Campaigns

When Campaigns Collaborate

Parker Group saw an opportunity to present a vivid picture of how software from two of our clients could be used effectively together. We arranged for a live demonstration of design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA®) software from Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc., and Pro/ENGINEER® product development software from Parametric Technology Corporation. We invited the editors of Computer-Aided Engineering to witness a one-day redesign of the Musical Dream Screen toy.

The project: A team of four engineers recruited from separate companies were given one day to apply DFMA and Pro/ENGINEER software to analyze and redesign the Hasbro crib toy. The 3-D electronic model captured and tested in Pro/ENGINEER would then be sent by file transfer to 3D Systems, Inc., which would create a plastic prototype.

The result: In less than seven hours, the team accomplished its objective. The new design consisted of 57 fewer parts and four fewer subassemblies and could be assembled nine minutes faster than the original toy. The parts of the toy fit together flawlessly in the electronic model, and the plastic prototypes shipped five days later validated the design work. This ambitious experiment in design made for stunning editorial coverage in Computer-Aided Engineering (March 1995) and showed companies the huge potential these software tools offer the engineering environment.

Even many years later, this project experiment stands as a unique benchmark in hitting cost and design turnaround milestones.