Aesculap Expands Into New Healthcare Markets with PLM Solutions from IBM and Dassault Systèmes

By Christopher P. Sciacca, Strategic Communications, Manager, IBM Product Lifecycle Management

Leader in orthopedic implants cuts time to market and improve product development with CATIA V5; extends PLM platform to support international growth strategy

IBM and Dassault Systèmes have recently announced that Aesculap SA, the French division of B. Braun responsible for the development of medical implants, will expand use of their Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions. Aesculap has achieved international success using the virtual product development platform from IBM and Dassault Systèmes to develop technologically advanced orthopedic implants that meet the strict health regulations of major global markets.

Aesculap cited the need to respect international regulations, while making continuous improvements in product quality and time to market as the main reasons for the extension of its PLM platform. In order to penetrate the highly competitive and demanding US market that boasts 50% of worldwide implant sales, Aesculap chose to increase its investment in IBM PLM Solutions. The new product development and data management platform will simplify the regulatory approval processes and streamline Aesculap's product development processes, helping the company introduce innovative orthopedic devices, such as artificial knee and hip joints, to a wider customer base.

Since the initial trial implementation of the new solutions, Aesculap has already been able to reduce the product development cycle of a typical implant by one week - a savings of 15%.

Aesculap will use CATIA V5, the world's leading collaborative virtual product development solution, combined with SMARTEAM, for product data and lifecycle management, both developed by Dassault Systèmes. Regulatory approval templates included in SMARTEAM store thousands of pages of design reviews, market data, and engineering information in an easily searchable and organized Internet-based platform with digital signatures for accountability. The integrated platform will improve collaboration between Aesculap's R&D and production facilities in France and Germany, and help Aesculap comply with strict ISO 9001 and EN 46001 standards for the medical device industry.

"To break into global healthcare markets, we required a complete solution for the development and delivery of our surgical instruments and implants. Additionally, delivering more than 10,000 implants and 150 other related devices for patients around the world, quality and traceability are of utmost importance," said Sylvie Plumet, vice-president, Aesculap Implants. "Automated design updates and tracking functions for strict compliance with a variety of international medical standards allow us to reduce the time necessary to develop and deliver high quality orthopedic devices. More importantly for our business, the integrated PLM platform gives us total traceability of the entire product development process boosting our reactivity and allowing us to anticipate the effect of product modification, stemming from innovation or changing health regulations, on our business."

"According to the recent global CEO study conducted by IBM, nearly two-thirds of CEOs see new and differentiated products as the key drivers for success, with new markets and new products presenting the greatest opportunity for revenue growth. IBM PLM Solutions support new product development and penetration into new markets - Aesculap is a case in point," said Klaus Schaefer, vice president, IBM Product Lifecycle Management, Europe Middle East Africa. "IBM PLM Solutions enable manufacturing companies to concentrate on product innovation, while concurrently optimizing quality, development costs, and time to market to foster growth and minimize risk."

"Complex products, intense competition, and a highly regulated environment -these are just a few of the challenges faced by life science companies such as Aesculap," said Denis Senpéré, vice president PLM Europe, Dassault Systèmes. "By combining the data management strength of SMARTEAM and its FDA Compliance modules with the cutting-edge product development capabilities of CATIA V5, Aesculap can leverage its corporate intellectual property, focus on innovation, and increase its competitiveness - all key to its advancement in established and emerging healthcare markets around the world."

PLM Solutions from IBM and Dassault Systemes Speed Time to Market for Innovative Lung Diagnostic Device

Christopher P. Sciacca, Strategic Communications, IBM Product Lifecycle Management

Every year, 361,000 people die of lung disease in the United States alone, according to the American Lung Association. Thanks to an innovative medical device called the Bronchus System™, the success rate in diagnosing lung cancer and other diseases is expected to improve by allowing doctors to reach the peripheral parts of the lungs with a steerable, minimally invasive tool.

superDimension Ltd., a medical equipment manufacturer that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary diseases, has developed this computerized tomography (CT) guided bronchoscopic device using product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions from IBM and Dassault Systemes. SMARTEAM® software from Dassault Systemes allowed the company to develop and deliver its bronchoscopic navigation system about 30 percent faster than planned.

A better view

Bronchoscopes are used to perform more than 3.5 million bronchoscopy procedures worldwide each year. The bronchoscope, with vision capability at its tip, is inserted into the lungs, and then various tools are inserted through its working channel to targets such as suspected tumors. Because its size is determined by the size of the tools inserted through it, a bronchoscope can't reach the lung's periphery where most targets are located. As a result, 65 percent of diagnostic bronchoscopies must be repeated or followed up with more invasive procedures. With the superDimension Bronchus System, a three-dimensional road map is constructed from standard, preoperative CT images. This road map is then registered to the patient's body at the beginning of the bronchoscopy procedure, using only natural anatomical landmarks and reference points. Patients go through less trauma, and the tool may one day replace the highly invasive therapeutic procedures that are used today.

Faster approvals, better work flow

The Bronchus System sped through checkpoints using SMARTEAM's regulatory approval template. This feature stored thousands of pages of superDimension's design reviews, market data and engineering data in an easily searchable and organized Internet-based platform. Digital signatures provide accountability for employees who alter the data.

