The following is a product development industry prediction I made for 2019. Since we’re about half way through the year (believe it or not) let’s see hos this is panning out.

(From MCAD Café – January 17, 2019) Throughout the coming year simulation will continue to take on an even greater role as companies search for ways to become more innovative, leverage resources, and keep pace with accelerated product development cycles.  Consequently, the expanded use of advanced simulation tools beyond expert CAE analysts (i.e. the democratization of simulation) will become an even greater industry-wide priority.

Democratizing Simulation allows product engineering, manufacturing, and support organizations to more fully leverage their CAE investments and resources by allowing expert analysis to focus their time and expertise on high-priority simulations while allowing non-experts to perform basic (and even some advanced) CAE analysis.  The result of simulation-driven design will compress product development cycles and accelerate innovation with a measurable increase in product quality.

2019 will see a surge in the number of manufacturing, design, and other product development organizations embracing the tools and resources allowing more thorough and widespread use of simulation technologies beyond experts. To support this growing need, software providers, large and small will continue to aggressively develop the enabling technologies to feed this growing demand.

What do you think? Am I on track, miss it by a mile, or some place in between?