Developing products faster is no longer a challenge for manufacturers as advanced CAD tools and 3D printing technologies help in shrinking the development time significantly. The challenge, however, is the new growing trend of customized products that are built specific to customer needs. For a mass product manufacturer, integrating small or large degree of customization is extremely challenging, especially when the need is to bring the products to market at the right time. What consumes most of the development time in such cases is the design stage, where drawings and 3D models are required to be developed for each and every customized order.

Customization might be a key differentiator for some manufacturers, but for some it is a necessity. For instance, industrial pump is a product that is often custom built depending on the specific flow/pressure requirements. Further, the type of mounting, accessories and pump material also needs to be configured to suit the facility and operating environment. The modification in the design as such extends the design time considerably.

Through DriveWorks however, it is possible to reduce this design time to a great extent by simply reusing the design data. The design engineer can automate the design of parts or part families that are good candidates for automation. The basic version DriveWorksXpress is complimentary with every SolidWorks copy, and it has the ability to significantly reduce the design cycles by not only controlling the part but entire assemblies. The parts can be linked to DriveWorks forms and their suppressions states can be controlled in the assembly.

Also, the drawings can be generated for each custom design with pre-defined details, allowing the engineers to focus more on innovating and developing new products. What makes DriveWorks different from the built-in SolidWorks configurations is it does not require knowing all the iterations of the design. Instead, the design engineer simply needs to provide range of options that the end user is required to choose from, in order to get the personalized product he is looking for using drop downs and scroll menus. Such simple interface makes it easy even for a non-technical person to create a custom product quickly.

In case of a pump, features such as casing, impeller, rotor, bearings, mountings and accessories can be quickly designed through this approach. One simply needs to establish rules for each part of the pump using DriveWorks rule builder that works on simple If…Else logic. Additionally, features such as body paint and private labeling can also be automated using the same approach, providing the manufacturer an ability to offer customers exactly what they want. The actual power of automation can be leveraged through the Solo and Pro version of the DriveWorks, which includes better capabilities in terms of controlling the part models, drawings, technical documentation, deployment and integration with PDM systems.

Implementing DriveWorks during the design stage for built-to-order products can significantly reduce the design cycles by automating the product design process. It further reduces the risk of errors that can cause delays in the shipment and can lead to potential penalties by generating design information with least manual intervention.

About Author: Kashyap Vyas is an Engineer at Hi-Tech CADD Services - CAD Design Services and holds a Master’s degree in Thermal Engineering with several research papers to his credit. He covers CAD and CAE topics for the engineering industry. His contributions are primarily focused on encouraging manufacturers and suppliers to adopt virtual product development tools to build efficient products with reduced time-to-market.