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7 Ways to Reduce Non-Value-Added Work

in Industrial Design
Michelle Boucher

© Tech-Clarity 2021
SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
 Starting Design Projects Right

Get Even More Value from Concept Models

How much better would your products be if you had more time to get concepts right by reducing non-value-added work?

Concept design is critical to getting designs right from the beginning. Great industrial design ensures the product will be as
appealing as possible. Unfortunately, the inefficient processes used to develop these early models are fraught with non-value-
added work, ranging from poor methods to get early feedback to the inability to leverage much of the work during detail design.
All of this results in wasted efforts. If design teams could focus more of that time on productive work, they could expend more
effort making products more competitive.

About the Research

Based on a survey of 187 manufacturers, this research study examines industrial design, where time is wasted, and best practices
to avoid non-value-added work. These best practices will accelerate detail design by allowing them to leverage more of the hard
work done by industrial designers.

SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

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 Table of Contents

PAGE

Executive Summary 4
Importance of Concept and Industrial Design 5
Identifying Top Performers 6
Strategies to Reduce Non-Value-Added Work 7
1. Improve Efficiency with a Single Solution 8
2. Support Reuse by Leveraging the Concept during Detail Design 9
3. Enable Easy Iterations 10
4. Facilitate Internal Feedback 11
5. Solicit Customer Feedback 12
6. Select an Ideal Solution 13
7. Tie It Together on a Platform 14
Recommendations 15
About the Research 16
Acknowledgments 17

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 Executive Summary
Reducing Non-Value-Added Work
An overwhelming 76% of manufacturers
agree that spending more time on
concept and industrial design would
improve products. Unfortunately,
industrial designers waste significant
time on non-value-added work, which
holds them back. Further, detail
designers waste even more time
recreating industrial design details.
Reducing this non-value-added work
could help a company get to market
faster, optimize profitability, maximize
revenue potential, and offer more
competitive offerings.
Interestingly, 99% say that technology
should play a role in limiting this non-
value-added work. Moreover, the
research identified key ways technology
can help.
Seven Practices
This report reveals seven practices that
will reduce non-value-added work in
industrial design:
• Use a single solution to support
industrial and detail design.
• Leverage more of the concept model
during detail design.
SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
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• Streamline design iterations between
95% of Top
industrial and detail design.
• Facilitate internal feedback with more Performers who use a
efficient design reviews.
single solution for both
• Involve customers as early as
possible. industrial and detail
• Ensure your solution meets the unique design rate their
needs of industrial designers.
• Tie everything together with a cloud
remodeling process as
platform. ‘excellent’ or ‘very good.’
Other Key Findings
The research also revealed several other
interesting findings, including:
• 95% of Top Performers who use a
single solution for both industrial and
detail design rate their remodeling
process as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good.’
• 71% of industrial designers say it
would save time if customers could
provide more feedback early on.
• Industrial designers identify the top
quality of an ideal industrial design
solution as one that supports both
subdivision and parametric modeling.
 Importance of Concept and Industrial Design

Products Benefit with More Time
An overwhelming 76% of manufacturers
agree that spending more time on
concept and industrial design would
improve products. Unfortunately,
industrial designers report that many
challenges hold them back, preventing
that from happening. The graph reveals
the top challenges associated with
industrial and concept design.
TOP CHALLENGES DEVELOPING CONCEPT DESIGNS
Processes are inefficient
Sources of Wasted Work
The top challenges of concept design
include inefficiency, recreating work, and
late feedback. All of this results in non-
value-added work. These wasted efforts,
take designers away from more valuable
work that will make products more
competitive.
In fact, all of this non-value-added work
comes at a significant negative business
38%
impact. If companies can reduce some
of it, the extra time industrial designers
would get back will help the business in
many ways (see graph).
Interestingly, 99% say that technology
should play a role in limiting this non-
value-added work. However, what
should you look for to get such positive
results? Let’s look at what Top
Performing companies do.
IMPACT OF REDUCING NON-VALUE-
ADDED WORK DURING DEVELOPMENT
59%
53% Industrial Designers
47%
39%

Time consuming to iterate designs 35%

Difficulty getting timely feedback 33%

Too much time wasted reinventing 32%

the wheel

competitive
More
Maximize
Optimized
Get to market
faster

revenue
profitability

potential

offerings
Lack of tool flexibility to capture ideas 28%

Industrial Designers

SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

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 Identifying Top Performers
PERCENTAGE RATING THEIR PROCESSES AS ‘EXTREMELY’ OR
‘VERY’ EFFECTIVE
How Top Performers Were Defined
METRIC TOP PERFORMER OTHERS
To define Top Performers, Tech-Clarity identified the top 25%
of companies who outperform their competitors in metrics that
indicate product development success. These metrics were the Efficiently develop
ability to develop: concepts 88% 57%
• High-quality products
• Innovative products Transition from

