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1993-94 U.S. Visits: State of the Art in the United States of CAD Methodologies for Product Development   Work supported by the Office of Naval Research, Grant No N00014-94-1- 0655 and Contract No N00014-93-C-0026, with additional support from the National Science Foundation. Part of this work was conducted while the author was an employee of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. Table of Contents: Final Report (PDF, 99K): This report summarizes the entire four year project, indicating major trends observed and reviewing important differences between US, European, and Japanese practices. A short comparison between mechanical and VLSI design is presented. Issues of core competence are discussed, including implications of outsourcing important design and manufacturing activities. A short survey of CAD use in several companies here and abroad indicates widely differing patterns of application and personnel policies Lockheed (PDF, 41K): The methods of the famous Skunkworks are reviewed along with the division's current efforts to reorganize design along some intellectually-grounded principles. Use of high fidelity visualization in concept design is described Oregon State U, with Prof. Dave Ullman ( PDF, 41K): Prof. Ullman's research into how people conduct concept design as well as evolution of some principles of arriving at realizations based on initial requirements NAVSEA (PDF, 81K), along with an additional copy of figure #2: Recent developments in design of the most complex things made by man, namely large combat ships, including a short history of Japanese and US ship design for production as well as evolving new approaches to ship design based on large scale system engineering. Description of a multi-year effort to define ship systems and components in EXPRESS format for common use by the whole shipbuilding industry Auto Industry Perspective (PDF, 63K): Description of how cars are designed, along with a number of generic problems the car industry faces; an introduction to research challenges in benchmarking industries like cars; discussion of core competence issues in design and design tools; description of the magnitude of car design and ways it is being managed Chrysler (PDF, 59K): A look at how Chrysler is using new computer and rapid prototyping technology, including adaptation of the aerospace CAD software CATIA, to design cars; description of the strategic decision to adopt CATIA along with various risk-reduction methods; use of realistic computer rendering of styling concepts; use of CATIA to design weld tooling and document measuring points for quality control General Motors (PDF, 95K): A Survey of GM's recent reorganization of car development along with some new computer tools for doing CAE and for tying the participants in the design process together; history of car development organization, including origins of the C4 project and its current status; examples of CAE for body engineering; examples of CAD/CAE/CIM strategy and implementations Ford (PDF, 99K): History of Ford's CAD developments, the current status, and a number of design tools being developed that complement its internally developed and maintained CAD system; description of Ford's World Class Timing schedule for car development; fly on the wall look at how Ford engineers are seeking better processes for information flow during body design; an indication of Ford's long term CAD/CAM strategy; examples of CAD and CAE methods, including power train noise simulators Caterpillar (PDF, 63K): History of Cat's CAD and design methods, including new tools to tie the design process together; a description of the challenges and opportunities presented by ProEngineer; experience with DFA; discussion of evolution of CAT's design process and corresponding cultural changes Hewlett-Packard (PDF, 104K): H-P's approach to mechanical system design, including their own CAD system, electronic ties to suppliers, and use of their internal network to tie widely separated designers, suppliers, and factories together; emergence of mechanical engineers as system integrators; long term strategy for creating an integrated 3D online design and manufacturing process     Books by Daniel E. Whitney Online Publications by Daniel E. Whitney