The iJ thermostat is one of the most customizable products in CAREL’s range of air conditioning, refrigeration and heating control solutions. It was also developed by the Italian company in record time: just 10 days instead of the usual 100 days that it takes to get a product designed, made and out in the field.
How did CAREL successfully do this? Well, it changed the entire way it manages all aspects of design, engineering and manufacturing.
Before, the company’s product development cycles involved lengthy stages of physical prototyping, testing, and redesign, which were resource-intensive and slowed time to market. Teams also used disconnected tools and data systems, leading to inefficiencies in collaboration and decision-making.
Now, CAREL handles all product development within Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud, and designs, tests and refines everything virtually. Through this vertical process integration and automated exchange of data from one stage to the next, CAREL can mitigate errors early on and, from the very beginning, consider customer requirements all the way through to the setup of the manufacturing line.
“Being able to centrally manage our data in the platform allows us to industrialize a new product very quickly,” said Luca Toffanin, group product platform manager and PLM manager at CAREL. “Handling all processes via the 3DEXPERIENCE platform means that everything is clear and connected, and information flows between systems.”
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) use the iJ thermostat to better regulate temperatures and optimize energy usage in the refrigerators, freezers and wine coolers they make. Because it needs to blend into their products seamlessly, they must be able to configure the thermostat’s color and size of displays and cases, as well as create unique icons and buttons.
Today, CAREL efficiently manages all product variants for its iJ control solution in the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Having a central product structure allows CAREL to clearly visualize customization options, understand the rules governing variants, and verify how components work together to make sure every proposed combination is feasible ahead of production. This streamlined approach accelerates design, significantly reducing the time spent on testing and verification – a process that previously took up to 30 days.
By mastering all of this complexity virtually, CAREL no longer needs to make as many physical prototypes and is reducing material waste in production, contributing to a more efficient and sustainable product development process. Its customers are more satisfied too. They can now choose from more customization options. And they no longer need to check multiple samples, or risk receiving products that don’t carry the features they wanted.