Digital-Era Design Demands Modern Workflows

Dear DE Reader:

Design and manufacturing are at an inflection point similar to that of the '90s. Then, the Boomers burst in upending time-honored engineering workflows with new ways to use computers and technology. It's been a great run. Today, a new generation of engineers and technologies converge again, upending yet another generation's concept of traditional engineering and manufacturing workflows.

The paper “Digital-Era Design Demands Modern Workflows,” written by DE and sponsored by Autodesk, should appeal to engineers and those managing the engineering outfit's checkbook and IT infrastructure. It lays out the argument that competition today means now is the moment to retire the workflows of the ‘90s and aughts for the more flexible and less expensive workflows enabled by the cloud.

The paper “Digital-Era Design Demands Modern Workflows,” written by DE and sponsored by Autodesk, argues that increasing product complexity and interconnected devices require new design tools and new engineering workflows that the cloud can deliver and that traditional design workflows cannot.

Why? Simply put: Product complexity and that pesky internet of things (IoT). Mechanical and electronics components are pieces designed within intricate systems of systems that include modules for control, embedded software, sensors and communications.

Such complexity demands new thinking, new toolsets and new processes to support multidisciplinary, cross-functional new product development and manufacture. CAD, analysis and CAM operating in isolation or even with a wee bit of collaboration have become as noncompetitive as running a 10K carrying your in-laws. The software licensing and hardware costs for an internal infrastructure to support that process alone are money vacuums.

The cloud enables a platform with a full portfolio of integrated, multidisciplinary design tools. Cost-efficient subscription-style pricing coupled with flexible engineering workflows unlikely to happen with standalone design applications and standard software licensing schemes are some of the benefits a cloud-based approach can deliver.

The paper does more than chat up cloud-based design through manufacturing workflows. For one, it reports on a DE survey that provides a sobering snapshot of where your industry peers are as this transformation unfolds.

It also swats down some myths big with the anti-change crowd like security. Suffice to say, research shows that most cloud security problems start with users not the service.

The danger in the old adage “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” is that it can mask resistance to needed change. Your traditional workflows may not be broken. But change is afoot and you might have missed the starting gun. “Digital-Era Design Demands Modern Workflows” offers plenty of reasons why you need to reconsider your workflow options right now before time passes you by. Hit today's Check it Out link for your copy.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, DE