In the ultra-competitive global defense industry, products not only have to operate to specification, but they also increasingly require more efficient and rapid design and development cycles.

Chemring Group PLC, a global manufacturer of defense and security products, is being recognized as the Autodesk June Inventor of the Month for its use of 3D design software Autodesk Product Design Suite and Autodesk Vault Professional product data management software.

Containing design, visualization and simulation software, Autodesk Product Design Suite serves as a Digital Prototyping solution for Chemring’s entire product design workflow. Autodesk Vault, as part of the Product Design Suite, helps ensure that Chemring employees and partners can quickly and easily find all the design data they need to make better decisions and work more efficiently.

Chemring estimates it saves days of engineering time being able to find and reuse designs more easily, and weeks of time by not having to manually manage design files and bill of materials.

“Our people used to spend too much time managing data,” said Kirk Berenger, lead engineer at Chemring. “It was difficult to track the progress of designs or even to share that data beyond the engineering department with other team members. With Autodesk Product Design Suite, we found an integrated solution to enhance our design and data management processes.”

Autodesk Platinum Partner A2K Technologies was instrumental in helping Chemring come up with a comprehensive solution that combined both design and data management. Vault was ideal since it tightly integrates with Autodesk Product Design Suite tools including Autodesk Inventor that allows Chemring to explore and validate ideas digitally.

Vault software also integrates with Microsoft SharePoint — a key selection criteria for Chemring. This integration allows non-design professionals throughout the organization to use familiar SharePoint workflows to work directly with vaulted design data, building a crucial connection between design teams and the extended business enterprise.

Smart business moves by Chemring — it’s no wonder the company is a leader in military, aerospace, maritime and security applications. You can also view a video interview with Chemring on the Autodesk YouTube Channel.