CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
9 January 2007
Implementation Investments
Phoenix Gold Amps Up With Autodesk Inventor
Autodesk, Inc. announced that Phoenix Gold ( http://www.phoenixgold.com ), a designer and manufacturer of high-end audio components, is successfully using Autodesk Inventor software to streamline its design processes and reduce the amount of time required to create new products. This speed and efficiency provides Phoenix Gold with a significant advantage in the marketplace, allowing them to deliver award-winning audiophile products at a competitive price.
"Phoenix Gold has developed a reputation for providing excellence in sound, build, design and price," said Phil Eichmiller, a mechanical and industrial designer with Phoenix Gold. "That reputation is not accidental -- it's the result of very smart engineering on our end. Inventor provides us with the functionality we need to maintain that reputation and deliver on our brand promise."
Autodesk Inventor delivers a comprehensive and integrated set of design tools that enables companies to create better products, manage their design process and share data with the extended design team. Inventor provides the best of both worlds with 2D and 3D design tools in one package, delivering enhanced 3D productivity while preserving 2D engineering designs through native DWG compatibility.
"Inventor is the single solution for all of my design needs," said Eichmiller. "Drafting, rendering, modeling and animating are available in one place and based on one set of data. Switching between 2D and 3D is effortless -- it's a virtual toolbox of solutions for turning designs into finished products."
Phoenix Gold took full advantage of the Inventor power and flexibility when designing its latest amplifiers and speakers, which contain anywhere from dozens to hundreds of individual components. Creating a working model in 3D with Inventor allows Phoenix Gold to help ensure that all the different parts work together without interference before they create a physical prototype.
The benefits of Autodesk Inventor have extended to all parts of the Phoenix Gold organization, helping members of the engineering, manufacturing and marketing teams innovate and collaborate on products with ease, whether it's in 2D or 3D.
Phoenix Gold is also seeing benefits from the flexibility of Inventor software when it comes to sharing information with its offshore manufacturing partners. The company designs and engineers its products from its Portland, Oregon-based headquarters. With Inventor 3D models, Phoenix Gold can effectively communicate with its geographically diverse manufacturing partners details as to what each finished product is supposed to look like, thus reducing the overall product development cycle time.
"With Inventor, the Phoenix Gold product is the focus, rather than the process," said Robert "Buzz" Kross, vice president of Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions. "That allows companies such as Phoenix Gold to devote more of their time and energy to designing their industry-leading products and keeping their customers happy."
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