The Zen of Implementing Upfront CFD

The traditional use of the word "Zen", typically refers to a from of Buddhism that concentrates on learning through meditation and intuition. It is said that enlightenment can come through meditation and not pure faith. So, how does this apply to Upfront CFD or Upfront Simulation for that matter? Hang tight...

Engineers love a process. Whatever it is in the world, we like to follow a certain path. We tend to implement new tools to our process by following a traditional path. Look at how we implement simulation tools. We usually do an internal huddle to make a commitment to seeing what's out there. We invite all of the vendor's to come in and show their stuff. Often we prepare a model for them to "prove" themselves or even better, we prepare a benchmark. How much thought is given to the model we give the vendor? How about the benchmark? What are we benchmarking?

Typically, we are benchmarking something we already know. A model where we "could" have used an upfront tool, but instead we tested it. Ok, fair enough. So, from the vendor's perspective, they just proved that you "could" have provided some value last year. Is that good enough? Often not!

So, let's say it was. We would probably then sign up for a regional training course. Nominate our 2-3 hotshot guys to all attend for 2-5 days of training. We go through the training, we all head back to the office and are ready to go. We may even crack open a tutorial to ensure we are really ready and proficient. THEN, we take a look at our real problem, our current problem. The problem that we should haven been thinking about from Day 1. If you are a valve company, wouldn't it make more sense to learn how to solve valve type problems? What is the benefit of learning the history of meshing if you are unable to plot a pressure drop or obtain a Cv value?

It's amazing how beneficial it can be to take a step back (follow the zen path) and ask ourselves, if I had this upfront tool tomorrow, what is the first problem I would like to solve? What problem is really holding us back as a company from making more money, reducing failure, increasing life cycle, allowing for creativity. Simply put, what problem can I solve to put me ahead of the guy down the street? That is the problem you should benchmark. Push the vendor to solve your pain and show you the path to solving pains on your own. This to me, is the path to enlightenment. Let's be fair, depending on the size of the problem, we should be willing to pay for the time.

Ask yourself, is the vendor I am dealing with able to address this problem?