Design IQ: An Integrated System for Smart Engineering Metrics

Weight and cost are pivotal factors in new product development, significantly impacting areas such as regulatory compliance and overall efficiency. Traditionally, monitoring these parameters across various stages involves manual processes that are often time-intensive and prone to delays, thereby affecting the productivity of design teams. In current workflows, designers must manually extract weight and center of gravity (CG) data for each component from disparate sources such as CAD models or supplier documents. This data is then consolidated into reports typically using spreadsheets before being analyzed at the module level. The process requires careful organization, unit consistency, and manual calculations to assess the impact of each component on overall system performance. These steps are not only laborious but also susceptible to human error, limiting agility in design iterations.To address these challenges, there is a conceptual opportunity to develop a system that could automate the extraction and analysis of weight data. Such a system might include features for identifying anomalies, estimating module-level impacts, and forecasting future changes. Additionally, it could incorporate simulation capabilities to model the effects of design modifications on weight distribution and center of gravity. By enabling real-time data integration and predictive insights, this approach could support more informed decision-making, reduce manual effort, and enhance the accuracy of design data. Notably, by streamlining these processes, the proposed system has the potential to reduce the overall product development timeline by approximately one month, offering a significant advantage in time-to-market. This paper explores the potential of such a system, outlining its envisioned functionalities and the anticipated benefits in terms of efficiency, cost control, and design optimization.