Being Innovative

by Evan Caille, President of PTC/USER 

On a recent trip to Nova Scotia, I visited the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Baddeck where he made his summer home on the Bras d’Or Lake. Many think of Bell as the inventor of the telephone, but he was much more than that. I was struck by his drive to constantly find ways to improve existing technologies or try out new ones.  Little did I know that he came up with a better concept of Thomas Edison’s phonograph or that he had interests in genetics and medical science. 

Two of Bell’s passions were flying machines and hydrofoils, and he used the concept of the tetrahedral structure as the building block to deliver a high strength-to-weight ratio for both his aircraft and his boats. Through constant innovation, he was able to progress from prototypes that failed miserably to ones that were moderately successful.  Although neither project became commercially viable, a number of his innovations found their way into the successful designs of others. Bell saw himself as a tinkerer, admitting that if an idea succeeded, he was more inclined to sell the patent rights rather than be the businessman.

When I finished the tour of the museum, I began to wonder how the outcomes of Bell’s tinkering would have been different if he had had access to the engineering software we have today. In fact, I often reflect on the value of the tools we use in our jobs to meet the pressures of building new and exciting products in today’s innovation-driven world. While Bell’s example reminds us that monumental achievements in engineering and design can be made without computer-based software, it’s clear that CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM systems can help our companies introduce high-quality products more quickly. In particular, innovative users can leverage a CAD system or a structural analysis system to generate more design iterations with a given timeframe and thus arrive at a better solution. In addition, they can use the software tools to improve the probability of creating a robust design on the first attempt.

Of course, simply having the tools does not imply mastery. Just because I own woodworking tools doesn’t make me a master carpenter, just as using a CAD system doesn’t make someone an engineer. It’s the combination of the skill of the people, the efficiency of the process, and the power of the tools to continuously bring innovative products to market.

It’s here that we think PTC/USER provides its value to the community of PTC product users. By providing opportunities to share knowledge in regional user group meetings, international conferences, and virtually through the email exploder, users are able to learn from the experiences of others in applying the CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM technology in new and effective ways.

Although it’s too early to report on the results of our recent survey, it is evident from the responses so far that a large percentage of you do find good value in being a PTC/USER member and particularly in participating on the email exploder. On this subject, I’d like to point you to an article about the PTC/USER member portal that appears in this issue. And in the spirit of continuously improving the services we offer to the community, I should also mention that we are planning to extend our knowledge-sharing programs to support the users of newly acquired PTC companies such as Arbortext (also featured in this issue).

Evan Caille works at HP in Houston, TX. He can be reached via e-mail at evan@ptcuser.org.