Dimensional Control Systems, Inc. is awarded $2 Million R&D funding to develop SOVA.

Troy, Michigan U.S.A. September 12, 2003 Dimensional Control Systems, Inc. (DCS) is awarded 2 Million Dollar Research and Development project by US Commerce Department prestigious National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Technology Program (ATP) to develop SOVA.

Stream-of-Variation Analysis (SOVA) is a modeling, analysis, synthesis, and process control system for variation management of multistage manufacturing processes. The development of this technology will provide broad benefits, and significantly reduce the product realization cycle time (new product/process development and ramp-up time). It will provide a universal simulation engine for analysis and prediction of manufacturing system performance based on system design information, thus creating a paradigm shift in the way future production systems will be designed - from trial-and-error in the estimation of product quality, ramp-up time, and yield to math-based prediction.

SOVA is a quantum leap forward in the variation management technology. It will be applicable to various complex multistage manufacturing processes used for assembly systems (automotive, aerospace, shipbuilding, appliance, electronic assembly, and consumer goods), as well as for component fabrication (semiconductor manufacturing, machining systems: transfer lines, cells or hybrid systems). The SOVA system will be disseminated as a computer aided design and process diagnosis tool for design, engineering & manufacturing system engineers. Development of the SOVA system will provide substantial benefits to the U.S. economy. Expected benefits include faster time to produce products, quicker introduction to the market, rapid capture of market growth, reduced overall manufacturing system development costs, reduced installation, debug, and ramp-up time.

An ATP award is regarded as the gold medal in Research Olympics. The ATP provides cost-shared funding to industry-led teams which can include non-profits and universities to help advance particularly challenging, high-risk R&D projects that have the potential to spark important, broad-based economic or social benefits for the United States. The program supports projects that industry cannot fully fund on its own because of significant technical risks. ATP awards are made on the basis of rigorous, competitive peer review of the scientific and technical merit of each proposal. The program accelerates enabling technology research, but does not support product development work.

The project announcement from NIST states -"Who could have predicted?" This lament is heard often during the launch of a new manufacturing and assembly process designed to deliver a wonderful new product to the consumer market. The joining of rigid parts with compliant or flexible parts often leads to unanticipated misalignments and other dimensional variations that accumulate and are increasingly compounded as the product moves down the assembly line. Dimensional Control Systems will develop SOVA to eliminate most of the costly trial-and-error fine-tuning of new-product assembly processes attributable to these unforeseen dimensional errors. SOVA is intended to be a widely useful tool-set to be used throughout the assembly process from design through production. Implemented during the product design phase, the software will produce mathematics-based predictions of potential downstream assembly problems, based on evaluations of the design and a large array of process variables. By integrating product and process design in a pre-production simulation, SOVA can head off individual assembly errors that contribute to an accumulating set of dimensional variations, which ultimately result in out-of-tolerance parts and products. Once in the ramp-up stage of production, SOVA will be able to compare predicted misalignments with actual measurements to determine the degree of mismatch in the assemblies, diagnose the root causes of the errors, isolate the sources from other assembly steps, and then, on the basis of the SOVA model and product measurements, recommend solutions. These analytical, predictive and diagnostic capabilities are enabled by new variation modeling research by DCS and its collaborators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. If transferred to the manufacturing sector, such tools would deliver major benefits in terms of cost savings, productivity and quality improvements, and shortened product development cycles. For example, DCS estimates that SOVA could reduce the number of design iterations for each new product model. The company intends to demonstrate a complete package of SOVA tools at two U.S. auto assembly plants in 2006. The challenge of diagnosing root causes of variation for compliant parts as well as applying control-theoretic constructs to modeling and evaluation of dimensional variations are among the major technical hurdles that must be overcome. ATP funding will augment company resources devoted to developing the SOVA approach and proving its technical feasibility. Dimensional Control Systems has not been able to obtain external funding because of the high technical hurdles to be overcome and the longer timeframe for return on investment. Without funding, DCS estimates that these efforts could take up to 10 years.

Dimensional Control Systems, Inc. (DCS) is a world-class provider of Dimensional Engineering Consulting Services and Software Solutions.  DCS is a trusted source of highly acclaimed
3-D tolerance analysis technology.  DCS has been successfully supplying organizations worldwide with full-service, turnkey Dimensional Quality Solutions.  1DCS, DCS-DFC, 3DCS, 3DCS CAA V5 Based for CATIA V5, GDM-3D, and DataGrabber are all trademarks of Dimensional Control Systems, Inc.  

Additional Information about DCS is available at http://www.3dcs.com
Additional Information about NIST is available at http://www.nist.gov
Additional Information about ATP is available at http://www.atp.nist.gov