Product Cycle and CAD/CAM

For any product to be developed , the major areas to be looked into would be designing, manufacturing and marketing. The synchronization between these processes plays a great role in defining product success.

Here CAD/CAM revolutionize the process of the traditional design and cut costs of any mechanical part.  CAD/CAM drastically reduces the design time for a new product. This gives it so much edge on the traditional design process that nowadays, traditional design with pen and paper is almost extinct. Automobile industry is the best example of this improved design time and product cycle.

Product life cycle (PLC) Like human beings, products also have a life-cycle. From birth to death, human beings pass through various stages e.g. birth, growth, maturity, decline and death. A similar life-cycle is seen in the case of products. The product life cycle goes through multiple phases, involves many professional disciplines, and requires many skills, tools and processes. Product life cycle (PLC) has to do with the life of a product in the market with respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures. To say that a product has a life cycle is to assert three things:

• Products have a limited life,
• Product sales pass through distinct stages, each posing different challenges, opportunities, and problems to the seller,
• Products require different marketing, financing, manufacturing, purchasing, and human resource strategies in each life cycle stage.

The Traditional Design Process:

Traditionally, the design process contains the following steps:

1. Recognition of Need
2. Definition of Problem
3. Synthesis
4. Analysis and Optimization
5. Evaluation
6. Presentation

Here is the iteration between step 3 and 4 we analyze, find the fault, then again synthesize, again analyze and iterate and iterate again until we would be able to get satisfactory result. After we analyze and optimize the design again if we are not satisfied after evaluation, we again iterate i.e. we again goes to the synthesis.

After all these steps, we finally make a prototype of the part which we are designing. If that fails or does not fulfill our needs, the whole process will start again.

This is what traditional design process does. Here CAD/CAM comes into the picture. If we use computer for the problem of synthesis like we are designing the things with the help of a computer, all the analysis and synthesis will be done on computer and the process consumes much lesser time than a traditional design process.

The Design Process (Courtesy: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Principles_and_terminology_of_computer-aided_design)

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_life_cycle_management_(marketing)

Related posts:

1. UPTU Mechanical Engineering Syllabus of CONCURRENT ENGINEERING
2. CAD/CAM | Mechanical Engineering Tutorials
3. What is Mechanical Engineering

Introduction to CAD/CAM

CAD or Computer Aided Design can be defined as the use of computer to assist the user in design of systems. It is a tool which is used to achieve the following functions:

• Create
• Modify
• Analyze
• Optimize

All present day CAD systems are user-friendly and are based on interactive computer graphics. As the name suggests, Interactive Computer Graphics displays data and information in the form of graphics. The designer is in the position to enter the data in the form of commands which are readily converted by the software and hardware in the graphics form. Thus, the user can create drawings, modify them and explore further possibilities and options.

In present times, where the rate at which changes are produced in design is very high, it is imperative to switch over to these tools for cost effectiveness and efficiency.

A Car designed in a CAD package.
(Courtesy: http://www.softpicks.net/software/Audio-Video/Image-Viewers/2D-3D-CAD-DXF-DWG-HPGL-viewer-amp-converter-to-JPG-BMP-WMF-10295.htm)

CAM or Computer Aided Manufacturing is the effective use of computer systems to plan, manage and control the operations of a manufacturing plant. Typically, the application of CAM can be divided into two broad categories:

1. Manufacturing Control and
2. Manufacturing Planning

The above categories represent two different levels of involvement of the computer in the operations of a plant.

Related posts:

1. Product Cycle and CAD/CAM | Mechanical Engineering Tutorials
2. Hydraulic Turbines | Mechanical Engineering Tutorials
3. UPTU Mechanical Engineering Syllabus of CONCURRENT ENGINEERING