3D Manufacturing Innovation Makes Case for Lightweight 3D Data

Today, information technology is ubiquitous. It's come a long way since ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer. Hardware now weighs less — dropping from ENIAC's 60,000 pounds to a few ounces you can often hold in your hand. Once, just implementing IT gave a business a competitive edge. For manufacturing companies today, the competitive advantage has shifted from merely deploying IT to how well you capture and re-use your data — especially your 3D data.

The re-use of 3D data is key, says Lattice CEO Hiroshi Toriya, who's written the new book 3D Manufacturing Innovation: Revolutionary Change in Japanese Manufacturing with Digital Data (Springer Verlag, Feb. 2008). His company, Lattice Technology, developed the very lightweight XVL (eXtensible Virtual world description Language) format that has allowed manufacturers to improve production inside and outside their enterprises.

Today, Lattice's lightweight 3D technology XVL is widely used by more than 2,000 companies in the automotive and electronics industries. Companies like Casio, Hitachi and Toyota cut their manual production times and costs using this 3D technology.

Lightweight 3D data key

How these and other Japanese companies take total advantage of their 3D data is the theme of 3D Manufacturing Innovation. Toriya's premise is that manufacturers who put their 3D data to work throughout their enterprises are gaining a future competitive advantage.

The introduction of lightweight 3D data technologies — like Lattice's XVL ultra-compressed 3D data format — is making this possible, according to Toriya. These days, successfully using compatible 3D design, engineering and manufacturing data not just to improve manufacturing processes, but also sales and marketing processes, defines a manufacturer's competitive strength. This 3D data is not only important to a manufacturer's internal processes, it also improves the company's ability to share information with others and intimately collaborate with strategic partners.

Insightful case studies

3D Manufacturing Innovation takes the reader through each step of how 3D data currently can be used throughout manufacturing operations to achieve more efficiency, leaner operations and make employees' jobs easier.

The book is a valuable guide for CAD/CAM/CAE users, as well as for consultants, professionals and vendors of digital engineering software. It delivers a broad vision of how 3D data is changing manufacturing beyond the original design processes. Tapping the best practices developed by Japanese companies such as Toyota, Sony, Nikon and Casio, the book gives the reader invaluable manufacturing-innovation tips.

Knowledgeable author

An engineer himself, Toriya graduated from Tokyo University in 1983 with a bachelor's degree from the Department of Information Sciences. In 1989, he received a doctorate degree from Tokyo University before going to work with Ricoh Company Limited from 1983-1997. At Ricoh, he started a solid-modeling kernel R&D project and went on to develop the solid-modeling kernel business model. Later, he became director of the Lattice Technology R&D group, eventually rising to the company's CEO position. He has written two other books: 3D CAD Principles and Applications, available in Japanese and English, and Introduction to the 3D World, available in Japanese. His newest book, 3D Manufacturing Innovation, is available through Amazon.com and Springer Verlag.