Simulation - Cure all for beleagured engineering enterprises?

In these days of economic challenges, companies are forced to look at ways and means of reducing costs to survive and stay profitable. Some of the immediate priorities that need urgent management focus include: 1. How to reduce product cost to sustain healthy margins? 2. How to innovate and deliver products of high value without compromising on safety? 3. How to increase an already shrinking market share? 4. How to eliminate warranty costs, product recall and re-work? The questions are unending. This is just a partial list. The answers just do not seem to be there. A careful analysis of all the questions, posed above, provides a common denominator - Design Product cost is dictated by the Bill of Materials and Drawings. Innovation and USP of a product is driven by product function and efficiencies. Increasing market share is directly related to selling better products of higher value at affordable (read not lower) cost. Warranty issues, recall and re-work relate to product not...