Case: TATA
In 2008,Tata Motors created history by launching its people's car, the Nano. The price difference is certainly outstanding: the Nano costs less than half of it closest price competitor, it became the world’s most inexpensive automobile with a price tag about US $2,500. We began to think about what innovation helped to make it special? How did Tata Motors manage to drive down the cost of producing Nano? There are so many answers, such as the Nano’s engine size, where it was placed, how it was places etc. The most important one is digital manufacturing. Before using digital manufacturing, Tata Motors was facing some problems: outdated manufacturing process and time-consuming manual labor. It was the digital manufacturing system that allowed Tata to create a $2,500 car without sacrificing safety or value.
Dassault Systems’ Digital Enterprise Lean Manufacturing Interactive Application drastically reduced development cycle.
Just as the Tata case mentioned, there are so many advantages of digital manufacturing. DM was identified by Tata as a way to make manufacturing processes more efficient. Digital manufacturing technology offers companies the opportunity to provide engineers with the tools to plan, design, simulate, and communicate manufacturing processes through a suite of software solutions that support manufacturing, engineering, and process design. DM enables the user to produce digital models of products in virtual plants in order to perfect manufacturing processes before the physical plant investments have been made. This environment provides for everything from detailed work instructions and program code for automated plant equipment, to validation of the overall throughput with material flow simulation. All of this can be developed in parallel with the product design, allowing manufacturers to ramp up production of new products more rapidly, with higher quality, and at a lower cost. Tata case proved how DM shortened time –to-market.
