Why Digital Manufacturing processes could be important for manufacturers?

The potential for direct digital manufacturing is heating up as leading players add high-level engineering thermoplastics to their materials' lineups. And in the era of shorter production cycles, more demand for new products and heightened competition,the manufacturing industry finds help in a trusted ally:IT.

Digital manufacturing systems combine advanced 3D simulation tools, product lifecycle management (PLM) software and virtual reality to visibly manage a product through the manufacturing process.

Digital manufacturing puts the IT on the production floor. For long, while the manufacturing industry has come up to speed with using CAD/PDM for the initial design and development and has perfected the sales, distribution and supply chain management using ERP software, the missing link, so to speak, has been the production floor.

The whole success of a product could hinge on how fast and efficiently the production is managed. If CAD/PDM answered what to build, ERP where and when to build, then digital manufacturing answers the most critical of all, the 'how to build' part.

While CAD/CAM/CAE has made design phase pretty smooth, and ERP etc. has made supply chain management that helps in distribution and CRM to manage sales coordination easy, the actual manufacturing is yet to catch up with the pace set by the design and sales departments. So, we have the familiar story of a record-breaking demand, and yet the company would advertise asking the customers to be patient while they bend over backwards to up their production and decrease the time to market. The production has become a bottleneck of sorts and digital manufacturing is the answer to smoothen the flow.

Digital Manufacturing software covers the entire gamut of Part Manufacturing, Assembly Planning, Resource Management, Plant Design and Optimisation, Human Performance, Quality and Production Management.

Simply put, the digital manufacturing software defines the manufacturing process. This fact is validated by several users of such software too.

Ultimately there are going to be some slight differences in the simulated environment and actual production scenario, but then they would be minimal, as compared to doing it without using a simulation software.

However, one must also look at the viability of the product before rushing to buy digital manufacturing software.It is simple economics. If the software is helping you reduce the cost-per-piece and adding to your bottomline, it is good to go for.

So Digital manufacturing has propelled faster time to market, reduced product cost, reduced manufacturing costs, improved product quality and better Return-on-investment (ROI) for manufacturers. Outsourcing the entire process adds another added advantage to the manufacturer.

So, it is the vital link to profitability...........