• Products efficiently
concept to detailed 88% 70%
design
• Products that meet cost targets
We then focused on what Top Performers do, especially what Leverage design data
they do differently compared to Others. This analysis was then from one stage to the 87% 58%
next
used to identify the factors contributing to their success and
as a basis for recommendations.
Produce aesthetically
pleasing designs 83% 61%
The Top Performer Advantage
Top Performers have the right practices in place to get better
results. To understand what works well, industrial designers
and those working with industrial design data rated the
Share data with others 85% 58%
effectiveness of their processes.

The table compares the percentage of Top Performers to Minimize time spent on
Others who rated their processes as either ‘Extremely’ or non-value-added tasks 77% 47%
‘Very’ Effective. Top Performers have the right practices and
Top Performers are 64% more
technology in place to allow them to enjoy far more effective likely than Others to have effective
processes. As a result, they are 64% more likely than Others
to have effective processes to minimize non-value-added processes to minimize non-value-
tasks. Thus, they meet company objectives better for more
added tasks.
profitable and competitive products.

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 Strategies to Reduce Non-Value-Added Work

Top Strategies TOP STRATEGIES TO MINIMIZE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK

To reduce non-value-added work, the top areas Top DURING PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Performers focus on are improving collaboration, 60%
58% Top Performers
improving the accessibility of data, and maximizing
Others
reuse (see graph). Improving collaboration will
improve hand-offs between industrial and detail 49% 48%
designers. Also, it will make it easier to provide
feedback earlier during the design, when it will have 41%
39%
the most impact.

Making the data easier to access will complement

the strategy to improve collaboration by giving
collaborators access to the right data when they
need it. Top Performers are 49% more likely than
Others to implement this strategy. It also provides
Top Performers the flexibility to capture ideas
whenever they need to, supporting innovation
regardless of where they are.

Maximizing reuse will allow more of the concept

design to be leveraged during detail design, so
Improve Make it easier to Maximize reuse
engineers are not wasting time recreating work. This
collaboration access product data
will have a significant impact on reducing non-value- from anywhere
added work.

Top Performers are 49% more likely than

Seven Practices
Others to make it easier to access product data
Let's look at seven ways manufacturers can apply
these strategies to the top concept and industrial
from anywhere, supporting innovation and
design challenges to reduce non-value-added work. collaboration.

SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

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 1. Improve Efficiency with a Single Solution
Different Needs
Industrial and detail designers
have different needs due to
their unique design approaches.
For example, industrial
designers need flexibility, while
detail designers require
precision and structure to
communicate design details to
manufacturing properly.
Consequently, industrial
designers typically use a
separate design tool rather than
the CAD tool used by detail
designers.
New Solutions
However, there are now new
options that combine both
solutions into a single design
tool. The top impact of such a
tool addresses the top challenge
of industrial and concept design,
inefficient processes. It also
helps companies execute the
strategies to reduce non-value-
added work (see graph).
By using a single solution,
industrial and detail designers
SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
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do not have to waste time
IMPACT OF A SINGLE SOLUTION FOR INDUSTRIAL AND
importing and exporting data
DETAIL DESIGN
into different solutions every
time there is a change. In
addition, detail designers don't
have to worry about recreating
work in their tool because
54%
surfaces did not import Better design efficiency
properly. They also avoid
redoing that work with each
iteration.
47%
Easier collaboration
Each design role has access to
the latest design data with one
application. This offers real-time
visibility into each aspect of the
43%
design, improving collaboration. Better designs
Efficiency is also better because
they don't have to wait for the
other to export and manually
share their work. Less time redoing work 43%
due to changes
The Benefit
The time they save by
minimizing that non-value- Less time recreating 39%
added work and improving geometry
efficiency allows them to spend
more time on the actual design,
resulting in a better design.
Industrial Designers
 2. Support Reuse by Leveraging the Concept during
Detail Design
Barrier to Reuse could be minimized if they didn't waste HOW INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Much work goes into developing concept significant time due to the silos created by IS BROUGHT INTO CAD
designs and perfecting them to be just the tools and reinventing the wheel.
53%
right. Unfortunately, when industrial and
detail designers use separate tools, it can Single Tool for Both 43%
be difficult for detail designers to take Helping to overcome these challenges,
advantage of all that work. Consequently, industrial designers and those using
detail designers lose valuable time when industrial design data at Top Performing
they must recreate what already exists in companies use a single tool or a CAD tool
the concept model (see graphic). that understands native industrial design
data without conversion. As a result, they
Industrial Designers report that these
can avoid a lot of that wasted effort redoing
challenges result in lost productivity (49%),
the concept model. This is likely a
higher cost (44%), lost opportunities for
significant reason why Top Performers find CAD tool Use a single
innovation (35%), and poor quality and
their development processes to be more understands tool that
errors (31%). However, these impacts native supports both
effective.
industrial
TOP CHALLENGES CONVERTING CONCEPTS TO DETAILED DESIGNS design
Top Performers

