Smart Products Require a Systems-Level Approach

Next-generation product designs are often “smart” products — cell phones, cars and wind turbines, for example — packed with innovations that cater to the user’s individual needs and adapt to their environments, not vice versa. Smart products incorporate components and embedded software that can interact in unintended ways.

In the past, common practice was to “overdesign” products, skirting risk by incorporating extra material for strength, or making the total package larger to accommodate thermal or power issues. Today, this standard is no longer acceptable. Cost management demands using the least amount of raw materials coupled with a very short design timeframe. Furthermore, a product must work as intended throughout its entire lifecycle; without this product integrity, you risk warranty claims and damage to your brand.

Smart innovation brings together all these concepts, including system-level qualities, properties, characteristics, functions, behavior and performance. The value added by a systems focus comes from understanding the relationship among the parts and how they are interconnected. Engineering simulation helps achieve this, saving time and costs and contributing to brand integrity.

Product Complexity Drives Systems Engineering

Extremely complex to design and build, next-generation smart devices incorporate thousands of parts that have to work together — putting systems-level engineering front and center. Traditionally, companies design subsystems in separate engineering silos, then spend billions of dollars on physical testing late in the product design process, where changes are costly and time-consuming.

Because smart products are relatively new, historical real-world testing may not provide all the data you need to eliminate product risks — and to ensure product success. Understanding unique component interactions is extremely valuable in identifying how to fix a design problem. Engineering simulation supplies this data and enables you to rapidly fine-tune the entire product system in a virtual environment.

Eliminating Late-Cycle Surprises

ANSYS engineering simulation tools can help your engineering team predict systems-level performance, then work on improvements within and between individual components or subsystems, especially those that involve multiple physics. By applying Simulation-Driven Product Development throughout the entire cycle, you can reduce or eliminate costly late-cycle product performance issues.