V5R13 Release Features New ENOVIA VPM Navigator Product that Integrates ENOVIA's Virtual Product Definition into CATIA's Easy-to-Use Design Environment

VPM Navigator is a powerful new enabler for large-scale deployments of ENOVIA and CATIA V5, and provides unprecedented relational design process coverage. VPDM capabilities have been embedded inside the CATIA environment to deliver substantial improvement in usability and productivity for CATIA V5 users.

Direct access to both design and VPDM functions is provided in a simplified intuitive user interface that revolutionizes the design engineer's way of working and significantly improves their productivity by allowing them to focus on the creative aspect of their job, while ensuring that VPDM corporate standards are being followed. No more switching back and forth between the ENOVIA and CATIA applications.

The new VPDM capabilities are delivered through CATIA workbenches and provide CATIA users a feeling of familiarity. This encourages faster system deployments, easier training, and quick end-user adoption of ENOVIA V5.

VPM Navigator delivers several unique capabilities such as the ability to logon to ENOVIA, and to search and navigate on ENOVIA product information directly from the CATIA interface. It also drastically reduces the number of steps required to build a "design context" by providing flexible and more logical methods. Zone, attribute, proximity, dependency, and volume filters are provided to enable rapid creation of design context.

VPM Navigator was designed from the start to offer unique relational design practice capabilities. This was accomplished through several new product features that enable designers to optimize their designs early in the development process while the cost of change is low.

The first of these features is a new design environment that supports more advanced product design scenarios, such as those involving multiple designers working on one common part (i.e. the design of an automotive cylinder head). In scenarios such as these, it is important that a designer be able to open parts and assemblies in a common session without requiring a common root product. This greatly simplifies the overhead a designer must work with when dealing with large or complex designs. It also grants the designer the freedom to establish reference links at the feature level between parts that do not share the same product context, something not possible in previous versions of CATIA V5. This new environment is delivered through the VPM Navigator "VPM Session," a new workbench in CATIA.

The ability to analyze the impact, or ramifications, of design changes is critical to an engineer's everyday life. The designers of the VPM Navigator included an impact analysis capability into the first release of the product. The Impact Graph (as seen in the referenced screen shot), is a critical capability when performing relational design and is an important component of the VPM Navigator. It offers the ability to perform change impact analysis of ENOVIA data directly from CATIA.

Another powerful new feature of the VPM Navigator is the time saving capability to "synchronize links on the latest version." With this feature, a designer can automatically reroute CATIA V5 model links to the latest part versions in the database. Until now, this process was a manual operation that had to be performed on each "out-of-date" link. This new feature dramatically improves relational design process times, especially for the more complex designs.

In addition to relational design process coverage, VPM Navigator also enables all the basic VPDM capabilities engineers need to get their job done. This includes basic capabilities such as, the ability to create and modify product structures in CATIA and save them back to ENOVIA. However, the main intent with VPM Navigator is to make the experience of designing in CATIA better. Throughout the product, enhancements have been made to areas where designers asked for improvement. A great example is the added flexibility and control when saving their work. With VPM Navigator, designers have the ability to choose whether their data remains locked or unlocked, whether it will cause a "version-up," or whether it will save the design as completely new (as required when performing alternative design studies).

Other VPM Navigator functions include the ability to access collaboration functions, such as "event publish and subscribe," as well as accessing and performing mass-edit on ENOVIA object properties/attributes (as seen in the figure above).

VPM Navigator is an important component of Dassault Systemes' overall PLM strategy, and part of what we are calling the new generation of ENOVIA V5 VPM solutions.

Scaling SMARTEAM across the Extended Enterprise

Yaniv Golan, VP, Research and Development, SMARTEAM Corp.

With the release of V5R13, SMARTEAM takes another important step in making full-featured PLM accessible to manufacturers of all sizes, hitting key infrastructure and functional milestones. With enhanced openness, security and availability across platforms, R13 delivers true "barrier free" PLM, creating unlimited possibilities for realizing PLM value anywhere, anytime, by all members of the virtual extended enterprise. New configuration management capabilities, program management, and more, help mid-market companies compete effectively and affordably on the global stage.

SMARTEAM's enhanced thin-client infrastructure makes PLM truly ubiquitous, delivering product knowledge and participation in processes across product teams in design, manufacturing, maintenance and even supply chains -- whether in the office, at home or at a customer site.