Detail designers lose

valuable time when
Lost time Lack of tools to they must recreate
recreating leverage conceptual Working with
conceptual model model during multiple design what already exists in
information detailed design systems
the concept model.
43% 43% 43%

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 3. Enable Easy Iterations
RATE THEIR PROCESS FOR REMODELING INDUSTRIAL
Remodeling Industrial Design DESIGN AS “EXCELLENT” OR “VERY GOOD”
Once the industrial design is converted into a detailed
design, the industrial design work is not complete. 95%
Remodeling is often still required to incorporate better
No
Top Performers
ideas, implement engineering changes, fix errors,
address manufacturability issues, or other reasons. Yes
All Others
These iterations are critical, but take time.

Designers use a variety of methods to do the

remodeling. The research finds that most often, 47%
designers use a combination of industrial and detailed
design tools to do this remodeling. Designers report they
have to remodel each design 3.4 times. Each time it
takes 1.6 hours to bring the industrial design data back
into the detailed design tool. This results in 5.4 hours of
wasted time, creating quite a deterrent for any
iterations. This alone makes it easy to understand why
the time-consuming nature of iterations is rated as a top
challenge.

Use No
a single tool for A combination
Yes of
Streamline Iterations
both industrial and industrial and
While iterations are painful for most companies, 95% of detail design detailed design tools
Top Performers who use a single solution for both
industrial and detail design rate their remodeling process
as 'excellent' or 'very good.' Comparatively, Others are 95% of Top Performing who use a single
more likely to use a combination of individual industrial
solution for both industrial and detail
design and detail design tools. Yet, only 47% find their
remodeling processes to be 'excellent' or 'very good.' The design rate their remodeling process as
implication is that much of the pain of iterating the ‘excellent’ or ‘very good.’
design can be minimized by using a single solution.

SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

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 4. Facilitate Internal Feedback

Design Review Challenges
Getting timely feedback is also a
challenge for industrial designers. The
earlier they can get feedback, the easier
it is to incorporate it. However, getting
it early can be challenging.
factors associated with design reviews
that consume time. Industrial designers
report the most time-consuming aspects
of design reviews to be:
• Capturing all feedback during the
meeting (50%)
regularly without waiting for the formal
design review. Industrial designers also
won't waste as much time gathering
design details to prepare for the
meeting because stakeholders will
already have access.

Design reviews are one of the most • Preparing design files for review Sharing the 3D model via a web link
common methods to get internal design (48%) makes it easier for stakeholders to
feedback. However, there are many • Communicating design aspects during access the design, especially those who
the meeting (44%) are less technical and do not have
MOST HELPFUL TO IMPROVE DESIGN access to design tools or engineers
REVIEW EFFICIENCY Design Review Best Practices
without access to the industrial design
44% Top Performers have adopted several tool. It is also a more efficient process
40% practices that improve design review for designers.
37% 38%
efficiency. They are most likely to share
31% concepts and designs as a 3D digital A Single Platform
model to get feedback. The 3D model A single, integrated design collaboration
can help improve communication platform is a way to make all of this
22%
because it is easier to visualize the final possible. It offers a way to share 3D
product, especially for less technical designs via a web link and provides all
staff. Also, it is less time-consuming to stakeholders with real-time access. A
share existing 3D compared to other design platform that integrates
methods such as creating presentation industrial design and detailed design
slides or screenshots. also allows consistent access to a single
design model. It makes it easier to
Top Performers also find several other
Real-time Option to Single, access the design data from a single
practices improve design review
visibility to share model integrated location, no matter where you are. The
design via a web link design efficiency (see graph). For example, if
result will make it easier to get timely
progress collaboration all stakeholders have real-time visibility
platform feedback on the design as it evolves.
to the design, they can provide feedback
Top Performers All Others

