Altair > Case Studies > Maximizing Productivity in Automotive Design: A Case Study of Trelleborg

Maximizing Productivity in Automotive Design: A Case Study of Trelleborg

Technology Category

Sensors - Haptic Sensors
Sensors - Vibration Sensors

Applicable Industries

Automotive
Electronics

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Predictive Maintenance
Time Sensitive Networking

About The Customer

Trelleborg is a Swedish corporation with a 100-year history in engineering innovation. They specialize in creating molded rubber components that enhance the comfort and performance of vehicles. These components, which include brackets, bushings, and other chassis and power train components, are designed to absorb vibration and impact, providing a more pleasing experience for car owners. Trelleborg works closely with major automakers like GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, and Toyota to create custom polymer components. The design and finite element analysis (FEA) group at Trelleborg's Engineering Center in Michigan is a small but highly productive team that has greatly improved its throughput, cost-efficiency, and turnaround time by using PBS Professional.

The Challenge

Trelleborg, a Swedish corporation with a century-long history in engineering innovation, specializes in creating molded rubber components that enhance the comfort and performance of vehicles. The design and finite element analysis (FEA) group at Trelleborg's Engineering Center in Michigan, a small but highly productive team, was facing a significant challenge. They were trying to increase their throughput without adding more personnel or hardware. The team was attempting to utilize off-hour CPU cycles from the CAD workstations on an ad hoc basis. However, they were struggling with estimating how long each job would take on a specific machine so that another job could be set up to run behind it. The team needed a way to increase available CPU time to improve their productivity and efficiency.

The Solution

Trelleborg turned to Altair's PBS Professional to manage and harvest CPU cycles on six workstations. The team calculated the cost-effectiveness of using PBS Professional to manage CPU cycles from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am daily and on weekends. They estimated that PBS Professional would pay for itself in just two weekends by making idle CPU hours productive. After the installation of PBS Professional, the team experienced an immediate surge in productivity. Instead of running six jobs a night, they were soon averaging 10 or 20. Jobs were simply dumped into the queue, and PBS Professional assigned them to the first available CPU. Even if a workstation crashed, PBS Professional automatically sent the next job to the first available CPU, ensuring continuous productivity.

Operational Impact

The implementation of PBS Professional has significantly improved the operational efficiency of Trelleborg's design and FEA group. The team has become more agile, able to see results more quickly, make necessary alterations, and rerun multiple alternative designs overnight or over the weekend to maintain a tight turnaround. This agility, coupled with the increased throughput that PBS Professional enables, has given Trelleborg a competitive edge. The team can now handle more jobs and deliver results faster, which has helped Trelleborg win more contracts. Furthermore, the automatic job assignment feature of PBS Professional ensures that work continues uninterrupted, even if a workstation crashes.

Quantitative Benefit

PBS Professional paid for itself in just two weekends by making idle CPU hours productive.
After the installation of PBS Professional, the team's productivity surged from running six jobs a night to averaging 10 or 20.
PBS Professional has helped Trelleborg win contracts by making the team more agile.