Best-in-class production.(view point: Digital Prototyping)(The Digital Product Development Benchmark Report)

Just as a top-end calculator doesn't make a top-notch engineer, 3D solid-modeling software does not guarantee best-in-class manufacturing. However, industry research firm Aberdeen Group debunked that equation in "The Digital Product Development Benchmark Report," a study, published in March, of top-performing manufacturers.

The report cites the ability of best-in-class manufacturers to meet revenue, cost, launch date, and quality targets for 91 percent or more of their products. Furthermore, these companies were as much as 22 percent more likely to use a single digital prototype at every phase of development. And by building one less physical prototype, these manufacturers gained as much as a 14-week edge on time to market, and saved anywhere from $7600 to more than $1 million, depending on product complexity.

What's their secret? The study reveals that 3D alone doesn't account for the marked difference between top and average performers. Rather, solid modeling is just one aspect of digital prototyping, a practice that's the key to more efficient engineering and production of goods.

A Digital Pipeline

According to Aberdeen, best-in-class firms were more likely to use digital instead of paper-based communications between engineering and manufacturing. In essence, these manufacturers create what I like to call a digital pipeline. This digital pipeline lets information flow freely in both directions through all the major phases of design and production. When the design and manufacturing information and feedback can be accessed electronically, teams have greater assurance that they're working with the latest information and they can get it as quickly as it's available.

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That multidirectional flow of information also helps to create a closed-loop cycle of efficiency. For example, Aberdeen points out that production insights help to assess the manufacturability of a design at its earliest stages.