Best Practices:

Better Design with Simulation

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Can Your Company Win? ...................................................................................................................3
Why Use Simulation During Design? ...................................................................................................4
Get the Right Guidance for the Road Ahead .................................................................................5
The World Is Changing .........................................................................................................................6
How Can Simulation Drive Design? ....................................................................................................7
Manufacturers Viewpoint ..................................................................................................................8
How Top Performers Encourage Simulation During Design .............................................................10
Establish Management Support .........................................................................................................11
Sell the Value ........................................................................................................................................12
Make Training Available ......................................................................................................................13
Start Small ..............................................................................................................................................15
Use Early and Often .............................................................................................................................16
Start the Journey Toward Greater Profitability ...................................................................................17

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

Can Your Company Win?

Todays global economy creates lots of opportunity, yet there is so much competition, it is even more
difficult for products to stand out from the competition. To be more competitive, companies need to work
that much harder to develop differentiated products.
Empowering design engineers to make better design decisions can offer just this competitive advantage.

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Why Use Simulation During Design?

CONSIDER FOR A MOMENT:
What could shaving10% off of your material cost mean for

your business?
If you could release products 14% faster, how would you use

that time?

What if you could improve product quality without adding

cost or time?

These are the types of advantages enjoyed by companies that

have empowered their design engineers with simulation. This
eBook shares five best practices to help companies integrate
design and simulation.

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

Get the Right Guidance for the Road Ahead

Design decisions are often made by applying rules of thumb, experience, and gut instinct to engineering
principles. In some cases, simulation is used at the end of the development cycle to test and validate
designs. Then physical prototype testing takes care of final validation. The problem is that you miss out on
opportunities for optimizing and identifying over engineered areas. Also, when design problems are found
late in the development cycle, it is much more expensive to fix them.

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

The World Is Changing

In the past, products could still succeed despite these challenges. However, the world is changing and
in todays competitive environment, not empowering engineers to make better decisions puts a tighter
squeeze on profit margins. This can mean the difference between product success and failure. Design
engineers need to be more empowered than ever to make the right design decisions that will lead to
more profitable products.

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

How Can Simulation Drive Design?

When simulation drives design decisions, engineers

Beyond design benefits, overall design time is

have better insight on the impact of different

reduced because less time is needed for physical

parameters. This leads to better, more informed

testing, fixing late problems, and rework.

decisions.

THEY CAN:

tt

Conduct Sensitivity Studies

tt

Analyze Trade-Offs

The analysis process is faster too. When design

engineers hand off models to an analyst,
the analyst wastes time rebuilding the model
for analysis. Design engineers familiar with

tt

Remove Excess Material

tt

Evaluate Motion Envelopes

Engineers can also be more innovative by

evaluating more iterations and using the software
to narrow down choices for the best concept.

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the requirements for the analysis model can

incorporate analysis requirements as the design
model is built.
Finally, simulation software has gotten even easier
to use and hardware has gotten more powerful so
that it is easier for engineers to rely on simulation as
a design tool.

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

Manufacturers Viewpoint
Virtual prototyping speeds up development and helped produce a more
competitive product, leading to 30% sales growth each year for American Wave
Machines since 2008.
Bruce McFarland | President, American Wave Machines

When design engineers know how to run simulations, they understand the
requirements for the analysis model. They can consider this as they build the design
model and build it in a way that will make the analysis easier and take less time to
prepare.
Dr. Vladimir Pokras | Manager of Analysis and Simulation, Liebherr Mining Equipment
Newport News Co. (Liebherr Group)

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

Manufacturers Viewpoint
Using simulation during concept design provides time to explore 30% more options.
Prashant Subhedar | Director, BANG Design

By using simulation during design, we see 30-50% time savings because we can skip
physical tests. Time we used to spend on tolerance analysis, waiting in a queue for
testing, and outsourcing analysis just goes away.
Drew Kessler | Design Group Manager, Team Penske

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

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How Top Performers Encourage Simulation During Design

In a recent survey conducted by Tech-Clarity, survey respondents identified the top ways they encourage
design engineers to use simulation. The graph shows the top methods used by Top Performing companies.
Top Performing companies were defined as those who do the best job at meeting due dates, achieving
product cost targets, and staying within budget.

Started with a Pilot Project

26%

Used Instructor Led Training

26%

Started in the Concept Phase

26%
22%

Management Made it a Priority

Promoted Business Benefits

17%

Using this survey data as well as interviews, Tech-Clarity identified five best practices to help companies
use simulation during design.

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

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1. Establish Management Support

To encourage adoption, management should make it clear that simulation is a priority and everyones
responsibility. Management should define the overall simulation strategy and oversee its implementation.
Also, management should set new expectations around schedule deadlines. When simulation drives the
design, problems are caught sooner so less time is needed for testing and fixing late problems. Overall,
development time is less, but some of the time savings at the end must be shifted to earlier in the design
process to allow for simulation. Management support will enable this transition.

