Bridging the Gap Between Silos of Automation

Computer-aided design (CAD), engineering (CAE) and manufacturing (CAM) tools have enabled real gains in CATIA user productivity in recent decades. CAD tools like CATIA help designers produce higher quality designs in less time, while powerful analysis and simulation tools help engineers develop better products in less time. Few would argue - these powerful tools have contributed to significant reductions in product time to market, which has helped manufacturers like Delphi stay ahead of their competition.

Products are created through a sequence of iterative processes, beginning with concept development and ending with finished products rolling off the production line. As competitive pressures push manufacturers for higher quality products at lower cost, each set of processes in this sequence requires more and more expertise and increasingly powerful tools.

As these tools have become more powerful, they have also become more complex and specialized. The constant drive to satisfy customer demand and stay ahead of competition has forced software vendors to continuously add more and more specialized features and functions. All this complexity comes at a price. Significant training and experience is required for CAD, CAE and CAM software users to become proficient.

The result is a very high degree of specialization in each of the various functions contributing to the design and manufacturing process. Product designers, process designers, and engineers increasingly focus only on their part of the overall process.  “Silos of automation” have emerged where specialized expertise is tantamount to success. These silos and the specialized tools extant exacerbate the attempts by manufacturing organization at concurrent engineering.

Manufacturing has become a global enterprise operation. Design, engineering and production facilities and their silos of automation are often distributed, continents apart. One of the most important activities that hold the overall manufacturing process together is effective communication. Numerous studies have shown that one of the largest factors contributing to product cost and inefficiency is poor communication among participants in the product development process. Efficiency and productivity are directly affected by the degree to which the participants in product development processes communicate with each other, within and among their silos of automation. However, while the CAD, CAE and CAM tools have evolved to assist in the proliferation of silos of automation, effective communication tools have, to date, fallen short of expectation and delivery.

Numerous factors contribute to poor communication. Data formats vary among the software tools within each silo, and among silos. This inhibits or altogether prevents sharing of product data and other mission critical information between the participants in the product development process. Vendors are reluctant to expose or share their data formats, in fear of customer base erosion from their competitors. Furthermore, the formats of the CAD systems themselves are not well suited to representing the intent of designers and engineers, nor the non-geometric information often required for successful product design.

Competitive pressures force still higher levels of productivity and cost savings. Some companies have decided not to wait for their vendors to solve the problem. Delphi Steering, a division of Delphi Corp., realized that the next big breakthroughs in productivity would come from process improvements, best practices and improved methodologies, not solely from new technology. By studying how the silos of automation worked together, what data and information needs to be shared, and by what tools and how data needs to be shared, effective best practices and methodologies could be developed and implemented. Efficiency and productivity would be improved.

Delphi developed new CAD/CAM design methodologies - Horizontal Modeling™ (HM) and Digital Process Design™ (DPD).  These methods (best practices, not software) have made significant contributions in helping Delphi better integrate the silos of automation, enabling better communication and collaboration. Their methods allow designers to create fully associated CAD models, process models and process drawings – otherwise a very difficult or expensive task with 3D feature-based CAD systems. These methodologies work the same on all the major CAD systems.

The heart of these patented methods is a very elegant CAD technique that enables automatic cascading of design changes to anyone who uses a “horizontal” CAD model. This method simplifies change management and ECO processes, and significantly reduces the cost of reworking product and process designs. Delphi’s methods enable dramatically improved downstream access to real-time in-process manufacturing data for analysis, simulation, tooling/fixturing and many other areas. The methods also reduce significantly the number and size of CAD files and tightly link the process models with their graphical views. All engineers and designers can work from the same, single digital representation through the whole CAD/CAM cycle. Product changes are easily and automatically updated and propagated, dramatically simplifying change management processes. They are now using the methods in production in over a dozen facilities worldwide. And they have already made more than 2,500 parts using their methods.  Delphi has realized impressive cost savings as a reward for their innovation. 

