Industry Summary Articles

Dassault Systèmes today announced that Bernardaud, a French luxury porcelain manufacturer, is using the “My Product Portfolio” industry solution experience on the cloud to transform its product development process. 

Based on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, “My Product Portfolio” provides Bernardaud with a unified digital environment for product design, engineering and management that is quickly deployed and helps the company to preserve the craftsmanship that has become its hallmark.

Bernardaud is a family-owned company, based in Limoges, with a 150-year tradition of luxury porcelain that merges time-honored decorative arts techniques with distinctive designs, partnerships with renowned artists, and contemporary twists to conventional tableware formats.  Bernardaud manufactures two million pieces annually; each piece requires at least one week to be completed and fifty artisans to produce.  Always striving to innovate, the company wanted to accelerate the creation and launch of new pieces by digitalizing the product development process. 

Using the “My Product Portfolio” industry solution experience, Bernardaud can create 3D virtual models of each piece, virtually experience shapes, colors, decorations, enamel and engraving, and validate the design.  This virtual model then serves as a referential for the mold used to make the piece.  The company can virtually program and simulate the manufacturing process, factoring in whether the piece is crafted from liquid, powder or paste, as well as any changes in size or shape that can occur during firing.  Bernardaud can also digitize its existing products to preserve its heritage of thousands of designs introduced by its artisans over the years. 

“Our customers expect a high level of quality and functionality from each of our pieces and this drives our thinking and our entire approach to business,” said Michel Bernardaud, CEO, Bernardaud.  “Porcelain manufacturing techniques have never been as sophisticated as they are today nor porcelain as elegant as it is today.  ‘My Product Portfolio’ allows us to digitally enrich this technical expertise and make it more efficient.  Will the shape of a teapot’s spout prevent drips? How much gold must we blend into paint to obtain the desired look around the rim of a plate? We can virtually explore and answer such questions without the need for costly physical prototypes.”

“Companies in the home goods and tableware segments, from mass-market to high-end, require new strategies to build digital transformation into their processes that accelerate the launch of products that differentiate them in the eyes of their customers,” said Chris Colyer, Vice President, Consumer Goods and Retail Industry, Dassault Systèmes.  “‘My Product Portfolio’ supports the skilled expertise required for innovation in leisure goods.  This cloud-based solution is particularly suited for small and medium-sized businesses that benefit from its easy implementation and the flexibility to scale up as their business needs evolve.”

To view the original press release, please click here.

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