Global manufacturers operating in markets as diverse as mining machinery and medical equipment are boosting their competitiveness by managing their engineering data more efficiently. Reducing cycle times helps them get their products to market faster.

Manufacturers like Joy Mining Machinery, which produces mining machinery and whose global operation includes a significant South African production facility, have adopted the latest version of the data management application, Autodesk Vault. The software is integrated in the Autodesk Inventor Series mechanical design application.

Tim Morris, director of Global Engineering Systems at Joy Mining Machinery, says he uses Autodesk Vault, "to organise our multiteam, multilocation development engineering data into local repositories. Working outside of the enterprise PDM system for development accelerates design cycles, improves re-use and repurposing of data and enables better version control with fewer errors."

For Micro Motors, a leading manufacturer of electric and pneumatic motors and handpieces for the medical and dental fields, Autodesk Vault was a natural progression for its design teams.

"Autodesk Vault significantly simplifies the way we manage our data. It enables us to reduce costly errors and leverage components from other products for use in current products," says Roger McPherson, director of engineering at Micro Motors.

Managing director of Autodesk Africa, Errol Ashwell, says tight synchronisation among product teams is essential to accelerate time-to-market.

"As 60% to 90% of components are re-used within an organisation, storing and managing all design data within an easy-to-use data management application can dramatically improve productivity. Autodesk Vault is truly helping manufacturers maximise their return on investment in design data."

For more information contact Autodesk, 012 664 8115, www.autodesk.co.za