Hayter cuts 300 hours off development using 3D CAD

Lawnmower manufacturer Hayter reckons it’s radically improved design productivity by replacing its 2D design software with PTC’s new Pro/Engineer Wildfire engineering design suite throughout the company. Steve Maryniak, Hayter’s design manager, says the learning curve was short, the user interface good and that it’s a powerful suite which has been greeted enthusiastically by his team. He says Hayter engineers, who previously worked only on 2D, were able to define complex 3D product assemblies after less than four days of training. “In making our decision, we looked at a number of 3D MCAD solutions, considering value-for-money and functionality… We found Pro/E Wildfire the easiest for modelling 3D assemblies, and the best overall solution. “In our industry, seasonal sales cycles mean that we need to get the product right first time. The user interface and collaboration capabilities have reduced front-end design time by over 300 working hours already.” And he adds: “This gives us unexpected, additional time to fine-tune and test the design in order to capitalise on the next product introduction window… The benefits gained are well beyond our original high expectations.” Three seats were originally deployed with a follow-on order for seven more for other projects.