Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another SPK and Associates Vlog.
Today, we’re talking about why most engineers stay in the core version of Creo and when they need to actually take it further.
Creo has a lot of capability, but in many organizations, engineers tend to use just that same core set of features that they’ve relied on for potentially years.
Now, that could work perfectly well. That could be just fine. But as products become more complex and engineering teams take on new requirements, there may be some opportunities to use additional Creo capabilities to solve technology and engineering problems that are currently, you know, being handled maybe manually or with separate tools.
I’ve been with SPK & Associates for almost 10 years now in the space of CAD and PDM and PLM, and I’m happy to chat more about Creo with you all.
Why Are Engineering Teams Only Using a Small Percentage of Creo Capabilities?
Let’s start by talking about something that probably a lot of Creo customers will recognize, people that use Creo.
Why are many engineering teams only using that small percentage of Creo capabilities?
Great question, and I think there are actually a few reasons why we see this so often with engineering teams.
First, Creo is a very broad platform.
Most engineers are going to become very comfortable with the tools that they use day in, day out, such as modeling, assemblies, drawings, but there could be entirely different areas of Creo that simply aren’t part of their current, normal workflow.
And that really leads into another big factor, which is comfort or familiarity. We’re all comfortable with the tools we use.
So engineering teams tend to develop processes that work for them.
And once those processes are established, we see this all the time, there’s not always a reason to revisit them. Even if there are faster or more automated ways to accomplish something, the familiar method is often the easiest because we know it. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
But that does come down to how engineers are typically introduced to the software in the first place.
So training usually is focused on getting somebody productive and going in their role. You’re just learning the tools you need to do your job every day, not necessarily every capability that Creo has to offer.
And as Creo continues to evolve, organizations may not always have the opportunity to go back and explore what’s been added.
Of course, even when engineers know those capabilities exist, or they know things are being rolled out, there’s another challenge, which is time. So engineers are working against project schedules and deadlines.
Learning a new feature takes some investment up front, so it’s very easy, again, to fall back on the process that you already know, even if the new approach could ultimately save you a significant amount of time.
And sometimes teams simply don’t realize that Creo already has a solution for a problem they’re dealing with.
They may be using manual processes, macros, or even separate tools when that functionality already exists within Creo.
And as new versions of Creo are rolled out, it can also be hard for a busy organization to keep track of things like new features.
So I don’t think the goal should be 100% to use all these new capabilities and all that Creo has to offer, but it’s really about understanding what’s available and finding the capabilities that make sense for your specific organization.
Your point about, you know, once it’s set up, you kind of don’t really look and investigate, and if your organization doesn’t give you the time to innovate, I can understand why things stay stagnant at that point. Like, there’s not a lot of investigation or innovation around how to do this better.
Signs That an Organization May Need More Than Core Creo
Which kind of leads to the next question.
What are the biggest signs that an organization has kind of outgrown the core components, the core functionality, and they should start looking at additional capabilities through those Creo extensions that are available?
I think one important distinction is that organizations may not necessarily outgrow core Creo functionality, but often their products, their teams, or processes start to become more complex.
And then they start running into additional challenges that some new Creo capabilities were designed to address.
So, let’s get started with a few signs to look out for.
Repetitive or Manual Engineering Work
One of those is repetitive or manual engineering work.
And I’ll keep this high level because this may look different for every organization, but if engineers are repeatedly performing the same modeling tasks or manually creating variations of similar designs, that’s a good opportunity to ask whether some of that work could be automated or streamlined.
Now, repetitive or manual work can often point to engineering time being spent in the wrong places, which leads us to, hey, we have these highly skilled engineers, but they’re spending their time on things that maybe are lower value.
So when highly skilled engineers are spending a significant portion of their day on routine tasks rather than actual design and engineering decisions, that’s worth looking at.
So the question becomes, hey, is there functionality available that could handle some of the repetitive work and allow the engineer to focus on the work that actually requires their expertise?
That’s a big one that we see often as well.
Increasing Product Complexity
And once organizations start looking beyond their existing toolset, that is when the products may be getting more complex as well.
So maybe your products are becoming more sophisticated, teams are now working with larger assemblies, and you have more complex geometry, more product variance, or additional design requirements.
At that point, processes that could have worked very well at the beginning, when the product line was smaller, may become difficult to scale.
So that shows up not just in the design itself, but in the number of tools that engineers may be using.
Too Many Workarounds
And also linked to using a variety of tools is too many workarounds.
So if engineers are constantly leaving Creo to accomplish different pieces of the design process, or we see this too, relying heavily on spreadsheets, custom macros, manual calculations, other workarounds, that’s not a good signal either.
Not that these tools are necessarily bad, but when you start seeing a collection of workarounds that seem to be circling the CAD environment, it’s worth asking whether there’s functionality within Creo that could provide a more integrated approach and keep everything in one area there.
Difficulty Maintaining Consistency and Standards
And that also ties into consistency.
So if you’re seeing difficulty maintaining consistency and standards, that could be something that Creo can help with.
Maybe different engineers are approaching the same task, but in completely different ways. We also see this. Or certain processes depend heavily on tribal knowledge.
