Nissan goes for UGS CAD and PLM software for global ‘value up’ campaign

The next generation of Nissan vehicles will be designed, developed and managed on UGS CAD and PLM (product lifecycle management) software, following a standardisation deal that now covers Nissan and its affiliates globally. Financial details have not been revealed, but it’s thought to be UGS’ biggest contract win this year. Nissan will use UGS’ NX CAD software for digital design world-wide, while the firm’s Teamcenter PLM system will manage all product data and enable digital prototyping. Nissan says it intends to deploy the software as part of a fully integrated, common R&D infrastructure. The massive software selection follows a huge CAD evaluation by Nissan for its three-year business plan dubbed ‘Value-Up,’ which began in April 2005. Under that programme, Nissan has committed to maintain a top level operating profit margin among global automakers for each of the three years of the plan. It also says it will achieve global sales of 4.2 million units by 2008; and achieve a 20% return on invested capital on average over the course of the plan. It’s a big fillip for UGS for both CAD and what it terms cPDM (collaborative product development management) solutions for manufacturers that extends across the manufacturing sectors, including automotive: In fact, among companies with more than 1,000 PDM seats, UGS claims 90% are using UGS’ solutions – with a lead position in automotive OEMs totalling 200,000 seats. “UGS’ selection by Nissan represents an inflection point for PLM in the automotive industry,” says Don Brown, chairman of analyst Collaborative Product Development Associates in the US. “Of all the major, global automotive corporations that have worked with our firm, and especially in comparison to the top five automotive OEMs, Nissan has applied the most disciplined and structured review of requirements and competitive software alternatives for design and engineering that we have seen.” And he adds: “The fact that UGS emerged as the winner speaks volumes to the company’s unique ability to combine world-class CAD with world-class PDM. It is clear that automotive companies will increasingly demand an open choice in selecting their next generation CAD systems and that a multi-CAD environment will drive the need for greater openness and integration across the supply chain.”