Differences Between Design and Manufacturing

Much has been made of the rivalry between design engineers and manufacturing engineers. Starting at the time of the Industrial Revolution, the two roles have been seen as separate functions: designers inventing products that manufacturing personnel would then produce, using paper drawings or verbal instructions.

In recent years, there has been greater collaboration between designers using computer-aided design (CAD) software and manufacturing engineers using computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software. This has been driven, in many cases, by pressure to be more efficient with time and manufacturing resources. However, the two types of software were seldom integrated into a single environment that permitted seamless collaboration.

Download this article for more about these two roles and how integrating both of them brings better products to market more efficiently.