Additional capabilities can sometimes help standardize those workflows, so you’re relying less on someone remembering exactly how something should be done.
Physical Prototyping and Late Design Changes
And that also leads us to physical prototyping or late design changes.
So this is another area that could be tackled with some Creo extensions.
If you’re building physical prototypes or getting far into the development cycle before discovering performance, manufacturability, or design issues, there may be opportunities to bring more simulation or analysis in earlier in the design process within your Creo environment.
So catching those issues can potentially reduce physical iterations and avoid costly changes later in the design process.
Once you’ve identified your particular pain points, the next step is understanding which additional capabilities can have the biggest impact.
The goal isn’t to, you know, use all the functionality that’s there. It’s recognizing, essentially, what you need to do to get the most out of the tool, but also looking at what’s outside of that tool that you may be able to pull into it.
I think there’s some benefits of doing that, too.
Which Creo Extensions Can Deliver the Fastest ROI?
The last question is to make this really practical.
Which Creo extensions tend to deliver the fastest ROI, or what kinds of engineering problems are those extensions essentially trying to solve?
Obviously, there’s manufacturing ones in there too, but there’s a lot that go into that.
Overall, the answer does depend on where the organization is spending or losing the most engineering time, but let’s cover some of the most frequently used extensions and the things that we’ve recommended in the past, and kind of the use cases.
Let’s look at some of those options.
Creo Advanced Assembly for Design Automation and Repetitive Work
Let’s say you’re ready to tackle design automation and repetitive work.
In this case, you may want to look at Creo Advanced Assembly.
This is because if the repetitiveness is what’s really slowing you down, it can really help with managing variations, and it’s designed to take what’s already built in within Creo further for more complex use cases.
So, if you’re working with complex assemblies, top-down design particularly, or product families where changes need to carry through multiple components, it can be really helpful by helping engineers reuse design intent, automate changes, and customize product variations much more efficiently.
It can also reduce repetitive modeling work while helping maintain consistency across the overall design.
Creo Simulation for Identifying Design Issues Earlier
And that’s just one example.
Another area where you may see value fairly quickly is with Creo Simulation.
Simulation capabilities can provide significant ROI when they allow engineers to evaluate designs earlier in the development process.
So if an engineer can identify a potential issue while they’re still designing it in Creo, rather than discovering it during physical testing, you’re potentially avoiding additional prototypes, redesign work, and scheduling delays.
Those costs can often become significant very quickly.
Creo GD&T Advisor for More Consistent Design Requirements
Now, for some organizations, the biggest opportunity isn’t necessarily changing the design process. It’s more improving how engineers communicate design requirements.
That’s where Creo GD&T Advisor can really make a difference.
And we see this when we hear, hey, there’s different standards, or hey, we have various teams, or we’ve absorbed different sites, right? We’ve made acquisitions, and this team does something very differently.
When you’re working with Creo, GD&T Advisor guides engineers through applying geometric dimensions and tolerances, as well as provides real-time feedback to identify errors or potential issues along the way.
So for CAD teams, this means that there’s fewer pain points when it comes to GD&T requirements, inconsistencies that can happen across designers, and errors that can be caught later in the process.
Because that guidance is built directly within Creo, it can be especially useful for teams with varying levels of comfort with GD&T, which helps create a more consistent and efficient workflow, especially if you have teams that are global, everywhere.
Specialized Creo Extensions
And finally, I did want to touch on these.
Although these are very industry- or product-specific, I wanted to give a callout because every organization is different.
Specifically, I wanted to touch on Creo Additive Manufacturing, Creo Piping and Cabling, as well as Creo Tool Design very quickly.
If you’re designing products that rely heavily on things like advanced surfacing, additive manufacturing, cabling, piping, or other specialized designs, the right extension can have a very fast return simply because it’s purpose-built for that type of work.
So an engineer may be able to accomplish the same tasks with the core functionality or another tool, but if they’re doing it frequently enough, having specialized functionality can dramatically reduce the amount of effort that’s required on their part.
Understanding ROI Beyond New Functionality
And I think that’s something important when we talk about ROI.
It’s not just whether an extension can do something that’s never been done before or isn’t available in Core Creo.
Sometimes the bigger question here is: How much faster can it be done? How much manual work are we eliminating? And how many engineers across the board are repeating that same process?
So if you’ve identified repetitive work, excessive prototyping, manual processes, engineers moving within tools, those pain points can, again, help guide you towards the Creo capabilities that are most likely to deliver value to your organization specifically.
Understanding What Creo Can Already Do
There’s so much to unpack here, and we probably couldn’t do it justice in the short amount of time that we were talking about it.
But we want people to know that if Creo is at the center of your mechanical design process, there may be a lot of value in first understanding what Creo can do before introducing, you know, even more disconnected engineering tools.
Especially the ones that can give companies the fastest ROI and the problems that they solve.
Thanks for watching this video. If you found it useful, please like this video and subscribe to the SPK & Associates YouTube channel for more that we’ll do around CAD, PLM, engineering tools, and more.
We’ll see you next time. Thanks.
