With a focus on streamlining product development, Local Motors is pioneering a new manufacturing paradigm based upon online crowdsourcing for product co-creation where a virtual community collaborates to leverage the collective knowledge base in order to develop the most optimal solution.

Winning vehicle design taken from concept to delivery in less than six months.

Lowell, MA- Dassault Systèmes has announced that it has teamed with Local Motors (Chandler, AZ) to deliver the first co-created military vehicle. Local Motors’ community was asked to develop a vehicle body design that could support two types of missions – Combat Reconnaissance and Combat Delivery & Evacuation.

Thanks to Dassault Systèmes’ Version 6 platform and Local Motors’ expertise in crowd-based design and manufacturing, the winning vehicle went from concept to working prototype in less than six months.

Participants in the challenge submitted their designs online for review. Feedback from the community of more than 12,000 designers and enthusiasts enabled participants to incorporate novel ideas and concepts from their peers, helping to create a better vehicle in an open source process.

After receiving and validating more than 150 design entries, Victor Garcia’s FLYPMode design was named the winner of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Crowd-derived Combat-support vehicle (XC2V) Design Challenge and was subsequently built into an operational prototype.

“Dassault Systèmes is a natural partner choice for us on this project,” says Jay Rogers, CEO of Local Motors. “We both see the future of product creation based upon an open process where we gain wisdom from the masses in order to deliver truly relevant products. We could not have achieved the same outcome on this project without their intuitive design and collaboration tools and support.”

Dassault Systèmes supported the project on several levels by providing technology for individuals to design independently and collaborate amongst each other. Dassault Systèmes’ 3DVIA Composer was provided to each design participant as part of the project ignition kit; CATIA was used for packaging and component designs; ENOVIA was used to store and manage both CATIA and SolidWorks design data; and SIMULIA was used for virtual testing and analysis.

With a focus on streamlining product development, Local Motors is pioneering a new manufacturing paradigm based upon online crowdsourcing for product co-creation where a virtual community collaborates to leverage the collective knowledge base in order to develop the most optimal solution.

“Product co-creation as envisioned by companies such as Local Motors requires a new holistic approach to product development,” says Al Bunshaft, managing director, North America, Dassault Systèmes. “This is a great example of how our technologies are enabling true social product development to take place. By empowering individuals to use 3D to share ideas, create products and give feedback, the voice of the end-user can be heard earlier in the process, making sure the end-product is even more closely attuned to actual market need.”

The widely implemented PLM solutions of today deliver efficiencies, but are based upon a parallel product development process. Dassault Systèmes Version 6, run entirely through a browser, offers a Web-scalable platform that addresses today’s increasing use of social networks.

This collaborative approach encourages innovation and allows users to be involved in the process, experiencing how products will perform prior to physical production. Manufacturers can use consumer input to hit the right market with the right product faster and at the lowest cost.

For more information visit www.local-motors.com and www.3ds.com.

Click here to see Part One of Local Motors at Sollidworks World 2011 and here for Part Two.