All-Inventor Configure to Order Process?

[mikahb]

I recently started working at a company that produces what I would consider to be "configure-to-order" heavy medical equipment.  The finished product is comprised of structural steel tube, formed sheet-metal parts and cut/miter to length extruded parts (both aluminum and plastic).  

The current design-to-build process is similar to what I have seen at other equipment suppliers: quote and rough (2D) drawings based on minimal customer requirements, upon PO receipt more detailed drawings to generate a Submittal package, and finally on receipt of approved Submittal we start work in 3D and build the whole design out in Inventor.  The Design Lead here has done a nice job of building out some pretty sophisticated iLogic models that let us get rolling pretty quickly.

There are several things about this process I don't like:

1. We essentially start and "detail" a model in AutoCAD, then start over in Inventor and use that to manufacture from.  So, the initial work gets essentially thrown away.  And, there are lots of opportunities to miss details as that work is handed off between departments.
2. Our designs require review and stamping by a PE for structural integrity.  They use RISA for this and when we send them DWG's, they have to build out 3D models of the system to analyze.  Obviously this is wasteful in both cost and time
3. More and more often, we're being asked for BIM models even at the Quote stage.  This currently involves building a simple 3D model from the 2D prints, but again it's throwaway work that neither refines the "source-of-truth" design nor contributes to the downstream work that may be required

I'm currently working on driving the transition from 2D to 3D upstream by one more step so that the Submittal drawings are based on a relatively basic 3D model rather than AutoCAD.  My real question here is are any of you starting your sales process - at the Quote level - with Inventor using Configurator or something similar?  Are you able to drive designs from less- to more-detailed without many steps backwards?

I would love to find someone who's making this work and learn the ups and downs of what you're doing and how you got there.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I believe this should be doable via Inventor Design Automation on Forge. Let me work with the project team and see how we can help.

Many thanks!

[mikahb]

Thanks, Johnson - be interested to hear what you come up with.  We've considered writing add-ins, but my (meager) understanding is that because Frame Generator is an add-in itself, it would be tough for us to interact with it from our own add-in.

[akenson]

I'd like to follow up with you more on this. I'm working on Design Automation for Inventor and think it could be a good fit for you but there may be some challenges with Frame Generator. Do you mind if I reach out to follow up on this along with our Product Manager for Inventor Automation?

Thanks

:Andy