As companies continue to make cutbacks, engineers and designers are likely to have at least the same amount of work as they did before the recession began, but with fewer contributors to support their efforts.

"The problem is worsened as competitive pressures push manufacturers to find new ways to develop products even faster to beat competitors or be more responsive to their customers," according to Aberdeen Group's Michelle Boucher and David Houlihan in a new report.

The consulting firm's new report, titled Product Design Made Easy: Free Up Engineering for More Revenue, identifies how some organizations rise to this challenge.

The authors' analysis of more than 270 study participants found that leading performers are shrinking development cycles by 36 percent and increasing the number of products they develop within a year by 29 percent.

"These companies use the time they save on design to develop more products...a lot more products," Houlihan, a research associate in Aberdeen's Product Innovation and Engineering practice, said in an announcement of the report. "In fact, these top performers have increased the number of products they develop within a year by 29 percent."

The result is a 35 percent increase in product revenue, according to the findings.

The shortening of project schedules motivates nearly half of respondents to make improvements to their product development processes, and management often demands to see a return on development investments as soon as possible.

Other top pressures — including changing customer preferences and shrinking engineering development budgets — also require engineering efficiency.

In part, this is because companies are racing against one another to capitalize on new market opportunities (30 percent)," Aberdeen explains. "Responding to those opportunities before competitors means capturing market share and enjoying the benefits of a successful product longer."

However, the report is quick to point out that, despite this pressure to get things done faster, very few manufacturers actually have the means to do so. The study suggests making the most of on-hand design resources to take a product from inception to completion in the shortest time possible.

Other suggestions in the report's "Laggard Steps to Success" include the following:

• Add to RAM. Fifty-four percent of "best-in-class" firms use more than six gigabytes of RAM, while "laggards" typically don't use more than six. Time saved through digital performance is being undercut by poor software performance that could be easily boosted with more RAM.
• Sync design data. "Best-in-class" firms are 2.4 times more likely than "laggards" to have their design data synchronized, which means a reduction in man hours.
• Provide data downstream. "Best-in-class" firms provide downstream organizations with 3-D data, therefore saving time by not having to repeat work.

"When companies don't have to check that models conform to company standards, wait for models to regenerate, or create a bill of materials for every configuration of a product, they are freed to focus on what they are there to do," Aberdeen concludes.

Resources

Product Design Made Easy (Registration required)
by Michelle Boucher and David Houlihan
Aberdeen Group, August 2009

Free Up Engineering to Drive More Revenue
Market Wire / Reuters, Sept. 30, 2009