Company Background
MDS Sciex is a division of MDS Inc., a fast growing Canadian Health sciences company listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchange, with sales in excess of $1.4 billion in 2000. Over the past 25 years MDS Sciex has built a considerable reputation as a manufacturer of scientific instrumentation. Based in Concord, Ontario, the company employs more than 450 highly skilled professionals, who are involved in research and development, design and manufacturer of mass spectrometer instruments.

Mass spectrometers are analytical instruments used to identify traces of elements or molecular substances in different media. MDS Sciex products are separated into two distinct product lines: those that are used for organic and inorganic elements.

Challenge
The overall goal of product development is to develop and introduce products into the market place that achieve the performance requirements, cost targets, quality levels and meet/exceed customer expectations in time frames of 12 to 18 months.

In order to meet this challenge, MDS Sciex re-organized product development into a discipline based matrix organization. This structure provided much more flexibility, standardized mechanical, electrical and software engineering approaches for all products and allowed projects to be staffed from specific disciplines who approached design from a common set of standards for all projects.

It became apparent that an upgrade to our existing CAD platform was required in order for us to further reduce our product development design cycles times.

Productivity of individual designers and engineers has reached a plateau since the implementation of solid modeling design capabilities three and a half years ago. MDS Sciex needed further productivity improvement of the entire extended product development team to compete in this market place.

The details of our requirements are outlined below:

Designing Complex Parts and Managing Large Assemblies

• Reliably facilitate the design, management and control of reasonably large parts and assemblies.

Capturing Our Knowledge

• Capturing design approaches and methodologies that are constantly being reused from project to project.
• Incorporating design rules and guidelines within the CAD tool.

Integration with MATRIX One PDM System

• MATRIX One being integrated across all MDS SCIEX departments and CAD tools will have to interface with it.

CAE Capability

• Analyze mechanical parts and assemblies for heat, stress, deformation and motion under specific operating conditions.

Solving Design/Technical/Process Problems

• Facilitating the ability of our engineers and designers to solve various design problems quickly would enhance their capability to get products completed faster.
• Virtual Integration of Remote Design and Manufacturing Environments
• Seamlessly integrate local and remote designs of subassemblies into a product in a timely and efficient manner through the use of Web based tools and approaches. Merging of MCAD and ECAD Data and Design Files
• Requirements exist to efficiently import cable designs, electronic components and assembled printed circuit boards into the final mechanical assembly package.
• Ability to track, document and process engineering changes in a multi-discipline, multi-platform environment.

On the knowledge based engineering side there is an opportunity to reuse much of what has been already instead of redoing all of the work and our high level requirements are outlined below:

• Retrieval of product related marketing, hardware, software specifications, test data, engineering and research reports, engineering changes, corrective actions etc.
  
  
• Specific discipline related knowledge on reuse of design approaches, concepts, rules, standards and decision making.
  
  
• Requirements management.

The lessons learned were as follows:

• Implementation always takes longer than expected.
• Set up internal IT, PDM and Engineering infra-structures through small pilot programs.
• Properly train people in the use of the tools.
• Provide Technical support for users on site.
• Train/educate down stream users of the CAD data
• Work with your Suppliers on IT and Data Management and control issues.

In conclusion with the implementation of CATIA V5 our product development teams can get back to working on efficient design solutions and others within the company can take advantage of the capabilities offered.

• Designers and engineers need to spend their creativity and energies solving technical problems.
• Tap into extensive CATIA V5 product family to further enhance the efficiency of our entire product development process.
• CATIA V5 is putting "Focus and Enjoyment" back into design at MDS SCIEX today.

George Valaitis was one of the general session speakers at the COE Spring 2001 conference, where his presentation was very well received. Copies of this presentation are available for members.