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 5. Solicit Customer Feedback

Involve Customers
Customer feedback is invaluable for ensuring a product will meet
market needs. In fact, an overwhelming 71% of industrial designers 71% of industrial designers say it
say it would save time if customers could provide more early
feedback. Unfortunately, it is hard to involve customers sooner for
would save time if customers could
many reasons (see graph). provide more early feedback.
The biggest is security concerns. Sharing intellectual property (IP)
with customers while developing a product must be done carefully.
Sharing design files directly creates a security risk as you lose WHY CUSTOMERS DON'T PROVIDE EARLY DESIGN FEEDBACK
control over who has access to your design. However, other
methods are lacking as customers can not interact with a flat image
to truly evaluate design ideas and product potential. Further, a
physical prototype takes time to build.
49%
Security concerns
It can also be hard to capture customer feedback and associate it
with specific design details. Finally, the more customers you involve
in a review, the better, but it can be time-consuming to meet with
Do not have a way to 42%
multiple customers and capture their feedback. share early design
details
Grant Customer Access
The same practices that Top Performers find improve design review
efficiency can also apply to customer reviews. Sharing a 3D model is Too hard to capture 31%
the best way to get early customer insight before physical their feedback
prototypes are available, so sharing via a web link through a
collaboration platform provides a more secure method to offer early
visibility to your products. Customers will not have direct access to
27%
the design files, and you can turn off access when you no longer Takes too long
need their feedback, so the data remains protected. Customer can
also add their comments directly to the model so you can easily Industrial Designers
capture their input in a less time-consuming way.

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 6. Select an Ideal Solution

CAD Limitations Ideal Solution Criteria

Industrial designers Most of the best practices have pointed to
believe an ideal solution using a single solution for industrial and
should support both detail design. However, this is not an
option if that single solution does not offer
subdivision and the capabilities industrial designers need.
parametric modeling.
There are many reasons why traditional
WHY INDUSTRIAL DESIGN CAD used for detailed design does not
IS NOT DONE IN CAD work well for industrial design (see
graphic). The results show that traditional
CAD is far too restrictive for industrial
designers and it lacks some of the critical
capabilities they need. However, as long
Lacks needed
capabilities as the CAD tool can also support key
industrial design functions, it can be an
37%
option.
IDEAL INDUSTRIAL DESIGN SOLUTION
The lower graph shows the key qualities
industrial designers would like to see in an
ideal solution. They are largely in
agreement regardless of company
performance, but Top Performers are
more likely to pick the top ones.
The results show that industrial designers
believe an ideal solution should support
both detail and industrial design, but it
should have superior subdivision modeling
capabilities. They also value collaboration
capabilities to make it easier to get timely
feedback. Tablet support is also
appreciated.

Lack of Single tool supporting both subdivision and 56%

Poor rendering
flexibility to and animation parametric modeling 47%
experiment capabilities
28% 26% 44%
Superior subdivision modeling capabilities 34%

Requirements Too rigid 38%

Collaboration capabilities to solicit design
to manage
part & assembly 25% feedback 31% Top Performers
All Others
structures
38%
26% Tablet support 32%

SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

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 7. Tie It Together on a Platform

The Right Infrastructure as you need them. This can support a

A single solution to support industrial and
detail design combined with collaboration
capabilities can be a powerful way to
significantly reduce the amount of non-
value-added work in industrial design.
However, to tie it together, you need the
right infrastructure. A cloud platform is
an option that can offer that. The graph
shows the top ways industrial designers
at Top Performing companies believe a
cloud platform will improve efficiency.
single solution with the required
industrial design capabilities along with
detail design functionality, without
compromising requirements for either
role. Designers can also access the Industrial designers at Top
functionality they need without waiting
Performing companies feel
for IT to install updates. Finally, the cloud
offers hardware flexibility that allows
the cloud can improve
industrial designers to work on a tablet if efficiency through better
desired. collaboration.

WAYS A CLOUD PLATFORM COULD IMPROVE EFFICIENCY

The Cloud
The number one way industrial designers
at Top Performing companies feel the 56%
cloud can improve efficiency is through Easier collaboration
43%
better collaboration. It allows a person to
access the design data wherever they
44%
are, without worrying about configuring Easier access to the specialized tools I
the IT infrastructure to make it possible. need 33%
This allows all stakeholders and even
customers unique visibility into your 42%
products very early on, making it easier Fewer IT tasks
36%
to get invaluable feedback to provide
design guidance.
40%
The cloud can also offer a platform that Hardware flexibility
38%
makes it easier to access specialized tools

Top Performers All Others

SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
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 Recommendations

Recommendations and Next Steps

Based on industry experience and research for this report, Tech-Clarity offers the
following recommendations:

• Investments to improve the efficiency of industrial and concept design can offer
a competitive advantage.

