Find White Papers
Home
About Us
List Your Papers
    
> PTC > Overcoming the Top 5 Challenges in Electro-Mechanical Product Development

Overcoming the Top 5 Challenges in Electro-Mechanical Product Development

White Paper Published By: PTC

How many times has your product gone to prototype, test or assembly and not worked quite right? How can you address all dependencies before testing and assembly? Find out in this free white paper.



Tags : 
product lifecycle, product lifecycle management, plm, product development, productivity, electromechanical, product testing, quality assurance

PTC
Published:  Aug 21, 2009
Type:  White Paper
Length:  5 pages

P T C . c o m
White Paper Challenges in Electro-Mechanical Product Development Page 1 of 5
Overcoming the Top Five Challenges in
Electro-Mechanical Product Development
The pressures of globalization and consolidation are complicating the business of product development in almost every industry. But nowhere is theimpact being felt more profoundly than in the development of sophisticatedelectronic products, where companies must synchronize increasingly complex,multi-discipline development environments.
Electrical, mechanical and software development teams are often dispersedacross different geographies, potentially working across different languagesand cultures, and with different tools and applications. Added to that, tradi-tional technologies do not allow for streamlined collaboration across theseengineering silos. Instead of having robust integration that keeps these threedisciplines fully informed via a unified data store, manufacturers often 'crosstheir fingers' and trust that their engineers can find time in their busy schedulesto keep each other updated on progress. Unfortunately, in reality, this resultsin endless review meetings, frustrating re-work, delayed product launches,blown budgets and sometimes even expensive recalls of shipped products.
In this white paper, you'll get a better understanding of how the increasinginclusion of software and electronics is making product development morecomplex, and how you can find simple solutions that will unlock the process,eliminate the complexity, and unleash productivity - so that your develop-ment teams get back to what they do best: create winning products.P T C . c o m
White Paper Challenges in Electro-Mechanical Product Development Page 2 of 5
What's not working - and why Cell phone cycle crunchHistorically, the barriers to integrating electrical, mechanical and soft- Time to RTMware engineering have been caused by a lack of strong process manage-ment, as well as technology gaps. Without an overarching structure to 16 weeks Mechanical engineer defines the initial board outline, keep-out regions, height restrictions, and the placement manage changes and provide timely communication during the prod- of critical components such as connectors. The MCAD uct development cycle, engineers in different disciplines find them- designer sends this information to the ECAD designer selves working on the wrong versions, and using out of date through email via the IDF file format.information, with no 'single source of truth' to guide and coordinatetheir actions. Typically, the technology required to improve the process- 12 weeks Electrical engineer loads the IDF file. Components are es hasn't been readily available. placed and traces are routed.
The cost of these technology gaps is familiar to anyone working in theelectronics industry; manufacturing or testing teams discover, at the 8-10 weeks Mechanical engineer continues with the mechanical design.last minute, that their electrical designs won't work with their mechan-ical designs - triggering a frenzy of rework that can delay launches, 6 weeks Electrical engineer does a simulation on the PCB layout erode quality, and drive up costs. The same dynamic occurs between and finds signal integrity problems. The only way to resolve this issue is to move a major component to embedded software and overall electronics configurations. Without a provide more spacing for the routes. In a rush, the PCB unifying framework to keep everyone on the same page at the same layout technician forgets to generate a new IDF file and time, manufacturers are left dependent on jury-rigged solutions, hop- send it back to the mechanical engineer.ing things will eventually work out. 3 weeks Meanwhile, the Mechanical engineer has a problem Five common ways things go wrong fitting the battery and antennae into the tight package, so he decides to change the board outline slightly to give Almost every aspect of product development could benefit from himself more room. Since this is a minor change, in the improved process management and technology. Below, we've identified MCAD engineer's opinion, he doesn't send a new IDF five specific operational challenges that account for some of the most file to the ECAD layout technician right away.frustrating problems 2 weeks Final design review. Project manager tells the MCAD . MCAD changes aren't reaching electrical engineers quic... [download for more]

Browse Technology Topics

Data Center

Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Infrastructure, Design and Facilities, Power and Cooling, Green Computing  
    

Data Management

Application Integration, Analytical Applications, Business Intelligence, Configuration Management, Database Development, Data Integration, Data Mining, Data Protection, Data Quality, Data Replication, Database Security, EDI, SOAP, Service Oriented Architecture, Web Service Management, Data Warehousing  
    

