Jim Brown

Research Rap: Understanding the CAE Software Landscape
July 23, 2008

A quick peek into some research on ... the Classes of MCAE Software that seeks to clarify a confusing landscape of solutions. The study on mechanical computer aided engineering (CAE) is by Cyon Research, a consulting firm with deep expertise in design automation solutions. Among other things, Cyon points out the trend toward providing engineers with tools that they can use directly as a part of their design tool suite, versus more specialty applications to solve more complex problems that require the expertise of a dedicated analyst. But the market does not easily break down on those two lines alone, as the research shows.

Why is this Important?
As I wrote in a previous post on what Engineering is doing in their strategic agenda, Engineering is trying to design products right the first time. Given today's short product development cycles, companies can't afford the time (let alone the cost) required for a lot of physical prototyping. Given shorter product lifecycles, companies can't afford to "dial in" quality over the life of the product by initially launching a small volume of products to learn from experience. Products are often released at high volume quickly, and quality errors can be costly to correct. Another reason that this is coming to the forefront is high material costs. Chris Kelley from Siemens posted an entry title Can PLM help manufacturing cope with rising energy prices on the Siemens PLM blog that gives some insight into that as well.

This is important to understand for any company that is looking to acquire these types of solutions. Developing the appropriate software strategy requires an examination not just of the tools available, but first of the characteristics of your own business to determine the type of solution (or solutions) your company needs. The study can help companies organize their software requirements, and also provides some market landscapes that can help them determine the most appropriate vendors to select.

What does the Study Conclude?
The study concludes that there are different classes of problems to be solved, and therefore different classes of
solutions. The report goes beyond a simple view of "mainstream" versus "specialized" tools. While this was a starting point, Cyon felt that the complexity of the market was not well characterized by that simple view. Instead, Cyon breaks the market down into: 

• Customer Types - by determining whether a company can support a dedicated analysis staff or whether designers are using analysis tools directly 
• Problem Types - by determining the nature of the problems they are solving, from "straight forward, to difficult, to hairy" 

Because the definition of a "hairy" problem might not be relevant, they provide examples. "Hairy" problems are the ones that would make most of us cringe in fear of the complexity of understanding the problem, let alone modeling and solving it. The first example provided in the paper truly fits the definition: "Projecting behavior of tread on rubber tires under different road conditions and different loading conditions, and different rubber formulations, under different temperatures, look at ride, NVH (noise, vibration, and handling), traction (grip), tire wear."

Categories of solutions are then based on these customer types and problem types. The research then goes on to provide a market map of the landscape, which is worth a look.

Where do I Learn More?
I realize I have barely scratched the surface with this quick peek into the study. The Cyon report is on their white papers page and appears at the top. I had trouble with the direct link, so the link above is for the general page only. The report if available for free download, and provides a lot more richness and depth than I can hope to communicate here. It's worth a read for sure if you are considering CAE software.

So that was a quick peek into some recent research on the CAE market. I hope you found it interesting. Does the research reflect reality? Do you see it differently? Let us know what it looks like from your perspective.

Posted by Jim Brown on July 23, 2008 | Comments (0)