The twin concepts of ShapeSpace are clear, simple to understand and the advantages and savings in time and money that it brings, very obvious.
For a small company the cost can be as little as £1,000.
Concept 1
Over the years, the chances are that an engineer will draw the same part several, if not many, times, a lever, a key, a cog, etc etc. Sometimes the part will be exactly the same as they drew it a few years ago and sometimes with a slight variation, but whatever way you look at it, they will reproduce work previously done – we’ve all done it. This is obviously a waste of time and therefore money. Now if the engineer could remember what they had previously called that part and what assembly it was part of, then there’s a fair chance of finding it and it’s easy enough to search by name through your files. However if that is not the case, then it’s going to be a long job finding the part – dead time. Or give up and draw it again.
With Shapespace you simply quickly sketch out the rough shape in 3D and the program looks through all your files and finds the one’s nearest to your sketch, you then choose which one to import, (or refine your search), and then make any changes you need for the present drawing.
The film below shows how easy it is.
Concept 2
If your company has more than one factory/warehouse, then the chances are that stock will be duplicated between centers. So a part in your Bristol plant might be catalogued as part CD458RT, while in your Manchester plant exactly the part might be called 931QWE. So the Bristol plant runs out of stock and puts in an order for 500 more totally unaware that in Manchester they have 300 sitting o a shelf. Clearly a waste of money. It is estimated that in situations such as this, companies are about 15% overstocked and that can be a lot of money tied up. So in Shapespace, once you’ve found your part, you can search by duplicate. Here it will show all the same parts under different names. So instead of Bristol laying out a load of money they just get Manchester to send some down. This takes next to no time and can save a huge amount of time and money.
The film below shows this concept.
There’s more to the package than just the benefits I’ve mentioned above and we tailor the program to your exact needs, but it’s a really straight forward piece of kit to install and learn.
This is what Al Dean, Editor of Develop 3D said about it.
“This is one of the most impressive bits of technology I’ve seen in ages … the potential for saving of time, effort and inventory, means that the adoption is going to be very easy to justify.”
An information sheet can be found at
http://www.processflows.co.uk/files/2010/09/PF_SpaceShape_ds.pdf
My company, ProcessFlows, has invested in this product since the early days, not just in time, but also money, because we know that it has legs. I’ve known from the first time the concept was explained and I saw it in action that it is going to be a standard piece of software when the message gets out. Last year I demoed it to top CAD publishers in the US and every single one was impressed and these guys have seen everything.
We have employed a specialist just to handle enquiries for Shapespace, so if you’d like to know more and talk to someone at length about how it can work for you, then give me a call, or email.
Paul
01962 835 081
ptracey@processflows