SOLIDWORKS Inspection makes manufacturing more efficient

SOLIDWORKS 2016 is comprised of a range of enhancements that can increase a business’s productivity and efficiency. The design process can be difficult to manage, and relies on teams of people, or just an individual, working seamlessly with CAD software.

Combined with the Costing feature, Inspection greatly improves efficiency for manufacturers.

In particular, the manufacturing sector is set to benefit significantly from this year’s update to SOLIDWORKS. Along with the Costing feature, which allows teams to accurately estimate project expenses, the Inspection tool further improves manufacturing efficiency.

For manufacturers, it’s important to get designs right as quickly and efficiently as possible, whether they’re brand-new offerings or updates to existing products. This is where Inspection can help.

SOLIDWORKS Inspection benefits manufacturers 

Essentially, Inspection is an extremely valuable quality assurance (QA) tool, and is responsible for creating the control sheet that engineers inspect before approving items for production.

The measurement process is extremely important in the production phase, as it is here where manufacturers can finalise a product and commit to its creation.

Once designers create a part or component in SOLIDWORKS, they can then use Inspection to produce a control sheet that is then distributed to the QA department or any other stakeholder that needs to sign off on it.

This document takes the form of an Excel file, so it’s easy to distribute between the people and teams that need to ensure everything is up to standard and ready for production.

SOLIDWORKS Inspection streamlines the QA process. SOLIDWORKS Inspection streamlines the QA process.

QA engineers can enter the details themselves using a digital caliper, or import the list of dimensions into a coordinate measuring machine to further streamline this process. This provides a quicker and more accurate way for QA testers to confirm whether a part is good to go or not.

What does this mean for manufacturers?

The key result of Inspection as a whole is a streamlined QA process. Instead of having to prepare their own measurement documents that are at risk of human error, SOLIDWORKS 2016 takes care of the entire task, so manufacturers can create products with confidence.

This improves the overall quality of the item produced, as it is created to a consistent set of guidelines as defined by the original design in SOLIDWORKS.

Designing in the manufacturing industry? Contact us at SOLIDWORKS to see how we can help inspire engineering innovation and improve every aspect of your product development.