Teamwork
Product and mold designers can work through most of the manufacturing issues in advance by teaming up in the early stages of product development as one engineered process. A team of engineers with diverse backgrounds concurrently working together is far more capable, intelligent and talented than any individual will ever be. Part design shouldn’t be a millstone of the product designer,

but the shared production of the entire team that has contributed to its achievement. Being powered by a creative product development team streamlined with robust manufacturing engineering muscle is a tremendous competitive advantage nobody can afford to overlook.

Communication
Open communication between the design parties is crucial to keeping the tool design and build on schedule. Increasing emphasis on concurrent part and tool design makes the associability with the part model data more significant than ever for faster reaction in the event of design changes.
In the result of a drastic modification to the part, the mold designer should be informed immediately so he can evaluate the revision of the tool build. Communication, interaction, participation and involvement are widespread key words in today’s mold manufacturing environment.

Cost
There also is a cost/time matter to consider. In the event of an engineering change to a particular product due to poor quality, cost or performance, you’d rather find out sooner than later. The cost to repair a potential problem is multiplied by several times the further it is discovered down the product development cycle. A problem discovered while designing the part or mold is far more economical to repair than if the glitch is revealed after the molds are built, the parts are molded, and the products are assembled, packaged and sitting on the store’s shelf. A $500 part design change can proliferate to be a $50,000 change—if it needs to be addressed after parts are put on the market.

Overlapped Engineering Tasks
Although high-tech solutions—such as high-speed machining and automation—can accelerate certain portions of the mold build process, there is a great opportunity to overlap product and mold design for timesavings . In order to manage this concurrent activity you must select your mold designer first while designing the product. The mold designer not only will help in anticipating potential molding problems, he also can accelerate your process by starting the preliminary mold design while the part design is being completed—running them parallel. Furthermore, by using the same 3-D design software for product and tool design, rapid engineering response is guaranteed due to the data legacy and associability of the software. Having a product and tool designer using the same CAD system is strongly recommended.