CoLab Software

Last night 30 CoLab customers gathered in Detroit to discuss the next big shift in hardware: AI-enabled engineering. CoLab CEO, Adam Keating gave a talk on how engineering and manufacturing leaders can start preparing for this shift today. And why early movers will have a significant competitive advantage. This is the first of many regional gatherings the CoLab team will host in 2025. And, of course, CoLab’s annual user conference the Design Engagement Summit. More info on DES 2025 in the comment 👇

The CoLab team gained 3 new team members this week! 🤝 Please help us give a warm welcome to: 🎉 Gianluca Capraro, Customer Success Manager 🎉 val Bisson, Software Developer IV 🎉 Sean McNeil, Software Developer IV We're so happy to have you! ----------------------- Interested in CoLab as your next career destination? We have openings in Engineering, Sales, Customer Success and RevOps! Check out our Careers page to apply.

87% of engineers spend multiple hours to days tracking down information about a single design decision. It's easy to overlook this stat. So it takes a few hours to find information -- c'est la vie. In fact, we hear this from engineering leaders every day: “You need to be Einstein to track design decisions. Was it a Teams chat or an email? Maybe in a PowerPoint someone sent as an email attachment?” - Tier 2 Global Tooling Manager “With all the tools and the way we work today, it’s impossible to track design data so you can actually access and use it.” - Director of New Product Development But, what we're missing is two-fold: 1️⃣ How systemic the problem is 2️⃣ The downstream implications of hard-to-track-down design decisions When it takes several hours or multiple days to find the justification for a single design decision, engineers just stop looking. If the issue is high priority, they’ll put in the time to find the information. But, if finding the issue is holding up the timeline or risks missing a project milestone, they’ll just let it go. And when engineers stop looking for enough of these issues: 👉 43% of design review feedback never gets tracked or addressed 👉 1 in 5 delays are due to miscommunication 👉 90% of companies delay product launches due to late stage design changes This is what happens when engineers brute force product development. So, what’s the solution? ⬆️ Engineering design review quality is the upstream metric we need.

China has doubled its vehicle production volume since 2010. They launch new cars 15 months faster than European and N/A competitors. And they aren't slowing down. Caresoft reported that China saw a 23% YoY increase in car exports overseas and are heavily targeting international expansion to win Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. Last year, SAIC even outsold Ford in Mexico. This is an industry defining moment. There will be winners and losers. Those who stay in the past will soon get left in the dust. Now is the time for bold, decisive leadership that deeply rejects "the way we always did it" and embraces new, innovative ways of doubling effectiveness. Auto OEMs can't just choose to be better and cheaper - they must also be faster (and much faster at that). That requires an effectiveness step change that is only possible with radical culture, people, process and technology change. Anecdotally, the magnitude of this moment is certainly clear for at least a quarter of N/A and European auto companies. We've never seen more Auto OEMs and Tier Is come to us to rewrite how they make decisions, fix their supply chain collaboration, pull cost out of their products or explore how AI can help. It's a step in the right direction, but we need to move faster. Much faster. Cut the red tape. Reject the status quo. Think first principles. Be bold. It's time to accelerate. e/acc

Your GD&T annotations carry critical design intent. But when they’re scattered across emails, PDFs, and slide decks, they’re easily lost or very difficult to track down when you need them. Now, teams using CoLab can add GD&T annotations directly to PDFs and 3D models. Because CoLab is built for design reviews, your GD&T annotations don’t just sit in a static file—they’re part of an active review process, and they’re tied to a structured, traceable feedback item. That means they never get lost and are easy to pull up whenever you need them... even months later. Curious to know how other teams are using CoLab to build more effective design review process? https://lnkd.in/e-tnkTNj

In the age of AI, quality data will be a premium commodity. The models we build and feed will only be as good as the data going in. So, what happens when the way you conduct design reviews causes inconsistent documentation and knowledge preservation? You can't improve, you can't iterate quickly and you lose quality knowledge data. Adam Keating sits down with IT Brief UK and further explains: "In today's competitive market, there is no room for overspend, product delays or expensive recalls, which have a big impact on market reputation and customer loyalty, and could take a company back years." Read more about how CoLab plans to leverage AI to help mechanical design teams eliminate repeat errors, preserve institutional knowledge and improve decision-making.👇

For most engineering teams, the context required to make complex decisions isn't easy to find. So, engineers make decisions without that context. This leads to: ❌ Repeat errors ❌ Late-stage changes ❌ Moderate-to-significant rework What engineers need isn't 10% better meetings or more training. What engineers need is access to all the information required to make complex decisions. What engineers need is a Design Engagement System.

🚀 The CoLab team gained 3 new team members this week! 🚀 Please help us give a warm welcome to: 🎉 Bridgette R., Software Developer III 🎉 Andrew Clarke, Senior Customer Success Manager 🎉 Beau LeBoutillier, Cloud Engineering Manager We're so happy to have you all! ----------------------- Interested in CoLab as your next career destination? We have openings in Engineering, Sales, Customer Success and RevOps! Check out our Careers page to apply.

“Imagine entering a design review and seeing three or four configurations that AI generated based on what worked in the past... It’s not doing the job for you but giving you a foundation to build on.” Adam Keating, CEO and Co-Founder at CoLab shared this insight and more with Illuminaire.io. In the article, Adam discusses: ➡️ Engineering efficiency gains with applied AI ➡️ The future of supported engineering systems ➡️ Creating a collaborative engineering culture ➡️ The future of AI in design engineering Check out the article in the link below 👇

Rework is an accepted reality for many engineering teams. In fact, it's often built into the process. However, it's now causing major delays in product launches and project milestones. (90% of companies admit some portion of their product launches are delayed due to late-stage design changes) Why is this happening now? Two reasons: 1️⃣ Assemblies and teams are more complex than ever 2️⃣ Collaboration has never been more disjointed than ever The companies that accept this reality and rethink the way their product development teams work together are seeing massive improvements in the effectiveness of their NPD projects. Not 10% better meetings or 5% faster reviews. Think: ✅ Eliminating entire rework cycles ✅ Getting suppliers into design earlier than ever leading to 30% reduction in overall lead times ✅ Doubling product development speed The time is now to focus on effectiveness first, then efficiency. Because, right now, product development is not as effective as it could be.