Maximizing the ROI of your CAE Investment

Making the Most of Your Investment

2/25/2010

PADT, Inc.

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Agenda • Introduction • Goals • People • Tools • Process • Recommendations • Thoughts

Introductions

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Phoenix Analysis & Design Technologies • PADT is an Engineering Services

Company – Mechanical Engineering – 15 years of growth and happy customers – Any Industry – World Wide – Small to Large Companies

• 3 Business Areas – CAE Sales & Services – Product Development – Rapid Prototyping & Manufacturing

“We Bring Dimension to Your Ideas”

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ANSYS Sales, Technical Support & Training • Sales, Support and Training for

Almost All ANSYS, Inc. Products – No Ansoft, yet… – No Offshore products

• Sales & Support in Southwest – AZ, NM, CO, UT, NV, El Paso – Sales

• Relationship based, highly technical, win-win

– Support • By engineers for Engineers • Real world, beyond bugs/install issues

• Training – Worldwide, your place or ours – Custom classes

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Simulation Services • World wide reputation for quality and speed • Any industry • “Over the Wall” or highly collaborative, customer choice • Experts in complete process • Most Physics

– Stress – Heat Transfer – CFD – EMAG & Others

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Learn More about PADT • Visit www.PADTINC.com • Stop on by • Call 480 813-4884 • E-mail: info@padtinc.com

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Your Presenter: Eric Miller

• Co-Owner of PADT – Co-Manage the CAE & BusOps/Admin

departments • ANSYS user since 1986 • Heavily involved in ANSYS software

planning • Background in software development,

CAD, simulation, and process improvement

• BS in Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley

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First: Some Definitions • CAE: Computer Aided Engineering

– Using computer software to conduct engineering calculation

– Applies to most engineering disciplines: EE, ME, MfgE, MatSci, etc…

– Simple (spreadsheet) to complex (molecular modeling)

• CAE Tools – Software written to do engineering calculations – Commercial, self written, or open source – May be a general purpose tool used for engineering

calculations

• Cost – Total cost to a company in both short and long term – Money spent, time spent, time to market, reputation,

overhead costs, etc…

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Why CAE • Fast and accurate calculations • Know more about your design, early in the

development process • Two good reasons to use CAE

– Reduce costs of physical prototyping – Increase the number of design iterations

through use of virtual prototypes

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Some Statistics • Industry leaders

focus on getting design right (bold) in design phase

• Industry leaders use CAE to get more information about their products

Source: Aberdeen Group Study, June 2008

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Recommended Steps for Maximizing your CAE ROI

• Based on our experience with customers and our own services

• Focus on Understanding Four Aspects of CAE: – GOALS – PEOPLE – TOOLS – PROCESS

Goals Visualize how you

want to win

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Goal of CAE • To answer questions about a design

– How long will it last? – How much load can it take? – How thick should it be? – Which material should we use? – How should we cool it? – How much will it cost? – At what rate will it mix? – What does the output signal look like?

• And… to do it for less cost than non-CAE methods • And… to increase the quality of the answer

– Not just what, buy why – Understand sensitivity

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Key Problem: Not Having or Forgetting Goals • To get the most out of a CAE investment, your CAE goals

must be: – Clear – Consistent with business goals – Constantly reinforced

• Engineers get caught up in the details and forget the “why?” • Unclear or ignored goals can lead to:

– Too much effort or overly detailed approach – Not getting the information that is needed

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Establish CAE Goals • Really think about what you want from CAE as a

company/department/group • Document and Discuss • Before, during and after projects: assess if you are meeting

those goals

• PADT’s CAE Goal – To answer questions raised in product development in the most cost

effective manner with the proper level of accuracy and detail

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Establish Task Goals • It is just as important to assign specific goals to every CAE

Task – Does not need to be formal – Can just be a “double check”

• Goals should answer: – What do you want from this calculation? – How accurate does it need to be?

• Need to be detailed and kind of pedantic – Think: writing specs – Two months down the road, will a new engineer on the project have a

clear idea of what the goals are

• Usually requires multiple goals – Assign priorities, required/need/want, or simply rank

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Example Task Goals • Determine cooling hole size and distribution to obtain

required wafer cool down in between 45 and 60 seconds • Report LCF and HCF life based upon customer supplied

loading specification • Modify antenna design to minimize material costs and meet

signal strength requirements in ES 123.31 • Determine min, max and average percent enobarnotopital to

provide a between 95% and 99% probanotinaium yield

• A good rule: If the goal is longer than a sentence, break up the problem

People

Bring the best team

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One Person can Make a Difference • CAE superstar companies have one or more key users

– They push the technology and apply it properly – Make smart tool decisions – Mentor, train and serve as an example for other users

• May come from different roles: – Power user, Manager, or Process/Methods team member

