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Stricter emission standards are forcing automakers to attach catalytic converters directly to the exhaust manifold. Mounting catalytic converter at or near the exhaust manifold helps to reduce the increase in emissions that occurs during the first few minutes after a cold engine is started. The spike occurs because cold engines require a richer air-fuel mixture to run smoothly. The emission standards can be met only by new designs of exhaust system with the catalyst being as close as possible to the engine, and with the thin walled exhaust manifolds. With concept-to-customer timing continuously shrinking in the automotive industry, the need to quickly validate the engineering designs is becoming ever more critical. It is no longer acceptable to design a component, produce soft tooling, build and test a prototype, analyze what failed, and then redesign.