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<\/p>\nAs part of my duties at SOLIDWORKS, I visit customers to see how they are using our products and get ideas on how we could improve them.\u00a0 I am always amazed at how customers find new ways to use our products to make their businesses more efficient.<\/p>\n
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Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting KUKA Assembly and Test Corporation in Michigan.\u00a0 KUKA designs and builds custom assembly and testing equipment for the automotive industry and has changed how engineering communicates assembly information to manufacturing.\u00a0 Lev Mondrusov, the VP of Engineering at KUKA, explained that his team of engineers and designers create beautiful 3D CAD models of the complex machines they design but were handing \u201cpuzzles\u201d to manufacturing in the form of assembly drawings.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a short look at how they resolved their disconnect and improved communication between engineering and manufacturing.<\/p>\n
We all know the benefits 3D CAD models can provide when creating 2D representations (drawings) of those models like automatic isometric and section views, shaded images and easy details views. These types of views were extremely time consuming to produce using a drafting board or 2D CAD systems and these types of drawing views were usually omitted or over simplified.\u00a0 This created an even harder puzzle for the people in manufacturing who were left to create products with limited information, often resulting in them forced to become experts at solving 3D puzzles.\u00a0 Solving the puzzles took time and despite their best efforts and intentions, errors were made.<\/p>\n
The manufacturing workforce has seen the retirement of many of those expert puzzle solvers who are now being replaced by people with less experience at deciphering 2D information. In addition, the workforces at companies building capital equipment grow and shrink based on the jobs that are won.\u00a0 This introduces people who are less familiar with the type of work a company does and how things need to fit together.<\/p>\n
To address the problem, KUKA has eliminated traditional 2D drawings of assemblies and instead provides electronic interactive and animated 3D assembly information created with SOLIDWORKS Composer.\u00a0 Manufacturing now receives information that is easy to understand and describes how components and sub-assemblies go together not just what they look like afterwards.\u00a0 They still create SOLIDWORKS drawings of individual components with all the necessary product manufacturing information (PMI) to accurately create the component and use the 3D model for generating CNC data.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the next step for them?\u00a0 Providing viewing devices for everyone in manufacturing and going completely paperless.<\/p>\n
Visit our data managment page<\/a> to learn the fundamentals of SOLIDWORKS EPDM and the real cost of losing data.<\/p>\n Originally posted in the SOLIDWORKS Blog<\/a>, by Kurt Lundstedt.<\/p>\n![\"epdmbannerblog.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/03\/epdmbannerblog.jpg\")
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<\/a>\u00a0Find out more on SOLIDWORKS<\/a>
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![\"REP_3Dfor2DEngineering_Analyzing_Assemb_600x90_SAL\"](\"http:\/\/www.solidapps.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/REP_3Dfor2DEngineering_Analyzing_Assemb_600x90_SAL.jpg\")
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