Abstract
In order to survive worldwide competition, today's industries are experiencing strong pressure to introduce higher quality products with lower cost and shorter lead-time. Therefore, the role of design in the process of product development is increasing in significance. In this research, two methods for improving the design capability are proposed: construction of design environment and design automation using 3D CAD system. The designers and design process are the core of product design using 3D CAD system. In order to maximize the design performance, construction of the design environment including selection of a suitable system, designer training for best use of the system, establishment of an efficient design process, and stabilization of the environment are required. A method is suggested to construct design environment by systematizing the contents of the projects and consulting experiences carried out for various categories of business such as electronic devices, motorcycles, electricity parts, sanitary wares, injection molds, and die casing molds. Design automation helps reduce tedious and time-consuming jobs, simplify complicated and error-prone modeling and drawing works to shorten the lead time and improve the product quality. To develop a design automation system, understanding the process and the related knowledge on design are very important before implementing the system using API provided by 3D CAD system. In this research, an eight-step procedure is proposed for the development of a design automation system. These eight steps are analysis of needs, determination of specification, verification of specification using 3D CAD system, inspection of related API functions, programming, field test, application in practice, and maintenance. A case study in which five design automation systems in the design of turbine generators using the proposed method is introduced in detail. These systems play important roles in the generation of various output items including 3D models, drafts, material information, and NC data. The case study shows how effectively the design time is reduced and the quality improved using those systems.