Are you looking to dramatically reduce your design time and boost your productivity? There are solutions!
When it comes to design, some repetitive tasks can slow down the workflow, impacting on productivity and delivery times. From the repeated creation of technical drawings to the absence of standardized libraries, time wasted on drawing, non-automated drawing cartridges or even the disorganized structure of CAD files, these obstacles can hamper your efficiency. However, there are effective ways of getting around these shortcomings.
Let’s take a look at the many benefits of automating design tasks and discover the 7 steps you can take to maximize your productivity!
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WHY OPT FOR DESIGN AUTOMATION?
1. Save time and increase your design output:
“Imagine a situation where, over the past year, you have generated more than 784 technical documents with the collaboration of four designers. These documents include a total of 4,129 parts, each of which required more than 5 minutes of extra work compared to the initial design. Challenges included: importing files from the Internet, manually filling in the drawing BOM, using an inefficient starting template, and an inefficient drawing template, among others.
This equates to an annual time loss of around 20,645 minutes, or 344 hours, 8.6 weeks of wasted time. Automation offers the opportunity to reclaim this valuable time for more strategic tasks or new projects.”
This is one of the main benefits of automating your mechanical design tasks. This precious time saved will bring you other benefits:
2. Reduce training time for new designers:
By establishing standards, the training process is simplified and accelerated, enabling faster integration of new team members.
3. Free up time to innovate and refine your designs:
by offloading repetitive or low-value-added tasks, automation frees up time to refine existing designs and stimulate creativity.
4. Réduire vos coûts de production :
En minimisant le temps passé sur chaque conception, les coûts de production sont abaissés, ce qui peut se traduire par des designs plus économiques pour votre entreprise et vos clients.
5. Uniformiser et simplifier les dessins de conception :
En élaborant un processus standardisé, vous créez une structure uniforme pour vos conceptions, assurant une cohérence et une simplification des « workflows ».
However, the only “downside”, which in reality is not, is that automation requires an initial investment in time and resources. The implementation process may take time, but it’s a long-term investment that promises considerable benefits for your operational efficiency and profitability.
You now know that automating your design process is an important lever for increasing productivity. Let’s take a look at 7 steps to automate your design process.
Did you know that, generally, the time spent on final drawing should never exceed 30% of the time spent on design?
7 Steps to Design Automation!
Step 1: Analyze your Current Design Process:
Identify repetitive tasks, redundant and time-consuming steps, and processes that could be automated. Don’t hesitate to enlist the help of a consultant to provide you with an outside view of your design process.
Step 2: Standardize and Simplify Design and Drawing Processes:
Creating efficient templates limits redundant tasks. Make sure drawings are the same for everyone.
Step 3: Use Libraries and Pre-Designed Templates:
Create and use libraries of reusable components or templates to speed up the design process.
Step 4: Train your Designers and Update their Skills:
Make sure designers are trained to use the automation tools and features available to maximize their efficiency.
Step 5: Iterate and Continuously Improve:
Regularly identify opportunities for improvement and new automation possibilities to further optimize the design process.
Step 6: Automate Parts of the Design (CAD) Process with Customized Macros:
This can range from automating simple processes to creating complex actions.
Step 7: Parametric Modeling:
Allows parameters and dimensions to be linked, facilitating automatic modifications and updates of parts and assemblies, according to changes requested by the engineer or customer.
Key Points
Automating tasks avoids repetitive activities, offering significant time saving in the design process. Reduced training time for your designers, increased productivity, refined designs, lower production costs – the benefits of automating your tasks are numerous!
Don’t forget that investing time in automation is a guarantee of long-term productivity, offering lasting benefits! Follow the seven key steps identified by our expert, André Lascelle, to get started.
Getting an outsider’s eye for this type of project can be very beneficial.
At Merkur, our experts produce a multitude of diversified technical drawings every day. This means they can share with you the best practices for automating tasks to suit your needs!
Whether it’s an in-depth analysis of your current design process, standardization of your methods, development and use of your own component libraries, support in the optimal use of your scripts and macros, specialized training to reinforce your team’s skills and guarantee a smooth transition to these new automation methods: our Merkur designers are there to support you! Contact us now!