Enterprise Applications

Application Integration, Application Performance Management, Best Practices, Business Activity Monitoring, Business Analytics, Business Integration, Business Intelligence, Business Management, Business Metrics, Business Process Automation, Business Process Management, Call Center Management, Call Center Software, Change Management, Corporate Governance, Customer Interaction Service, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, EBusiness, Enterprise Resource Planning, Enterprise Software, EProcurement, Extranets, Groupware Workflow, HIPAA Compliance, IP Faxing, IT Spending, Marketing Automation, Performance Testing, Product Lifecycle Management, Project Management, Return On Investment, Risk Management, Sales & Marketing Software, Sales Automation, Server Virtualization, Simulation Software, Supply Chain Management, System Management Software, Total Cost of Ownership, Video Conferencing, Voice Recognition, Voice Over IP, Workforce Management, Incentive Compensation, Spend Management, Manufacturing Execution Systems, International Computing  

Human Resource Technology

Human Resources Services, Payroll Software, Time and Attendance Software, Workforce Management Software, Financial Management, Employee Monitoring Software, Employee Training Software, Recruiting Software/Services, Employee Performance Management, ELearning, Benefits Management, Expense Management  
    

IT Career Advancement

Cisco Certification, Microsoft Certification, Linux Certification, Network Security Certification, Software Development Certification  

IT Management

Employee Performance, ITIL, Productivity, Project Management, Software Compliance, Sarbanes Oxley Compliance, Service Management, Desktop Management  
    

Knowledge Management

Collaboration, Collaborative Commerce, Contact Management, Content Delivery, Content Integration, Content Management System, Corporate Portals, Customer Experience Management, Document Management, Information Management, Intranets, Messaging, Records Management, Search And Retrieval, Search Engines, Secure Content Management, SLA  

Networking

Active Directory, Bandwidth Management, Convergence, Distributed Computing, Ethernet Networking, Fibre Channel, Gigabit Networking, Governance, Grid Computing, Infrastructure, Internetworking Hardware, Interoperability, IP Networks, IP Telephony, Local Area Networking, Load Balancing, Migration, Monitoring, Network Architecture, Network Management, Network Performance, Network Performance Management, Network Provisioning, Network Security, OLAP, Optical Networking, Quality Of Service, Remote Access, Remote Network Management, Server Hardware, Servers, Small Business Networks, TCP/IP Protocol, Test And Measurement, Traffic Management, Tunneling, Utility Computing, VPN, Wide Area Networks, Green Computing, Cloud Computing, Power and Cooling, Data Center Design and Management, Colocation and Web Hosting  
    

Platforms

AS/400, Domino, Linux, Microsoft Exchange, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, Siebel, Solaris, Tivoli, Unix, Web Sphere, Windows, Windows Server  

Security

Access Control, Anti Spam, Anti Spyware, Anti Virus, Application Security, Auditing, Authentication, Biometrics, Business Continuity, Compliance, DDoS, Disaster Recovery, Email Security, Encryption, Firewalls, Hacker Detection, High Availability, Identity Management, Internet Security, Intrusion Detection, Intrusion Prevention, IPSec, Network Security Appliance, Password Management, Patch Management, Phishing, PKI, Policy Based Management, Security Management, Security Policies, Single Sign On, SSL, Secure Instant Messaging, Web Service Security, PCI Compliance, Vulnerability Management  
    

Software Development

.NET, C++, Database Development, Java, Middleware, Open Source, Software Outsourcing, Quality Assurance, Scripting, SOAP, Software Testing, Visual Basic, Web Development, Web Services, Web Service Security, XML  

Storage

Backup And Recovery, Blade Servers, Clustering, IP Storage, ISCSI, Network Attached Storage, RAID, Storage Area Networks, Storage Management, Storage Virtualization, Email Archiving, Data Deduplication  
    

Wireless

802.11, Bluetooth, CDMA, GPS, Mobile Computing, Mobile Data Systems, Mobile Workers, PDA, RFID, Smart Phones, WiFi, Wireless Application Software, Wireless Communications, Wireless Hardware, Wireless Infrastructure, Wireless Messaging, Wireless Phones, Wireless Security, Wireless Service Providers, WLAN  
Search