Using the cloud to bring your designs to life

As a designer, you put your heart and soul in creating some of the most innovative and edgy designs you can think of. When you’ve got the design locked down, it can be awfully frustrating when it comes to mass-producing your product – because the end product is often quite far-removed from your original design.

When compromises have to be made to your design, the final product tends to be quite different to what customers originally demanded.

Yet, the rise of cloud computing is enabling designers to customise their designs on a new scale. Cloud based design management allows numerous individuals to collaborate on a single design, meaning the designed and manufacturing of products can be customised to a greater extent. 

For example, in the automotive sector the reach of the pedals, the position of the seat right through to power upgrades can all be viewed by a potential buyer and incorporated into the manufacturing process when designing a specific car.

This level of customisation has been recognised to provide not only pleasing aesthetics, but also important safety features. By providing customised seat fittings or helmet gear for motor racing, it can drastically improve the safety of driving and potentially reduce the effect of an impact. Similarly, by customising the grip of the steering wheel you can enable the driver to have better control, giving them the best chance if things were to go wrong.

Yet, this level of customisation isn’t always viable in every industry sector. For example, take the aerospace industry. When it comes to safety, the design of aircraft has been continuously developed over the years to a point where there isn’t really any room for customisation. 

Still, that hasn’t stopped French company Elixir Aircraft from using cloud-based technology in their production of a two-seater composite aircraft. Based on innovations developed for sailing boats, Elixir Aircraft have taken advantage of new technologies to update the concept of the light aircraft in their quest bring to their light aircraft to market. 

Elixir aircraft have managed to achieve these breakthroughs using Dassault Systèmes 3DExperience cloud platform.

The 3DExperience platform enables organisations to improve their value creation process, enabling businesses to produce a differentiated customer experience. By using this software platform, organisations can collaborate in real-time on projects, optimising the product development process from design right through to manufacturing. 

Overall, cloud computing represents an important step forward in ensuring product designs can be brought to life, exactly how they are originally planned. The element of customisation enables organisations to provide not only a great customer service, but can also provide important safety features in products, particularly in the automotive industry.

To learn more about how you can improve the design process in automotive production, download the eBook 'The designers guide to composites for mass-produced vehicles'.