SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Oct. 31 – Autodesk, Inc. has named MariCorp U.S. — a nationwide leader in the boat dock industry that has expanded from six to 45 employees in six years — as the Autodesk October Inventor of the Month for using Autodesk PLM 360 to streamline project management and Autodesk Inventor 3D CAD software as part of Autodesk Product Design Suite to improve their designs.

As a result of implementing Autodesk software, the fast-growing company — founded by its 25-year old CEO Scott Fitzpatrick while he was still in college — has been able to respond to bids more quickly, execute designs more effectively and efficiently scale its organization.

“Nationwide, there are maybe a dozen large marina projects available for bid each year, and we need to win a few to distinguish ourselves and drive new growth,” said Kyle Wilkerson, COO of MariCorp. “Each project is different and fully custom, so building a technology platform that makes it easier to rapidly create high-quality designs is our best approach and that’s where Autodesk has really come into play for us.”

Digital PLM Processes Drive Efficiency

Autodesk PLM 360 — a cloud-based product lifecycle management solution — has made project management and collaboration across the MariCorp organization much more efficient. The engineering department receives all the forms, images and notes for each project as attachments inside PLM 360. In return, the sales team can clearly see how the dock designs look and be absolutely clear when requesting changes. Requests for proposals that once initiated a week of frantic design activity now routinely wrap up in three days.

MariCorp estimates that the use of new design tools combined with easy access to accurate project information has helped reduce rework tenfold. Designs are noticeably more complete at the outset, leading to substantially less confusion or second-guessing from the manufacturing shop floor, all the way to final installation.

“MariCorp is comfortable working in the cloud and, in addition to pursuing implementation of Autodesk Inventor iLogic, looks forward to maturing our design practices further to embrace cloud services like Autodesk 360 Optimization and to becoming even faster at creating more competitive and compelling designs,” said Wilkerson.

Replacing its legacy design tools, MariCorp retooled its engineering processes around Autodesk Inventor software to build its dock designs and AutoCAD software to complete its drawings.

The company also uses Autodesk Showcase software to create photo-quality 3D illustrations of new design concepts. These renderings help customers to see a dock design in the context of its surroundings and understand the benefits and tradeoffs of the proposal more clearly than by viewing 2D sketches or blueprints.

“MariCorp’s rapid growth wouldn’t be possible to scale without multiple functions in the organization working more effectively — from design and engineering, to marketing and sales,” said Brenda Discher, vice president, Manufacturing Industry Strategy and Marketing at Autodesk. “By standardizing on Autodesk software, MariCorp gained effective tools to help clearly communicate their design ideas and project progress to suppliers, customers and to each other.”

About the Autodesk Inventor of the Month Program

Each month, Autodesk selects an Inventor of the Month from the users of Autodesk Inventor software, which takes manufacturers beyond 3D to Digital Prototyping. Winners are chosen for engineering excellence and groundbreaking innovation.

About MariCorp U.S., LLC

Headquartered in Shell Knob, Mo., MariCorp U.S. has quickly become a power in the residential, commercial and kit dock industry.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in professional and personal 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Autodesk tools help unlock the creativity in everyone, from children and hobbyists to design and engineering professionals. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, digital art and entertainment industries, including the last 17 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects, use Autodesk software, mobile apps, cloud services and communities to design, visualize, simulate and communicate their ideas.

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Source: Autodesk