Parts Analysis
“According to our research, as many as 30 to 40 percent of manufacturers’ parts are duplicates or have acceptable substitutes,” said Jim Brown, vice president of Global Product Innovation & Engineering Research at Aberdeen Group. “When you consider that the annual carrying cost for each new part can range from $4,500 to $23,000 per item, the value of a part reuse strategy that includes advanced search tools to help significantly reduce part redundancy is clear.”
ShapeSpace’s geometric search technology is able to identify duplication, part similarity and classify components based on shape. When this is linked to additional information from ERP or BOMs complex reviews of part libraries are made possible.
Case Study: Equipment Manufacturer
ShapeSpace were engaged to analyse the 3D CAD models of a company’s library of over 50,000 parts. We were able to identify 20% of parts with duplicate geometry and groups of parts which could be re-engineered to reduce part count.
This allowed the customer to tell stories with the data such as: ‘We’ve got a lot of duplicate parts. It seems a lot come from the fairly recently set up office in Brazil. Has anyone ever explained to them what our procurement process looks like and how this might not be a good idea? Maybe we should buy that classification tool for our PLM system and get some part standardization going.’
More Information
To learn more or to discuss your requirements, please contact us on ++44(0)131 463 1310, or email sales@shapespace.com.