Re-engineering Wire Harness Design for Integrated Product Development

Neil Martin & Charles Watson

Harnessing has traditionally been overlooked during product development, falling between the electrical and mechanical engineering disciplines. Its importance should not be underestimated, as the harness touches every system of a product. With the ever-increasing move towards electrification, this will only become more complex. In this session the presenters will show how they've re-engineered harness design, bringing it to the front end of product development, whilst integrating Design Rule Checking to validate it can be built long before it reaches manufacturing. This will be shown through the definition of the electrical design in Creo Schematics, the 3D modeling of the harness in Creo Cabling, and the subsequent generation of a manufacturing drawing using the Harness Manufacturing Extension. Finally, the integration of the electrical and harness design information into Windchill will be shown, as well as how it can be leveraged in MPMLink for manufacturing process planning.