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A Few (Sometimes Rambling) Thoughts

Find a Cause

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in things that we don’t really stop to look around.  We know we should, we may even think we do; but how often are we willing to take action?  How often will we stop working or skip that round of golf to devote our time (and yes money) to support a cause?

This weekend I have an opportunity, along with some friends and family,  to help support Alzheimer’s research.  As you may know, Saturday, October 4 is a day that the disease will be in the national spotlight.  I’ve known a handful of people who have suffered and are suffering with the disease (and a lot more that I wasn’t aware of)  and I’m thrilled to have been invited to help support a walk for the cure.

That’s one example; and there are countless others.  No matter what you think is important – take time to support it.  If you don’t have a cause in mind, stop and look around. There are plenty that could use your help.



What’s New?

Interactive Virtual Prototyping: Building the Next Generation of Off-Highway Machines with Worksite System-Level Simulation . Read it in OEM Off-Highway Magazine here.



Blogging

One of the many perks of having your own blog is that it gives you something to do when you are lying awake at 3:30 AM.  What you have to be careful of is that you could type just about anything. So remember this as/if you make your way through this post.

So, just a few random thoughts about a few random things…

Television: The Andy Griffith Show continues to be the standard by which all shows are measured.  I’m sure I’ll get plenty of disagreement with that; but anyone who truly appreciates the chemistry and downhome aura of that show knows exactly what I’m talking about.  Who wouldn’t want to call Mayberry home? Without fail, that show leaves me with a mix of emotions. Happy because of its warmth and a little sad that those times are long gone.  It takes me back to some of the best years of my life.  Thank God for reruns.

Music: Three words… 5Th Dimension Radio. If you have the Pandora app on your phone or television check this station out. If you’re a child of the 70s (my junior high and high school days) you’ll appreciate this lite rock station.  Give it a listen.

Facebook: I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg and the other co-founders of this platform had any idea when they launched Facebook.  On one side, what a great networking medium.  I mean, where else can I see what a friend of a friend is having for lunch? On the other side, the filtering aspects of social media are terrifying.  The idea of controlled and biased messaging causes distrust. So I’ll just continue to not take Facebook very seriously and just treat it as a way to chat with friends every now and then. (Just checked to see who was on-line… sadly no one I’d like to message with at 4:21 AM.)

That’s probably good for now. I’m off to the gym for a workout – which I hate.



What I Like About all of This…

Every now and then someone will ask me how I like my job; or what I like best about it.  My answer is always the same.  I enjoy learning about and writing about a variety of topics for a variety of companies in a variety of industries.   I’ve learned more in these past four plus years than in all of my previous years of employment.  I’ve had a chance to write and market everything from engineering simulation to supply chains, fabrication, molding, and testing to foster care and adoption. What a variety!

I guess I’m one of those people who likes to have a lot going on at the same time.  It can make for some hectic days and sleepless nights but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Those butterflies, anxious moments, and deadlines are what makes one feel alive. In this business you had better embrace those things, and feed off of them because they aren’t going away (or at least you had better hope they don’t).

When I first started my business people would say: “Oh you’re going to be out golfing or working in the garden or napping all of the time!” Any business owner knows that couldn’t be farther from the truth.  There is always something to do and you always feel like you should be doing it.  You almost have to force yourself to take an afternoon off to cut the grass or whatever without feeling guilty.  I need to get over that and enjoy every aspect of this adventure – even the occasional off day.

With that I think I’ll go cut some grass.



Durability Validation

Ensuring that performance, durability and business targets are met for any new or redesigned product begins well in advance of any preliminary drawings, material, tooling or other manufacturing decisions.  From the outset, it is critical to understand how the product will be used (and abused) in the real world while identifying the business goals and parameters driving the project.

This information helps ensure that the design will meet durability, performance and ROI targets and determine the optimum product design validation approach. For designers and manufacturers of specialty vehicles or off-highway equipment, durability validation is both critical and challenging.

Design Validation

Validating the design allows manufacturing to proceed confident that products/sub-systems/components will perform as expected and meet lifecycle requirements. In the past the process consisted almost solely of constructing and testing a series of physical prototypes. Validation began with running a prototype through a series of tests until failure occurred. The process was repeated ad nauseam with newly designed prototypes until either a design was validated or the project, running low on time and money, was deemed good enough.  Too often the result was a product that under-achieved in meeting performance and monetary targets.