• Common characteristics – Balance between theory and practical – Creative, willing to experiment and try different ways – Fast thinker – Obsessed with efficiency – Learns things quickly with minimal input – Good at programming/scripting – Involved in real world applications – Strong computer skills

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Growing the Key CAE User • Identify key user or proto-key user • Encourage them to be a key • Try and keep them on a technical career ladder • Obtain funding for them to do process improvement, training,

and/or mentoring • Keep them involved in real world jobs • Allow them to work with other groups/departments/divisions • Let them share/present their work when possible • Reward real world impact of their efforts • Involve them in strategic CAE decision making • Encourage older key users to grow younger key users

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Bad Users – By Nature • A certain percentage of users are going to be bad

– CAE is not something that everyone can do, maybe less than half of engineers are wired for

• Identify people who can’t do CAE and don’t make them • Signs of a “bad user”

– Too theoretical or too practical – Not good at remembering steps/processes – Not focused on speed – Not computer experts – Not good at switching tasks – Not a creative and independent problem solver

• Gets “stuck” a lot

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Bad Users – By Nurture • Decisions and policies can make bad users as well

– Not paying for training – Spreading a user too thin – Insufficient computer horsepower, memory, or storage – Infrequent use – No resource to help, encourage, answer questions, or bounce ideas

off of – Unreasonable schedules – Unreasonable expectations – Punish users who deliver bad news

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Mainstream Users • Your productivity comes from your mainstream users

– Since they make up most or all, remember to focus on them

• Keys to maximizing their efficiency – Give them the proper tools, hardware and software – Have them learn their tools – Give them time to learn, time/funds for training, a resource for

mentoring – Give them clear goals for CAE in general and for each project – Encourage cooperation and sharing – Don’t blame the messenger

Tools

Show up with the right equipment

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CAE Tools • The CAE Tools themselves are critical • Pick the right tool for both short and long term needs

– Remember, you biggest investment is not the software, but the cost of learning the software

– Breadth and depth of capability are important – What is used in your industry and/or other areas of your company

• Suite of tools from Excel to CFD may be required – Overkill is better than stretching a tool

• If you have key users, let them help you decide • Re-evaluate every five years or so

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Hardware Tools • Computers are essential to CAE • Lots of non-CAE pressure to have the wrong hardware

– Operating system religion – IT standardization – IT lack of understanding of CAE needs

• Two types of CAE hardware needs – Compute focused: FEA, CFD, Circuit Simulation, Chemical – Productivity focused: Simple calcs, but integrated into design process

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Compute Focused Hardware • Solving large problems that take horsepower

– Expensive and more work to maintain

• Too small can cost big money and time – Most common cause of delay in simulation is trying to fit a job on a

computer • Crashes, re-building smaller, long iteration cycle

• Set priorities when picking hardware – Capacity – Overall speed, not just CPU speed – Access

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Compute Focused Hardware • Use Tiered approach

– Good desktops -> shared department server -> corporate cluster – Fast hard drives on solver for solving -> USB drives or big but slow

file server for storage

• Suggestions: – Convince IT that you can’t use a “standard build” – Count core needs correctly – Buy bigger than you think you need – Focus on capacity first, than speed

• Spend the money on extra RAM and disk space – Consider departmental servers if you have occasional needs – Refresh every 2-3 years

• An extra $2000 in computer hardware may save $10,000 in reduced cost and weeks in schedule

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Productivity Focused Hardware • Doing calculations and simple simulations

– Don’t need big capacity or speed

• Key to productivity is ability to integrate CAE with – Other software tools – Design process

• Hardware needs to be more flexible and meet other needs – Good multitasking – CAE needs may not be most important

• Make sure there is enough speed and capacity

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Utility Software: Geometry • Many CAE users need access to MCAD, ECAD or some sort

of geometry creation or modification tool • May also need translation tools • Geometry to CAE connection should be strong and

seamless – A difficult path results can be a major productivity sync

• CAE users should have geometry tool skills – Waiting for a “geometry” person to do something costs

• Recommendations – Give CAE users access to geometry tools and train them – Spend the money on translators/connections if they help

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Utility Software: Data Management • If you have PLM, have an integration plan for CAE

– Minimal: pulling geometry – Maximum: storing and linking CAE information

• No PLM: Develop some tools for data management – Process for naming, storing and archiving CAE data – Look at CAE data management tools

• Key to success in Data Management is not software – Good process that is strictly enforced

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Utility Software: General • MS Office

– Significant time can be wasted getting data into slides, reports or spreadsheets

– Have up-to-date copies – Train your users – Don’t try and make other tools work

• Waste time translating/fixing

• Text editors – If scripting or massaging data files – Textpad is too basic – Small investment in a niche or high end text editor can have big

payback

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Utility Software: General • CAE Add-ons

