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© Tech-Clarity 2020
HOW TO ENGINEER HIGH-PERFORMING, QUALITY PRODUCTS WITHOUT EXTRA COST
 Getting It Right the First Time

Make the Right Design Decisions

How do you get better insight into product performance while managing multiple design criteria, yet still meet deadlines, cost
targets, and quality requirements? Companies are increasingly relying on exceptional engineering to keep product competitive.
However, as products grow in complexity, more physics become involved, and it becomes that much harder to confidently make
the right design decisions. How can engineers get better insight to guide them on the path to the ideal design?

About this Study

This research study, based on a survey of 272 manufacturers, examines various factors engineers must consider as they make
design decisions. This study reveals best practices for obtaining better insights during engineering and design, including why
simulating multiple physics is a key enabler to guide superior decisions.

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 Table of Contents

PAGE
Executive Summary 4
What It Takes to Succeed 5
What Holds Engineers Back? 6
Consider the Variety of Engineering Problems 7
Better Insight Early on Will Improve Products 8
Identifying Top Performing Companies 9
Make Design Decisions Easier 10
Benefits Regardless of Product Complexity 11
Benefits of Analyzing Multiple Physics 12
Best Practices for Multiple Physics 13
Access What You Need, When You Need it 14
Recommendations and Conclusions 15
About the Research 16
Acknowledgments 17

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 Executive Summary
Engineering Is Critical to Success
With global competition and an uncertain
economy, companies face significant pressure to
develop the right products. To attract
customers, engineers must balance numerous
criteria, often conflicting, to meet product
requirements for quality, reliability, innovation,
and performance. They must assess the impact
of an assortment of complex materials,
components, and subsystems and evaluate how
they will perform in a wide range of scenarios.
Missing the mark can put market share at risk.
Growing Complexity
Navigating this complexity is no small feat as it
requires a deep level of expertise. The sheer
variety of physics involved make it incredibly
difficult for engineers to confidently make
decisions. Personal experience simply isn’t
enough. In fact, 67% of survey respondents say
complexity has grown over the last five years,
and 44% find it has gotten even harder to make
critical design decisions. Yet, Top Performers
are 58% more likely than their competitors to
be confident in their decisions.
Better Decisions
Despite complexity, Top Performers are 2.2
times more likely than Others to have effective
processes to understand trade-offs and optimize
products. A key differentiator leading to their
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success it their ability to simulate multiple
physics. Top Performers are 89% more likely
than Others to find analyzing multiple physics
makes design decisions easier. Even those
developing simple products reveal simulating
multiple physics helps them become more
competitive.
Multiple Physics Value
Companies report numerous benefits since they
started simulating multiple physics. For
example, 80% say product quality has
improved. Further, they report a 30% product
cost reduction. No wonder Top Performers have
a competitive advantage. 80% say that
product quality
Implementation Tips
While simulating multiple physics helps Top has improved
Performing companies, how they use it matters
too. They are 42% more likely than their peers since they
to enable design engineers to use all of their started
simulation licenses. Plus, they have access to
more physics, with 57% licensing four or more simulating
different physics analyses.
multiple physics.
Managing various licenses while anticipating
physics needs can be challenging, especially
when requirements vary by project. A cloud
platform can be a way to overcome this. It
allows the flexibility to access the physics you
need, when you need them.
 What It Takes to Succeed

Attract Customers
Business success comes down to who does the
Top Performers simultaneously place nearly best job winning over customers. To understand
equal importance on quality, reliability, the drivers, we asked survey respondents why
customers buy their companies’ products (see
innovation, and performance. graph). While everyone relies on quality to
attract customers, interestingly, Top Performers
simultaneously place nearly equal importance
WHY CUSTOMERS BUY YOUR PRODUCTS on other criteria too.

Quality, reliability, innovation, and performance

all depend on engineering, and when
88% engineering is successful, brand reputation gets
Product quality
72% a boost. The results show that Top Performers
have done a better job empowering engineers
to make better decisions to meet more criteria.
80% Consequently, customers are more likely to buy
Reliability their products.
56%
Support Innovation
76% Top Performing companies are 2.9 times more
Level of innovation likely to attract customers with innovation.
26% Innovation is tricky because it introduces risk,
but it’s a critical revenue driver. Plus, many
teams struggle with finding the bandwidth to
76% innovate.
Performance
59%
Supporting the decision-making process so that
engineers have greater confidence in their work
69% can reduce risks. It also improves engineering
Brand reputation efficiency because they will waste less time
49% reworking designs due to errors, freeing them
up to invest the time in innovation during
Top Performers Others upfront stages.
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 What Holds Engineers Back?

