Research Rap: Understanding the CAE Software Landscape

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.