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A Journey through 3DVIA Composer….

Posted by appliedgroup on November 14, 2012
Posted in: 3DVIA Composer, Product Lifecycle Management. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

Join me in my journey through 3DVIA Composer!

This introductory blog takes you through a series of informative demos of the 3DVIA Composer authoring software, inside these will be hints and tips for beginners and pros alike, which will hopefully teach you or even inspire you towards better results from your 3DVIA products.

Easy to learn and use, 3DVIA Composer allows you to reuse existing 3D design data and to rapidly create and update high quality deliverables including assembly and disassembly procedures, technical illustrations, interactive 3D animations, training materials, marketing materials, sales tools and more.

3DVIA Composer can be used by non-technical users and does not require CAD knowledge or training. It is an ideal complement to Microsoft Office, PDF, and HTML content delivery tools that you are already familiar with.

If you have any requests for walkthroughs or blogs, leave a comment on any of the entries and we will see what we can do!

First stop is discovering collaborative working with Enovia 3DLive Bridge…..

Andrew Acton – Application Engineer


Cost management software that will unlock hidden economic opportunity

Posted by appliedgroup on July 19, 2012
Posted in: Cost Management. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

“Yes – I hear what you say – but how can I prove your product will give me as good a return on investment as you say?”

A good question!

I had shown one of our existing customers, who we had worked with for a number of years our Cost Management software and as most people who had seen it, they were interested. He was not known for pulling punches though.

“Well…” I replied. “One way is for us to perform what we call a ‘Spend Analytics.’”

A sceptical eyebrow was raised. I carried on.

“Basically a Spend Analytics allows us to take a reasonable number of your components – somewhere between 100 and 300 or so parts. You provide the 3D models, and if these don’t include the material, and various finishing processes such as painting, the 2D Drawings, as well as the number of parts you want to produced, over what period of time, and if possible in what batch sizes. Also – importantly, you provide us with the price you have paid – or expect to pay – for these components.”

The eyebrow had lowered a little.

“We then run the Solid Models through our Technology, providing the material, finishing and any other relevant information provided and then aPriori will provide a “should cost” price for each of these parts.”

Silence.

“We then produce a number of graphs – identifying the parts that have the largest discrepancy between the aPriori “Should Cost”, and the cost you are paying. The graph may look something like this … once it’s been sorted – aPriori provides a number of ways of allowing this to be done, to identify the outliers – to not only see which components are more expensive, but perhaps which suppliers have the biggest gap between the should cost and the cost you are paying.”

Still silence.

“After this we identify the biggest miscreants – the biggest outliers – giving you the starting point to enable you to re-negotiate the price of those components.”

The owner of the skeptical eyebrow frowned.

“Well, that’s surely something I could get my people to do manually, without your software!” he replied.

My turn for the raised eyebrow!

“Yes of course, but how long would it take to do 300 parts manually, and where would you start?  Perhaps you could do 10 or so a day? aPriori will do 300 parts or so in a few hours, adding on time for setting up and interpretation, you’d see which were your 20 costliest outliers in a few days, and you could be spending your time on re-negotiation!”

He was beginning to look more enthusiastic.

“We performed one of these spend analytics on a company in the US – we identified around 20 outliers, and of these the company received re-quotations from their suppliers for 13 parts, and with the volumes they were buying they showed a saving of over $600,000. Not bad for a couple of weeks work!”

“Of course, after you’ve saved money on your first 300 – you can start on your next 300 straight away!!”

Time to drive down production costs

Posted by appliedgroup on July 9, 2012
Posted in: Cost Management. Tagged: , , , . Leave a Comment

Car production in the UK has reached its highest since 2004 according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Industry figures show the number of cars built in May this year was 42% higher compared with 2011. According to SMMT, UK new car sales jumped to 162,288 – a 7.9% rise compared with May 2011.

So as buying power for automotive OEMs is higher than it has been for a long time, surely there has never been a better time to look at driving down their cost of goods sold (COGS)?

