The Virtual Engineer

Book excerpt: Before you spend any money on physical prototypes, learn how a systems engineering can help you bring new products to market faster and at less cost! The Virtual Engineer explains how a company can incorporate advanced processes into their existing systems, integrating the product development, manufacturing, marketing and costing functions. Howard Crabb, the pioneer of the visual engineering concept, draws on his 30 years of experience as a manager of Technical Computing at Ford Motor Company. There he integrated solids modeling with traditional CAD to produce a solid representation of a design, opening up the potential for leapfrogging the competition. He explains in clear and effective language: Steps required to reinvent the current new product development process, How change benefits the organization, in terms of reduced cycle time, reduced engineering changes, reduced number of physical prototypes and improved product quality, Developments in the semiconductor industry and their impact on the desktop computing environment, and Best practices of existing firms