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In what ways can 3 -D CAD contribute to more efficient product development? Three features of the new technology stand out, always in comparison to 2 -D CAD. 1. 3 -D CAD permits full visualization of product components and of the integrated product as a whole. Such a design is more readable than with 2 -D, and can be seen from any perspective. This stimulates more advanced hypothesis formation; creativity is fostered. Also, more details and exact shapes can be incorporated into the drawings than before.
As a result, manufacturability of components can more adequately be taken into account. 2. 3 -D representation more easily than 2 -D allows simulation analyses of problems like mechanical stress and vibration. These can even be performed by design engineers themselves. 3. Components can be 'virtually' integrated into a design: digital pre-assembly. Generating such a virtual prototype is of course much cheaper than actually building a physical one; moreover, it is possible at a very early stage, when size and shape are known in rough outline only. A virtual prototype can be checked for conflicts and lack of fit between different components. Moreover, it can be used to determine how easily workers can reach and assemble components of the proposed design.
Both types of analysis were almost impossible with 2 -D. Because successful integration of diverse components is generally considered to be the major stumbling block in new product development, it would seem that digital pre-assembly is the single most important contribution of 3 -D CAD to greater efficiency of that process. All these features taken together imply that a versatile common language and common knowledge (stored in a data base) is created within the factory. As a result, co-ordination and communication between engineers of all relevant functions (design of the different components, simulation, testing, manufacturing, etc. ) is greatly improved. Manufacturing engineers, for example, simply need the full 3 -D representation of components in order to be able to provide useful feedback. Moreover, they can now use the digital data directly for their design of dies and molds for components.
Such improved communication is, of course, of vital importance for the success of concurrent engineering. Not only product development efforts taken per se are boosted, also the development of product families as a whole is furthered. Subsystems, and the relations between them, are all stored in CAD databases. This enables later elaboration of variations of particular subsystems, in adaptation to particular market needs.
By using CAD data, integration into a whole product can be easily be carried out. Compare the Boeing 777, developed jointly by Boeing and five Japanese aircraft manufacturers using the latest 3 -D CAD technology (1995). This basic model was later remodeled into a version with a longer cruising-range (1996), and a version with a greater passenger capacity (1998). So the 3 -D CAD model is an effective tool for the swift implementation of differentiation strategies. Such promises, of course, do not materialize automatically. They will only be fulfilled, the authors stress, if social conditions within the firm are changed accordingly.
Technological and social processes have to fit. Several bottlenecks can be identified. To start with, local efficiency can hamper total efficiency. In many departments designers prefer 2 -D modelling, simply because it is easier and quicker than 3 -D design (Mason, 2001). The over-all effect, however, is an uneasy mixture of 2 -D and 3 -D CAD approaches, which renders integrated 3 -D design (and the associated benefits) illusory.
Such resistances have to be overcome.
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Research essay sample on Product Development 3 D
