Virtual product development forum

A high level forum on Virtual Product Development (VPD) will be held in Sydney in October to coincide with the Sydney Motor Show.

The auto industry is one of many aggressive sectors taking up VPD that allows product developers and manufacturers to greatly reduce the lead time, cost of product development and also to achieve better performing products and processes.

The forum, to be held over two days (Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 October) at Tattersalls Club in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, will feature leading industry players and exponents of the 'virtual world'. Speakers include representatives from: world leading automotive steering specialists Bishop Innovation, whose joint venture with Mercedes Benz has 20% of the world auto-steering market; PBR - Australian-based brake manufacturer and developer which is a supplier to the auto industry worldwide; Holden Australia - a leading user of VPD in automobile design; and United Goninan - manufacturer of locomotives and passenger and freight rolling stock.

All speakers will highlight their experiences with virtual success ie, how they have used virtual technology to save time and money in the product development cycle by testing virtual products rather than physical prototypes.

The CEO of Forum organiser, MSC Software South Asia, Dr Andrew Currie, said the forum would have a transportation vehicles stream and there would also be a wide range of other manufacturing and design industry sectors on expo.