Trailer and truck manufacturers in the transportation industry face several challenges. In an increasingly customized and competitive industry, manufacturers need to streamline processes and maximize sales. Some of the more significant challenges include complex configuration demands, the cost and availability of resources, safety compliance, and maintaining efficiency in design and production processes.
Truck and trailer manufacturers in the transportation industry use design automation and CPQ technology to enhance their manufacturing and sales processes, enabling them to operate more efficiently and competitively.
Demand for complex customization
One of the biggest challenges for trailer and truck manufacturers in the transportation industry is meeting the increasing demand for complex configurations. This level of customization can lead to design and production inefficiencies, with each unique order requiring significant time and effort to design.
Design automation technology enables truck and trailer manufacturers to create configurable design templates. Engineers can define rules and parameters that guide the customization process based on customer requirements. This ensures that each order, even if highly customized, follows a standardized and automated design process. Automating repetitive and mundane design tasks delivers improved accuracy, quicker design turnaround times, and less rework. Additionally, design engineers have more time to focus on value-add tasks such as new product development.
Material availability & optimization
Made-to-order vehicles and trailers often have specialized features that require unique materials. Inefficient use of materials can drive up costs and impact sales and revenue.
Design automation and CPQ technology can be integrated with real-time data sources to monitor material costs and availability. By automating the quotation process, prices are automatically adjusted based on fluctuations in material costs, ensuring accurate and competitive pricing. This level of flexibility enables manufacturers to operate dynamically and avoid costly delays.
The automatic creation of BOMs helps streamline the material procurement process and enables manufacturers to plan out materials and resources more efficiently.
Safety compliance
Ensuring safety compliance is an integral part of assembling trucks and trailers. With numerous safety regulations, safety compliance can be complex and require additional resources.
Design automation enables trailer and truck manufacturers to embed safety requirements into their design rules. This ensures that each custom trailer or truck design generated through the automation process complies with relevant safety standards.
CPQ and guided selling tools enable sales teams, customers, and distributors, to access up-to-date compliant vehicle configuration options. Ensuring all product configurations are safety compliant enables sales teams and resellers to sell confidently, with the knowledge that every product configuration is valid and accurate.
Maintaining efficiency
Streamlining the design process and maximizing efficiency is a key challenge for transport manufacturers.
Design automation technology enables transportation manufacturers to save time and boost quality by automatically creating accurate designs. Using rules-based design automation technology enables engineers to capture and reuse design, manufacturing, and cost estimation knowledge to deliver accurate custom designs faster.
With the automation of design and quoting processes, manufacturers can respond quickly to customer inquiries, reducing the time it takes to finalize orders. This shortens the sales process and enables manufacturers to compete effectively.
Transportation manufacturers achieving success with DriveWorks
Oasis Trailers have reduced drawing time from 20 mins to 5 mins using DriveWorksXpress.
Using DriveWorks, WEATHER GUARD transformed their sales process with a 3D product configurator, automatic quoting, and integration with Salesforce CRM.
Using DriveWorks, Knapehiede are automating mundane tasks, improving communication, and helping their engineers keep up with demand.
Powerful SOLIDWORKS® part, assembly, and drawing automation for transportation manufacturers
DriveWorks Solo is the ideal solution to transform how you design, configure, and sell custom trucks and trailers. Using DriveWorks Solo, transportation design engineers automate repetitive SOLIDWORKS® tasks, freeing up more time to work on new product designs. Automating and streamlining the process of designing, configuring, and selling trucks and trailers drives sales and improves business growth.
Make the most of a DriveWorks Solo 30-day free trial by setting clear goals, testing key features on real projects, and using the whole host of free training material provided. Use the time to evaluate its impact on your workflows and ensure it meets your needs. You can also set up a meeting with a technical expert from the DriveWorks team to help you get off to the best start.