CGT Investigates Virtual Product Development Adoption
March 18, 2009 - New product development is critical to success and may be the only way companies survive the economic downturn. New research from CGT and Dassault Systemes' Enovia group finds that leading companies can greatly enhance the success of new product launches through Virtual Product Development (VPD), the practice of developing products in a fully-digital environment.
VPD has four main components and adoption levels, and the expected benefits vary between them:
1. Virtual Product Design: The most widely adopted component includes tools that create digital 2D drawings and 3D models for use during concept development and technical design, including computer-aided design. A full 42 percent of our respondents are in production with such tools.
2. Virtual Product Simulation: This component uses finite element analysis to represent a product or package and then simulates load and constraint conditions to predict the performance of a design in advance of any investment in tooling or prototyping. Unfortunately, only 25 percent of our respondents are actively using these tools, and 38 percent have no plans to adopt them.
3. Digital Manufacturing: This enables manufacturers to virtually define, plan, create, monitor and control production processes. Adoption in this area is nearly identical to Virtual Product Simulation, with 26 percent of respondents in production and 21 percent early in implementation, but 35 percent with no plans.
4. Virtual Product Staging: This last component enables virtual reality performance simulation. This area has the lowest adoption at 13 percent but the most interest with 22 percent in the early planning phases, 13 percent in early implementation, and 9 percent in pilot.
Click here to read this research in its entirety, including findings on the benefits of each VPD component.
VPD has four main components and adoption levels, and the expected benefits vary between them:
1. Virtual Product Design: The most widely adopted component includes tools that create digital 2D drawings and 3D models for use during concept development and technical design, including computer-aided design. A full 42 percent of our respondents are in production with such tools.
2. Virtual Product Simulation: This component uses finite element analysis to represent a product or package and then simulates load and constraint conditions to predict the performance of a design in advance of any investment in tooling or prototyping. Unfortunately, only 25 percent of our respondents are actively using these tools, and 38 percent have no plans to adopt them.
3. Digital Manufacturing: This enables manufacturers to virtually define, plan, create, monitor and control production processes. Adoption in this area is nearly identical to Virtual Product Simulation, with 26 percent of respondents in production and 21 percent early in implementation, but 35 percent with no plans.
4. Virtual Product Staging: This last component enables virtual reality performance simulation. This area has the lowest adoption at 13 percent but the most interest with 22 percent in the early planning phases, 13 percent in early implementation, and 9 percent in pilot.
Click here to read this research in its entirety, including findings on the benefits of each VPD component.