– Enhance or replace capabilities that come with CAE tools – Meshers, Visualization, Post Processors, Queue Managers, etc… – Before you buy, make sure what you have doesn’t already do what

you need – Evaluate these more often, swapping as needed

• Other tools you should consider having: – A good image editor – Virtual Meeting tools (WebEx, iLinc, go2meeting) – Linux shell on windows or Virtual Windows on Linux – Geometry repair tool

Process

Implement a winning game plan

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Execution is Everything • CAE requires focus and staying on task

– Achieving goals with the minimum of effort

• CAE offers up many paths – Tools, level of complexity, formulas, assumptions, etc…

• Establishing standard processes can make a huge difference – Less reinventing of the wheel – Stay on task – Capture and use productivity gains – Help new and occasional users

• Most important benefit of Processes: – Repeatability

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Flexible but Enforced • Common source of failure is one-size-fits-all standard

processes – Not flexible enough to deal with changing situations – Leads to wrong analysis or people “go rogue”

• Good approach: – Standardize steps in detail – Give guidelines for overall process

• Management must enforce usage of processes while allowing creativity

• An important way to enforce processes is to have a strong documentation process that is enforced

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Process = Anyone Can do It? • Many companies have tried:

– Get an expert – Have them document the process – Give software, hardware and process to low-cost employees – “Chug and Plug”

• We have seen some success with this – Strong part families – Same analysis over and over again – Key user oversees and checks work

• We have seen mostly failure – Job security fear – Parts and analysis are not as regular as thought – Low cost employee can not or is not allowed to be creative

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Access to Processes • A key to success with standard

processes is access • Buried in a PLM system or in a

complex database: Bad • Easily available and printable on an

internal website: Good • Each process should have a clearly

identified contact for questions and recommendations

Recommendations

Simple Steps for Winning

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Change the Way you Think about CAE • CAE is a tool • Think: GOALS, PEOPLE, TOOLS, PROCESS • Defocus on details of how CAE is used • Focus on the areas you can change

– People is the best, but maybe you don’t have access – Everyone can set and follow goals – easiest

• Get your organization thinking about CAE as a tool – Users – Project Engineers – Management

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Build a Relationship with IT • CAE can be compute intensive and is often “non standard” • Fighting with IT can kill efficient CAE • Work with them

– If you have users that are capable, try for a degree of autonomy – But don’t go around IT!

• Always try and warn and plan with IT – Surprising them with big demands can kill you

• Understand what they do – Show them respect and understanding -> they will bend over

backwards for you

• Try to build a personal relationship • Help them when they need help

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Build a Relationship with your Tech Support • Internal and External Technical Support Providers • Don’t get confrontational, no matter how frustrated you are

– OK to be honest about bad stuff, but don’t get nasty

• Respect and appreciation • Support is hard business with few thanks

– A little kindness goes a long way

• Provide feedback and input to support – Try to be more than just a user, be a leader for tool maker

• Take time to build a personal relationship • When you need extra special help, your relationship will

come through for you • Pay the maintenance fees

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Don’t let your Organization Get Religious • When you start having FAITH in a tool or process, step back

– Organization will start making bad decisions

• Remind users they are engineers doing calculations – Not ‘TurboCAE Jockey”

• Open-minded approach encourages: – Good feedback to your tool providers – Better use of the tools you have – Ability to make intelligent decisions on when to switch or upgrade – Healthy questioning of the software and its methods – Sharing of information and ideas in the orginization

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Keep up to Date/Don’t Tool Hop • You should always make sure you have good up-to-date

tools • Keep your eye on expanded capability within your vendors

offering – It is always easier to upgrade than to switch

• Watch competing tools and check them out every 3-5 years • Don’t switch unless it makes long term business sense

– Look at total cost: Training, legacy issues, software, hardware, etc…

Closing Thoughts

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CAE is a Powerful Tool • Needs to be applied correctly • Focus on making it part of what you do

– The Rule, not the Exception

• Look at the big pictures of costs and return – Costs include a lot more than just the software cost – Return is hard to calculate, but can be huge

• Don’t abuse or misapply the tool

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Summary of PADT’s Approach • Set good overall and project GOALS • Focus on getting the most from your PEOPLE • Get the right TOOLS in place and know how to use them • Establish and enforce a flexible PROCESS wherever it

makes sense

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Next Steps • Think of your organization in terms of what was discussed • Talk with mangers and key users

– Identify key areas where you can see improvements – Try to get a guess at true cost and return

• Work to get the rest of the organization to understand CAE • Start treating CAE as a strategic asset • Drive your designs with simulation

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Upcoming Webinars

• Technical Series – New, Interesting & Underused

Elements in ANSYS MAPDL April 22, 2010

– ANSYS Explicit Dynamics Tools May 27, 2010

• Product Series – Optimization with ANSYS

DesignXplorer May 4, 2010

– Detailed Fatigue Calculations with nCode and ANSYS June 8, 2010