SGI® Reality CenterTM solutions are
critical tools that allow leaders in today's global manufacturing
industry to reengineer their product development practices in
order to bring new, better-quality products to market faster,
at a lower cost, with more options for consumers. SGI Reality
Center environments support the entire product development process,
from conceptual modeling to engineering and design review, visualization
of complex analysis data, factory floor simulation, training,
and review for customers.
By facilitating collaborative decision making and interdepartmental communication, SGI Reality Center solutions enable teams to identify and resolve design and manufacturing problems earlier. By making the right decisions based on digital data, companies can optimize their designs and reduce the number of physical prototypes built, thus saving both time and money.
In SGI Reality Center collaborative environments, visualization provides a common language and allows groups of designers, engineers, and end users to experience their products, not just view them. Users are immersed in their designs and simulations, which lets them interact with products not yet found in the physical world.
"Our experience with virtual reality has already proven itself as far as communication is concerned. The fast, direct option of working together to solve problems has an effect on how people get along with one another and how motivated they are in their work," says Professor Bharat Balasubramanian, director at Mercedes-Benz car development, responsible for overall processes. The company estimates that its new SGI Reality Center facility will reduce the costs of making Mercedes-Benz prototype models by up to 20% and substantially shorten product development times while improving quality.
"In some areas, we are seeing reductions in cycle time and cost savings in the range of 70% to 80%, and visualization has been a key component in helping us meet these targets," says Kevan Western, program manager for VPDI, Lockheed Martin.
"Boeing used advanced graphics capabilities and multiple CPUs from SGI to perform collaborative fly-through sessions, as well as virtual assembly and maintenance tasks to ensure concurrent engineering and first-time quality," states Jim O'Neill, chief of engineering for the Boeing Joint Strike Fighter program. "These processes, and the hardware that made them possible, allowed us to define and integrate the aircraft across multiple companies in record time, with higher quality and at a fraction of the cost that we had before."
Thomson multimedia figures it can slice its typical product development cycle by 20% using its SGI Reality Center facility. Its design center has eliminated the necessity of building multiple product mockups early in the design cycle, a process that used to take four weeks or more. "Now, instead of making 12 mockups, we're down to making one or two of them--once we've settled on the direction we're going to go," said Dave Arland, director of public relations at Thomson.
Plane courtesy Lockheed Martin