Time compression technologies: where next?

A TCT Conference and Exhibition product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Sep 12, 2002

The keynote presentation at TCT 2002 will take a quick look back over the last 10 years to demonstrate how the various areas of time compression technologies have made tremendous technical progress.

The speed at which time-compression technologies have developed over the last two decades has meant that the industry together with users of the technologies inevitably look to the future from time to time - in terms of constantly evolving the technologies and applying them - to evaluate what the future might hold.

The guest keynote speaker at this year's TCT Conference is Wil Schoenmakers from Procter and Gamble, and in line with looking to the future, the title of the keynote presentation is: "Time compression technologies: where next?".

The presentation will take a quick look back over the last 10 years to demonstrate how the various areas of time compression technologies (TCTs) have made tremendous technical progress and how many sectors of industry are now able to deliver many of their development tasks in a more cost- and time-efficient manner.

However, the efficiency of integration varies greatly between various companies and industry segments, which has not been the result of lack of technology understanding or even money, but often reservations and not understanding how to implement these technologies for maximum returns.

This is generally because companies do not make efficient use of all technology solutions as the tools are spread across the organisations in an unconnected manner.

Looking ahead, the real winners in TCT will be the companies that can make the tools an inherent and integrated part of their entire development programme, while continuing to seek opportunities to apply these techniques in other parts of their business.

It will not just require continuous investment, but, more importantly, drastic organisational changes will be needed to make integration a reality.

Furthermore, TCTs encompass a wide variety of technology fields, all of it understood by few and conversely, there are also fields of technology that are not currently considered to come under the TCT umbrella that deserve a place in the portfolio.

As a result: the time is right to redefine TCTs, including the definition of a road map, to make sure people understand how all the available technologies hang together to drive far better integration across the industry.

These guidelines will be presented on the first morning of the two-day conference - and should be a must-attend presentation for anyone that is serious about the future of product development.

The end of the second day of the conference is also fully dedicated to forward thinking and planning.

The future focus session taking place in the main auditorium of the Manchester International Convention Centre will be chaired by Terry Wohlers (Wohlers Associates) and one highlight of the session will be from Geoff Hall, representing The Computing Suppliers Federation.

His presentation, entitled "TCT 2007 - it's a prototype Jim, but not as we know it", will look at how, by 2007, technology will replace the tangible prototype with a computer model.

2007 is only five years away.

The introduction of CAD took 20 years.

So what can change that much in only five years? Just consider the Internet.

It came on us very quickly.

Why? Because all the pieces were there and just needed joining up.

Well look at the concept of the virtual prototype.

Most of the pieces are already here.

But why should virtual prototypes be so important? The two goals of every company are to reduce the cost of product realisation and cut the time-to-market.

Virtual prototyping removes the needs for hard prototypes, or reduces this need to just one.

The result is nirvana.

The costs for hard prototypes are eliminated, whilst the time to negotiate for, produce and transport hard prototypes disappears.

Where rapid prototyping reduces the time for hard prototype manufacture, say, from a month to two days, Virtual Prototyping reduces the whole process from nine months to two weeks.

Returning to the Manchester International Convention Centre (MICC), Manchester, UK, TCT 2002 will take place 16th-17th October 2002.