Waste not…By Nick Lerner

Nick Lerner is a PR. He wanted to write something for the website. So why not, I thought – give the guy a chance. Bear in mind there is some PR in this (where isn’t there these days!), but he’s made a good point.

This piece is about making design mistakes on a computer rather than with real materials…

“The amount of waste in manufacturing production can be seen spilling from the bins at the back of any factory. A quick look inside will reveal parts or systems that need to be remanufactured often made from expensive materials that use time and resources only to be thrown away before they even get out the plant.

If faulty goods do get beyond the factory gate the price is very much higher. The cost is not only wasteful but can also ruin reputations.

The environment in which to deal with this kind of mistake is digital. Progressive companies realise that a correction on a digital model costs pennies but that once those mistakes are manifested in reality the cost rises massively. The same is true of processes – improve them and the benefits are financially as well as environmentally worthwhile.

Making physical items, using inefficient processes, only to throw them away is not only very wasteful but also surprisingly preventable. Through technology known as PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) all potential product, production and process errors can be ironed-out in the computer. Further, the product or system can be optimised to reduce its weight and size while its strength can be calculated and reductions made to excessive material usage.

While plastic presents its own environmental impact problems its use to replace metal in certain applications can be environmentally positive.

For example, a plastic auto component may be lighter and possibly stronger than its metal equivalent so that over its lifecycle it requires less energy to propel it. The calculations needed to support a decision either way are available from PLM, based on algorithms formed from analysis of the 3D models at its heart.

One of the world’s most efficient companies, Toyota, has the overriding philosophy – Reduce Waste. It achieves this by many small measures but at the centre of the enterprise is a PLM system, in this case provided by Dassault Systemes – www.3ds.com. The ability to scale PLM to any level is inherent, leaving the rest of the world no excuses.