Adjusting the schedule was the biggest stumbling block. Originally, management was
Manufacturers
Viewpoint

skeptical. However, when they saw improvements in design quality, they fully embraced
it. With their support, we shifted schedule expectations to allow more up front design time,
knowing it will be saved during later stages.
Dr. Vladimir Pokras
Dr. Vladimir Pokras | Manager of Analysis and Simulation, Liebherr Mining Equipment Newport News Co.
(Liebherr Group)

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

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2. Sell the Value

In many cases, engineers will appreciate more confidence in their decisions. They will want simulations
directional guidance so their design will be better. In other cases, engineers may be hesitant to try new
functionality. To support the change, everyone should understand why simulation is good for the company
as well as how it will make their job easier. Design engineers can spend more time understanding and
optimizing their designs. Analysts, if available, can focus more effort on complex simulations. Test engineers
can use simulations to improve test plans, identify sensor placements, reduce simple verification tests, and
focus on failure limits. Simulation will be more successful if everyone views it as a win for them.

Simulation allows us to get better products more quickly. Delaying the start of a race is
never an option. With simulation, we bring a completely optimized product to the racetrack.
Manufacturers
Viewpoint

Engineers can work directly with the CAD model in a familiar environment. We do fewer
physical prototypes, but focus tests on areas of high sensitivity and fatigue. Not only does this
save time, but it helps us financially.
Drew Kessler
Design Group Manager, Team Penske

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

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3. Make Training Available

While simulation tools targeted at design engineers have become very intuitive and easy to use, training
can further support adoption and increase confidence. A simulation tool embedded inside CAD already
uses a familiar user interface, which makes it easier for design engineers to adopt. Additional training
resources include instructor led training, online tutorials and videos, and online help resources.
Even though statics, dynamics, and stress analysis are basic parts of any engineering curriculum, in some
cases a quick online refresher on the concepts can be helpful. The refresher will increase their comfort
level with the tools.
Finally, companies that have analysts can set up mentorships between analysts and design engineers to
provide further guidance. This provides a designated go-to person for help.

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

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Everyone receives simulation training. Plus, the experienced analysts from my group
are responsible for supporting design engineers. Each design engineer is assigned
an analyst to support his/her project. This way they have a go-to person for questions
and help. Documented processes and methods are another resource to support
design engineers.
Dr. Vladimir Pokras | Manager of Analysis and Simulation, Liebherr Mining Equipment
Newport News Co. (Liebherr Group)

There is a learning curve when starting to use simulation, but

because simulation is embedded in our CAD environment, it is much easier to adopt. We
spent time making sure engineers understood FEA concepts and the workflows. We also
used tutorials and subject matter experts to help.
Drew Kessler | Design Group Manager, Team Penske

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

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4. Start Small
To support the transition of incorporating simulation into design, start with a small pilot project. Prove out
the technology, define best practices, and use the success to help sell the value to the rest of the team,
including management.
The people involved in the pilot program can also be used as mentors for others as they become familiar
with the capabilities of simulation.

I was part of a small team of analysts and noticed I could not do everything I wanted. We
Manufacturers
Viewpoint

had a group of smart, motivated design engineers who were very interested in what I was
doing. I showed this small group how to use the tools. Weve been so successful, now all
design engineers we hire know analysis will be part of their job.
Dr. Vladimir Pokras
Dr. Vladimir Pokras | Manager of Analysis and Simulation, Liebherr Mining Equipment Newport News Co.
(Liebherr Group)

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

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5. Use Early and Often

Tech-Claritys simulation survey revealed that design engineers use simulation during the concept phase
at 80% of Top Performing companies. They are 29% more likely than competitors to do this, indicating it
is a key way Top Performers become more successful than their peers. By starting so early, engineers get
directional insight from the very beginning, leading to better concepts. Continuously using simulation
throughout detailed design leads to a more optimized, high quality design, without over engineering.
In addition to optimization, design engineers can also continuously validate, fixing problems along the way
when they are easiest and least expensive to fix. This is far more efficient than sending to an analyst after
completing the design and getting results several days later. Also, analysts can focus on more complex
analyses.

By using simulation during design, we reduced the mass of moving parts by 50% and
Manufacturers
Viewpoint

increased the static mass, resulting in better stability, long-term precision, and lower overall
energy usage. We shaved 16 months off the release cycle. Machines now travel from
concept design to production in 14 months.
Roland Kchl
Design Team Lead, Engineer, DMG MORI

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

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Start the Journey Toward Greater Profitability

By implementing these best practices, your design teams will have an easier time integrating simulation
into their design process. By getting management support and ensuring the value is understood, you
can create the right culture to support integrated design and analysis. Proper training will support better
adoption of simulation. Then as you start to execute on your simulation strategy, start with a smaller team
or project and use that to develop best practices and lessons learned that you can extend to the entire
design team. Finally, to make sure simulation tools are providing you with the greatest value, the team
should use them early and often.
Empowered with the directional guidance from simulation, your design team will have the needed insights
for better design decisions. Product designs will become more innovative, higher quality, and cost less. On
top of that, you will be able to release new products even sooner.
With integrated design and simulation your engineering talent will be an even greater asset to bring more
profitable products to market.

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

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About the Author

Michelle Boucher is the Vice President of Research for Engineering Software for research firm Tech-Clarity,
an independent research and consulting firm that specializes in analyzing the business value of software
technology and services. Michelle has spent over 20 years in various roles in engineering, marketing,
management, and as an analyst.
Michelle has broad experience withtopics such as product design, simulation, systems engineering,
mechatronics, embedded systems, PCB design, improving product performance, process improvement,
and mass customization.Shegraduated magna cum laude with an MBA from Babson College and
earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering, with distinction, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

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BEST PRACTICES: BETTER DESIGN WITH SIMULATION

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