Profits are not made through complacency, and cost reduction is something that should be consistently thought about. Perhaps manufacturers should reconsider the lessons learned in the 80’s from Toyota’s Production System:

“Costs do not exist to be calculated. Costs exist to be reduced.” – Taiichi Ohno

Manufacturers need to take that next step towards driving efficiency in the UK motor industry and that comes from asking cost-related questions.

aPriori is a software application that helps businesses answer cost-related questions faster than they could ever imagine:
• What happens if I change the Product Design? Did the cost go up or down?
• What happens to the cost of my design if we change the material from aluminium to steel?
• What will happen to the cost if we move the manufacturing of our product from Cleveland to Romania?

aPriori can help create value for your business in many areas ranging from design engineering , manufacturing process planning, to purchasing, procurement and sourcing. aPriori enables you to unlock hidden economic opportunity by discovering the most cost-effective solutions, whilst still meeting various functional requirements.

aPriori is like no other cost management software.
aPriori does not require reams of data input every time you require a new quote. The software produces a Virtual Production Environment (VPE) to produce realistic cost assessments. A VPE contains both data and logic to understand your business’s physical manufacturing capabilities and cost accounting methodology.

The VPE is flexible to your business: it could be configured to represent your internal plant, a specific supplier, or a broad base of suppliers depending on the specific cost-related answers you are looking for.

What information can the VPE generate?
A VPE takes into account the full scope of cost-related elements to provide effective solutions; from process model logic, to machine capabilities and constraints, and manufacturing feasibility rules.

Furthermore, aPriori is designed to be user-friendly to everyone in your company. It allows you to pick the manufacturing process from a drop-down menu and gain cost estimates in real time.

Applied has numerous years of experience working with many of the leading Automotive OEM’s and their supplier integration programs. Those programs include OEMs such as Toyota, Bentley Cars, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, BMW, Daimler Chrysler, PSA, Renault, and Honda.

For more information on aPriori visit : www.appliedgroup.com/apriori-intro

 

CATIA V6-Native Products and Parts Are Now Editable in V5

Posted by appliedgroup on May 29, 2012
Posted in: Product Lifecycle Management. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Dassault Systèmes Launches Industry’s Best Multi-version Compatibility with New V5 ReleaseV6-Native Products and Parts Now Editable in V5; Advancement of V5 Continues

Dassault Systèmes have announced the general availability of the latest release of its Version 5 PLM platform, including CATIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA and SIMULIA.

This new release furthers the adoption of the powerful 3D Experience Platform designed by Dassault Systèmes and includes a major new evolution in V6-to-V5 compatibility. OEMs or suppliers in all industries now have the flexibility to modify and exchange designs, whether they are V5- or V6-native, as they progress through the design process. This represents another quantum leap in an ongoing series of V5-V6 collaboration capabilities.

CATIA V5 users will be able to edit key features of V6 models from within V5. No other company in the CAD / PLM industry offers this level of downward compatibility between versions. The capabilities announced today further enable customers and their supply chains to benefit from the value of V6 alongside their existing V5 deployments.

“When we created V6, we knew customers would work in mixed V5/V6 environments. Since then we have continuously worked to support our customers’ industry needs,” explained Dominique Florack, senior executive vice president, Products, Research & Development, Dassault Systèmes. “What you’re seeing is an engineered development of V5 and V6 solutions to ensure a compatibility that can’t be found elsewhere.”

Dassault Systèmes has renamed this release of V5 to V5-6R2012 to emphasize the continuing compatibility and synchronization between V5 and V6, as well as the enrichment of V5 solutions with select V6 technology. V5 customers can therefore experience the open V6 portfolio and gain select benefits of Dassault Systèmes’ extensive V6 R&D investments. Customers can transition to V6 at their own pace, while continuing to collaborate seamlessly with departments, customers and suppliers who use V5. V6 models opened in V5 retain features created in, for example, V6′s Part Design, Sketcher and Generative Surface Design workbenches and knowledgeware.

