Manchester, UK. 4 July, 2011. – Icona Solutions, which develops, supplies and supports the innovative perceived quality simulation and visualization software solution, aesthetica, together with its Beijing-based business partner, Sili-Tech Co. Ltd., has announced that, following a comprehensive competitive evaluation of all available software in the areas of tolerance analysis and design visualization, China’s Great Wall Motor Company has selected aesthetica for use in perceived quality studies on all of its future vehicle programmes.

Earlier this year, Great Wall Motor Company implemented its new ‘Three Hs Strategy’, addressing ‘High-luxury’, ‘High-performance’ and ‘High-tech’. As a part of this strategy, Great Wall formed its new Dimensional Management Group and aesthetica was selected as a core tool for helping the company achieve the goal of ‘High-luxury’ throughout its vehicles range.

While Great Wall does expect the use of aesthetica to help save time and money during the vehicle development process, the company’s principal aim is to improve the perceived quality of its vehicles by reducing the average exterior gap dimension on all its high-end luxury vehicles by next year. Using aesthetica will enable it to design its vehicles so that they are less sensitive to manufacturing variation, enabling the company to achieve higher perceived quality, cost-effectively.

First live project
With the software now installed in the new Dimensional Management Group, located at Great Wall’s Engineering Development Centre in Baoding, some 100 km south west of Beijing, the first live project on which aesthetica will be used commenced last month (June).

aesthetica will be used at all stages of the vehicle design and development process, from the concept phase, where it will be used in setting the dimensional technical specification, i.e. gap and flush targets, through the early and advanced engineering phases for optimising locator strategies, to the detailed engineering and manufacturing stages for the visual analysis of tolerance stacks and for root cause analysis of perceived quality issues.

3D CAD models, principally from Great Wall’s CATIA V5 CAD/CAM system, will be downloaded to aesthetica, directly in the case of CATIA or via IGES, STEP or JT in the case of other CAD software, for real-time analysis and visualisation of the effects on perceived quality of the predicted manufacturing variations. This will enable much faster and easier cross-discipline decision-making on tolerances and locator schemes.

“We are delighted that Great Wall Motor Company has made the decision to adopt aesthetica as the main tool for its perceived quality process,” said Tim Illingworth, chief executive, Icona Solutiuons. “Together with our business partner, Sili-Tech Co. Ltd., we are confident that we will be able to help Great Wall achieve its aim of higher and consistent perceived quality in all of its future vehicles.”

Yimin Jin, chief executive officer, Sili-Tech Co. Ltd., added, “Using our local knowledge, our high-level service and consulting capabilities and working closely with Icona Solutions we have been able to deliver a first rate perceived quality solution to Great Wall Motor Company. I am confident that this is just the first in a growing list of similar successes for Icona Solutions and Sili-Tech in China.”

About Icona Solutions Ltd.
Icona Solutions Ltd. develops and provides innovative and unique solutions to audit and improve perceived quality in manufactured metal and plastics products. Its software can form an integral part of a product design and manufacturing company’s overall product lifecycle management (PLM) software environment and is supplied and supported globally both directly and through qualified, specialist resellers. Icona Solutions is a member of both Dassault Systèmes’ CAA V5 Adopters and of Siemens PLM Software’s JT Open programs. Find out more at: www.iconasolutions.com