Today computer-aided design (CAD) and simulation tools, such as finite element analysis, automate and accelerate the process. Validating designs in the early upstream stages of product development, well in advance of manufacturing, goes a long way to reducing warranty and legal claims, gaining market share, boosting innovation, and increasing customer satisfaction.

Products in the Real World

Expectations and reality can sometimes differ radically.  To help ensure that products will in fact operate successfully in their intended environment, design validation is driven whenever possible by tangible and quantifiable data. Such baseline operating data is collected in numerous ways.

Unattended Testing is one reliable method for collecting real-world operating data. In the process vehicles and equipment are instrumented with data collection and recording equipment and put through operation. Gathering large sets of data over an extended period of time ensures that usage is accurately reflected and the occasional anomaly is captured. Armed with this information, designers/manufacturers can explore a range of design alternatives and validate the design for manufacturability, durability and reliability.

It’s important to understand that, when in the customer’s hands, a product/sub-system/component may push or exceed the limits for which it was intended.  Likewise, harsh conditions and excessive forces to which the equipment may be subjected often far exceed that for which it was designed.

Understanding sometimes vague or unanticipated customer usage scenarios and operating environments directly influence durability targets. Whether exceeding maximum load limits, traversing excessively rugged terrain, brutal climate conditions or neglecting maintenance schedules, product design must account for scenarios that often go far beyond the expected.

Product Development Business Drivers

From a relatively simple redesign to a new product launch, organizations must weigh many factors.

Knowing where you want to go and how you want to get there is critical to launch any product development campaign. And while these and other considerations are important the overriding driver for and new or redesigned product is the impact that it will have on the company’s bottom line. Validation is a proven key to mitigating risks.

Fundamental Approaches to Validation

Today there are two fundamental approaches for validating products related to equipment or specialty vehicles.  Each is proven, effective and technically sound; and each has its advantages:

This is by no means to suggest that physical testing and simulation are mutually exclusive. Many larger organizations often employ both. Regardless of the approach, any legitimate product validation approach should contain elements of each.

Test-Centered Validation Approach

A test-centered approach to durability validation is rooted in capturing and analyzing physical performance data as the vehicle/equipment is put through operation. Data is collected by instrumenting the vehicle with strain gages and accelerometers to measure deflection or quantify how the system, subsystem, component reacts under certain loads and conditions. Data can be collected in numerous ways ranging from a controlled laboratory environment, a representative environment, or in the field under typical operating conditions. These tests can vary depending on whether we’re dealing with a system, sub-system or component.

System Level Durability Validation

On a systems-level (and with certain sub-systems) hydraulic test rigs are used to recreate usage conditions within a laboratory or controlled environment.  System-level test-centered validation generally comes in two forms: Durability Rig Testing, Extended Operating Testing.

Durability Rig Testing

System-level durability testing is often done via a hydraulic test rig within the controlled confines of a laboratory.  This entails continuously subjecting the system to forces generated by the test rig over an extended period of time to recreate field usage conditions.  Doing so allows long-term effects to be measured in a relatively short period of time.

Simulation plays a role in the process as Finite Element Analysis is used to determine where strain gage and accelerometers should be initially placed on the system. Loads and responses from baseline testing is used to define operating environments and associated durability parameters. The process then moves to the development of drive files to control the test rig in order to recreate forces to which the system will be subjected.  After it has been put through its paces on the test rig, the system is inspected for cracks and other structural damage.

Extended Operating Testing

Another popular durability validation method is the continuous operation and testing of a vehicle or piece of equipment on representative environments.  This might include a test track, proving grounds, in-field usage and so on.  Similar to hydraulic rig testing, vehicles are typically instrumented with data collection equipment to measure strains and accelerations and determine extent of accelerated damage. Analyzing large amounts of accumulated data provides engineers with insight into product performance and a means to objectively validate the design.

Subsystem and Component Level Durability Validation

When separated from the system, each sub-system or component may perform as designed. Sometimes, however, when incorporated into a system interaction with neighboring components or sub-systems can introduce unexpected forces or vibrations for which the component/sub-system was not designed causing failure.

