We all have a jar of nuts and bolts in the garage, and most of us can recall an instance when we unsuccessfully sought out a specific nut, bolt or fastener. And while we have the luxury of throwing in the towel and simply purchasing a new part at the local hardware store, design engineers trying to locate parts clearly cannot afford to give up. Nor can they afford an inefficient, antiquated process. Fortunately, there is an emerging technology in the market that is solving this problem. Next generation solutions for managing and hosting 3D standard and commercial part catalogs are saving manufacturing companies both time and money.

By providing solutions which optimize how "standard parts" are managed and procured, manufacturers can reduce their direct material spend relative to standard parts by an average of 2% in the first year, while leveraging the on-going benefits of a leaner inventory and introduction of a formal parts standardization program.

3D part catalog management complements PDM by enhancing the management of 3D part catalogs with the aim of enabling parts or commodity reuse. By enabling configuration of 3D parts in native CAD formats within a larger PDM context, it also allows designers the confidence to find, reuse, and control standard parts more effectively. The reuse provided by CAD-native 3D part catalogs can be expected to reduce both IT management costs and overall product costs, including design, manufacturing and support costs.

Why Provide a 3D Parts Catalog?

Recently PARTsolutions conducted an industry survey that examined the importance of CAD-native 3D product catalogs to design engineers for product selection. Compiled by polling more than 500 companies -- including 3M, Lockheed Martin, Ford Motor Co., Goodrich, Cessna Aircraft Company and Bose Corporation -- the data reveals that supplying catalogs in paper, PDF or neutral file formats is no longer adequate, with 85percent percent of design engineers preferring part downloads in their CAD-native format.

85% of design engineers prefer part downloads in their native CAD format. 87% of design engineers want to configure the exact part they are specifying. 85% of downloaded parts get purchased. 80% of downloaded parts are purchased for prototypes and for multiple units in production. 73% of design engineers will choose one vendor over another because they provide CAD data.

CAD-native 3D product catalogs are rapidly becoming a critical business component for manufacturers and necessary to get their products selected, designed in and purchased, with 80 percent of design engineers indicating that multiple units will be purchased for production once downloaded.

But don't just take my word for it.

These findings are consistent with feedback gathered by automation components supplier, PHD Inc. over a period of more than ten years. As one of the first companies to web enable its product line -- including premium automation products including cylinders, clamps, escapements, grippers, slides, rotary actuators, proximity sensors and switches -- PHD eliminated the time-intensive process of creating, migrating and translating catalog content and saved enormous resources in the process. As a build-to-order business that offers more than 450 million product combinations, 3D product catalogs have been instrumental in establishing quick delivery as PHD's primary competitive advantage. What's more, the technology has resulted in 35 times more sales leads by allowing PHD to track who is accessing designs and proactively deliver sales and support information to its customers.

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