Simulation is taking on an increasingly important role during the engineering design process. It helps to reduce cost through early verification of design concepts, making greater numbers of physical prototypes obsolete. The industrial need for closer integration of CAD (computer-aided design) and CAE (computer-aided engineering) environments stems from the business priority to reduce product cycle times by reducing both iterations between the embodiment design department and the simulation department, and the time each single iteration takes. This paper reports on the construction and application of a maturity grid-inspired approach to diagnose the current and desired state of communication between design engineers and simulation engineers in the car body development of a German automotive manufacturer.     «

Simulation is taking on an increasingly important role during the engineering design process. It helps to reduce cost through early verification of design concepts, making greater numbers of physical prototypes obsolete. The industrial need for closer integration of CAD (computer-aided design) and CAE (computer-aided engineering) environments stems from the business priority to reduce product cycle times by reducing both iterations between the embodiment design department and the simulation depa...     »