Software to help companies design cars faster

Indian car manufacturers may be able to design and manufacture cars in 18 months with the help of virtual product development (VPD) software instead of the usual 30-40 months.

MSC Software, which offers engineering services, is helping various Indian car makers reduce the product development span.

The company is working on methods to eliminate lengthy procedures of building prototype for cars and improving them before the product is finalised.

MSC Software's chief technical officer, Reza Sadeghi, said the company was all set to acquire the lead position in the India's computer-aided engineering (CAE) market.

"The automobile giants in India are lagging in terms of new product development cycles as against their counterparts in the US or Europe. The prototype development and improvement generally consume a lot of time while designing a new product. The latest trend is to elude actual prototypes and use virtual product development tools," Sadeghi said.

MSC clients include Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra in the Indian market.

"We have a strong presence in the OEM market in India and the present market share is around 30 per cent. We now plan to enter the SME segment to promote our products," he added.