To measure the performance of sub-systems/components within the context of the collective system, forces and/or accelerations are obtained from system-level tests. These forces are then replicated using a hydraulic or electrodynamic shaker during the testing of components or sub-systems.

Advantages

A significant advantage to test-centered validation is the ability to physically see, touch and measure the product being validated.  At the same time in-field testing allows products to be validated against, not only anticipated usage scenarios, but for anomalies and other rare events outside the anticipated scope of operation to be captured and measured.  This allows vehicles/equipment to be designed to meet a wide range of possibilities.

On the downside, complex loading is not easily applied to test rig testing.  Additionally, physically testing sometimes multiple prototypes can be time consuming, labor-intensive and costly. For automotive applications, for example, costs related to rigs, track time, labor, equipment, along with modeling and analysis must be factored. Consequently, test-centered durability validation methodologies are generally employed for high volume, high value, high risk situations where cost is justified.

Simulation-Centered Validation Approach

While a simulation-focused approach to validation is heavily reliant on Finite Element Analysis, there remains a need for physical prototype testing; albeit in a very limited capacity.  Nonetheless, this heavily digital approach is fast, reliable and relatively inexpensive when compared to Test-Centered Validation.

Data obtained from testing units (often competitive brands) similar to a new design provides approximate loading environments. For specialty vehicles and off-highway equipment this might include collecting data from the field via unattended testing.  Collecting data over long periods of time provides an understanding of both common and rare (but significant) loads that the vehicle/equipment may encounter over its service time.

The more one understands how the product will be used by the customer, including the loads and response mechanisms, the more effective simulation will be. And the better the simulation, the less rework, less time lost, and lower expense.

Data Collection & Analysis

Effectively validating a finite element model requires that representative, proportionate, and extreme (within reason) forces are applied the model.  This ensures that the model is being evaluated against accurate operating parameters to which the final product will be subjected.

These forces are collected manually through testing physical prototypes, current model or competitive vehicles. This generally includes affixing accelerometers and strain gages to key locations throughout the vehicle and putting the equipment through operation.  It is recommended that data be collected both while in normal service and proving grounds testing.  In this way forces, acceleration, twist, pitch and strain are quantifiably measured and captured for each key location on the vehicle.

In the next phase, field test data is compared to that collected in the field or proving grounds.  The intent is to qualify an accelerated durability test cycle. Data collected from load cells placed on the vehicle is compared to strain responses to identify significant load cases representing vehicle usage. These load cases (e.g. body twist, pitch, strain, etc.) are ranked based on damage calculations. Similarly proving ground data is associated with field test load cases and scaled based on damage calculations. A set of accelerated durability proving ground events is defined and ranked from these comparisons.

Engineering analysis (simulation) software is used to run an accelerated durability simulation. This helps accurately predict proving ground test performance. Static and inertial load cases are developed from field and proving ground data. This includes the association of load cases with the measured strain responses and is helpful for reading FEA model correlation activities.

Although static FEA analysis is likely sufficient, test results sometimes indicate a need to address system dynamics. When this is the case a dynamic model, predicting significant low frequency vibration modes, is created and correlated to modal testing.

Advantages

Simulation-Centered Validation accelerates product development and increases innovation measurably.  Making and evaluating design changes through modeling and simulation allows multiple design iterations to be explored quickly and cost-effectively without the time and expense of building and testing numerous physical prototypes.

Organizations driven by time to market or innovation or those with a limited budget will benefit from Simulation-Centered Validation.

What’s the Best Approach?

Test-Centered and Simulation-Centered Validation can be equally effective. And while both contain elements of testing and simulation the emphasis and roadmap to validation is very different. Consequently organizations should take the time to scrutinize validation resources at their disposal, identify the business drivers and weigh the pros and cons of each approach.

With decades of testing and engineering analysis experience, Six D Testing & Analysis (6D) has pioneered many of the testing and simulation tools, technologies, and best practices now standard throughout product development, validation and troubleshooting.  Today 6D works with its customers to support both test-centric and simulation-centric product validation.



2019: The Year of Simulation?

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?



