UK manufacturers have ‘outmoded’ views on design technology

The software company, which has developed a wide range of design, prototyping and manufacturing products and in 2008 bought the Moldflow business, conducted a survey in January, collating the opinions of 107 senior decision-makers at manufacturing companies from different sectors, mainly based in the UK.

Autodesk said that these companies see increasing margins (48% of respondents), improving quality (30%) and accelerating speed to market (29%) as the three most important drivers of business growth.

The most important barrier identified is the cost involved in achieving this growth (highlighted by 62% of respondents), followed by market conditions (cited by 58%).

“This emphasis on cost is significant, particularly when you consider that manufacturers believe that the same commercial drivers seen as critical to their growth will also require the largest increases in design technology investment to achieve,” said Amina West, sales director, Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions, Northern Europe.

Of those surveyed, 83% felt that it would take a rise of more than 10% in annual investment in design technology solutions to achieve ‘improved margins’ while 37% felt that an increase of more than 50% in annual investments would be required to deliver ‘accelerated speed to market’. And 33% thought that a similar increase would be the minimum needed to attain ‘reduced product development costs’.

“These perceptions are understandable but they do not reflect the reality: that streamlined and efficient design technology solutions do not have to be expensive to implement and operate,” said West.

“With the UK government now showing a renewed focus on the manufacturing sector and the market showing positive signs of recovery, it is important that outmoded attitudes to design innovation do not hamper this upturn.”

Autodesk said that its digital prototyping products allow manufacturers to optimise and validate their ideas before creating a product, which cuts costs from the product development process and help speed to market.

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