Micro Turbo gets high tech product lifecycle management

Leading aerospace turbine manufacturer MicroTurbo says it expects to streamline collaborative product development processes by implementing a company-wide IBM and Dassault Systèmes product lifecycle management (PLM) suite, beginning with 42 seats of both Catia V5 CAD/CAM and Smarteam product data management (PDM) on Windows NT. MicroTurbo’s products are used in a wide variety of aeroplanes and helicopters as well as for missile and target propulsion. It has more than 11,000 manufactured turbines, and has recently joined the giant SNECMA group. The deal follows consultation and industrial scale piloting of systems with assistance from IBM and Dassault Systèmes which proved Catia V5 for CAD/CAM/CAE in its complex system design engineering, and the Smarteam PLM integration, and its ability to manage the scale of product data. “PLM Solutions from Dassault will allow us to perform pre-production design projects, from modifications in the conception phase to changes in the composition of complex parts, including management of the data produced by our engineering design team,” says Jean-Stéphane Vignes, director of turbo-machine and system engineering, at MicroTurbo. And he adds: “The 3D PLM products we use are efficient enough to allow us to migrate from our old environment in a single step.” “MicroTurbo’s decision to implement 3D PLM will impact its entire product development process,” says Denis Senpéré, vice-president of Enovia and Smarteam European Operations. “Smarteam gives the firm the power to manage product development and production more profitably and efficiently in a market that is extremely competitive.” Ed Petrozelli, general manager, IBM PLM, says, “IBM’s product lifecycle management portfolio allows our SMB customer base not only to innovate using the most powerful design application on the market today, but also to solve complex product data management problems. “MicroTurbo is now using Catia V5 complemented with Smarteam PDM, the latest addition to IBM’s PLM suite, to improve collaboration and product development to gain competitive advantage as an aerospace supplier in a market segment in which IBM’s PLM products are the industry standard.”