RLE's leap towards efficient product development with Synera
RLE International harnesses Synera's automated FEA workflows, empowering CAD designers to perform simulations and design studies independently, thus expediting product development and improving overall efficiency.
650% ROI within the first 12 months
CAD team utilization increased by 30%
Project timeline shortened by 20%
Challenge
The engineering landscape today is marked by escalating product requirements, making developments increasingly complex. RLE International faced a pressing challenge where their Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) departments were overwhelmed by an inundation of simulation requests from CAD teams. This bottleneck was not just a matter of handling a high volume of requests but also the intricate process of providing feedback on simulation results. Given the complex interdependencies of modern product designs, feedback loops were slow, significantly dragging down the pace of product development.
This slow feedback mechanism was further compounded by resource limitations. Instead of pursuing the optimal solution that meets all design and performance criteria, the team often settled for solutions that merely worked. This compromise on quality and innovation was primarily due to the overburdened CAE departments, which had to juggle multiple projects simultaneously, leaving little room for iterative optimization. The situation was unsustainable, with the quest for excellence being overshadowed by the pressing need to deliver under tight deadlines. RLE International recognized the need for a transformative approach that could democratize CAE capabilities, enabling faster, more efficient, and optimal product development cycles.
Since the employee was able to work in his familiar CAD tool environment, the CAE approach, fully automated with Synera, was immediately adopted and our CAE department was sustainably relieved. The additional benefits such as increased efficiency, shortened development cycles and better products speak for themselves.
RLE INTERNATIONAL
The RLE INTERNATIONAL Group is one of the world’s leading development, technology and consultation service providers to the international mobility and service industries. On the basis of their many years of development and methodological expertise, RLE can lay claim to 30 years of experience in devising innovative and effective solutions for our international customers. Over 2.000 employees worldwide constantly keep abreast of technological progress.
Solution
In response to this challenge, RLE International leveraged Synera's innovative solution to optimize their development process. The solution leveraged the skills of CAD designers, who typically had little to no CAE knowledge, by creating parameterized and update-stable CAD models in their familiar CAD tools. These models were then seamlessly integrated into Synera, where designers could define parameter spaces, marking the beginning of a transformative workflow.
Once the CAD model was loaded into Synera, it became remotely controlled by the platform. Selected parameter sets were automatically transferred to the native CAD file and updated in the CAD system. This process facilitated the automatic reimportation of the CAD geometry back into Synera, setting the stage for the next critical phase: automated Finite Element Analysis (FEA) model building and simulation according to predefined quality guidelines.
The truly groundbreaking aspect of this solution was the automatic evaluation of simulations and the incorporation of a multiobjective optimizer. This tool iterated through the entire process, refining each step until an optimal state was reached that satisfied all requirements. As a result, CAD designers could perform numerous iterations in a fraction of the time traditionally required, achieving superior outcomes without direct CAE expertise. This not only significantly relieved the CAE department by minimizing their involvement to final control simulations but also marked a substantial leap towards democratizing CAE capabilities within RLE International.
More about this workflow
Benefits
Seamless integration with multi-vendor engineering tools
Knowledge storage through digitization of engineering
Save development time and cost through automation
Reduction of Time-to-Market
Higher quality products