Recognising the need for seamless exchange and faster iteration, engineering manager Nicola Pieri led the switch to SOLIDWORKS Standard 3D design software. “All of our partners and vendors use SOLIDWORKS software, and it became increasingly necessary to communicate with them more efficiently and effectively,” he explains. The company later augmented its toolkit with SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium for analysis and SOLIDWORKS Composer for documentation, laying the foundation for a fully integrated development ecosystem

The move paid off immediately: design cycles and time-to-market both fell by 20 percent, while a shared SOLIDWORKS environment boosted design reuse by 30 percent. Projects now begin with R&D engineers creating detailed 3D models and drawings that are seamlessly transmitted to fabricators. Once manufactured, the Production Team assembles and rigorously tests each unit before shipment. This streamlined process—powered by SOLIDWORKS’s intuitive interface—has cut the design-and-drawing phase in half, enabling K-array to deliver cutting-edge products more rapidly to customers around the globe

Incorporating SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium allowed K-array engineers to perform stress and deflection analyses during early design stages, identifying potential performance or safety issues before any metal is cut. Using structural analysis, they calculate the precise thickness and geometry needed to meet lifting-equipment safety standards—minimising prototypes and costly rework. Meanwhile, SOLIDWORKS’s advanced sheet metal features have reduced scrap by 20 percent by optimising nesting and material usage. “During production startup, we continuously interact with suppliers to best assess fabrication feasibility,” Pieri notes, underscoring the twin benefits of cost savings and stronger supply-chain collaboration.