Increasing Complexity
While engineering decisions are critical to product success,
making the right decision can be very difficult. In fact, 44% of
respondents say it has gotten harder to make the right
decisions that impact competitiveness. Increasing complexity
is a major reason for this, as 67% say that products have
continued to grow in complexity over the last five years.

Factors Impacting Modern Products

Engineers must consider a variety of factors to ensure
products meet customer’s expectations (see list on right).
54% report that their products’
Strikingly, 54% say that at least three or more of these impact performance is impacted by at least 3 of
their products’ performance. Even 28% of those developing
simple products find at least three impact performance.
the following:
Each item is complex on its own, involving multiple physics
and requiring a deep level of specialized expertise. Then in the • Electrical components
context of the entire product, complexity grows exponentially • Sensors
with multiple interacting component. It is nearly impossible for
a single engineer to possess the in-depth knowledge required • Elastic materials
to confidently make the right design decisions based purely on • Motors
personal experience. To develop high-quality, top-performing,
reliable, innovative products, they need to think about a lot • Fluids
more than just structural integrity.
• Composites
Low Confidence • Antennas and communication systems
Given this, it is not surprising that barely half, 55%, of Others
are confident in their decisions impacted these materials,
components, and subsystems. On the other hand, 87% of Top
Performing companies are confident.

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 Consider the Variety of Engineering Problems
Design Challenges
Minimize thermal stress / expansion
Evaluate contact interactions / components that
slide against each other
Optimize multiple parameters simultaneously
Should Consider
Numerous Design Challenges
As engineers consider the impact of complex
58% materials, components, and subsystems, they must
also solve various engineering problems (see list on
56% left). The list includes the percentage of engineers
who say the challenge should be considered during
development. This list is far from comprehensive,
54% but represents the range of problems engineers
must solve.

Reduce weight 47% An overwhelming 97% say they must consider at

least one item on this list, while 60% report they
should think about five or more. That’s an
Understand large deformations 46% incredible variety of problems and physics to
evaluate.
Impact of electrical fields on other
components/product performance 44% Electronics Mean More Physics
The significant increase in the amount of electronics
Manage vibration 42% in today’s products is one of the major drivers for
an increase in the number of design challenges
Avoid overheating 41% engineers should consider. For example, heat and
vibration are top sources of electronics failures, so
engineers must consider them to ensure quality, as
Avoid fractures 40% well as the impact of electrical fields. Combined
with product complexity, this is no small feat. In
Avoid buckling 28% fact, only 52% of engineers at average performing
companies understand the impact. Meanwhile, 82%
of Top Performing companies understand them.
Regulate pressure 26%

Impact of electrical fields on the human body 22%

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 Better Insight Early on Will Improve Products

Develop Better Products TOP AREAS THAT WOULD IMPROVE PRODUCTS WITH
It’s critical to understand how those design BETTER INSIGHT
challenges impact the design as they have a
direct effect on product quality, performance,
and reliability. Respondents were asked in
which areas better insights would help them
improve products. The graphic shows the top
areas. If engineers had better insights, they
could make even better design decisions to
solve these challenges. These are the top Reduce Weight
areas engineers need improved methods for 46%
problem solving.

Top Performers have figured out how to

Optimize Parameters
navigate the complexity and have better Simultaneously
methods for solving the design challenges. 45%
Let’s take a look at what Top Performers are
doing to achieve this.
Thermal Stress /
Expansion
35%
Large
Deformations
33%
Manage Vibration
35%
Sliding
Components
33% Avoid Fractures
Electrical Fields
35%
26% Avoid
Overheating
32%

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 Identifying Top Performing
Companies
How Top Performers Were Defined
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
ability to develop: PERCENTAGE RATING THEIR PROCESSES AS “HIGHLY” OR
“VERY” EFFECTIVE
• High quality products
• Innovative products METRIC TOP PERFORMER OTHERS
• Products efficiently
• Products that meet cost targets
We then focused on what Top Performers do differently compared
Understand trade-offs 91% 41%
to Others to identify the factors contributing to their success.

