Car Manufacturer Uses 3D Scanning To Know the Competition

Know your enemy with 3D scanning services

A famous Chinese military leader named Sun Zi once wrote the words “know your enemy”. Seems like pretty good advice. You certainly don’t want to spend all of your time learning Taekwondo if the other guy is going to show up with a bazooka and a flame thrower. If you are going to protect yourself, you’d better know what you are up against. It’s good to have a gun in case a grizzly bear charges you in the mountains. It is also best to have something higher caliber than a .22. Know your enemy. This idea could also be applied to the business world. Know your competitor. If some company comes out with a smart phone, you’d better not be trying to make a better flip phone, if you know what I mean. There is one company, General Motors, that is keeping an eye on the others. They are using 3D scanning services to do it.

3D scanning services finds the problems

General Motors is getting a specific idea of what is going on over yonder where the competition is. In this day and age competition is tough. You you aren’t looking at what the other side is putting out, then you are not going to stay up to speed. They understands this, and so they are using 3D scanning services to disassemble the vehicles and convert them into digital form. Once that is done, they can examine examine the design. They wants to know problems with parts so that that they can avoid that same problem with their own designs. For example, if a tire rim was recalled for some reason, they can scan that part into a CAD model and then take a good look at it. The problems that it has can then be avoided.

Examine yourself too

3D scanning services has provided a very inexpensive way for companies like GM to stay up to speed in the race. This method allows them to learn from the mistakes of others. Of course the competition doesn’t want them to know the reason. They will not just come flat out and tell everyone what the problem is. Therefore, GM has to do the dirty work and look for the answer themselves. They have found a way to get that answer. Using 3D scanning services. Car manufacturers like General Motors don’t just scan their competitor’s cars, either. They also scan their own. 3D scanning can also be used to discover the faults of their own products. They can capture the part and put it in the computer to run tests to guarantee quality.

If seems that the manager at this car company must have taken a Chinese history lesson or something, because “know your enemy” seems to be the game plan. I know that Sun Zi did not have a 3D scanner back in his time, but I am guessing that if lived back in our day and age, that he would be a businessman and be raking in the moolah.  This is just one of the ways 3D scanning services is doing good things for the automotive industry.

Keep reading: more articles about 3D scanning

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