“A key aspect for Renault and its diverse, global extended enterprise has been V5 to V6 transition. The new level of downward compatibility Dassault Systèmes is announcing between its platforms will accelerate the use of V6 within our ecosystem,” said executive Olivier Colmard, vice president, Information Systems for Engineering & Quality, Renault. “We’ve taken a strategic decision to deploy V6 to help transform our product development processes. Today’s foresightful research and development achievement is exactly what we have come to expect of our PLM solutions partner.”

“As one of the world’s premier manufacturers of luxury saloons and sports cars, Jaguar Land Rover has a diverse, international supply chain and we plainly see the value of even more compatibility between V6, which we are implementing now, and V5, which is well-deployed in our supply chain. The ability to edit Version 6 models in V5 means that collaboration with our team members, whether at JLR or within our extended supply chain, will be simpler and more effective,” said John Knight-Gregson, i-PLM Programme Director, Jaguar Land Rover. “Dassault Systèmes’ realistic assessment of V5 market penetration and the company’s ongoing effort to push the boundaries of version to version coexistence clearly shows it is looking out for its customers’ needs.”

Since the launch of V6, Dassault Systèmes has delivered on its promise to ensure unmatched compatibility between V5 and V6:

• Even before this release, the compatibility between CATIA V5 and CATIA V6 was equivalent to the compatibility between two releases of CATIA V5. This ensured a customer’s transition to V6 was as easy as a V5 release-to-release transition. Today’s announcement surpasses this level of compatibility;

• To further facilitate data compatibility between V5 and V6, Dassault Systèmes R&D inserted select V6 technologies into V5 solutions, such as Class A surfacing innovations and concept design from CATIA Imagine & Shape;

• Powerful openness and coexistence capabilities which enable reuse of existing V5 models and other data in V6 hybrid product structures. Design engineers can create a single hybrid product structure composed of CATIA V6, CATIA V5, CATIA V4, SolidWorks, Siemens’ NX and PTC’s ProEngineer models. The resulting single product structure enables real-time design review and analysis of the virtual product, regardless of the native authoring tool. (Source Dassault Systèmes April, 2012).

If you are wondering what the best option is for your business, we can offer you specific advice that’ll help you find the best solution. Click here to contact us.

V6 CATIA Release – How will it affect V5 users?

Posted by appliedgroup on March 13, 2012
Posted in: Product Lifecycle Management. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

By Applied CAE

CATIA V6 has been released, and the improvements are significant. It offers users greater collaboration throughout the supply chain, as well as increased security of designs. For those companies without incumbent PLM infrastructure, CATIA V6 is by far the best system on the market. However, those of us that can still remember the move from V4 to V5 of CATIA, will no doubt be feeling a little uneasy as the industry starts it’s move over to this latest release.

We get to the heart of the matter.

V6 clearly offers key benefits for its users. For example, a streamlined document sharing process. If you rely upon designs and documents from other parties within the supply chain, V6 ensures you will only access the latest designs to work from, minimising any time lost from working on outdated documents. This collaboration facility also means that the transfer of documents is more fluid and highly secure.

Another key benefit is the integration of CATIA V6 with other Dassault Systemes software. This latest version works on the same platform as the other software in the Dassault portfolio, allowing it to work seamlessly with 3DVIA, ENOVIA, DELMIA and SIMULIA.

Dassault has also improved the user interface with V6, they are aiming for a much more ‘lifelike experience’. One of the other key enhancements is the 3D sketch capability, allowing designers to sketch in 3D and also to turn 2D ideas into 3D reality.

So from a purely sales perspective, V6 is not only the best that Dassault has ever produced, but arguably, the best available on the market today. Many of you though, are not in a greenfield situation, and will already be working with V5. This latest release will therefore mean a transition in software, and more than likely, a dual working environment for a significant time period, whilst the OEMs choose when, or indeed whether to move over to V6.

Dassault Aviation are fully up and running with V6, whilst Renault is running a pilot project, and Jaguar Land Rover have started to implement the early stages of the transition. However, many OEMs have still not committed to V6, such as Airbus, BAE and Honda, so if you are supplying several OEMs, then I am sure you will be wondering how the changeover period will affect your business.

Why not give us a call, we would be happy to discuss the implications with you, and hopefully put your mind at ease.