Identify problems early

The Top Performer Advantage during the 86% 50%
development process
Because of the practices Top Performers have put in place, they
do a better job of hitting their targets than competitors. They
empower engineers so that they make better design decisions
that result in better products. Optimize products 96% 43%
Top Performers are 2.2 times more likely than Others to have
effective processes to understand trade-offs and optimize
products. They are also 73% more likely to identify problems Top Performers are 2.2 times more
early on during design. This shows that they get the needed
insight to balance competing factors and make the right design
likely than Others to have effective
decisions. Plus, this insight helps them identify potential problems processes to understand trade-offs
early on so they can focus more effort on innovation rather than
rework. They achieve all this without compromising efficiency. and optimize products.
Together, all of this provides them with a competitive advantage.

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 Make Design Decisions Easier

SOFTWARE CAPABILITIES THAT MAKE What Top Performers Do development cycle. However, by simulating
DESIGN DECISIONS EASIER Research from Tech-Clarity’s How to multiple physics during design, engineers
Survive and Win New Markets by Getting get earlier insight and can adjust the design
73% Even More Value from Simulation found that to ensure KPIs are met prior to any physical
regardless of performance, more experience testing.
solving problems, better software tools, and
company guidelines are the top ways that Multiple Physics vs. Multi-Physics
make design decisions easier. We live in a multi-physics world, so the
ability to obtain realistic insights requires
However, there is a significant difference
evaluating multiple physics. Ideally, these
when asked about the software capabilities
physics can be simulated simultaneously in
that make engineering decisions easier. Top
a single analysis, but there is also value in
Performers are 89% more likely than Others
evaluating multiple physics as several
to point to analyzing multiple physics.
different analyses.
35% Interestingly, while some say simulating a
single physics is helpful, for most, it is not For example, an engineer designing a laptop
enough, and it’s the ability to evaluate could do a stress analysis to ensure it won’t
27%
multiple physics that really supports break. However, considering the amount of
decision making (see graph). heat electronics give off, combined with
trends for smaller devices, Computational
For example, engineers can obtain early and
15% Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis also becomes
accurate measurements to validate multiple
critical to design for proper cooler. This
key performance indicators (KPIs). They can
would be evaluating multiple physics. The
assess, will the product overheat? How
engineer could also conduct a multi-physics
much pressure can the product withstand?
analysis such as Fluid Structure Interaction
Will the realized factor of safety meet
(FSI) to get an even better understanding
requirements? Can I use a less expensive
of what happens when the laptop overheats
Ability to Ability to material and still meet performance
and the case swells. The engineer would
simulate simulate a requirements? These problems typically
then have insights into the impact on the
multiple single physics involve multiple physics and can be difficult
components' structural integrity while
physics only to measure without specialized physical
evaluating the altered airflow. This can
tests. Unfortunately, the results take time
allow for even better design optimization.
Top Performers Others and won’t be available until later in the

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 Benefits Regardless of Product Complexity

Even Simple Products Benefit

Of those not using multiple physics simulations, the top reason
preventing them is that they do not believe their products are
complex enough. It is hard to imagine how a tool you haven't
used could help you. Therefore, looking at those who do conduct
simulations with multiple physics, an overwhelming 89% say it
helps engineers make better design decisions about the criteria
Of those who do simulate multiple
that impact product competitiveness. Further, even 82% of physics, an overwhelming 89% say it
those developing simple products who simulate multiple physics
say it helps them develop more competitive products. This helps engineers make better design
indicates that even those who think their products are not decisions.
complex enough would likely benefit from using multiple physics
in ways they do not anticipate.

