Taylor-Dunn, from its inception, was a chicken feeding vehicle, it has always been a custom oriented shop. A standard product is designed in Inventor and that data is used in the customs. We will use that standard, do the modifications, Inventor allows us to make those modifications, to a new model, and generate new parts, quickly and easily. But it also allows us to show a customer who is not an engineer, "This is what your vehicle is going to look like, is that what you intended?" And that's very important with a highly customized vehicle. And once we design that, we can put it together in a rendered view, let the customer see it, and they can approve it or they can say, "I really didn't expect it to be that way, can you modify it?" Inventor allows us to go back in and make the changes that are needed and send them another rendered drawing so they can make an approval.
We've given people designs before and you suddenly realized that we missed a very important part of what they imagined the concept was going to be and we're able to make that correction much quicker. Where as, if it had been paper and pencil you would like roll them up in a ball, throw them in the corner and start again.
We also use KETIV for outsourcing some of our design work. If we came up against a crunch where we need some extra resources and we don't have them in house, we use KETIV to help do that work.
Custom vehicles are built 1,2, many 5 at a time and we don't want to build lots of parts that we're not going to use. So we only build the parts that the custom vehicle needs, what that order needs, so just in time scenario. The parts are made, the parts are used, we don't have to store them, we don't have to inventory them, and the vehicle is shipped. So we build to order, so the customer gets what they want, when they need it. Were able to design a vehicle, document it, get it into our production system and ship it. Autodesk Inventor is an integral tool in our business.