Collaborative decision support project to save auto makers $2bn

The £6.2m automotive Digital Body Development System (DBDS), part of the US NIST’s (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Advanced Technology Programme, is to get its software foundation from UGS PLM Solutions. DBDS will be a decision support system that integrates the virtual building of a car body structure with functional build decision-making software. The hope is that it will save US automobile manufacturers an estimated £2bn in vehicle launch costs – by shortening lead times, reducing the number of physical evaluation model builds and improving vehicle quality. “The DBDS will help Ford continue producing world-class vehicles while reducing development lead time,” says Al Ver, Ford vice president for advanced and manufacturing engineering. Whereas previous efforts in this direction have focused on design methodologies, this four-year project is intended to focus on body development and manufacturing validation – because these are so problematic and costly. Main technologies include enterprise-wide visualisation and the simulation facilities of UGS PLM Solutions’ Teamcenter. Engineering collaboration is also one of the keys, and the project will involve a validation phase for all of these and the associated processes, followed by the DBDS being implemented at two vehicle launches – one at Ford and one at GM. If successful, it will amount to a virtual build methodology and system, where designers and vehicle launch teams together make better decisions faster, and get to understand the quality, cost and timing implications of their decisions iteratively and in real time. “[The project] builds on a broad range of key strengths of our current solutions for automotive body development and has synergy with our product direction,” says Joan Hirsch, vice president, UGS PLM Solutions. “Particularly how our technology for simulating the variation of deformable parts, such as sheet metal body components, can be used in such an environment.”