Besides dramatically cutting the cycle time for developing the tool, the company expects to save even more time once it starts production and begins outsourcing components.

Because SMARTEAM automatically saves histories, any documentation of the product history required can be easily found within the system. The system was implemented in accordance with superDimension's specifications to meet regulatory requirements, so everyday working procedures comply with all local and federal requirements without any special effort.

In addition to data management, SMARTEAM was also used to create a complex work flow for engineering change orders and change requests in the development of the tool. Changes are quicker, more accurate, paperless, and can easily be updated and accessed online.

The Bronchus System has achieved the CE Mark, which means that it complies with the "essential requirements" of European laws, and it has already successfully been tested on humans in Europe and Israel. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration application will be submitted shortly, with an anticipated approval in early 2004.

superDimension will continue to use the system throughout the product lifecycle and plans to expand its use with more collaboration once the mass production stage is reached.

Besting the competition

superDimension chose the SMARTEAM solution from IBM and Dassault Systemes over Agile's more expensive system. The company also wanted local support, which IBM and Dassault could provide. SMARTEAM is more flexible for system definition and more configurable, which made it easier for superDimension's engineering resources to use, in contrast to Agile's more structured and less adaptable product.

IBM Introduces Grid Offering For Auto and Aerospace Design Analysis

Leading Automotive Supplier MAGNA STEYR Turns to Grid

IBM has introduced a new Grid-based product offering that helps automotive and aerospace companies speed time to market and improve the quality of their products through a more rapid and comprehensive engineering design analysis.

IBM also announced new Grid computing projects around the world, including one at MAGNA STEYR, a leading automotive engineering supplier. MAGNA STEYR is one of the world's leading suppliers of niche vehicle production, assembly and concept development, as well as a leading supplier of powertrain modules and all-wheel-drive systems.

By grid-enabling CATIA, IBM's collaborative, virtual product development application developed by Dassault Systèmes, IBM and Platform Computing, a commercial Grid software provider, helped MAGNA STEYR to analyze the components of an entire vehicle in just a single evening. In the past, such an analysis took several days.

"Grid technology from IBM and Platform Computing reduced the time required for our clash testing from 72 hours to 4 hours and contributed significantly to enhancing our design quality," said Dr. Heinz Mayer, MAGNA STEYR.

The IBM Grid Offering for Engineering Design: Clash Analysis in Automotive, Aerospace and Defense helps automotive and aerospace design engineers use Grid technology for more rapid evaluation of design alternatives during sub-assembly clash analysis. Developed in cooperation with Platform Computing, the offering includes CATIA ® and ENOVIA ® application software. It reduces the time required to capture, compile and analyze clash research data and can accelerate product development and time to market.

"Clash analysis is an integral part of our PLM Solutions, and critical to our customers' success," said Dominique Florack, executive vice-president, Strategy, Research and Development, Dassault Systèmes. "The combination of Dassault Systèmes' ENOVIA Clash Management offering along with IBM's Grid technology can provide a unique competitive advantage. We are working with IBM to leverage the power of Grid computing to help our customers take maximum advantage of PLM."

According to independent market analyst IDC, Grid computing in the Manufacturing Sector is projected to be a $2.6 billion market opportunity by 2006. IDC projects the total Grid opportunity at more than $13 billion by 2007, a compound annual growth rate of 83 percent.

"Increased bandwidth, the acceptance of industry standards and sophisticated software are the key enablers of Grid computing and IBM has embraced each component within our Product Lifecycle Management portfolio," said Scott Hopkins, general manager, IBM PLM. "Leveraging Grid computing, our supply chain customers are taking guess work and costly errors out of product design to position themselves as innovative partners."

"As automotive vendors outsource more and more design work of mechanical and electrical components to their supply partners, dealing with more complexity in less time becomes a major competitive advantage," said Merten Slominsky, General Manager, Industrial Manufacturing, and Platform. "MAGNA STEYR has realized that integrating leading PLM and PDM software with Platform's Grid software can produce substantial gains in quality and time to market for their core business. As a consequence, their application produces results up to 18 times faster, delivering outstanding productivity gains."

IBM also announced new Grid projects at Cetim, the French technical center for the mechanical industry, which will use Grid technology in design and fabrication; at the Institut Français du pétrole (French Petroleum Institute or IFP), an independent research center for oil exploration, and at OMRON, a Japanese electronics manufacturer, to speed product development.

About MAGNA STEYR

MAGNA STEYR, a wholly owned Group of Magna International Inc. in Toronto, Canada, is one of the world's leading suppliers of niche vehicle production, assembly and concept development, as well as a leading supplier of powertrain modules and all-wheel-drive systems. The Group, with a total of about 11,000 employees, strives to be a real value-adding partner for its customers while adhering to its proven formula of success: to make a better product for a better price. MAGNA STEYR provides its customers, the world's major automakers, with the broadest range of automotive competencies in the industry - everything from initial vehicle concept design, styling and prototype production to final assembly of niche vehicles. Six different vehicles by order of three different OEM's are currently assembled by MAGNA STEYR at its largest plant in Graz, Austria: The Mercedes-Benz G-class and E-class 4MATIC, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Chrysler Voyager, the Saab 9-3 Convertible and the BMW X3. The assembly capacity amounts to approximately 200,000 vehicles per year.