Client:
Parametric Technology Corporation
Software and Services Provider

Project:
Customer Testimonial

Marketing Resources Contribution:
Copywriting

Meeting the Customer Challenge
Harman-Motive Relies on Pro/ENGINEER® to Maximize Automation and Reduce the Development Cycle

Maintaining a worldwide leadership position in high-fidelity automotive sound systems requires constant attention to the highest quality standards and product design innovation. Ernie Latham-Brown, Director of Mechanical Engineering at Harman-Motive, relies on the unequaled communication and product visualization capabilities of Parametric Technology’s Pro/ENGINEER to help his organization remain at the top.

Harman-Motive, one of 23 operating units of Harman International, is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for Ford, Chrysler, Mitsubishi, and many other major automobile manufacturers around the world. Ernie Latham-Brown’s group in Martinsville, Indiana is charged with advancing the mechanical engineering aspect of the Harman-Motive’s audio product line—engineering loudspeakers, sound enclosures, and amplifier assemblies to be packaged in the limited space of the vehicle environment.

“We work directly with the automotive manufacturer’s audio and body groups in integrating the audio system,” explains Latham-Brown. “We then design and tool the components that comprise the entire audio system.”

As an OEM supplier to the world automotive community, Harman-Motive must have the capability to meet even the most aggressive customer requirements. To do so, the mechanical engineering organization has adopted a Process-Product-People emphasis. This program allows the group to focus on how and why things are done, to promote product design innovations, and to give people all they need to bring the best engineering ideas to market.

Valuable Processes and Reduced Development Time

Harman-Motive’s mechanical computer-aided design system plays an important role in the Process-Product-People Program, particularly in the evaluation of all mechanical engineering processes. For Latham-Brown and his mechanical design team, focusing on “process” means fully understanding the purpose of every process and assessing the value being added at each engineering stage. “We are challenged to continually ensure that things are being done optimally, and, whenever possible, with available automation,” states Latham-Brown. “By minimizing and streamlining engineering processes, we necessarily reduce our development time and costs—critical elements in maintaining our leadership role and meeting our customers’ requirements. We need a CAD/CAM system that will support the processes that we define as crucial and allow us to achieve maximum value added to the business.” For Harman-Motive, Pro/ENGINEER is meeting the challenge.

Out of the analysis of engineering processes has evolved a dedication to concurrent engineering—the simultaneous development of the product’s concept, design, documentation, tooling, parts availability, and manufacturing specifications. To work effectively, concurrent engineering requires frequent and accurate communication at every stage of the development cycle, beyond the mechanical designers to purchasing, manufacturing, and suppliers.

Because of its advanced visualization capabilities, Pro/ENGINEER allows the mechanical engineering group to easily communicate concepts like how parts fit together and how fixturing must be designed to meet tolerances between parts. Such communication has reduced the opportunity for misinterpretation of engineering drawings, broadened the scope of valuable input from within and outside the organization, and led to an important sense of ownership of the design by all participants. More parties, such as suppliers, may become involved as early as the prototyping stage and remain involved through final manufacturing. With the early integration of these key players, decision-making can be made sooner in the process, eliminating costly, time-consuming changes to specifications and, ultimately, reducing design time.

Concurrent Engineering At Work

As part of a recent project involving complex acoustic enclosure assemblies, the mechanical engineering group set a goal to reduce the design cycle by producing injection molded prototype parts without traditional drawings. A long-time Harman-Motive plastic molder joined in this quest. After witnessing the results Harman-Motive had attained, this supplier had also incorporated Pro/ENGINEER in its engineering organization and would be part of both the prototype and production tooling phases of the project.

As the enclosure design evolved, Harman-Motive and the plastic molder exchanged files via modem for tooling and moldability reviews. Without the usual need to generate and review drawings, the design cycle was completed and the tooling phase was begun. To further minimize the design and tooling cycles, Stereo Lithography (SLA) models of the enclosures were produced, and another supplier fabricated spray metal tooling. This allowed Harman-Motive to mold parts in the production-intent material and process while meeting the strict timing requirements of their customer.

“With this paperless process, we saved—timewise—approximately 50% over a conventional approach and could perform all validation testing with production-intent parts,” boasts Latham-Brown. “Most importantly, we met our customers quality and timing expectations.”

This same process was carried forward into the production tool phase of the project and, having maximized their learning opportunities in prototyping, this cycle was shortened, as well.

Latham-Brown attributes the reduced design time to early involvement by the supplier and the capabilities of Pro/ENGINEER, together preventing the need for changes late in the project. Due to the positive outcome of this project and the success of direct database communication, Harman-Motive will apply this model to other suppliers as well, using Pro/ENGINEER as the backbone to its concurrent engineering process. “We’d like the rest of our current base of suppliers to adopt ‘Pro/E’ and be able to work this closely with us throughout our development cycle. We’re interested in building long-term relationships with our suppliers—relationships that begin with a commitment to become involved in the early stages of our design. There is no doubt that this restructuring of the process adds significant value.”

Room for Growth

Beyond the system in use at the Martinsville, Indiana facility, Harman-Motive in Wales is currently implementing Pro/ENGINEER. The two locations look forward to the opportunity to share engineering efforts. Additionally, Latham-Brown plans to exploit some of the other features that contributed to his decision to standardize on Pro/ENGINEER, like the capabilities available with the parts libraries (or family tables) and the ability to link to electrical CAD systems used by the electrical amplifier designers in California.

“After only 10 months, I feel we haven’t even begun to test the limits of what Pro/ENGINEER can offer us,” says Latham-Brown. “With the software’s solid foundation and Parametric Technology’s support expertise, I’m confident that Pro/ENGINEER will help us continue to meet and exceed the growing requirements of our automotive customers.”