The Aberdeen Group (www.Aberdeen.com), a research firm that specializes in information technology, recently released a whitepaper sponsored by Anark Corporation (www.anark.com) titled, Beyond Engineering: New Applications of 3D Drive Top Line Growth. The report highlights the growing importance of 3D in all areas of an operation for best-in-class hightech manufacturers.
Aberdeen’s report says that the advent of 3D solid modeling has fundamentally changed the design process within engineering, and also has dramatically changed how other organizations execute, communicate and collaborate with OEM partners, customers and employees.
Based upon independent analysis, Aberdeen also found that manufacturers leverage 3D design data to save on costs, and to accelerate time to market with new products and drive top line growth.
The report was designed to serve as a road map for the manufacturing community, learning from best-in-class manufacturers who have proven strategies and results.
Additionally, research found that executives have started to view 3D design data as a company asset instead of a singleuse deliverable from engineering to manufacturing. Bestin- class organizations are shown to actively have manufacturing and quality, documentation, training, and sales and marketing departments creating deliverables from 3D product design data.
Distribution of 3D design data also is being employed successfully throughout the supply chain and the aftermarket support process, facilitating rapid design changes while reducing production times and costs.
“While generic technologies have been available for non-engineering use for some time, the findings from this benchmark report show that the specialization of CAD data repurposing and 3D deliverable authoring solutions is key to adoption,” said Chad Jackson, Aberdeen’s research and service director.
Aberdeen’s conclusions said that to achieve best-in-class performance, manufacturers must extend access to 3D design data to non-engineering organizations and departments, while taking advantage of applications that embed 3D design data in documents. Manufacturing organizations are encouraged to author product visualization applications based directly on 3D design data, and use HTML/XML authoring tools to maximize top line growth.
“Aberdeen’s study confirmed the trend that we have been seeing in the marketplace and mirrors how Anark is responding to the evolving needs of manufacturers,” said Scott Collins, Anark’s senior vice president of product development.
The full Aberdeen benchmark report is available for download at no cost from Anark’s homepage: www.anark.com.
