SIGMA Europe

“Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.” This quote by Steven Wright humorously describes the wish to turn back time and have made decisions differently - in private life or in business. Companies continually lose the experience and knowledge of highly-qualified employees through turnover. The knowledge transfer to their respective successors is often very limited, unfortunately. But the new team members need orientation to make correct decisions. The topic of the accumulation of know-how and experience is often connected to the question: how can experience be attained rapidly and know-how built up quickly without getting confronted with the bitter effects of missed timelines, added costs or even a lost project? That’s where modern tools that didn’t exist in the last generation take the stage, helping us know in advance what will happen “if x” through computer simulation, well before a problem becomes reality. Injection molding of plastics and elastomers requires significant investments for molds and machines. Costs and assembly times are often comparable by magnitude to a modern family house. A critical mistake at the very beginning (the foundation) can become a risk for the entire building / project. Unlike in building houses, with injection molding it’s possible to completely simulate the design of the mold and process with a computer in advance. One step further is Virtual Molding. It allows you to run and analyze many different variations of geometries, process-parameters or raw materials, fully-automated. World of injection without Virtual Molding: New employees come in with new and different ideas and would often want to proceed differently. “We've never done it like that” and “This will not work this way” are the usual well-meant comments from the team. Experienced colleagues can often intuitively warn of a conceptual mistake or foresee the design to challenge the technical feasibility, but some of these experiences can’t even be explained completely. Without taking the risk of making mistakes, the new scenario can’t be checked out. Therefore, the introduction of new employees can become a quite painful process. World of injection with Virtual Molding: During employee onboarding, simulation can be a very useful tool, because it makes the entire process transparent and understandable. Virtual Molding goes one step beyond by creating the option to use and steer the full potential and high motivation of a new colleague right from the start. It helps secure and transfer know-how, while maintaining the option of trying new ideas and concepts without risk to the real project. Before a process exists, it can already get tested. This allows you to compare and optimize different concepts. The risk of wrong decisions is minimized and fact-driven communication between new and experienced colleagues is supported. Either wish “if I’d only known this earlier“ or count on simulation and get the experience before you need it.