This week Deloitte University Press announced the launch of a massive open online course (MOOC) on the business implications of additive manufacturing (AM). Entitled, “3D Opportunity: The Course on Additive Manufacturing for Business Leaders,” it is the first course of its kind to be offered by a large professional services firm and is designed to help educate the market on the business drivers behind additive manufacturing/3D printing.

3D opportunity: Deloitte’s MOOC on additive manufacturing (3D Printing) for business

I’m not much of a baker, but I can follow instructions reasonably well. If I wanted to bake a cake, I could find a recipe, buy the specified ingredients, mix them together and bake for the recommended period of time. By following a recipe, I would increase the chances that the end result actually looks and tastes like cake! Just as a recipe provides the detailed instructions to make a quality cake, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems provide the information and instructions to design quality products. Whether your company makes medical devices, industrial equipment, laptops, cell phones or other consumer products – PLM provides a secure, centralized database to manage the entire product record into a “Single Record of the Truth”. This ensures you can design and manufacture high quality products and get them to market fast and efficiently.

Agile PLM allows companies to aggregate all the components, documentation, software, engineering drawings and Bill of Material (BOM) into one system. The BOM can be thought of as the product recipe for your finished product. It may include off-the-shelf and custom parts, software and firmware, documentation, and both mechanical and electrical CAD drawings so that every aspect of the product configuration is controlled. Within the BOM view of Agile, users gain immediate insight into whether there are attached documents, pending change orders or quality issues against any level of an assembly. Users may quickly traverse the BOM to view any of the associated records or attachments. User-defined security roles and privileges ensure adherence with corporate security policies, configuration management practices and regulatory compliance initiatives. Internal and external collaboration is enabled to allow individuals, departments and partners the appropriate level of access to product information.

Dassault Systemes announced this week that it has acquired simulation technology provider SIMPACK in an all cash deal. The transaction was completed on July 10, 2014. Not surprisingly, financial details of the deal were not revealed.

With the acquisition of Munich-based SIMPACK, Dassault continues to expand its multiphysics simulation technology portfolio to include multi-body mechatronic systems.

SIMPACK has more than 130 customers in the energy, transportation (primarily automotive and rail), and biomedical industries, including Alstom, Bombardier, BMW, Daimler, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, MAN, and Vestas.

SIMPACK Multibody Simulation (MBS) – Engine Chain