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Detailed Design
Detailed design is such a fundamental necessity to manufacturers that it exists at the intersection of many product development processes. And given this broad influence, as well as the impact of prevailing industry dynamics such as distributed product development, shortening product development lifecycles and increased product complexity, companies are feeling immense pressure to improve their detailed design process.
%
10 20 30 40 50 60

33%

An efficient change process can cut upwards of 33% off of the typical product development cycle time.

D e v e l o p i n g A c o m p l e t e ly D e f i n e D p r o D u c t D e s i g n t h At i s f u l ly D o c u m e n t e D f o r m A n u fA c t u r i n g

Standardized Process Key to Addressing Global Design

68%
70 80 90 100

In managing global design, the top priority action (cited by 68% of the respondents) is to standardize processes. Global design extends the challenges of control, communication and collaboration. Best-in-class companies were four times more likely to employ centralized product data and automated processes. - Aberdeen, 2005

Definition of Detailed Design

As a core engineering process, detailed design transforms concept alternatives, preliminary physical architectures, design specifications, and technical requirements into final, cross-disciplinary design definitions. These designs are further refined and all accompanying documentation required for manufacturing is completed in order for timely delivery to the customer of a fully defined, complete product.

33 %

An efficient change proce can cut upwards of 33% o of the typical product development cycle time.

T O TA L Product Development Cycle Time

process of fully defining product design that meets requirements and is sufficiently documented for manufacturing
INPUTS
Partial Physical Architecture
NEW EXISTING EXISTING DERIVED

OUTPUTS
Final Design Definition

Detailed Design

Partial Physical Models Design and Interface Specifications Derived Requirements for Detailed Designs Concept Design
SPEC

Design Documentation

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understanding the need for Detailed Design

Detailed design provides the link for integrating all cross-disciplinary conceptual and preliminary data into a complete, finished digital product definition. Accordingly, todays detailed design process is characterized by highly sophisticated designs and an ever-increasing demand for data sharing. Since many companies operate in a distributed environment, among partners and design teams, and across time-zones and language barriers, fast, secure information access is essential. Its an absolute necessity to ensure that everyone is working on the correct version of the data while tracking team decisions and having real-time visibility into the teams progress. Along the way, engineers must continually manage change and design complexity. They need to assess risks and balance trade-offs while rapidly delivering high quality designs that work reliably and offer customers value. Given the prevalence of electrical content in the majority of todays products, it is necessary to effectively handle concurrent design of interrelated components, and improve collaboration between all different design disciplines (electrical, mechanical, software). Changes to requirements are frequent, and incorporating those changes into the design process in a managed and controlled way is vital. Balancing changing requirements with cost and quality pressures further complicates matters. And, ever-shrinking product lifecycles place a premium on an organizations ability to implement automation and design reuse.

Benefits of an optimized process for Detailed Design

An optimized, formalized, and flexible detailed design process enables companies to rapidly deliver competitive, high quality designs that offer customers real value. Typical benefits of improving the detailed design process may include:

improve Design productivity

Centrally control and manage all design data (mechanical, electrical, software, documents) Enable concurrent design of interrelated components Easily and effectively drive design to meet key requirements Further automate and streamline the generation of deliverables (e.g., assemblies, drawings, manufacturing process plans)

increase Design process efficiency

Enable a formalized, automated, and repeatable design processes Ensure everyone is working on the correct version of the product data Enable what if design investigations, either with or without formal data management Improve project execution and visibility into team progress

optimize Design reuse

Reduce design cost by supporting part reuse and eliminating component duplication Improve ability to quickly and easily find appropriately classified designs

improve Design collaboration

Manage global product development involving external suppliers and customers Provide for secure distributed team and customer design collaboration Safely share cross-discipline product data across a globally dispersed enterprise product development team Encourage early and frequent cross-discipline communication; visualize heterogeneous design data

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the solution ptcs product Development system

PTCs Product Development System (PDS) delivers all the essential elements for implementing an effective detailed design process, which can generally be described by four major steps: Detailed Design Planning, Detailed Design Creation, Design Documentation and Communication, and Release to Manufacturing Planning.

Analyze Inputs

Requirements Partial Physical Architecture Design Interfaces Concept Design

Complete Inputs Requirements Management Concept Development System Design

Complete?

1. Detailed Design planning.

In this step, product requirements

2 2 2
Insource/ Outsource Insource/ Outsource Insource/ Outsource Incorporate Intent & Req Incorporate Intent & Req Create Design Incorporate Intent & Req Create Design Evaluate Design Verification & Validation Outsourced Design

and specifications are interpreted while system and concept designs are analyzed. Planning activities for the concurrent development of the product, and further development of design structures takes place based on detailed inputs.

ECAD

MCAD

2. Detailed Design creation. With design structures and design

designs. Design engineers collaborate with other cross-disciplinary teams, while creating the detailed content of the product to ensure design integrity. Performance of the designs is simulated and reviewed in order to constantly improve and verify compliance to the requirements. From the early stages, the design is shared downstream, to gauge, for example, its manufacturing feasibility.

Manufacturing Planning

S O F T WA R E

interfaces in place, engineers turn to the task of defining details of their

Create Design

Evaluate Design

Evaluate Design

Approve?

3. Design Documentation and communication. Typically, creation

of the necessary design documentation, such as drawings and other manufacturing information, is initiated in the detailed design creation step, long before the design is completed. At this stage, final design, engineering bills of material, and other design-related information is documented and checked for completeness.
4 3

Approve?

Approve?

Complete Deliverables

Review for Release

Verification & Validation

4. release to manufacturing planning. Lastly, final signoff on the

product design is executed, and data is promoted to the Released lifecycle state, where it is passed officially to the manufacturing planning process.
Detailed design process flow, incorporating functional design activities spanning mechanical, electrical and software design, as well as interdependencies among them.
Approve? Final Design Models Design Documentation

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critical capabilities
The PTC Product Development System offers the following capabilities, which support an effective detailed design process: Powerful MCAD/CAM/CAE authoring capabilities for development of high-fidelity 3D product models that capture critical design, analysis and manufacturing information in a single master model compressing the entire product development cycle Integral, physics-based simulation for advanced self-optimization of the designs A single, structured, cross-discipline product data repository for managing complete product information inclusive of mechanical, electrical, software, and documentation content Timely, role-based access to latest product information for a globally dispersed product development team Secure and seamless integration of distributed design teams and external partners into development activities Streamlined and automated design reviews and electro-mechanical collaboration
PTCs detailed design process considers mechanical, electrical, and software design data, and relationships among these data types..

ptc uniquely Qualified

An automated and optimized detailed design process not only requires superior technology, it also requires companies to streamline their day-to-day processes. Just as important, companies need to ensure that everyone across the organization understands and adopts the new processes and technology. After 20 years of deploying process and technology improvements across thousands of customer sites, PTC Global Services understands all the components required for companies to achieve their product development goals. We offer solutions that include the right blend of process consulting, system implementation, and education services so customers realize the most value from their PDS investment. We implement industry best practices that fully leverage PTC technology, so companies take advantage of the technologys potential while avoiding costly customizations. Plus, each of our solutions incorporates a unique training approach that accelerates the adoption of new technology and processes.

Detailed design is especially vital given that it exists at the intersection of so many other product development processes. Outputs from the detailed design process are used not only as finished good, but also may take the form of modular components useful for developing product variants.

2006, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC). All rights reserved. Information described herein is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a guarantee, commitment, condition or offer by PTC. PTC, the PTC Logo, Pro/ENGINEER, and all PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. All other product or company names are property of their respective owners.

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