C-TECH INNOVATION
Industry: Consumer Products
"Our aim, together with Lancaster University is to help SMEs
develop eco friendly products. We previously used LCA software,
which could be a very lengthy process. SolidWorks Sustainability
could reduce our analysis time by 50% - if not more, and get more
people designing in an environmentally friendly way."
- Peter Lomas, Director
The Challenge
C
-Tech Innovation are a research and
development organisation with a specialist history in electricity
and heating. In the last 10 years, the company have expanded into
all areas of technology and now offer industrial and commercial
research & design for commercial companies, European funded
research projects, as well as management and business consultancy
including training, advice, mentorship and business plans for
commercial bodies. The company have engaged on a three year joint
scheme, called 'Eco-Innovate' with Lancaster University, funded by
the North West Development Agency (NWDA) and the European Regional
Development Fund (ERDF). Their goal is to help companies develop or
re-design more environmentally responsible and eco-innovative
products.
The Solution
C-tech's clients who are all SMEs in the North West of England,
are able to sign up to the scheme, free of charge. Using
Sustainability, the C-Tech team spend time with their clients
designing or redesigning their product, and value engineering it .
They produce an analysis report which advises the client on how to
improve the product's sustainability. The company and their client
can then look to change materials or processes and do a final
analysis. For an assembly for example, parts can be ranked in order
of which is worst for carbon footprint or air pollution. The team
devise ways of making improvements to the first two or three worst
offending components. This could be a case of changing materials or
manufacturing processes, or changing the geographical source of the
material. The final report from SolidWorks Sustainability software
provides recommendations on changes and environmental benefits.
This process takes a fraction of the time it used to take C-Tech
using their LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) software, which was too
costly or too involved for most companies to use. C-Tech envisage
their growing number of clients will receive huge benefits from the
software, including cost reduction, due to cutting down on
materials or numbers of parts. The main benefit being the reduced
impact on the environment of the products they manufacture.