ANALYZING MULTIPLE PHYSICS IMPROVES DECISIONS TO

BECOME MORE COMPETITIVE

Product Complexity Percent That Find Multiple Physics

Improves Competitiveness

Simple 82%

Medium 82%

Complex 100%

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 Benefits of Analyzing Multiple Physics

Higher Quality COST SAVINGS ACHIEVED SINCE SIMULATING MULTIPLE PHYSICS

Those who simulate multiple physics see many benefits. As the
earlier results show, product quality is critical for attracting Product Complexity Cost Savings
customers. An overwhelming 80% of companies say they
improved product quality since they started simulating multiple
physics. Even 74% of those developing simple products say
Simple 28%
product quality improved, providing further evidence that even
simple products can benefit. Medium 31%
Lower Cost
Profitability is also critical to company success. Those simulating
Complex 31%
multiple physics experience significant benefits in their ability to
take cost out of their products. The ability to look at different
physics and conduct trade-offs helps engineers identify precisely BENEFITS OF ASSESSING MULTIPLE PHYSICS
where they can take cost out without compromising quality.
Overall, companies report they have reduced product cost by
30% since they started simulating multiple physics. Top
Performers report a 36% reduction in cost while Others have 61%
reduced cost by 28%. These cost savings occur regardless of Better products
complexity (see table).

Better Products 59%

Better decisions
Beyond improved quality and cost reductions, companies
simulating multiple physics experience other benefits too. The
graph identifies the top benefits enjoyed by those simulating
multiple physics. 49%
More accurate analyses

The results show that the ultimate benefit of simulating multiple

physics is that products are better. It improves the accuracy of
More problems caught 45%
the analysis, which leads to better decisions and results in a
superior product. This means that companies leveraging multiple sooner
physics are better positioned to win over more customers and
capture market share.
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 Best Practices for Multiple Physics
Empower Design Engineers
While Top Performers are more
likely than Others to leverage
multiple physics analysis, they
use it differently too. They are
42% more likely to enable
design engineers to use all of
their simulation licenses. This
empowers design engineers to
obtain better insight and
WHO USES
MULTIPLE PHYSICS
80%
56%
Design engineers use all
licenses
Top Performers Others
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guidance as they make design
decisions, improving efficiency 57% of Top Performers license four
and enabling them to evaluate or more different physics analyses.
trade-offs to optimize the
design.
LICENSED PHYSICS
Variety of Physics
The physics your company
leverages for simulation will be
dependent on unique design
requirements and industry
needs. However, across all
companies, some physics tend to Structural Analysis
be more popular than others. 62%
The graphic reveals the most Thermal Analysis
common physics companies use. 55%
Because the physics involved
depends on the design, there is
less performance differentiation
between which physics are used.
It is the number of physics that
matters. Fifty-seven percent
(57%) of Top Performers license Motion Analysis
four or more different physics Fatigue Analysis 45%
analyses, while only 44% of 42%
Others have four or more
licenses. By assessing more
physics, Top Performers get a
more complete assessment of CFD
performance and are therefore 39%
more likely to make more Nonlinear
Analysis
informed decisions. 30%
 Access What You Need, When You Need It
Top Performers are 2.4 Accessing Multiple
Physics
times more likely to While Top Performers are
recognize access to more likely to use more
multiple physics as a physics, identifying which
physics you should license
cloud platform benefit. can be tricky. Some
physics might be critical
for one project, but then
not needed for another. It
can also be difficult to
justify the cost of a rarely
used license, even though
when it is needed, it's
critical.
For this reason, Top
Performers are 2.4 times
more likely than Others to
recognize access to
multiple physics and more
functionality as a benefit
of using simulation on a
cloud platform.
A Cloud Platform
A cloud platform allows
you to access the physics
you need, when you need
them. This way, your
design requirements drive
which physics you use
HOW TO ENGINEER HIGH-PERFORMING, QUALITY PRODUCTS WITHOUT EXTRA COST
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rather than license
limitations. It also breaks
down silos to give more
BENEFITS OF SIMULATION IN
THE CLOUD
people access to the
physics they need, rather 67%
than limiting licenses to
specialized roles. This can
be particularly helpful for
small- and medium-sized
companies that have few,
if any, specialists, but still
need different tools
depending on the project.
A cloud platform for
simulation also offers
additional benefits such as
easier collaboration and a
single source to access 20%
multiple data types like
material and test data.
Tech-Clarity’s How to
Survive and Win New
Markets by Getting Even
More Value from
Simulation discusses these
benefits in more depth.
Access to more
functionality for more
realistic simulations
Top Performers Others
 Recommendations and Conclusions

Conclusions
With stiff global competition and an uncertain economy, many
companies rely on exceptional engineering to set their products apart.
The challenge is that as products get more complex, and more physics
become involved, engineering design decisions become increasingly
difficult. Top Performing companies have found significant benefit by
simulating multiple physics, including improved quality and a 30%
product cost reduction. To support implementation, a cloud platform can
offer the flexibility to provide more users, more physics.

