What is re-use?

• Leveraging existing designs to produce new designs
• Focusing on preferred parts and sub-assemblies
• Leveraging existing tooling and processes for new tooling or systems
• Leveraging knowledge of existing parts or systems in sourcing new parts
• Reducing complexity and risk of new designs
• Developing and leveraging common platforms by enabling families of designs

What is the value of re-use for product development?

• Shorter product development lead time
  • Increase engineering productivity; fewer new designs, more time to optimize
  • Knowledge re-use in core engineering
  • Fewer iterations through conflicts with manufacturing constraints
  • Reduced tooling, prototype and testing costs (fewer new design parts)
  • Reduced cost of late cycle engineering changes
• Improved quality
  • Larger volume concentrations and longer production part runs results in greater reliability
  • Known part stability at launch
• Increased customer satisfaction
  • Improved product features due to more time for iterations on fewer designs, so design can focus on product differentiators
  • Products get to the market faster

Will re-use lower product costs?

Yes:

• Fewer parts reduce administrative costs
• Finding existing parts quickly reduce engineering costs
• Increasing plant production flexibility and utilization reduce manufacturing costs
• Fewer parts reduce logistics costs
• Leveraging increased part volume reduces purchasing costs
• Fewer parts reduces inventory costs

What is shape search?

Shape search is the ability to quickly and automatically locate parts and assemblies in a large database by providing geometry of a similar part or rough sketch as the search criteria.

Does it search in a multi-CAD environment?

Yes, you can build searchable parts database across multi-CAD environments using JT.

Does Geolus Search work with an existing alphanumeric parts management system?

Yes, Geolus Search is language neutral, 100% automatic and can complement manual classification. Geolus Search also extends parts management to the web. As web-based users submit any 3D model to the search engine as a geometric reference, the Geolus search engine locates similar parts.

The system displays thumbnail graphics and allow users to access the suitability of each part found. The results are ranked by similarity.

Are the search targets created/queried/updated automatically or is manual intervention required?

The process of loading search targets into the database is fully automatic and configurable to a customer’s processes.

Can we tap into other company CAD databases in addition to our own SBMC-based UG/Manager DB (eg. SolidWorks databases within P&G's other GBU's)?

Yes, data can be loaded from any CAD systems as long as the data files can be provided in a tessellated file format (JT, VRML, STL). We can make the process of converting the CAD files into tessellated files transparent to the user.

If it's a UG model, is it a part in session or does it need to be exported & brought into Geolus?

If it is a UG model it is transparently converted to a tessellated format behind the scenes and handed over to Geolus.

Can the search target multiple sources invisibly to the user (eg. UG/Manager DB, CDs with part models, UG Native Files, network drives filled with vendor-supplied SolidWorks & Pro/E models)?

Search index database can be loaded from any of the sources listed and they are all searched simultaneously.