Founded in 1938 by Stanford University grads, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, Hewlett-Packard (HP) today is a global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses alike.

The challenge

HP engineers in the Enterprise Storage and Servers (ESS) organisation faced complex challenges. First, they needed to find room for newer processors, hard drives, fans, wiring and hundreds of other components into a server package that continues to shrink. Second, they needed to save money and reduce time-to-market by leveraging parts and assemblies across multiple server teams. And third, HP engineers needed design tools that were easy to use for all product stakeholders on all levels - novice, casual and power user.

The solution

HP's ESS organisation, a long-time user of PTC's Pro/Engineer running on HP Workstations, made the decision to upgrade to the newest release of PTC's flagship 3D product design solution, Pro/Engineer Wildfire, offering a wider variety of breakthrough new CAD tools and enhancements to boost productivity and creativity. To ensure a smooth transition, HP took advantage of a number of PTC educational aids and Getting Started Guides that flattened the learning curve.

The result

After an exceptionally smooth upgrade to Pro/Engineer Wildfire, HP engineers now have a solution that is far easier to learn, use, install, and maintain. The ESS team is now able to create a greater number of quality parts and assemblies, and perform more design iterations even faster, which is helping the ESS team to drive innovation, reduce costs, and deliver better products on schedule.

Pro/Engineer Wildfire is helping HP engineers to design and build products that will enhance the company's reputation for quality, innovation, reliability and value.

"This new release of Pro/Engineer is not just window dressing. There are lots of improvements in the core modelling engine. The new capabilities will result in productivity gains of at least 10% for experienced users and as much as 30% for casual users," says Evan Caille, manager, Mechanical CAE, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Storage and Servers.

Not just window dressing

Caille and his users expect to accelerate an already rapid-fire design process using the new tools in Pro/Engineer Wildfire. With an easier user interface, direct Web connectivity, and many innovative design tools, Pro/Engineer Wildfire was built to make product design faster and easier for users on any level. Caille and the ESS team are particularly impressed with the core modelling enhancements.

"This new release of Pro/Engineer is not just window dressing. There are lots of improvements in the core modelling engine," states Caille. "The new capabilities, like object/action workflow, dashboards, and direct modelling, will result in productivity gains of at least 10% for experienced users and as much as 30% for casual users. PTC really met its design goals of making simple tasks simpler and more complex tasks simple, too."

Tools now accessible to all users

Caille points out that, historically, because of its tremendous power, Pro/Engineer required a noticeable ramp-up time for HP's novice users. Furthermore, if casual users did not keep up with the latest enhancements, it was not long before they were out of the loop with the latest technology. With Pro/Engineer Wildfire, Caille considers those issues solved.

"We have a lot of casual users that still need to manipulate the product definition, but because they are not working full time with Pro/Engineer, it constrained them on their ability to work," explains Caille. "It has been a struggle to maintain productivity and proficiency. The new user interaction model in Pro/Engineer Wildfire has dramatically reduced the time required to become proficient and just as important, it allows casual users to remain productive."

Driving quality up, costs down

One of the toughest tasks facing engineers in HP's ESS organisation is to continually refine server enclosures to accommodate new components, plug-and play drives, memory, and accessories. The key to unlocking the perfect design - one that is functional, cost-efficient and manufacturable - is to explore multiple design options as early as possible in the design phase. Using this approach, HP shaves costs while driving greater quality and accuracy into the product. It is here that PTC's Pro/Engineer Wildfire 3D product design solution running on HP xw8000 Workstations offers HP engineers an advantage.

"The strength of Pro/Engineer is being able to make rapid modifications. The more iterations you can do early in the design process, the more opportunities you have to drive out costs and be more innovative, explains Caille.

"Pro/Engineer gives us an advantage in that we can conceptualise a design, quickly create a prototype of a latch or cam mechanism, put it on a physical chassis and try it out. If it does not work, we repeat the process very quickly. We can take the design from the workstation screen to a physical prototype part in hours."

With Pro/Engineer Wildfire, HP engineers can solve their toughest challenge: to build ever-smaller cabinets that can accommodate more components such as drives, memory, and accessories.

For more information contact Dayne Turbitt, productONE, 012 673 9300 www.prodone.com