Enough with the GFC already…

Despite the emerging optimism and need to carry on “business as usual”, the global economic crisis has put some serious pressure on product development programs globally.

Whilst we may be through the worst of the downturn, the business and economic communities are treading carefully and avoiding making any substantial claims of economic recovery. Budgets are being carefully guarded, and money spent cautiously. Projects that may have been a “sure thing” in terms of budget and strategic approvals may now be “discretionary” or just simply put on the back-burner altogether.

This is a good thing. It is fundamentally sound business practice to carefully evaluate and prioritise your product development projects, and only pursue those which add value, growth and sustainability to your business, society and the environment.

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Benefits of digital & virtual prototyping

Autodesk provide a report (PDF <7Mb) discussing some digital prototyping research conducted by the Aberdeen Group. There are some interesting results here in terms of “Best in Class” through to “Laggard” organisations and their respective adoption of digital prototyping and product development techniques.

There’s no doubt that if you develop your product using some or all of the tools discussed below), a range of benefits are available:

1. Control over form, fit and function well ahead of your investments in tooling and production
2. Ability to assess a design before actually making a physical sample of it
3. Reduced “interpretation” that used to occur when 2-dimensional illustrations and drawings were used for the production of products.
4. Explore function, ergonomics and aesthetic alternatives without spending time and money on producing physical samples and variations of your product concept.

Here are some tools and technologies available that you can use to harness the power of digital prototyping: Read the rest of this entry »