Built on the scalable .NET platform, the thin-client allows users to work with SMARTEAM across platforms, including Windows and different flavors of UNIX (with LINUX to come). Next-to-zero client-side installation makes SMARTEAM that much more accessible, while easy client side customizability adapts it to business and user needs.

Growing support of portal-like solution-centric views and cockpits enables companies to personalize the interface to role-based needs. SMARTEAM Visual Components, a SMARTEAM V5R13 core technology, will allow SMARTEAM to be integrated within an organization's portals, for further proliferation of PLM across the enterprise.

The thin client simplifies deployment and ongoing administration, reducing overall Total Cost of Ownership. Single-point upgrades (for the entire enterprise!) and centralized administration facilitate round-the-clock availability from any location.

Security is a core assumption of enterprise PLM. SMARTEAM V5R13 achieves new levels of "flexible security" that gives full remote access beyond the firewall. New project-centric authorizations control access to product information based on user role. Additional enterprise-scale security features include directory service support (LDAP and more); digital signatures and SSO (single sign-on).

To facilitate synergy with legacy and other enterprise applications, SMARTEAM's interoperability with IBM® WebSphere Business Integration and Microsoft® BizTalk Server and an open API for EAI middleware enablement open the door to standards-based integration across virtually any enterprise system, application, or technology.

New configuration management capabilities enrich the enterprise environment for managing and viewing product information. With multiple BOMs and product structures at different points in the product lifecycle, productivity is significantly enhanced.

New program management capabilities help integrate people, processes and assets by creating a unified environment for managing projects. This enriched knowledge management environment significantly enhances collaboration and efficiency across the extended enterprise.

With V5R13, SMARTEAM offers a mature enterprise-scale architecture that supports the implementation, administration, and growing functionality demands of an enterprise PLM solution. SMARTEAM continues to be the logical, affordable choice for manufacturers of all sizes, who seek to reduce risk while introducing the value of PLM into their organizations.

Global Supplier Responds Faster Due to SMARTEAM

Japanese manufacturer Miki Pulley ends first phase of major business process reform

SMARTEAM Corporation Ltd. recently announced that leading industrial equipment supplier Miki Pulley has completed the first phase of a major business process reform based on SMARTEAM Product Lifecycle Management.

A global provider of power transmissions to all industry sectors, with a 100,000-strong product portfolio, Miki Pulley is using SMARTEAM to drive enterprise-level collaboration by managing the company's design, manufacturing, and project data, enabling collaborative design across dispersed sites and departments, and bolstering communication between its sales force and technical teams. The first phase of the implementation spans all manufacturing sites and five affiliate companies in Japan.

Miki Pulley initially focused on deploying SMARTEAM best practice business processes to enable engineering, manufacturing, sales teams to rapidly and flexibly meet aggressive build-to-order targets, while maintaining high standards for quality products. The company realized early on that SMARTEAM's robust multiCAx, web and document management capabilities could also help reduce costs and address safety, environmental and other issues, including ISO14000 compliance.

"Our products are marked by flexibility with regard to client specifications, " said Hirohide Hirayama, Technical Systems group, Miki Pulley. "We are using SMARTEAM to accomplish innovative business processes so that we can better meet the requirements of individual OEM customers. SMARTEAM streamlines our work and enables us to capture and reuse company knowledge, driving efficient use of our assets."

Sales teams make daily use of SMARTEAM's Web environment, staying on top of customer requests by checking for design and specification updates and communicating daily with their technical colleagues by means of tight linkage with their Lotus Notes database and email system.

"Miki Pulley selected SMARTEAM to gain fast PLM results in process efficiency and team productivity, along with robust scalability," said Avichay Nissenbaum, EVP, Marketing & Business Development, SMARTEAM Corporation. "They now have in place a solid enterprise knowledge system with enormous potential to meet their growing needs."

Miki Pulley aims to expand their SMARTEAM PLM solution to handle emerging standardization and resource management needs. Under evaluation are plans to extend its reach to its worldwide operations and suppliers.

Dassault Systemes and Centric Software Partner to Accelerate and Manage Innovation using Centric Software's 3D Collaborative Dashboard with ENOVIA