the business can and should charge a premium.

3D CAD Benefits for a Small Manufacturing Businesses (Courtesy of Blue Chip Engineering Inc and Alignex)

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