Consumer Products / Trek Bicycles, Inc.

The Challenge

Trek Bicycles, Inc., is the leading manufacturer of handcrafted bicycles for the professional racing and recreational markets. Within professional cycling circles, Trek bikes have a long-standing reputation for quality. When Lance Armstrong began his streak of seven consecutive Tour de France wins — all on Trek bikes — the company's products were quickly becoming more prominent. In order to meet the increasing demand anticipated as a result of the company's association with Lance Armstrong, Trek's management decided in 2002 to upgrade the company's CAD software.

The Solution
The company selected the SolidWorks mechanical design software for several reasons. First, it’s easy to use, and represents the best value for the price. In addition to supporting integrated opportunities for reusing design data, SolidWorks also includes complex modeling and surfacing capabilities. Finally, at least one Trek design manager believes that SolidWorks has the greatest momentum of all Windows-based 3D CAD systems. By deploying SolidWorks software, Trek Bicycles doubled its throughput of new products, reduced design cycles by 50 percent, improved product quality, and enhanced design communication.

Summary and Metrics:

• Reduced design cycles by 50%
• Improved product quality
• Doubled throughput of new products (100% increase)

"SolidWorks has the most solid business experience in actual production settings. Because we wanted to use 3D data at more points in our development process, we chose the system with the most momentum, knowing that it would produce additional opportunities for integration."
Steve Baumann, Industrial Design Manager

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