It's not just technology, 'e' is about changing the way engineers and designers interact

In June 1999, computer hardware manufacturer, Hewlett Packard (HP), faced a major global design challenge. It wanted its next generation of hand held PCs, the Jornada 540 model, to get ‘first mover advantage’ over Microsoft’s launch of its new pocket PC palmtop operating system. This meant HP had to bring the Jornada 540 to market before April 2000 – less than 10 months from design concept to first-off production. And that wasn’t all it wanted. HP designers also specified a design that was much smaller, and more stylish, than its existing product range. So HP needed to move very fast, and needed an industrial design team that could cope with such strict schedules. And this is where The Alloy’s product design team came in. The Alloy is a small product design company and consultancy firm with 12 employees, based in Farnham, Surrey. The firm has an annual turnover of £1.2 million, and specialises in 3D product design work for a variety of blue-chip customers in Europe and Asia, including GEC Marconi. Gus Desbarats, The Alloy’s chairman, explains: “We were one of many design consultancy firms invited to HP’s design offices in Singapore, back in early 1999, to present to the HP team there. We basically got the Jornada business because we had a good track record of creating strong product identities for major brands, and because we took a very different approach to most … We understood about collaborative design, and how to work with remote design teams around the globe.” With HP’s design engineering team based in Singapore and Alloy’s industrial designers based in Farnham, the Internet was used extensively throughout the product development project to enable a true concurrent engineering environment. Desbarats continues: “We have been using 3D modelling software since 1990, and Unigraphics software since 1996. It helps us combat the old ways of working.” And by ‘old ways’ he means the traditional approach of designers and industrial engineers not interacting effectively, with too many late design changes causing project delays and leading to higher product costs. According to Desbarats, “Too many engineers simply don’t know how to brief designers, or vice versa. The industrial engineer often gives the designer very strange-looking constraints, and the whole design has to be re-worked and re-engineered, which is very inefficient and costly.” So what’s the answer? Desbarats says it’s about two things: “Learning how to actually interrogate engineers and designers at the beginning of the project, and how to work in a shared 3D modelling software environment. It’s about controlling and co-ordinating technology and people issues. That’s the key.” So, Alloy’s engineers began working on HP’s Jornada project in early June 1999 after a two-week design briefing. The software Alloy used was UGS’ 3D CAD/CAM/CAE system, Unigraphics. This enabled the two remote teams in Farnham and Singapore to work concurrently on different areas of the same physical component. Both teams created similar digital master model assembly structures – in simple terms, Alloy was responsible for the outside casing and all areas of the final product that are visible. The HP designers were responsible for the inner core product such as the printed circuit board (PCB), plus the switches and connectors between the casing and the PCB. But this kind of ‘split’ in the product creates a fundamental problem for engineers. Desbarats: “The intimacy between the two sets of data was incredible. We had to work very closely with Singapore. We were passing 30MB files each day over the Internet to the design team there.” And by the end of June 1999, just four weeks after receiving the initial technical design package from Singapore, the Alloy industrial design team was ready with photo-realistic visualisations, produced with UGS’ UG/Visualise software, as well as physical models of four different design concepts (these were CNC machined at Alloy’s site from the 3D Unigraphics design data). These four design concepts were then given to HP’s global market research teams, whose job it was to now decide which concept to approve. Desbarats explains: “They [HP marketing] spent three to four weeks deciding which one to go for, then opted for the most controversial design. We really challenged the design brief with this one – it was more costly but much more ergonomic and stylish, very much with the customer in mind. “HP were fearful but excited by our approach. We had proposed some very innovative design changes: moving the stylus; improving the overall security; the screen should became an integral part of the design rather than an accessory; and we proposed a personalised colour casing option. Basically, customers buy the Jornada with a standard grey lid, but can then purchase alternative colour lids in retail outlets for a small extra sum.” Very fast repsonse During the different phases of the development project that followed, the Alloy engineering team used Unigraphics’ UG-Wave technology for assembly-level parametric solid and surface design. Desbarats points out: “The [UGS] software allowed a very fast response to very large, very late changes to certain technical aspects of the product design, which would have knock-on effects on the industrial design. “For example, many of the connectors and interfaces between the casing and the PCB were changed frequently. These were very tight spaces we were working in, and we needed to resolve these issues rapidly, in parallel with HP Singapore.” At the end of the development phase, in mid-October 1999, integration of the industrial design data produced with Unigraphics, and the engineering data from HP’s Singapore team was such that final release of data for tooling was possible just two days after final release of the industrial design data. And that’s fast! But what part did technology actually play in meeting HP’s strict project deadlines? “It was crucial,” says Desbarats. “It supports our methods of working here. We’ve invested about £300,000 over the last three years on Unigraphics software. It really does complement our company’s approach to design and manufacturing … We’ve got eight seats altogether, plus a UGS coach who ensures we are using the full capabilities of the software. “Customers with important design engineering projects were coming to us looking for cost savings. But about 50% of our engineers’ time was usually spent re-engineering the industrial designer’s shape. That’s disappeared now with Unigraphics. We can easily exchange information with manufacturers who have outsourced their design to us, and we can interact with remote design teams in Asia using the Internet. He finishes with a strong message for small UK engineering companies: “You’ve got to start making industrial engineering pay for itself. Don’t duplicate effort by working in 2D; start building your complete innovation process around 3D modelling software.”