Altair Case Studies Automating Reporting Process in Automotive Industry: A Case Study of F.tech R&D North America

	Automating Reporting Process in Automotive Industry: A Case Study of F.tech R&D North America Altair

Automating Reporting Process in Automotive Industry: A Case Study of F.tech R&D North America

Altair

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
Applicable Industries	Automotive Equipment & Machinery
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Experimentation Automation Time Sensitive Networking
Services	Testing & Certification
Challenge	F.tech R&D North America, a world-class certified Tier-1 international automotive systems supplier, was facing a challenge in their reporting process. The company utilizes HyperView to investigate test results, using the data to inform decisions on methods to improve designs. This data is often used to create reports and presentations during the development process, using images and animations generated by HyperView to illustrate particular areas of a component where additional work may be required. However, exporting these assets was a highly manual process of loading in results, positioning the model and taking screenshots. This was time-consuming and took away from the engineers' time to focus on exploring and interpreting the results. F.tech R&D North America wanted a way of automating this process to reduce the time taken to produce project reports. Read More
About Customer	F.tech R&D North America, founded in 1947, is a world-class certified Tier-1 international automotive systems supplier. Headquartered in Japan, with a research and development office located in Troy, OH, the company provides a range of automotive components to its OEM partners including subframes, trailing arms, lower control arms and pedals. F.tech R&D North America has full in-house R&D capabilities including design, CAE, prototyping, and testing. It has its own research and development groups along with design and engineering service teams that work on CAE and testing lab validation. F.tech R&D North America’s CAE team focuses on virtual design validation and makes extensive use of simulation tools, including Altair’s own HyperWorks suite. Read More
Solution	Altair ProductDesign’s Enterprise Solutions Group (ESG) was approached to provide a solution. They tackled the reporting issues in two parts. First, they evaluated the 50 different testing metrics F.tech R&D North America generally uses to generate a report and recommended that Altair’s Automated Reporting Director (ARD) could be implemented to help streamline reporting activities. ARD is integrated directly into the HyperView environment and is designed to eliminate the tedious and repetitive tasks associated with the mechanics of generating reports. The solution automates the detection of result maxima or hot spots, best view selection, creation of notes and legends, and highlights the most interesting results in an interactive tab. Altair ProductDesign customized the ARD to meet company-wide best practices and ensure it would work seamlessly within the existing workflow. They then trained key members of F.tech R&D North America’s engineering team on how to use the new panels in HyperView effectively. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation

Applicable Industries

Automotive

Equipment & Machinery

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Experimentation Automation

Time Sensitive Networking

Services

Testing & Certification

Challenge

F.tech R&D North America, a world-class certified Tier-1 international automotive systems supplier, was facing a challenge in their reporting process. The company utilizes HyperView to investigate test results, using the data to inform decisions on methods to improve designs. This data is often used to create reports and presentations during the development process, using images and animations generated by HyperView to illustrate particular areas of a component where additional work may be required. However, exporting these assets was a highly manual process of loading in results, positioning the model and taking screenshots. This was time-consuming and took away from the engineers' time to focus on exploring and interpreting the results. F.tech R&D North America wanted a way of automating this process to reduce the time taken to produce project reports.

About Customer

F.tech R&D North America, founded in 1947, is a world-class certified Tier-1 international automotive systems supplier. Headquartered in Japan, with a research and development office located in Troy, OH, the company provides a range of automotive components to its OEM partners including subframes, trailing arms, lower control arms and pedals. F.tech R&D North America has full in-house R&D capabilities including design, CAE, prototyping, and testing. It has its own research and development groups along with design and engineering service teams that work on CAE and testing lab validation. F.tech R&D North America’s CAE team focuses on virtual design validation and makes extensive use of simulation tools, including Altair’s own HyperWorks suite.

Solution

Altair ProductDesign’s Enterprise Solutions Group (ESG) was approached to provide a solution. They tackled the reporting issues in two parts. First, they evaluated the 50 different testing metrics F.tech R&D North America generally uses to generate a report and recommended that Altair’s Automated Reporting Director (ARD) could be implemented to help streamline reporting activities. ARD is integrated directly into the HyperView environment and is designed to eliminate the tedious and repetitive tasks associated with the mechanics of generating reports. The solution automates the detection of result maxima or hot spots, best view selection, creation of notes and legends, and highlights the most interesting results in an interactive tab. Altair ProductDesign customized the ARD to meet company-wide best practices and ensure it would work seamlessly within the existing workflow. They then trained key members of F.tech R&D North America’s engineering team on how to use the new panels in HyperView effectively.

Impact #1	The implementation of Altair’s Automated Reporting Director (ARD) has brought significant operational benefits to F.tech R&D North America. The ARD has become an invaluable asset for the company to use whenever an engineer has a need to create, exchange, or present simulation result reports internally and externally. The engineering team is now able to better estimate the length of time needed for report generation, no matter if it’s a 10 page or 50 page report or the variable being tested. This has allowed the F.tech engineers to focus entirely on interpreting and understanding the results as opposed to manually creating the required reports. The solution has not only streamlined the reporting process but also improved the overall efficiency of the engineering team.

Impact #1

The implementation of Altair’s Automated Reporting Director (ARD) has brought significant operational benefits to F.tech R&D North America. The ARD has become an invaluable asset for the company to use whenever an engineer has a need to create, exchange, or present simulation result reports internally and externally. The engineering team is now able to better estimate the length of time needed for report generation, no matter if it’s a 10 page or 50 page report or the variable being tested. This has allowed the F.tech engineers to focus entirely on interpreting and understanding the results as opposed to manually creating the required reports. The solution has not only streamlined the reporting process but also improved the overall efficiency of the engineering team.

Benefit #1	Standardized report generation
Benefit #2	Time saving of 80% in report generation process
Benefit #3	Reduced report generation time from an average of 4 hours to just a few minutes

Benefit #1

Standardized report generation

Benefit #2

Time saving of 80% in report generation process

Benefit #3

Reduced report generation time from an average of 4 hours to just a few minutes

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Overview

Automating Reporting Process in Automotive Industry: A Case Study of F.tech R&D North America

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit