Automation is an investment — and like any investment, it must deliver value while minimizing risks.
This category focuses on identifying high-impact opportunities, evaluating technological compatibility, and understanding the uncertainties and expectations around the project.
9. Which elements of the workflow are the most time-consuming and costly?
To maximize ROI, we need to identify where automation will have the greatest impact.
These might include:
- repeated mesh generation,
- manual solver setup,
- slow geometry preparation,
- inconsistent data processing,
- or complex reporting steps.
This question helps prioritize tasks based on measurable engineering cost, not intuition.
10. Which open-source or commercial tools do you currently use?
Knowing the existing stack helps design compatible, non-disruptive solutions.
It reveals possibilities such as:
- replacing expensive commercial licenses with open-source tools,
- integrating Python scripts with existing solvers,
- or consolidating multiple tools into one cohesive workflow.
This question also prevents duplicating capabilities that already exist.
11. What potential risks do you see in automating or migrating to new solutions?
Every automation project has risks — technical, organizational, and operational.
These may include:
- resistance from the team,
- fear of losing manual control,
- unexpected solver behavior,
- migration complexity,
- data compatibility issues,
- or downtime during integration.
Understanding them early helps design mitigation strategies and realistic timelines.
12. What would be the ideal outcome 6–12 months from now?
This defines the project’s long-term vision and success criteria.
It forces the team to articulate what success actually looks like:
- faster simulations?
- reduced errors?
- standardized workflows?
- a fully automated end-to-end pipeline?
- or full migration to open-source tools?
A clear destination ensures that every decision supports a meaningful outcome.
Summary: Why these questions matter
These questions uncover the high-value opportunities, define compatibility with existing technologies, and expose risks before they become expensive.
They help build a roadmap that is realistic, valuable, and aligned with long-term engineering strategy.
This category ensures the project not only works — but delivers measurable, lasting impact.