Decisions, Decisions…

I was talking with a friend a few days ago. This person mentioned that her parents grew up in another state and moved to Ohio when she was three.  I asked if she ever considered the ramifications of such a decision – not only on her immediate family – but for generations to come.  She gave me a polite “Yes, that’s interesting” response; but she obviously wasn’t as enamored by the phenomenon as I.

Just think about it.  We are who and where we are today because of countless decisions made by our early and recent ancestors.  Its (to me at least) mind-blowing to ponder.  Where we choose to live, who we meet, what jobs we take, which way we drive to work, when and where we shop… any single one of these countless sometimes everyday decisions will set in motion the events for generations to come.

Don’t get me wrong, its not like I dwell on this sort of thing (not much anyway).  Just thought it was interesting.



If you’re not good – you had better be funny

Years ago I played on a very competitive softball team.  Tuesday night games, Thursday night doubleheaders, weekend-long tournaments, state qualifiers, and even a state championship. It was serious softball – you get the picture.

We had a guy on our team (I’ll call him “Donnie”) who was your prototypical “gloveman”.  Donnie was pretty good defensively but not a particularly gifted hitter; even for slow-pitch softball.  In a sport where offense is the name of the game teams rarely have the luxury of carrying players like that.

Late one game  I was sitting in the dugout waiting my turn to hit. Donnie was up and after hitting a weak popup to the infield he trotted back to the bench.  As he entered the dugout I noticed that he uttered something and three or four of the guys at the far end of the bench started to laugh.

Donnie made his way down and taking a seat next to me he said, “Bob, if you’re not good you had better be funny.”  I remembered that all of these years because to me it was Donnie’s way of saying that you have to find a way to contribute.  No matter if you’re on a softball team or a member of a company, you have to do more than just show up. You have to add value.

I’ve always liked that story; and I have to admit when I tell it people don’t always seem to appreciate it like I do.  Maybe I don’t tell it right, maybe you had to know Donnie, or maybe the message is too obvious.  Anyway, I try to always remind myself to look at jobs and even life that way.



Warehouse Employee Turnover

On any given day distribution managers hold their collective breaths wondering which of their warehouse associates is or isn’t going to show up. Study after study indicates that warehouses and distribution centers experience turnover at an alarmingly high proportions – up to 15% by some accounts (seasonal and other part-time laborers excluded). Additionally, it’s reported that nearly half of all new hourly employees leave the job within the first three months. Constantly on-boarding new warehouse staff not only negatively impacts productivity but is also very expensive.  Some report that direct costs to replace an employee can reach as high as 25% of an employee’s annual salary. But some experts calculate the real costs, when you factor in lost productivity and other indirect impacts, at a much higher number, up to 150% of salary. Needless to say, companies are scrambling for answers.

Most supply chain managers would agree that an ideal candidate profile for your distribution workforce is someone who can be dependable, can embrace technology, and could have the potential to advance themselves to new levels of responsibility. The answer seems simple enough, but most will attest it’s easier said than found. So, what is the best way to identify quality talent that would actually be inclined to make a career out of distribution; or at the very least stick around for more than three months? If you’re like most hiring managers, the frustrating answer is simply, “We don’t know”.

Considering all of the time, resources, and science poured into the attracting new talent, there simply isn’t a consistent profile yet or formula for predicting the success or long-term tenure of an hourly distribution center employee.

Since we can’t predict the likelihood of a candidate’s success, it’s only natural to try and identify the reasons for warehouse employee turnover or retention failures instead. To what can these disproportionately high attrition rates be attributed? More questions than answers often come to mind.

It’s hard to pinpoint one specific reason. Regardless of why, this ongoing migration presents some very real problems for supply chain management to overcome.



Democratizing Simulation: A Revolution in Simulation

Through the process of “democratization” organizations can safely put the power of engineering simulation into the hands of those who are not experts in using CAE software, including product designers, new engineers and even those in technical sales and customer support. This resulting Democratizing of Simulation accelerates design validation, which in turn shortens time to market with more innovative products. But what are the challenges, benefits, and enabling technologies of this democratization movement; and what results are companies actually seeing today?

Read my article in 3D CAD World Magazine.
More articles here.
Visit Rev-Sim.Org.