Earlier this month there were many thought-provoking presentations at the India IESF events in Pune and Chennai which I was fortunate to attend.
Benefits – usually described as workflow efficiency & quality of product gains
Typically, what I focus on in this blog is the point-of-view of end-users of Capital, their program and project managers – owners of the design and manufacturing processes. When I dwell on a “what’s in it for you?” question that’s typically whom I think of. You the user of Capital may find a way in which your daily responsibilities are made easier. As an engineering manager, or Chief Technical/Information Officer, descriptions of the benefits of Capital might bring you to an understanding of how a more optimized and automated business process can make for more profitable outcomes.
This is how Capital should deliver results to you.
The physical end-product, designed and prepared for manufacture in Capital Software is used by customers of Mentor’s customers. When you use metrics, for example to understand and control the mass and weight of electric car harnesses Mentor’s Capital software is part of a value chain which ends up in a better range for the same EV battery, a better outcome for the consumer, the driver, the passenger as well as the OEM who makes the car and their Electrical Distribution System supplier partner. One may trace benefits all the way down to the general populace, spared particulates, improved fuel economy as well as reduced cost and weight, fewer harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
Work has a context of the world away from your computer screen.
I arrived to transit through Delhi Airport and saw something I had never seen before. Smog outside an airport building I had seen before. Air pollution was something I’d seen as a child in the United Kingdom before the clean air government policy improved air quality in urban areas. I’ve been to Los Angeles, Shanghai in more recent years on smoggy days. So at Delhi airport in transit for another flight I recognized the beige haze, the streaks of darker brown in the air, and the smudges on the windows of the airport terminal. What was a new experience was to see the haze, lighter than outside but there nonetheless inside the airport terminal – getting past the air conditioning to the inside of the building.
Story from the Guardian News Organization Website about Delhi smog
You may not live in Delphi or Chennai or Beijing, you may not live in Moscow or London but you do live on a planet where there is almost unanimous agreement of experts that reducing the emissions from internal combustion engines is seen as a vital part of holding down the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to slow down climate change. In the automotive industry you have to be pretty inattentive or completely in denial if you failed to notice the “demonization of diesel” and automakers’ vast investments to move to hybrid and fully electric powertrains. Also the significant investments made by some national governments (notably China) focused on securing space in the global transportation economy in the coming decades.
Individuals usually make a difference in a team context.
The transition from a global concern to the part one can play in it addressing it is illustrated by the mission statement of a company. Tesla Motors emphasized that they design, develop, manufacture and sell fully electric vehicles and energy storage products as a means to achieve a goal “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” That’s not lateral thinking, that’s Tesla’s mission. When last visiting Tesla’s Palo Alto offices I saw in the reception area there was a TV screen. It showed not the normal cable business news channel, nor a marketing promotional video loop, but a continuous live update of a measurement of how much CO2 had not been put into the atmosphere by Tesla’s customers because they had switched to an EV.
Not 100% of the smog in Delhi is caused by internal combustion engine vehicle pollution. There’s a mix of agricultural burn-off and vehicle exhaust, and industrial effluents, domestic exhausts. That to me is not an argument that car emissions should be a lower priority. When there’s a multi-faceted problem, you take all the alleviation you can. Also I think the word “problem” is too mild to describe the situation. If I lived in Delhi I would think it was a public health issue with consequences of needlessly shortened life expectancy for my loved ones and my neighbors and myself.
India has some companion challenges a little more acutely than other countries. An internal combustion engine car compared to an electric vehicle has a price difference of say $5,000 dollars more expensive to buy retail the EV. That’s a significant barrier to consumer adoption where a price tag equivalent of US $10k on a new car indicates in India you are firmly in the professional upper middle class bracket. As we know batteries are still relatively expensive components in the vehicle, don’t give infinite range, require charging stations and arrangements for fast charge. In India infrastructure projects say for public transport vehicles to be in almost continuous operation is also a cost which has to be addressed. City government, public transportation and civil engineering funding is not plentiful, and the time to bring to fruition public works projects is typically long, involving lots of bureaucracy and slow-moving politics. Public transport consists of buses, large and small, taxis and 3-wheelers (also known as rickshaws and Tuk-Tuks). Providing recharging facilities for 3 wheelers, or a network of places where recharged batteries replace depleted ones after 40-60km of use is a huge logistical challenge. For a visitor like me it’s hard to imagine how to reach critical mass for an entire national industry.
A Hybrid Tata Starbus made in India.
It is a challenge for Indian ingenuity and skill solve. Many Indian enterprises have a policy of keeping the manufacturing portion of their work within India so they think local, act local to find a solution. I’m pleased Mentor’s Capital software plays a part in helping key customers in this market and their teams of talented engineers. For success almost always comes as part of a group, it is a team effort.
Here’s another example http://www.scootersindia.com/pro_vikramEV.html
Familiar and Positive Themes for Engineering Teams
Customer presentations at the IESF events in India addressed the need to optimize weight, reduce complexity of vehicle systems and increase reliability. Presentations showed how day to day using advanced systems based modeling tools the electrical platform can be optimized. One joint presentation between OEM and Harness partner described reducing copper wires by a couple of pounds through some re-positioning architectural studies using Capital. We heard also about the need to closely integrate electrical engineering efforts with other domains – e.g. the mechanical engineering world and the need to simulate in virtual digital models to accelerate development cycles and improve quality.
Customer Presentations generated a lot of interest from the attendees
Facing even public health challenges, environmental challenges there is something one can do as engineers. Because if it isn’t you, then who knows whether someone else will do it as well as you can. If you equip yourselves with the best tools available and do the best job you possibly can so much the better.
At Mentor we want to give you that advantage in your important work to improve the world a little by giving you the best software tools.