Figure 1:  This figure shows the reduction in data file counts and file sizes resulting from Delphi’s use of their Horizontal Modeling methodology compared to the traditional techniques taught by their CAD vendor.

Figure 2:  This figure shows the percentage time savings as measured by Delphi designers performing the same design using both the traditional 3D methods, as taught by their CAD vendor, and their Horizontal Modeling and Digital Process Design methodologies.

In an effort to share these innovations with other manufacturers, Delphi and their partners now offer professional training and certification programs in these powerful methodologies. Contact Delphi’s Center for CAD/CAM Excellence or Cadpo for more information. The latest competitive battlefields will be won by companies who learn how to capitalize on global best practices and methodologies, and not depend solely on new technology for their competitive advantage. World class methodology and best practices will help knock down barriers between silos of automation, enabling more effective communication and collaboration, decreasing cost and time to market for higher quality products.

IBM and Dassault Systèmes Reinforce Partnership through Enhanced Technology Integration
By Christopher P. Sciacca, Strategic Communications, IBM Product Lifecycle Management

Alliance delivers superior integration of Dassault Systèmes PLM Solutions and IBM middleware for easier and more powerful product development.

IBM and Dassault Systèmes recently announced plans to further integrate Dassault Systèmes Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions and IBM middleware. Building upon the success of their 23-year strong partnership, the companies will further integrate IBM software products, such as IBM WebSphere* and IBM Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing with the Dassault Systèmes’ suite of product development and data management applications CATIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA and SMARTEAM.

The objective of the initiative is to facilitate integration of client PLM platforms with their other business application software and legacy systems, and to create OnDemand workplaces where non-engineers can access product information in real-time. By leveraging the technology strengths of both companies, the PLM offering from IBM and Dassault Systemes will deliver greater value to manufacturing clients.

“The alignment of IBM and Dassault Systèmes’ technology directly addresses our manufacturing clients’ needs to have a streamlined, integrated and cost-effective IT platform that facilitates the sharing and management of product information and drives product innovation, crucial to the industry,” said William Reedy, vice president of Business Development, IBM Software group. “This strengthened alliance with Dassault Systèmes reflects our commitment to the manufacturing industry to deliver innovative solutions that foster success.”

The enhanced integration will be phased in gradually, beginning with V5R13 of the companies’ PLM offering. Specific examples include integration of Web services and WebSphere functionalities in ENOVIA and SMARTEAM.  This includes:

• PLM integration services using Web services running on the WebSphere Application Server to provide best-in-class integration capabilities and openness. These Web Services can be used by client organizations to integrate ENOVIA applications with their other systems and applications via Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) middleware such as WebSphere Business Integration or Websphere Business Integration Foundation.
  
• Major components of the ENOVIA LCA family of products to leverage the industry- leading J2EE-compliant WebSphere Application Server products to further enhance the deployability, availability, performance, capacity and scalability of the applications. ENOVIA LCA family of products intended for use by non-engineers incorporated into customizable and open OnDemand workspaces delivered through the WebSphere Portal family of products.
  
• Integrated Lotus Sametime capabilities within the CATIA and ENOVIA DMU suite of applications to deliver best in class peer-to-peer and extended enterprise real-time collaboration and review capabilities.
  
• SMARTEAM-WebSphere integration allowing easy upgrade to a larger and more robust IBM WebSphere Business Integration platform as the customer's enterprise PLM strategy and needs grow over time.

“Through our alliance with IBM, we reinforce the role of the PLM community and CAA developers and in the planning and development stages of IBM technology,” said Dominique Florack, executive vice president of Research & Development, Dassault Systèmes. “The enhanced integration of our solutions with IBM middleware underscores Dassault Systèmes’ commitment to support open IT standards.”

IBM PLM Solutions, with core applications developed by Dassault Systèmes, improve the efficiency of product development processes and a company’s ability to use product-related information. By better managing the entire product development process, manufacturing companies can improve productivity, innovate and grow their business.