Utpal DasZEISS Caligo & Adaptive Clamping
The project that turned a software person into a product person — plus a fixture that reshapes itself.
Client
Carl Zeiss IMT GmbHClamping-technology manufacturerMy role
Product Manager / Solution owner
Year
2016 – 2017
Stack
Categories
The problem
Caligo DMS was a laser-projection measurement system that almost worked — and customers had stopped handing over requirements. They were showing daily friction instead. Separately, holding freeform parts for machining meant a bespoke fixture per part, which is slow and expensive.
What I built
- Stopped executing specifications and started solutionising with customers in front of the real problem.
- Turned that into work packages clean enough that engineers just built, with no back-and-forth.
- Designed ROLEX, a universal clamping-pin field that adapts to any freeform part — computing per-pin Z-shifts from the CAD contour so the fixture physically reshapes around what it is about to hold.
- Built it as modular libraries reusable across products, from feasibility prototype to delivery plan.
The outcome
A fixture that reforms itself for any part — and the point where I stopped calling myself a software person and became a product person who could still write code.
The story
Caligo doesn't look like the biggest project on this page, but it's the one that changed my identity.
Customers weren't handing me requirements anymore. They were showing me their pain — the daily friction of working with a laser-projection measurement system that almost worked. For the first time I stopped executing and started solutionizing with them, then coming back to the team with a work package clean enough that engineers just built, no back-and-forth.
That's when I stopped calling myself a software person. I was a product person who could still write code.
In parallel, ROLEX: a universal clamping-pin field that shape-shifts to any freeform part. Compute the CAD contour, project per-pin Z-shifts, and the fixture literally reforms itself to hold whatever's about to be machined. Modular libraries, reusable across products, from feasibility prototype to delivery plan.