Joined up engineering and manufacturing planning all from one stable

Engineering- and change-intensive manufacturing industry users can finally get their data ducks in a row with packaged engineering development systems that integrate pretty well out of the box from the whole of the IBM and Dassault Systemes stable. At last all the pieces of the pair’s Catia CAD/CAM, Enovia PLM (product lifecycle management), SmarTeam engineering collaboration and Delmia manufacturing process engineering development and simulation suites have come together, and are being presented as a cohesive integrated suite of modules at Version 5 Release 10. SMEs, for example, using Catia with smarTeam can now deploy PLM best practices that need a combination of product development and lifecycle management support. And that connectivity also extends to other enterprise applications, says the group, including ERP, etc. It means v5r10 specifically pushes PLM integration past traditional interoperability issues to real sharing of understanding, intent, know how, and configured product structures – real engineering, manufacturing and service collaboration efficiency. Delmia vice president of sales and marketing Yves Coze views the v5 synchronisation as significant because of the sheer scale of engineering and business process benefits that flow from it. He cites second and third tier automotive suppliers, for example, working with the SmarTeam web-based collaborative engineering system, that will now be able to interact and share real time engineering information far more readily with their tier one customers and OEMs running on Dassault Enovia PLM. ‘Connected by knowledge’ is the IBM.Dassault theme, and Coze makes the point that it’s not an empty marketing phrase. “It means users can take more advantage of best practices in engineering and manufacturing. For example, they can find the best way to build an assembly [using Delmia simulation and planning] and then re-use that everywhere…” He emphasises the power of being able to extract whole product definition from across all the systems – the model, geometry, manufacturing processes, resources and life history from the various suites, all linked to a collaborative work space via the web. “It’s a big advantage,” he says. As Bernhard Zechmann, director of CAD/CAM/CAE at Bertrandt AG, says: “Our integrated PLM solution from IBM and Dassault Systemes enables us to simulate every aspect of the end-to-end development process for complete automobile production, including design, support and manufacture before actual car production begins. “Catia V5 packs numerous design tools into one powerful application that can handle the whole product development process. Coupled with Enovia v5 for process optimisation and reliable change management, we are able to improve designs and processes early in the development stage and share this knowledge with our automotive manufacturing customers in a common work environment, thus significantly optimising work flow while achieving unequaled levels of quality.” But there’s more in the group release. “We are extending the scope of the applications in end-to-end solutions,” says Coze. He means that with the very wide range of engineering and manufacturing processes across automotive and aerospace, as well as the high tech industries and large scale CPG (consumer packaged goods) which Delmia in particular targets, r10v5 provides more functionality on the ‘joined-up’ theme. Examples in the automotive sector include developments for manufacturing in BIW (body in white), power train and final assembly. In BIW, for instance, there’s better facilities for managing welding points; in power train, there’s deeper access to product features and definitions for machining and quality control. And specifically with Delmia there’s extension of the virtual simulated manufacturing and assembly optimisation environment onto the shop floor. It means that Delmia’s Data Process Modelling (DPM) can now routinely be used to provide operator guidance in production, with up to date 3D information covering assembly sequencing, jigs, fixtures and so forth, providing a real bridge between design and the sharp end of manufacture. Similarly, there are extensions of the software’s ability to deal with production line balancing and optimisation now beyond the pre-production stage, and into on-line continuous improvement assistance within work cells and the rest. This aspect comes from work primarily with Daimler Chrysler, starting with the Mercedes A Class plant, and it’s now been rolled out across all of the group’s plants. Digital factory improvement systems like this and Tecnomatix’s competing range already enjoy wide application through the automotive and aerospace and defence industries. And there are pockets of take-up elsewhere: Coze, for example, refers to Nokia in electronics and Bosch in home appliances. Tecnomatix’s installations are in similar areas: indeed both firms have systems in most of the world’s automotive and aerospace OEMs (look at the recent PSA Peugeot Citroen announcements) and are working their way through the tiers of automotive suppliers. For the rest of us, the real value will come when either or both of these innovative manufacturing/engineering software developers turn their attention to the wider market. And that’s only likely to happen when the existing markets are more saturated. For now, Coze says, “That’s not strategic for us.”