SPDM Streamlines the Product and Mold Design Process

Those of you who follow current events know the difficult economic environment that those of us in the tool and die business face in supplying the automotive industry. As our automaker customers deal with global competition, technology advances and car buyer pricing pressures, tool and die makers have to find every avenue available to lower costs yet make our processes even more productive.

One way that Eifel has found to meet increasing customer demands is by the adoption of the Simultaneous Product Development and Manufacturing (SPDM) system. Our reliance on this process over the past years has allowed us to significantly reduce our mold build times, improve overall product quality and operate in a more cost effective manner.

Technology and People
An indispensable part of implementing the SPDM process has been a serious investment in the latest tooling and design technology. At Eifel, we made the decision from the very beginning to rebuild our tooling and engineering business from the ground up - computer networks and servers, design engineering software and high-speed milling equipment that amounted to over $3 million.

But even with the latest and most expensive technology resources and superior engineering processes, if you don't have the right people in place to make it all work together you won't achieve the results that you expect.

For this reason, much of our initial efforts went into building strong cross-functional teams of CAD designers, engineers and toolmakers. After a highly structured, month-long training program, our technicians become thoroughly proficient in implementing our processes by utilizing our technology to its fullest extent. This regimen has produced a staff of highly skilled designers and engineers with between 15 and 20 years of individual experience.

SPDM vs. Traditional Processes
Part design and development cycles and mold building processes traditionally have been two sequential and disconnected operations, requiring many serial design changes before approved product specifications are finalized.

In the past, part design parameters were discussed and developed, with final customer approval needed before any mold design and fabrication were undertaken. Thus, by delaying the time when mold design could actually begin, precious hours and weeks were wasted while the part was being developed.

SPDM stands this method on it's head by treating mold development as a concurrent process, overlapping part design and development at the same time. By making tooling a parallel process to part design, we now have an opportunity to dramatically drive down tooling cycle times and costs, and also foster innovation with the added agility we have gained.

Scanning and Design
Parts that are submitted for tooling are generally in the form of clay models, which are then scanned optically to product point cloud digitized data that is downloaded directly into an ICEM Surf, CATIA or UG/NX software CAD program. The digitized data can then be used to "virutal model" in 3D visualiztion the desired shape and critical Class A surfaces.

As various surface options are examined, reflection lines, curvature, shading, deviations from reference data and other characteristics can be gleaned using real-time analysis. Stylists are now able to transform their creative concepts into product-ready designs by means of freestlye sketching and shaping, robust surfacing, and powerful conceptual tools for visualization, animation and rendering.

Further, the built-in intelligence and flexibility of today's CAD software helps drastically reduce design steps by making it easier to understand a design and apply changes to it at any stage in the development process.

Most important, what would previously have taken 30-40 hours using traditional methods can now be achieved in only three to four hours. We can now produce unparalleled surface quality and mold accuracy, and allow the designers to configure product quality surfaces in a fraction of the time that other systems would allow for the same task.

As the product design engineers optimize the Class A characteristics, the manufacturing team studies the design review for implications for the part's Class B surfaces, an early step the will sidestep any complications in the tooling process.

The Tooling Phase
Once manufacturability has been confirmed, the tooling managers use the collected data to choose the appropriate manufacturing process and begin their preliminary mold design - while the part surface is still being created. Since they have been involved in the part design process, they now have an accurate sense of the part's dimensions and features and are able to suggest an initial mold. They will design the mold with enough flexibility to accomodate and customer requested changes that may arise during a design review.

The parallel activity is the heart of the SPDM process. While beginning the phase so early in the program might appear risky to some, the built-in anticipation of possible changes allows the process to work. Flexibility is the key.

Once the mold design has been selected, the steel mold materials are ordered - a cost-saving step that can be confidently made because of the collaboration between both the part design and tooling engineering teams. Next, when the parting lines of the part design have been established, the manufacturing team creates the mold run-off criteria.

With SPDM, any changes made to the virtual model can be instantly made directly to the design, allowing styling engineers to review the design changes for quick approval. All teams participate in the final design studio review, confirming attachment methods and approved specifications.

After the design review, and when the customer has signed off on the Class A surface, the approved data is transferred to the manufacturing design department for final verification and mold completion.

Bottom Line Results
From start to finish, our SPDM process takes approximately half the time of a traditional design to mold operation. With the added capability of net shape machining, we have been able to meet deadlines established by our automotive customers that would have been impossible to achieve using traditional methods. A recent SPDM project, for example, was completed with our Hi-Net high Speed CNC and Topper QVM 110 machining centers in less than nine weeks, instead of the 18 weeks originally estimated for the job.

Simply put, SPDM represents a breakthrough in design team interaction with a solution that transforms a modeling tool into a powerful collaborative environment. By supporting an innovative "sharing and merging" paradigm, it enables the initial homogeneous 3D data to be effectively communicated across all our operations - a most efficient solution that allows us to offer our customers the highest level of service and quality in a highly competitive marketplace.