Yes! We have customers who are achieving these reductions and even better. How do they do it? Well, first you have to look at the problem! So how did they produce manufacturing instructions before they were able to save money? In a very “traditional” way.
They spent a lot of money implementing CAD (and CAM!), but this information was only available to a few people who were trained to use the CAD tool.
The people who were supposed to produce the production documentation had another problem; they had to start working when the prototypes were developed along with special tooling and so on. The only way they could produce their documentation was to be able to obtain information from a number of sources—mainly digital photographs showing the various steps required to assemble, disassemble, and maintain the machine designed by the designers. This often took a couple of engineers about four days: one took photos and made notes, while the other disassembled the machine.
Once this was done, it had to be transferred to text documents, adding any notes and explanatory symbols, warnings, and so on.
Any changes made by the designers required changes to the prototype, new photos, and so on… A tedious and time-consuming process!
So how did they solve it? Using Dassault Systèmes’ 3Dvia Composer allowed one engineer to start working in parallel with the designers so that while they were finishing their project, assembly, maintenance, and work instructions could begin.
Instead of using a complex CAD tool, 3DVia Composer allowed the engineer to use his own CAD data, but manipulate it in a simple way, with the ability to create different views of the machine, add notes, labels, sections, and everything else that was needed. People had to manufacture or maintain the machine, as well as show how to use special tools before they needed to be manufactured.
The result? Documentation was created faster—input data for existing templates was still provided, but animations that could be used on any PC were also provided, and the amount of instructions required was reduced. In addition, because the process was started much earlier, it was completed faster: the gap between design completion and product sales and field service was reduced.
So how much time did our client save? The process was reduced from 8 man-days to 1 man-day.
Contact GEO-MENTOR to find out how much time you can save!
3DVia Composer is a revolutionary technology that allows you to create dynamic electronic work instructions using 3D CAD data. For more information about 3DVia and to discuss your requirements, please CONTACT US.