Recommendations and Next Steps

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

• To win over customers, ensure engineers are empowered measure

KPIs and make the right design decisions that will lead to high
quality, reliable, innovative, top-performing products.

• Recognize the variety of materials, components, and subsystems

engineers must work with and analyze in the context of the entire
product.

• Empower engineers to solve a wide variety of engineering problems

while considering the complexity of the components and materials
involved.

• Simulate multiple physics to get a more accurate and realistic insight

into product performance.

• Ensure design engineers have access to the simulation licenses your

company has so that they can simulate a variety of physics.

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 About the Research
Data Gathering
Tech-Clarity gathered and
analyzed responses to a
web-based survey from
over 272 manufacturers.
Survey responses were
collected by direct e-mail,
social media, and online
postings by Tech-Clarity.
Industries
The respondents
represent a broad cross-
section of industries. 32%
were from Industrial
Equipment, 29%
Automotive, 23%
Engineering Services,
15% Aerospace &
Defense, 14% High-Tech,
12% Energy, 12% Life
Sciences, 11% Consumer
Products, and others.*
Company Size
The respondents
represent a mix of
company sizes, including
33% from less than $50
million, 22% between $50
million and less than $1
billion, and 19% greater
than a billion. 26% did not
HOW TO ENGINEER HIGH-PERFORMING, QUALITY PRODUCTS WITHOUT EXTRA COST
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disclose their company Management, 5% Quality,
size. Company sizes were and the remainder were The respondents
reported in US dollar from a variety of other represented a mix of
equivalent. roles including Industrial
Design, Analysts, IT, and
industries, company sizes,
Geographies
more. and geographies.
Responding companies
* Note that the values may
report doing business in
total greater than 100%
North America (51%), because companies reported
Asia (47%), Western doing business in multiple
Europe (23%), Middle industries and geographies.
East (15%), Eastern
Europe (14%), Latin
America (12%), Australia
(9%), and Africa (9%).*
Eastern Europe
14%
Title
The respondents were
comprised of 8% Western
Executive, 7% Directors Europe
or VP Level, 21% Manager Asia
23%
level, and 64% individual North 47%
contributors. America
51% Middle
Organizational East
Africa
Function 15%
9%
Of the respondents, 47% Latin
were in Product America
Design/Engineering roles, 12% Australia
25% Manufacturing 9%
Engineers, 8% Product /
Project / Program
 Acknowledgments
About the Author

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

Engineering Software for research firm 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
Michelle Boucher over 90 reports on product development best practices.
Vice President
Tech-Clarity Tech-Clarity is an independent research firm dedicated to making the business value of
technology clear. We analyze how companies improve innovation, product development, design,
engineering, manufacturing, and service performance through the use of digital transformation,
best practices, software technology, industrial automation, and IT services.

Image Credits © CanStock Photo / Nmedia (pg. 2 – top, left), Zhukovskyy (pg. 2 – top, middle), clusterx (pg 2. – top, right), AlexLMX (pg. 2 – bottom, left), smuki (pg. 2 –
bottom, middle), PathomP (pg. 2 – bottom, right), yuyang (pg. 6), devon (pg. 10), demarcomedia (pg. 12), peshkov (pg. 16), Speedfighter (pg. 28) | © Unsplash / Kumpan
Electric (pg. 3), ThisIsEngineering (pg. 15) | MTB-Biker, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (pg. 4), Ajay B. Harish, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (pg. 15 – left),
SimScale GmbH, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (pg, 15 – right) | © Noun Project / Veysel Kara (pg. 8 - fire icon), Oleksandr Panasovskyi (pg. 8, 13 – deformation /
spring icons), Tami Nova (pg. 8 – pcb icon)

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 Dassault Systems SolidWorks / www.solidworks.com

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