Autodesk, a leading design software and digital content company, has supplied Moffat, a New Zealand-based manufacturer of commercial catering and bakery equipment, with its Inventor software and Streamline online collaboration service.
Upgrading from Autodesk Mechanical Desktop software to remain competitive in the difficult New Zealand manufacturing industry, Moffat chose Inventor software for its adaptive design environment, AutoCAD compatibility and sheet metal functionality.
Manufacturing is a competitive business. According to Daren Gamble, design engineer and CAD manager at Moffat. He added that being situated in New Zealand puts businesses at a disadvantage because of the high cost of importing raw materials and exporting finished products - a particular problem within the food and beverage sectors.
"For our company to survive and aggressively grow our market share we need to continually design smarter and faster, producing equipment that is better performing, innovative, and more economical to manufacture than our competitors'," said Gamble. "Using Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Streamline together, we are confident we can achieve our production goals and continue to be a strong force in our industry."
Gamble sees the Autodesk Inventor adaptive design environment as the greatest benefit of the software. It enables Moffat to design parts according to function before applying form. In addition, making changes to a complex assembly is no longer a "pain point" as it was with a parametric-only system.While Moffat design engineer Jonty Weber took two-and-a-half years to master Autodesk Mechanical Desktop software, he became an equally competent user of Autodesk Inventor software in less than a week. This has been achieved because of the intuitive approach to the programme operation.
Moffat extends its design data to team members across the globe, using the Autodesk Streamline online collaboration service. "Autodesk Streamline enables our designers to save parts, assembly files, or exploded presentations to a web page where team members with a password and a web browser can access and view files in 3D. This effectively extends our design team to include all our branches and sales departments around the world and allows greater input from all parties earlier in the design process," added Gamble.
"Moffat is a good example of how the constant drive for manufacturing efficiencies in new product design is paramount throughout the world," said Robert Kross, vice president of the Manufacturing Division at Autodesk. "With Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Streamline, we are giving companies in more challenging business environments a total solution and a competitive advantage."
Established in 1933, Moffat has manufacturing plants in Christchurch and Brisbane, as well as sales and distribution offices throughout New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and exports to regional distributors throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Founded in 1982, Autodesk, is the world's leading design and digital media creation, management, and distribution company.