Archive for August, 2009

From: Solidwoks

“If you’re thinking about switching to SolidWorks, think about this: buy any seat of SolidWorks now, and we’ll upgrade you to our flagship premium package at no additional cost.*

What is SolidWorks Premium? It’s the industry’s top-of-the-line CAD software with powerful capabilities to solve the toughest design problems standing between you and success.  It comes packed with fully integrated simulation, data management, collaboration, and more.

Just pay for standard-level SolidWorks and you’ll end up with SolidWorks Premium for half the price – and a lot more value for your money.

But you must act now. This offer expires Sept. 30, 2009.”

by Jerry Fireman

Clearance and creepage errors are commonly discovered by product safety engineers. But undetected clearance and creepage problems can result in product recalls and warranty expenses. At worst they could lead to injury with resulting litigation and damage to your company’s reputation.

Clearance and creepage analysis is all about ensuring that sufficient insulation is provided so that electrical current will not jump between two conductive parts, potentially causing injury or damage. More specifically, clearance analysis identifies the shortest path between two conductive parts or between a conductive part and the outer surface of an enclosure when the distance is measured through air. Creepage analysis identifies the shortest path along the surface of the insulation.

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From: PTC Express (www.ptc.com)

You may be spending most of your time making design changes
instead of creating new designs. But with the right 3D CAD
software, you can solve this problem – and quite a few others.
If you’re a design engineer working in a “typical” manufacturing company, you may be spending
60% to 80 % of your time updating and optimizing old designs, or making changes for ECOs,
instead of creating new designs. Industry-wide studies and PTC surveys confirm this startling fact.
With such a significant portion of your day devoted to design changes, you need a 3D CAD
system that simplifies and speeds the change process.
But this is just one of many challenges design engineers can solve by using more advanced 3D
CAD software. Here are five essential characteristics of a best-in-class 3D CAD system and how it
will enable you to focus on what you do best: design great products.

From: http://www.ptc.com/WCMS/files/86879/en/3966_Five_Things_EN.pdf

“Just the thought of having to hunt through all of your company’s documents for the one piece of design data you need is enough to make your blood boil. It wastes your time and adds to your design development costs.

With SolidWorks Enterprise PDM in place, you have a way to find exactly what you need. The search tool helps you quickly pinpoint the precise details you’re looking for across a variety of file types, and multiple vault data preview tells you at a glance that you’ve found what you need.

• Quickly locate documents by name, data, metadata, workflow state and more
• Easily manage multiple types of data per job – Microsoft® Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Outlook emails, jpegs, CAD files, etc.
• Confirm you have the right document with visual preview
• Predefine, save and share searches
• Save favorites for quick retrieval”

From: SolidWorks

Many small and medium sized businesses have engineering departments where the need for a minimal number of employees is a must.  To profit from a small or medium sized business, you need to control costs; this includes only hiring engineers that you will need on a regular basis.  Thanks to the Internet and ever improving global communication, there is a solution that integrates the finances of a small or medium sized business with the fluctuating needs of the engineering department.  The solution is managed outsource CAD.

Managed outsource CAD is a great asset to a small or medium sized business that has some in-house engineering expertise but periodically needs additional CAD resources.  You are not restricted by the confines of your town or city, and you can access remarkable CAD talent from all over the world.  You can tap into superb skills through outsourcing that you may find elusive when hiring a full-time local engineer.  However, not every business owner or company manager has the time, finances, or know-how to seek out and contact CAD engineers from half-way around the world.  That is where a managed outsource CAD solutions provider comes in to find and hire talented professionals so when your company needs CAD engineers for peak load or special projects, you know right where to look.

Advantages of Outsourcing

Cost-Effective

The most compelling advantage of outsourcing a portion of your company’s CAD engineering needs is that it is a cost-effective solution.  Costs are incurred only when you are using the service.  There are many duties that a company must address when it has employees.  The company has an ongoing responsibility to their workers, which is often costly.  For example, a company has the obligation of providing their employees with a specific amount of work each week.   There may also be obligations to provide your employees with health benefits, overtime, holiday pay, paid sick days, or other incentives.  These full time employment related costs can be a financial drain; especially if related personnel are not 100% loaded with revenue generating work.

Managed outsourcing is popular with companies that have a core of key employees who can use CAD outsourcing to leverage productivity and complete special projects or tasks.

Fewer Worries

The second advantage of CAD outsourcing is that there are fewer worries involved as compared to hiring company employees.  When you establish a relationship with a company that specializes in providing CAD engineers to small and medium sized business, several time-consuming duties are provided by the company for you.  You will not have to recruit or search for employees or conduct time consuming interviews with prospective hires.  A managed outsource CAD provider has already spent a great amount of money finding talented CAD engineers, tested each candidate to determine their skills, checked backgrounds to verify credentials, and chosen the best of the group.

Scheduling is no longer your worry.  Once you email or call the outsource CAD provider and describe your project or needs, they will take over and determine which CAD engineers are right for your project and if they are available to complete your project within the time frame specified.  They may also have the resources to schedule several employees if you have a large project that has to be completed in a short time frame.  Of course, it is always best to start a managed CAD relationship with a small project and allow time to establish good communication and evaluate the quality of work.

Administrative Details

Another issue handled by a managed CAD provider is the paperwork and tax responsibilities that go along with hiring and maintaining employees (time cards, payroll reporting, annual filings).  The managed CAD provider is a single vendor, generally invoicing for services on an agreed upon schedule.  Typically, an invoice will include details of the work performed and you have an opportunity to review it before payment is made.

One of the hardest aspects of hiring someone is if you eventually have to fire them.  Many managers and business owners dread having to tell someone that their services are no longer needed by the company.   However, the financial cost and toll on employee morale resulting when an employee is not producing at the expected level can be devastating.  Good engineers resent having to pull the weight of an underperforming co-worker; or worse, having to correct their mistakes.  Working conditions like these can drive away your top engineering talent.  When you use the services of a managed outsourcing company, you no longer have to worry about these issues.  If the work is not up to the agreed standard, you notify the company and it is their job to fix it.  If the assigned CAD engineer did not finish their work or failed to complete the project requirements satisfactorily, a reputable provider will schedule another engineer to complete the project, often at no additional charge to you.

Choices

One final aspect of using managed outsourced CAD is that the services can be used when you need them, no more and no less.  If you need one engineer for one project or four engineers for another project, the effort to engage them is the same for you. You have only a single call or email to the provider and they go to work assembling the team for your project.

To sum it all up, there are many advantages when it comes to leveraging your in-house engineering talent with managed outsourced CAD engineers.  It can provide small and medium sized companies with the resources traditionally available only to large, multi-national corporations.   It offers the flexibility to match your required resource to your project and budget.