Automation Within Reach Saved $40,000 Annually & Accelerated Iteration by 50% with Onshape

Regaining $40,000 in lost productivity, annually

When evaluating the switch to Onshape cloud-native CAD+PDM, AWR’s engineers tracked every delay they experienced in SOLIDWORKS for two months (crashes, frozen computers, restarts, and time spent waiting for models to load). They found that each CAD user was experiencing about 40 minutes of unavoidable downtime per day, the equivalent of five weeks, or $40,000, in lost productivity annually.

“That's a significant impact on a small team's budget when you look at the lost productivity that way,” says Alex Pinkerton, AWR Mechanical Product Design Engineer. “The transition was really easy to justify on that metric alone of just the simple uptime and usability capabilities that Onshape was bringing to us.”

Moving to a modern, cloud-native CAD and PDM system eliminated those daily slowdowns. The team estimates that switching to Onshape has increased their productivity and efficiency by at least 30%.

“Onshape allows us to get past that and to get more into design, more into our utilization, and be able to really feel the benefits from using that time elsewhere,” says Patrick Nuzzolese, General Manager of AWR Standard Operations.

Onshape’s built-in PDM eliminates another source of wasted time. Engineers no longer search through shared folders for the correct file, manage competing copies, or worry about losing unsaved work. The complete design history of each product is automatically captured in Onshape, while formal release workflows give downstream teams a clear view of approved product data.

"The smoothness and the efficiency is almost indescribable,” This says. “We can really dig down right into the core of what's going on and get to a solution as quickly as possible.”

Branching and merging lets engineers explore ideas freely without disrupting the primary design.

“Branching and merging might be my favorite feature of Onshape,” This explains. “I can make a quick branch, try a change, and, if it works, merge it back into the main branch and keep moving.” If a concept doesn’t work, the team can still preserve that idea for future reference.

Real-time collaboration accelerates development by 40–50%

Increasing design efficiency isn't just an engineering metric for AWR. The company competes in a fast-moving automation industry where getting new machine tending solutions to customers quickly can mean the difference between leading the market and falling behind.

"When you're working in the automation field like we are, the faster you can adapt and design and get new products out the door, that function is going to lead your business to more success,” Pinkerton says. “The technology sector is so quickly moving that if you're not staying ahead of the curve, you're falling behind at a rapid pace.”

To keep up, AWR relies on Onshape's cloud-native architecture for real-time collaboration, which allows multiple engineers to work simultaneously in the same Document. The team saw the benefits almost immediately after adopting the platform. During an early evaluation, This and Pinkerton used Onshape to rebuild one of the company's robotic cells while working from different locations. They were surprised by how smoothly the project progressed. In roughly 16 hours, they had rebuilt nearly the entire system in Onshape, despite it being their first major project on the platform.

The ability to work in the same Document and build around one another's work without managing files, checking models in and out, or waiting for handoffs revealed a dramatically more efficient development process. Engineers can divide and conquer within a shared model, review changes as they happen, and iterate continuously without disrupting the rest of the work.

The impact is measurable. According to Pinkerton, AWR's iteration cycles are now approximately 40-50% faster than their file-based CAD workflows. With Onshape, they now target development cycles of six to eight months for products that previously required 12 to 24.

“We can move that much quicker and make changes faster,” he says. “We're not ever waiting on the software to catch up. Everything just functions the way we need it to in order to move quickly.”

AWR's products are built around sheet metal designs. Engineers use Onshape configurations to manage multiple robot sizes, product variations, branding requirements, and component options from a common design framework rather than maintaining separate models for every variation. The result is a development process that is both faster and easier to scale as products evolve.

Those engineering efficiencies ultimately translate into customer value. Faster iteration means new automation solutions reach the market sooner, allowing manufacturers to deploy automation earlier, increase spindle utilization faster, and begin realizing their own productivity gains sooner.

24/7 design visibility connects the entire team

Only a handful of AWR employees create CAD models every day, but the value of Onshape extends far beyond the engineering team. Today, stakeholders across the organization have access to AWR's Onshape environment, including purchasing, manufacturing, management, robot programmers, and members of Gosiger's custom automation team.

Because Onshape runs entirely in a web browser, employees throughout the company can access the latest product information directly via a sharable link instead of relying on engineers to export files, send screenshots, or verify whether a model is current.

"The real-time visibility is one of the biggest benefits to Onshape,” This says. "Our robot programmers don't need to ask us for models all the time. We can just share them a link."

During design reviews, participants can inspect the model from their own screens rather than relying on one engineer to navigate an assembly for the entire group. When a colleague has a question, the engineering team can open the same Document, follow their view, and address the exact geometry involved instead of decoding screenshots or lengthy email descriptions.

The same link-sharing ability improves communication with suppliers. Vendors can view a component in its full assembly context, take measurements, and download the format they need rather than receiving only a preselected STEP file or 2D drawing.

That visibility follows the team beyond their desks. Engineers can open a model on a phone or tablet while standing beside equipment on the production floor or meeting with a vendor. AWR has also used Onshape’s AR View to visualize how a robotic cell will fit in front of a customer’s machine tool.

“Being able to have your CAD system in your pocket is game-changing,” This says.

AWR plans to extend this connected product-development process through a future integration between Onshape and its NetSuite ERP system, as well as broader access on the production floor.

Expanding CAD access while reducing total cost of ownership

Moving to Onshape allowed AWR to expand access to CAD data internally while reducing total cost of CAD ownership and the IT infrastructure required to support it. Employees don’t need high-end CAD workstations to work on designs because Onshape runs on the standard laptops already used throughout the company.

That creates a hardware savings of several thousand dollars per user compared with the engineering-grade machines previously required for desktop CAD. It also removes the need for a dedicated IT team to manage local installations, updates, specialized hardware, or CAD servers. New features and improvements are delivered automatically every three weeks, without engineers setting aside hours for software upgrades.

“The constant feature updates, the great customer service, all of that has been very impressive,” This says. “Seeing a CAD software that does that is very encouraging.”

Onshape’s transparent licensing provides an additional cost benefit. With full- and light-user options, AWR is giving more people the appropriate level of access for less.

“For the price that I was paying for a single license with SOLIDWORKS, I’ve got multiple users, both light and full, in Onshape,” Pinkerton says. “We’re saving tens of thousands of dollars a year, plus having more capability and flexibility within our team to be able to access Onshape and do valuable work in it.”

For AWR, lowering total cost of CAD ownership helps the company deliver practical automation solutions at a price point more CNC manufacturers can afford. By eliminating time spent waiting on software, managing files, and maintaining IT infrastructure, Onshape enables AWR to focus more of its effort on product development and innovation.

"The value of Onshape for us is speed," Nuzzolese says. “Our customers have high demands from their customers. We need that time to rapidly iterate so that we can develop products that meet their needs.”