Why Simulation-Based Innovation and Cost Savings Go Hand in Hand

 

Dramatic efficiencies give engineers freedom  to creatively explore new ideas for unique products.

 

Doing more with less in shorter time frames is the  business norm these days. Financial pressures are huge for manufacturers to lower costs throughout the enterprise — including engineering and product development. On the other hand, smart companies know — or should know — that cost cutting alone in the short term won’t sustain them over the long haul. The key to long-term success is innovative products — ones that stand out from the crowd, take competitors by surprise, and ride the leading edge of rapidly evolving market trends.

 

What baffles many manufacturers is how they can accomplish both — cutting costs while managing to find the time and resources for developing innovative products that meet appropriate safety, reliability and quality  standards. The solution is Simulation Driven Product Development. With this approach, engineers compare alternatives, refine designs, and optimize product  performance quickly and economically with simulation models early in development, when concepts are just starting to take shape. Innovation occurs naturally in this type of free-flowing virtual world — not in spite of cost and time savings but because dramatic efficiencies give design teams the freedom they need to creatively explore new ideas and leverage their engineering skills, ingenuity and insight.

 

An excellent example of cost-effective innovation is in the cover story, “Bladeless is More,” in which engineers at Dyson relate how they developed the Dyson Air MultiplierTM — a unique bladeless fan. Air is drawn into the device, accelerated through an aperture and channeled over an airfoil. To maximize airflow, engineers used fluid dynamics software to evaluate up to 10 different designs per day compared to two weeks of work with physical prototypes for just a single design. Because of this efficiency gain, the team investigated 200 different designs — 10 times the number that would have been possible with  physical prototyping.

 

Engineers at Gamma Point used the approach and explain in the article “Cutting Extrusion Die Design Costs” how they balance resin velocity distribution in hours instead of weeks in the innovative design of plastic parts. Potential annual savings add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars — quite a hefty ROI for a unique process, one that puts them ahead of competitors.

 

Other articles focusing on the same theme include “Star Light,” describing how Dynamic Structures saved  an estimated $5 million in construction costs while  significantly improving optical performance of the most powerful telescope on Earth — or the story “Taming the Cost of Respiratory Drug Development,” in which researchers at FluiDA propose an innovative simulation method that has the potential to shorten drug develop-ment time by years and save hundreds of millions of  dollars in bringing a single drug to market. That’s truly cost-saving innovation in action.

 

These companies clearly recognize the tremendous business value of simulation-based product development, as they boost top-line revenue growth through innovation and bottom-line profits through significant cost savings — two benefits that remain compelling whether the economy is up or down. 

 

Table of Contents

5 consumer products 

Bladeless is More 

Fluid flow simulation advances acclaimed new fan design.

 

8 Best practices

 Cost-Effective Innovation 

 Best-in-class companies systematically integrate simulation  with design processes to succeed in a turbulent economy.

 

10 HealtHcare 

Taming the Cost of Respiratory Drug Development 

Computer modeling and simulation help researchers to better  visualize pulmonary functions for faster, less expensive  clinical testing of innovative respiratory drugs.

 

14 electrical

 Making the Switch 

Optimizing a seemingly simple electrical switch device  assembly through simulation saves time and reduces costs.

 

17 consumer goods 

A New Spin on Appliances 

A leading manufacturer reduces time in the development of innovative ovens,  washing machines and other appliances through engineering simulation.

 

20 THougHt leaders

 Leveraging the Full Power of Simulation 

An industry expert looks at changes in engineering analysis  and ways that companies can maximize benefits of the technology.

 

22 materials 

Cutting Extrusion Die Design Costs 

By reducing the number of trial-and-error prototypes, simulation can save  hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in designing PVC extrusion dies.

 

24 construction 

Star Light  

Engineering simulation will save $5 million in construction costs  for a massive telescope that will allow astronomers to peer back  into the formation of galaxies.

 

Ansys Documents.PDF