Efficient collaboration is a popular topic in all kinds of industry with products evolving into evermore complex sytems and with taylorism in product development increasing. With the goal of satisfying the customer’s functional desires for the product, the cooperation of embodiment design, simulation and testing departments in a company plays an essential role. The results of a survey to explore problems and chances of the former two are layed out in the following. For the survey, about 50 questionnaires filled in by engineers working in CAD or CAE environments in German automotive industry (both OEMs and subcontractors) were analyzed. The results stronlgy indicate the multilateral character of the problem. Whereas it is often regarded as a matter of getting the right CAx-systems, there is a strong sociological component to it, as the study conducted shows. Communication between the different partners in the process is the most important issue, to be supported by clear, well-defined goals and team structures. This needs to be done in the context of the coexisting functional and geometrical paradigms prevailing in simulation and design.     «

Efficient collaboration is a popular topic in all kinds of industry with products evolving into evermore complex sytems and with taylorism in product development increasing. With the goal of satisfying the customer’s functional desires for the product, the cooperation of embodiment design, simulation and testing departments in a company plays an essential role. The results of a survey to explore problems and chances of the former two are layed out in the following. For the survey, about 50 quest...     »