Trostel Ltd. boosts efficiency and revenues with Autodesk 3D design and data management solutions
San Rafael, CA — February 9, 2005 — Trostel Ltd., a global automotive supplier, said it has standardized its U.S. manufacturing operations on Autodesk's 3D design and data management solutions, including Autodesk Inventor Professional, Autodesk Vault, and Autodesk Productstream software products.
Trostel said the combination of 3D mechanical design software and Autodesk's data management solution was selected to create, manage and share design information across all of the company's production sites in order to improve communication with customers and partners, boost Trostel's responsiveness to demand, and increase its revenues.
Trostel produces custom seals, precision rubber molded products and mixed compounds for automotive customers around the world. The company implemented Autodesk's manufacturing solution in its three U.S. manufacturing facilities, using it to create virtual 3D designs and test them with finite element analysis (FEA) tools.
With the products, Trostel said it decreased design iterations from five to four, improving engineering productivity 15 to 20 percent. Trostel has also been able to use the solution to electronically manage design data and track revisions, which allows the company to reuse proven designs.
Trostel said it plans to use the Autodesk solution to securely share design information with internal and external team members, additionally speeding the revision process.
Autodesk Inventor Professional's 3D design capabilities make it easier for our cross-functional teams to visualize the end product and conduct a higher quality design review, said Jim Rezler, vice president of technology at Trostel Ltd. What's more, with Autodesk's manufacturing solution, we have the means to manage design changes in near real time and safeguard our intellectual property in a secure, central repository. It's a huge improvement over locally saving design changes.
By reducing the time and cost spent on developing physical prototypes, Trostel said it also saw improvements in its product design cycle. Because Trostel lab-tests every design iteration, eliminating even a single prototype results in significant cost savings. Shorter product design cycles enable Trostel to handle more business without adding resources or staff. In fact, the company plans to triple its new product design programs in 2005, driving expected sales growth of 25 percent from 2003 to 2005.
As engineering becomes more collaborative at Trostel, revision level and version control are more important than ever to maintaining QS 9000 and ISO 9001 certification, the company said. Before implementing the Autodesk manufacturing solution, Trostel engineers archived design data on different local and network sites, making it difficult to track and control. With the Autodesk manufacturing solution, Trostel now centrally manages design information.
Trostel also has found that the software enhances collaboration across the supply chain. By streamlining communication and using Autodesk Web-based design reviews, Trostel is saving, on average, three days per job with tooling vendors.
