Best Practices for Managing Materials
The right material can improve the reliability of your product, set it apart from the competition, and save costs associated with manufacturing or operations. However, the number of available materials has increased dramatically over the past few decades. Most companies realize that materials information has a critical role to play in product development. Yet many are not using best practices to collect, manage, and leverage material information.
The right material can improve the reliability of your product, set it apart from the competition, and save costs associated with manufacturing or operations. However, the number of available materials has increased dramatically over the past few decades. Most companies realize that materials information has a critical role to play in product development. Yet many are not using best practices to collect, manage, and leverage material information.
The challenge of material consistency
Some of the most common challenges faced by design and simulation teams in material information are caused by disconnected data silos, inconsistent formats, multiple teams using data, and changes in information over time. Materials information management is not a “set it and forget it” process.
Adding to this challenge, correct material data means different things to different people. For example, the correct material might be:
- A material that is still available on the market or that originates from a preferred supplier.
- A material for which the data set is complete and for which all teams involved in product development have the properties they need.
- A material that is the cheapest available, the lightest, the strongest, etc.
These challenges are not insurmountable. There are simple actions you can take to avoid using the wrong material. The key is to ensure quick access to consistent material information by the design and simulation teams.
But in what way? Companies have tried various solutions, and some have ended up creating unwanted side effects. The implications of using one solution over another are not always obvious at first, so problems are not identified until a material process is implemented. We explore some of the traditional solutions, as well as their benefits and limitations, to help companies integrate material information into the product development process.
Material intelligence gathered for you
Ansys GRANTA has accumulated over 20 years of experience helping organizations manage material information. Valuable information and best practices are outlined in the new white paper “How to Effectively Solve the Challenge of Material Data Management for Design and Simulation.
By overcoming the challenges associated with material management and ensuring that the optimal materials are used during product design, companies can:
- Increase team productivity.
- Improve product quality.
- Reduce design iterations.
- Reduce time to market.
- Save time and money.
