2007 IW/MPI Census: Who's Using CAD, CAE?

Oct. 12, 2007

Half of all U.S. manufacturing facilities employ CAD or CAE systems.

You might think that design systems such as computer-aided design or computer-aided engineering were ubiquitous among U.S. manufacturers. You'd be wrong.

At the plant level, just over half of all U.S. manufacturing facilities employ CAD or CAE systems, according to the 2007 IndustryWeek/Manufacturing Performance Institute Census of Manufacturers. That said, data show that size matters -- larger plants are more likely than smaller ones to have CAD/CAE systems in use.

Compared with IndustryWeek's Best Plants winners and finalists, however, U.S. manufacturing plants fall far short in their use of CAD/CAE technologies. Fully 96% of 2006 finalists reported implementing such technologies (2007 data is not yet available), and 95% of finalists over the past three years have design systems installed.

Percentage of Manufacturers Using CAD/CAE Software
All firms	52.4%
Less than 100 employees	43.1%
100 to 249	54.2%
250 to 499	62.1%
500 or more	64.3%
Source: 2007 IW/MPI Census of Manufacturers

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About the Author

Jill Jusko

Bio: Jill Jusko is executive editor for IndustryWeek. She has been writing about manufacturing operations leadership for more than 20 years. Her coverage spotlights companies that are in pursuit of world-class results in quality, productivity, cost and other benchmarks by implementing the latest continuous improvement and lean/Six-Sigma strategies. Jill also coordinates IndustryWeek’s Best Plants Awards Program, which annually salutes the leading manufacturing facilities in North America.