Best Practice and Tips and Tricks from Mike Watkins

The way we design products is changing, the level of product Intelligence is rising and the way in which we manufacture those products is transforming. Join Autodesk to hear from Industry experts and pioneering manufacturers about the latest product development and manufacturing trends and how products like PLM are making a difference. We’d like to formally invite you to the Transformative Innovation with PLM Roundtable Event, hosted by Autodesk, on Thursday 26th May 2016 at Old Trafford Football Ground.  Click here to Register As well as hearing from Manufacturing Industry Experts; presenting at the event will be a number of North West manufacturers who have used Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to help them transform innovation through…. ·       Streamlined sales to engineering ·       Reduced waste in product development ·       Increased product sales & profitability ·       Products & projects d...

Security Seal Technology lightweight trolleys  This week I've been with the development team from  Security Seal Technology Ltd,  to see what great products they are creating and share some of my best practices. T hey are preparing for their Autodesk PLM 360  implementation so we like to share examples from other customers to help them get started.  Security Seal Technology Ltd are a recent customer of Autodesk PLM 360 as part of the  Autodesk® Entrepreneur Impact programme.   The team from Security Seal Technology, with the Innovative lightweight trolley Security Seal Technology   specialises in creating  cutting edge security solutions for the aviation industry. The company provides  intuitive alternatives to the traditional heavier, less reliable and potentially i nsecure current airline trolley solutions. The security function  is an electronic, multi-point  lock and security seal that will...

Last year I visited my daughter's secondary school to give a talk to some of the upper 6 classes about Autodesk, what we do, and how we can help any future designers to realise their Innovations through our software and tools. One of the tools I showed was  Autodesk Homestyler   a really cool app that allows you to express your creativity, find inspiration, and make smarter home design choices. Now I must admit I'm not an expert ! I showed a quick demo and then went onto to show Autodesk PLM 360 , Fusion 360   and a few more.. Towards the end of 2015 My daughter got her first iPhone and she asked me to put some of the Autodesk apps on it. As an experiment I thought she could help me to layout our new kitchen design So I left her a few days thinking that she should get bored! If you have kids you know how quickly they go through apps/games and want a new one to play with ! But to my surprise,...

Last month we visited QFC for a 2 day customer video shoot to capture their Autodesk PLM 360 story so far. We shot on site, in the offices, on the factory floor and even took the sofa's outside to Belton House !! So much fun with the QFC team. Setting up in the QFC Showroom for the interviews On the QFC factory floor Shooting some outside footage ! Ok abit of posing by me, did you expect any less !! Belton House a beautiful place A focus on business process excellence has helped QFC to establish a reputation for product design, excellent service and great product quality. This ensured that QFC continued to grow through what has been the deepest recession in living memory. Of course no business stands still, and right now QFC’s energy is focussed on pushing the boundaries to produce a pipeline of great new products to keep customers excited and this is where Autodesk PLM 360 comes in.  We hope you enjoy this Autodesk PLM 360 customer story...

I thought I'd switch gear this week and talk about another Autodesk product, namely Autodesk  SketchBook® . This  is the ultimate in painting and drawing software.  It helps digital artists and illustrators design with professional-grade perspective tools and intuitive user interface. You can sketch, draw, and paint on any platform it's badass ! This blog post happened by pure chance, let me explain... http://www.autodesk.com/products/sketchbook-pro/overview For those of you that know me well, when I'm not on the road working with our Autodesk PLM 360 customers I like to go and inflict pain on myself in the form of tattooing !. I think I've made quite a good job of it so far ! Last weekend I took a trip to the coast to see a good friend of my Zak Chai, who is the owner of High Tide Tattoo in  Whitstable for a day of pleasure (in my mind anyhow!). When I arrive the kettle goes on and we sit down to discuss what he's going to...

Mike: Morning guys, great to meet you again I'm excited to see how you guys shift 6000 sofas a week ! So tell me about QFC, what are the roots of the company, and what is your secret to success? QFC:  Hi Mike, we were founded in 1993 and have reinvented ourselves several times since then to deal with changing market conditions, most notably 10 years ago when we became the first upholstery manufacturer to offer 7 day lead times. This enabled us to continue to grow our business at a time when the UK upholstery industry was shrinking in the face of fierce competition from China and Eastern Europe. A focus on business process excellence has helped us to establish a reputation for really excellent service and great product quality and this ensured that we continued to grow through what has been the deepest recession in living memory. Of course no business stands still and right now our energy is being directed to ensuring that we focus even more on producing a relentless stre...