If you haven't noticed so far, we're starting to conduct some research on various design software topics here at ENGINEERING.com. We started by looking at the Value of Simulation, and I presented some early findings at the 2012 NAFEMs NA conference in Washington DC. Next up, we're looking into the State of PLM. I'll be presenting findings from that study at the PLM Innovation event in Atlanta GA next week. Final findings from each of these studies will be published in an info-graphic research report that you'll get for free.
My next question to is pretty simple: what do you want researched next?
Below is a one question survey listing 14 different potential research studies. Just pick the top three you like the most, although we aren't constraining you to that many.
Below the survey is a short abstract for each one. That will give you some idea as to the purpose and context of each study.
Now get started and vote!
- Engineering Titles and Responsibilities: In some organizations, an engineer has never touched CAD software. Yet in other organizations, engineers use CAD daily. This study will investigate the correspondence between titles, responsibilities and design software used by the role.
- Snapshot Studies of Engineering Roles: Do your industry peers spend their time differently than you do? Are there some tasks they don’t do at all? Are there others that have more emphasis than yours? These studies will investigate how specific engineering roles spend their time to fulfill their responsibilities. These roles include: Simulation Analyst, Design Engineer and CAD Specialist.
- State of Engineering IT Ecosystem: If you listen to the buzz in the industry, you’d think that PLM, CAD and CAE software are the only ones used in engineering organizations. But I’m willing to be reality is different. This study aims to assemble a holistic picture of all the off-the-shelf, specialized and custom digital tools that today’s engineering organization uses.
- State of Engineering Notebook: In years past, an engineer’s entire professional career could be uncovered in their engineering notebook. But times have changed and technology has advanced. The objective of this study is to identify the modern analog to the old-school engineering notebook, even if it is federated across many technologies.
- State of CAD Capabilities: In the past five years, there has been dramatic change in the CAD industry in terms of new capabilities. What effect has it had so far? Has it been adopted quickly? This study will investigate which capabilities of CAD applications are in widespread use and which are still nascent.
- State of 3D in the Enterprise: Likewise, there have been a lot of changes for the use of 3D outside engineering. This study will look at the state of the use of 3D in drawing-less, manufacturing, service and other non-engineering organizations.
- State of 3D Interoperability: In today’s interconnected supply chain environment, every organization is going to have to work with 3D models in a variety of CAD formats. This study examines the complexity of that reality as well as how organizations are addressing the challenge with people, process and technologies.
- State of Design Simulation: Simulation is critical to engineering fulfilling their function within a manufacturer. But in the past few years, technologies in this realm have advanced by leaps and bounds. This study will reveal how broadly engineering organizations have spread their simulation efforts to cover multi-physics and singular domain simulations. It will also look at who the critical roles are for enabling these activities.
- State of Simulation Management: If an organization is performing simulation, then they must manage those simulations in some manner. This study will investigate the most frequently used approaches to managing simulations and the related benefits or detriments of each.
- State of PLM Infrastructure: PLM systems are now increasingly being offered on a wide variety of infrastructures, ranging from on-premise to public or private clouds. This study will cover a number of critical technical characteristics of PLM deployment.
- State of PDM: PDM is everywhere now, right? Well… maybe not. This study will examine the extent to which PDM systems are used to manage the entire product record or whether it is merely CAD data management.
- State of Social in Product Development: Social technologies have dramatically affected our persona lives. And many see great promise for it in our professional lives as well. But can it live up to expectations? This study will assess just how far social technologies have been adopted in product development environments.