• Consider a single solution to support industrial and detail design so that rather
than wasting time importing, exporting, fixing, and recreating data, designers
can spend more time on critical design work.
• Ensure that detail designers can reuse as much of the concept design as
possible. Reinventing the wheel by recreating design details already in the
concept model wastes their time. Instead, they could use that time to innovate,
improve product quality, or beat deadlines to get to market faster.
• Reduce barriers to iterations so industrial and detail designers can remodel the
design as needed to improve upon ideas, implement engineering changes, or fix
manufacturability issues. When their work is siloed, iterations involve importing
Recreating concept and exporting data, which wastes hours.

model details wastes • Improve the timeliness of internal feedback with more streamlined ways to
solicit feedback and more efficient design reviews. Real-time visibility to design
efforts, consuming time progress on a single, integrated design collaboration platform can improve
needed to innovate, collaboration to efficiently collect feedback.

improve product quality, • Involve customers as early as possible to provide feedback to help ensure your
product aligns with customer needs.
and get to market faster. • When selecting a single solution for industrial and detail design, ensure it
supports both subdivision and parametric modeling.

• Tie everything together with a cloud platform so that you have the
infrastructure to support better collaboration, and designers can access the
software capabilities they need on the hardware they prefer.
SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
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 About the Research

Data Gathering disclose their company 10% Product / Project /

size. Company sizes were Program Management, The respondents
Tech-Clarity gathered and
analyzed responses to a reported in US dollar and the remainder were represented a mix of
equivalent. from a variety of other
web-based survey from
roles, including Analysts,
industries, company sizes,
187manufacturers.
Survey responses were Geographies
IT, and more. and geographies.
collected by direct e-mail,
Responding companies
social media, and online * Note that the values may
report doing business in
postings by Tech-Clarity. total greater than 100%
North America (42%), because companies reported
Western Europe (36%), doing business in multiple
Industries Asia (25%), Australia industries and geographies.
The respondents (6%), Middle East (6%),
represent a broad cross- Latin America (2%),
section of industries. 27% Eastern Europe (1%), and
were from Industrial Africa (1%).*
Equipment, 19% Eastern Europe
Consumer Products, 16% 1%
High-Tech, 16% Life Title
Sciences, 14% The respondents were
Automotive, 10% comprised of 18% Western
Aerospace & Defense, and Executive, 31% Directors Europe
others.* or VP Level, 23% Manager Asia
36%
level, and 27% individual North 25%
contributors. America
Company Size
The respondents 42% Middle
represent a mix of Organizational East
Africa
company sizes, including Function 6%
1%
27% from less than $50 Of the respondents, 48% Latin
million, 14% $100 million were in Product America
to $250 million, 22% Design/Engineering roles, 2% Australia
$251 to $1 billion, and including Industrial 6%
30% greater than a Design, 14%
billion. 7% did not Manufacturing Engineers,

SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

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 Acknowledgments
About the Author

Michelle Boucher is the Vice President of Research for Tech-Clarity.com

Engineering Software for Tech-Clarity. Michelle has spent
over 20 years in various roles in engineering, marketing,
management, and as an analyst. TechClarity.inc

Michelle graduated magna cum laude with an MBA from @TechClarityInc

Babson College and earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering,
with distinction, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She is
an experienced researcher and author, having benchmarked Tech-Clarity
over 7000 product development professionals and published
over 90 reports on product development best practices.

Michelle Boucher Tech-Clarity is an independent research firm dedicated to making the business value of
Vice President technology clear. We analyze how companies improve innovation, product development, design,
engineering, manufacturing, and service performance through the use of digital transformation,
Tech-Clarity
best practices, software technology, industrial automation, and IT services.

Image Credits Boris Schwarzer (CC BY-S.A. 3.0) <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0> via Wikimedia Commons (cover, pg. 2) | Miguel Campos (assumed), CC BY-
SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0> via Wikimedia Commons (pg. 4)

Copyright Notice Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from
Tech-Clarity, Inc. is strictly prohibited. This eBook is licensed to SolidWorks / www.solidworks.com

SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE NON-VALUE-ADDED WORK IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

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