In this edition of Expert’s Corner, Jim Brown, the founder and president of research and consulting firm Tech-Clarity, discusses strategic considerations in determining whether to consolidate CAD solutions or operate in a multi-CAD environment.

Manufacturers and engineers today face increasing pressure to accelerate product time-to-market, reduce costs and deliver more high-quality products to customers. Achieving these goals requires companies to enhance communication and computer-aided design (CAD) collaboration across a widely dispersed supply chain.

For this edition of Expert’s Corner, IMT recently picked the brain of Jim Brown, the founder and president of Tech-Clarity, Inc., an independent research and consulting firm that specializes in analyzing the business value of software technology and services.

Here Brown discusses strategic considerations in determining whether to consolidate CAD solutions or operate in a multi-CAD environment, as well as technology’s role in an increasingly complex engineering environment.

IMT: Maintaining multiple CAD systems remains the status quo for many engineering and manufacturing firms. In an insightful paper you recently authored, you made a strong case for CAD consolidation. What do you see as the benefits of concentrating on a single CAD solution — both at a work-group level and an executive level?

JB: CAD consolidation holds many potential benefits for companies that can achieve it, although not all companies are able to standardize.

Engineering teams can take advantage of easier reuse and collaboration, as well as reduced training requirements. Strategically, consolidation allows companies to shift engineering capacity more readily to meet the peaks and valleys of engineering resources requirements across their business. Of course, there is also the cost benefit of a single solution, as I detailed in the paper.

IMT: What are the operational and strategic trade-offs?

JB: Some of the trade-offs include: savings from consolidation versus the cost of change; internal efficiency versus supply chain efficiency; and internal and supply chain efficiency versus customer requirements. This is not an easy decision for most companies.

IMT: When determining whether to maintain a multi-CAD environment or to standardize CAD, what key business considerations should be made? Is there a specific set of best practices emerging for the implementation of a CAD unification strategy?

JB: The first consideration has to be customer needs and requirements. Many manufacturers are required to use specific tools by their customers, or at least deliver the final results in their specified formats. That is a big constraint that prevents many companies from standardizing.

The organization also has to look at the potential to realize the value of consolidation. If the business is fragmented and there is no vision to standardize processes or share resources across the enterprise, then consolidation will not have the same strategic benefits.

IMT: Technology plays a vital role in business success, but today’s marketplace has myriad options that can make choosing a particular type of software or system difficult. What are key criteria manufacturers should consider when upgrading their technology?

JB: To select the right solution, put the technology aside and understand the business strategy.

If your company plans to compete on industrial design, you will want tools that provide functionality to style products. If you plan to compete through customization of features and options, you will want a CAD solution that allows for reuse and automation.

The key is to understand what competitive drivers are crucial to your company and then find a solution that helps deliver on that value.

IMT: Greater availability of sophisticated fabrication tools, such as desktop manufacturing systems and more affordable design software, have made manufacturing a more individualized process. Moreover, in recent years, rapid prototyping and additive fabrication have been on an upward trend. How can small businesses take advantage of these customization processes? How do you think the increased focus on customizable manufacturing will affect traditional manufacturing methods?

JB: The ability to rapidly prototype products, or even produce a final product, will help engineers meet the specific needs of their customers. As manufacturers reduce the profitable batch size from thousands to hundreds — or even to individual units — it allows companies to more directly target customer needs.

On the other hand, the engineering has to be fast and accurate in order to maintain quality in this environment. Validating designs in this environment through simulation can help maintain quality and safety. At the same time, rapidly developing a product that exactly matches the customer’s expectation can provide a tremendous sales benefit.

IMT: Increasing complexity in product development and production has made it more difficult to roll out products that are profitable across their lifecycle. Do you think greater interaction with customers in the development phases can improve the market effectiveness of a new product?

JB: Products are more complex, supply chains are more complex and markets are more complex. There is a lot more for engineers to be aware of. In today’s competitive market, they need to focus beyond just functional performance requirements. They have to focus on cost-optimizing designs and meeting regulatory demands. They are being asked to focus on manufacturability and serviceability. Interaction with customers can help, but, beyond customers, they need the input and guidance of manufacturing, purchasing, regulatory and a host of other people in their business. Product development is a team sport.

Another benefit of CAD consolidation is enabling a unified PLM [product lifecycle management] environment. Although leading PLM solutions support multi-CAD, a unified environment opens up potential for tighter integration.

IMT: Cloud computing has become commonplace in a wide range of technical fields. Do you see cloud technology affecting the future of CAD?

JB: Yes, the cloud is important. It will affect not only CAD, but also enterprise tools such as PLM.

But before everybody goes crazy for the cloud because the technology exists, I think it is extremely important to understand why the cloud-based applications can help meet the business strategy. I expect to see a lot of people chasing the cloud without really knowing what they will get out of it, and they will spend a lot of money in the process.

As an industry, we still have a lot of learning to do about cloud computing and its relevance to CAD.

Jim Brown is the founder and president of Tech-Clarity, Inc., an independent research and consulting firm that specializes in analyzing the business value of software technology and services. In his 20 years’ of experience in application software, management consulting and research focused on the manufacturing industries, Jim established and grew Aberdeen Group’s Product Innovation & Engineering Practice and subsequently served as VP and group director for Aberdeen’s PLM and Manufacturing Industry Research Practices. He is a recognized expert in software solutions for manufacturers. For more about Jim, visit Tech-Clarity.com.