Putting the tools to work - automobile company design platforms; includes related article on American manufacturers

Automotive Industries, Sept, 1998 by Norman Martin

The race to select a single CAD/CAM has been a long and arduous process. Each company in mm has gone through political turf wars, and the trials of training thousands of designers, engineers and manufacturing staff, to reach this point. Each believes that it has the best system for its company.

"I'll never knock anybody else's tool," says GM's DeBrabant. "They all have strengths, but we had to look at what tool would best fit our long-range process where we wanted to be as a corporation."

So, now the real contest begins -- bringing out the best product faster, cheaper, and with higher quality, than the other guys. It's worth at least a million bucks a day.