DreamWorks Animation SKG relies on powerful high performance computing (HPC) clusters to make its characters come alive.  But when the company’s software engineers needed to test new software concepts to significantly improve the capabilities of their proprietary tools, DOE’s INCITE program enabled the company to refine and test its redesigned software on the leadership-class supercomputer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

In 2003 and 2004, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company found itself in a definite slump, suffering declining revenues and losing out to its two main competitors, Michelin and Bridgestone. In response, Goodyear leveraged its high performance computer clusters and its ongoing collaborative relationship with the Sandia National Laboratories to change the way it developed tires. Rather than designing, building and testing physical prototypes, Goodyear engineers used modeling and simulation to test virtual models and significantly cut time to market. The result was the Assurance® all-weather tire featuring TripleTred Technology®, a huge hit that helped Goodyear not only climb out of the hole it was in, but continue on to launch a flurry of new tires that resulted in record profits.

PING, a manufacturer of high-end golf equipment, is in a fiercely competitive marketplace where the phrase “innovate or die” is a literal truth. In 2005, the company replaced the workstation that had been used to simulate the design of new clubs with a powerful supercomputer running advanced simulation software. The machine paid for itself in a year as the company significantly reduced its need for physical prototyping of newly designed clubs and ramped up its pace of innovation, allowing PING to maintain its leadership in the worldwide premium golf equipment industry.

High performance computing (HPC) is enabling researchers at Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, to conduct leading-edge research into plant genetics to create improved varieties of seeds. Pioneer researchers use HPC to manage and analyze massive amounts of molecular, plant, environmental and farm management data, allowing them to make product development decisions much faster than by using traditional experiments and testing alone. HPC also gives Pioneer a window into the future, allowing them to make more informed decisions about their applied breeding programs and frontload experiments with predicted potential winners. For Pioneer, the result has been faster improvement in new seed products, staying ahead of the competition, a major jump in innovation and productivity, and the ability to help meet some of the world’s most pressing demands regarding the availability of food, feed, fuel and materials.

Virtual product development using in-house supercomputing capabilities has allowed Whirlpool Corporation to take a systems approach to designing not only its broad and varied line of appliances, but also the packaging that protects the products during shipping. High performance computing at the company is operating in a full-fledged production environment, delivering significant payback. Top management regards Whirlpool’s supercomputing capabilities as a key strategic asset.

This study benchmarks the U.S. aerospace, automotive, bio-life sciences and energy industries’ use of high performance computing (HPC) to drive innovation for global competitiveness. It is the first study to attempt to do this and to understand how deeply within each industry’s supply chain HPC has been embraced.

The most noteworthy finding was that U.S. tier 1 energy firms are outpacing other U.S. industries in integrating HPC into critical business functions. The most unexpected finding was that few suppliers to U.S. tier 1 companies in the surveyed industries use HPC (or even desktop workstations) today.