In SDRC's software system, the master model is a digital database that contains all of the information about a product. Anybody on a product-development team can access the model and use it to experiment with the product's design. But only one person at a time can make permanent changes. Faster One of Ford's cars can go from zero to 60 MPH in five seconds, but when Ford wants to get a new model from design studio to showroom in record time, it asks SDRC for a tune-up. That saves money, time, and lots of headaches.
Engineers still build models, but they do so mainly to confirm their computer-simulation tests.
Ford also makes sure that all of its design engineers are on the same page - a virtual page, that is. Those meetings used to mean delay. Members of each design team would invariably show up with conflicting drawings or incomplete test data. So they'd end up spending precious meeting time either identifying problems or gathering more information, rather than dealing with real issues. As a result, moving through gateways now takes days instead of weeks.