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43 analysis tools go beyond incrementally improving assembly operations; they directly improve a company's proftability. Focus on assembly variation Software for dimensional analysis ensures parts ft and work together properly in an assembly. The software predicts what problems might exist when building the assembly—before actually making and assembling the physical parts. The analysis, specifcally tolerance stack-ups (the cumulative efect of individual part tolerances in an assembly), is critical to addressing mechanical ft and performance, as well as catching design faws before investing in expensive tooling. Mananufacturing costs are also reduced by maximizing part tolerances that can be increased, while controlling the overall dimensional integrity of an assembly. One such analysis tool is Tecnomatix Variation Analysis from Siemens PLM Software ( siemens.com/plm ). The software uses the visualization the assembly process itself, or all three. The software can also determine if an assembly process is constrained too much or too little. While the Siemens's product is CAD- neutral, there are also variation analysis tools from non-CAD vendors. For example, Sigmetrix ( sigmetrix.com ) sells CETOL 6s, which works from the annotations in the solid models in the on process distribution moments (e.g., standard deviation) rather than design tolerances. According to the company, "Statistical analysis (also called variation analysis) can be used to predict the actual variation of an assembly based on the variation of the part dimensions. This approach requires distributions to be normal with all parts at the same quality level, i.e. ±3s." CETOL, however, uses "the method of p Delmia ergonomics software simulates various worker tasks, such as picking up and placing objects, in order to analyze potential work-related injuries related to worker posture, bending, and upper-limb movements. THE BOTTOM LINE: Assembling the right analysis software is crucial to making assembly operations right. capabilities in the Teamcenter PLM system to simulate the process of assembling parts into subassemblies and fnished products. The simulation includes a 3D digital prototype of part geometry, product variations (tolerances), assembly process variations (sequence, assembly attachment defnition, tooling), and measurements. The simulation verifes tolerances and dimensioning schemes, often identifying critical dimensions, tolerances, and assembly processes that signifcantly contribute to variation. Diferent options and iterations can be simulated to optimize part designs, tolerances, and CAD systems from Dassault Systèmes Catia, PTC Creo and Pro/Engineer, and SolidWorks. CETOL is fully associative with those systems; changes made to the CAD annotations are propagated to CETOL and, conversely, changes made within CETOL in the process of a tolerance analysis are written back to the CAD models. Root-sum-square (RSS) is the statistical method of choice for analyzing toler- ces for many companies. RSS, accord- ing to Sigmetrix, sums up dimension distributions, not the tolerances themselves; worst-case analysis is system moments." This method can analyze all complexities of a design with no restriction on distribution type or quality level. As a result, users can perform full assembly variation analysis with the tolerance analysis software. Focus on assembly personnel The people who put an assembly together are another critical part of any assembly operation. Software for workplace ergonomic analysis simulates virtualized people working in a virtualized production area. Ergonomic