USSC Group Grabs Share of Emergency Vehicle Seating Market with SOLIDWORKS Solutions
As an industry leader in vehicle seating, USSC Group develops the most durable and ergonomically designed seats to reduce day-to-day driver fatigue and stress. USSC focuses on providing safety and survivability solutions to the commercial and military transportation markets. To expand its presence secure a position in firefighting and ambulance specialty seating markets, the company recently implemented a major change in its design process.
In 2010, USSC decided to assess the effectiveness of the Solid Edge® 3D design software that it had used, according to Director of Engineering/Quality Jeff Krueger. “To support our ambitious product development goals, we needed a 3D design platform that helps us maintain the technological lead in our industry, so we can leapfrog the competition and introduce more innovative and successful products,” Krueger explains. “We wanted to make sure that we had the appropriate development tools to expand our business, so we conducted an in-depth, head-to-head comparison of the Solid Edge software that we were using and SOLIDWORKS software.”
USSC chose SOLIDWORKS because it provided the company with more freedom to work with partners, customers, and other integrated technologies. “We view SOLIDWORKS as a collaboration tool because it’s used almost universally among our partners and within our supply chain,” notes Senior Engineer Tom Vona.
Since the transition, USSC has efficiently and cost-effectively expanded its product offering and grown into new markets by leveraging its new product development tools to save time, reduce prototypes, compress development cycles, and maximize design reuse. “The benefits that we’ve realized by moving to SOLIDWORKS extend beyond the design data compatibility, simulation, visualization, and communication capabilities that we initially anticipated,” Vona stresses.
This boost can be directly attributed to implementing a product data management (PDM) system for the first time. USSC now uses SOLIDWORKS PDM to eliminate version control errors, improve product quality and reduce the volume of scrap and rework. “We can better manage design data and minimize mistakes related to working with the wrong version,” Vona continues. “By moving to SOLIDWORKS, we are growing into the design visualization, simulation, communication, documentation, and data management solutions that we need to support growth.”
Read the full case study, “Grabbing Share of First Responder Seating Markets With SOLIDWORKS Solutions,” to learn more about USSC’s transition to SOLIDWORKS, business expansion, revision control improvements and design innovations.