- "If I didn't waste all my time quoting I could actually design something."
- "I wish I could find a better way to make each of these components longer, maybe a stretch all command."
- "If we could cut down on engineering lead time we could easily double maybe even triple production"
Do any of these sound familiar? If they do there is a tool just for you, in every seat of SolidWorks. It is called DriveWorksXpress and could very well be the Holy Grail of the Engineer-to-Order world.
What is Engineer-to-Order? Let us start with some simple questions.
- Are your products the same-as, but different?
- Do you have repetitive design tasks, such as making a particular product a little larger or smaller or adding standard options to an already designed product?
- Are your products defined by a set of rules? (e.g. We always have a 1/4 inch gap, unless the frame is over 4ft. wide, then we use 5/16 inch.)
If you answered yes to these questions or if this fits even a portion of your design, you have an Engineer-to-Order product.
DriveWorksXpress is an easy to use interface for automating your repetitive design tasks for that Engineer-to-Order environment. Amazing time savings and reduction in errors can be achieved with a simple implementation. DriveWorksXpress is also expandable into the upgraded versions of DriveWorks that allows for automating even further to integrate systems within the company, like ERP or CRM systems. Best of all, DriveWorksXpress is already built into every seat of SolidWorks since 2007. These abilities won't cost anything to implement, but your time.
Once you've implemented some simple time-saving features in DriveWorksXpress, you can begin to evaluate if a move to the full version of the product is warranted. There are documented case studies on the DriveWorks website that calculate the implementation of DriveWorks has:
- Taken simple 45 minute design cycles down to less than a minute.
- Eliminated 90% of repetitive task time freeing up engineers to design new and better products.
- Taking 80 hour design cycles down to an hour!
Some of these statistics are staggering and can be difficult to accept but the proof has been confirmed by the customers, themselves. Again, best of all, you have the tool at your fingertips to take the first step towards achieving results just like them.
Take a minute today in your SolidWorks window to click on Tools>DriveWorksXpress and then spend 20 Minutes on DriveWorksXpress.com and you could be saving hours next week. Our best advice is to start with one part within an assembly and create a DriveWorksXpress project out of it. Don't think you have to start with a full assembly. Once you're saving time on one part, reinvest the time savings into a second part, and so on. The process builds on itself and you're not having to reinvent the mousetrap from the ground up.
A very small investment for a big return. Yes, even in a down economy you can still get big returns on small investments.