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Building the future Product life-cycle management technology has much to offer building design
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June 2011
BusinessTechnology
Distributed within the Daily Telegraph, produced and published by Lyonsdown which takes sole responsibility for the contents
Circle of life
Managing products from inception to market has got tougher. Find out how its done in this report on product life-cycle management
Business Technology
June 2011
Foreword
Design engineers have come a long way from the drawing board, through computer-aided design and manufacture, to product data management and now product life-cycle management (PLM). PLM helps turn chaos into order for handling the information avalanche involved in creating new products and processes, manufacture, support and disposal. PLM increasingly plays a vital role in creating the latest cars, gizmos, aircraft carriers, energy infrastructure and even the clothes we wear. The concept is still little understood outside
the manufacturing community, even at board level. Nevertheless, it is now moving from big players to smaller firms along the supply chain. Some say: PLM is not actually software but a philosophy for business process reengineering. Actually its a way of sorting the vast amounts of information shared along the supply chain throughout the product or process life-cycle. Though pioneered by the automotive industry, aerospace and defence, PLM has major implications for the development of everything from Crossrail, the new railway for London and the south-east, to the latest pharmaceuticals, consumer packaged goods and much else
besides. PLM is a big vision but requires major culture change and board level commitment to avoid costly mistakes. As we increasingly outsource design and manufacture to partners across the world, PLM is vital for sharing product and process information with a single version of the truth. The vendors promise that PLM will get new products faster-to-market, improve quality and compliance, and give competitive edge. The big success is in the auto-industry where companies like Nissan have slashed the cycle for new model introduction from years to 10.5 months using PLM. However, most companies admit PLM is not an easy journey and there is a steep learning curve. The trick is to have a clear vision of the goal and take small steps. PLM is about business transformation but we all know how most people resist change!
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Looking good
A model approach
Builders catch on to PLM
Contributors
Publisher Bradley Scheffer brad@lyonsdown.co.uk Managing Editor Lucie Carrington lucie@lyonsdown.co.uk Editor Brian Davis editor@lyonsdown.co.uk Creative Director Martin Nolan studio@lyonsdown.co.uk Production Manager Nicki Sitaras nicki@lyonsdown.co.uk Project Manager Matt Nathan matt@lyonsdown.co.uk For more information on any of our supplements please contact us: Telephone: 020 8349 4363 Email: info@lyonsdown.co.uk Online: www.lyonsdown.co.uk Brian Davis, editor, is an award-winning industry journalist and regular contributor to The Manufacturer and Professional Engineering. Martyn Day is contributing editor to Develop 3D magazine, AEC Magazine and a regular contributor to Building Design. Dr Charles Clarke is an independent CADCAM and manufacturing consultant and regular contributor to The Engineer and other industry journals. John Stark of John Stark Associates is a leading PLM consultant. John Pullin is a former editor of Professional Engineering, Construction News and The Engineer. Cover illustration: Leandro Castelao
Sponsors
PLM is not an added extra. It is an essential element of product development because it ties every other process together
As a consultancy, we think that it is important to look first at what is needed for the business as a whole and at how systems and processes can be integrated, rather than trying to replace everything with a PLM solution that imposes it own demands, Hehl says. Karer Consulting is an independent consultancy and its expertise lies in designing and understanding existing processes, systems, data flows and interfaces within a business
and how PLM ideas can improve them: getting under the skin of its clients to identify their individual needs. Karer Consultings customers include some of the biggest names in European business, such as Siemens, the SICK group and Zumtobel, whose UK brand is Thorn Lighting, as well as smaller companies. Over the past 15 years, it has helped its clients to design and implement PLM solutions such as Siemens PLM Teamcenter, PTC Windchill and SAP. The clients input and experience are centre-stage, and we can look at how these companies are doing their business now and provide our expertise in best practice to help them, says Hehl.
They are the important people and we have to do what is right for them and their products. But because we are independent and from outside the company, we can have a broader view and help them do whatever it is that serves their business process best. Supporting and enhancing the business process is the important difference that PLM can make, Hehl believes. And thats really a philosophy for success that applies not just in manufacturing, but much wider. I can see the ideas PLM brings expanding into service areas, Hehl says. Any business would benefit.
www.karer.com
June 2011
Business Technology
Efficiency
PLM is like that classic elephant and the blind men joke. Some feel around and think its about fast product design and sexy. Another swears its about competitive edge. Some think its hard and another swears it makes them greener or more informed with partners. Some think it smells bad but they probably didnt plan it properly. We understood what 3D design could do for the business and wanted to expand the scope, as PLM records every aspect of a product and process with detailed documentation for its entire life-cycle, says Richard Parker, engineering manager at SPP Pumps. PLM helped stitch the whole picture together where previously we had used a combination of different computer-aided design (CAD) systems and email. As a long established company, wed got over 300,000 drawings, some going back 40 years. SPP invested 250,000 in a PLM system from PTC, based on Windchill and Pro/E (now Creo Elements Pro) software. As with
PLM helped stitch the whole picture together where previously we had used a combination of different computer-aided design systems and email
any business, resistance to change could be enormous. So I focused on areas under my control, then rolled it out once I could show the benefits and give others the confidence to engage with it, says Parker. He won over the board by showing the confusion created by the old system in which masses of email files with multiple attachments clogged peoples inboxes. Now theres one central vault of information for fast, easy access, and excellent documentation at every stage. In 2006 Bentley Motors began discussions
on how to deploy PLM. We asked over 160 people across the business whether PLM was the digital monster it was reputed to be, says CAD strategy manager John Unsworth. PLM is not something you buy off-the-shelf but a careful balance between people, processes and requirements. They mapped out 11 key initiatives for PLM, covering everything from styling data integration, supply chain optimisation, visualisation, improved data, manufacturing integration, dimensional and tolerance management to re-using knowledge. The aim was to eliminate vast amounts of waste from styling to manufacture with everything in one database so decisions could be made when they matter. Bentley clearly understood the recipe for success. We realigned all our business processes, says Unsworth. This took massive re-education and 18 months of hard work. Deploying Dassault Systmes Catia V5 and Delmia solutions produced a significant reduction in late engineering changes and PLM now integrates styling with supply chain planning and after-sales. Volvo sees an opportunity to make significant reductions in a products time to market by using PLM. PLM director Johan Svedberg emphasises the need for a clear strategy before executing PLM. It is vital to find the right balance between local needs and what you need to have in common with the overall group, he says. Using a PTC solution with in-house data architecture, PDMLink and ProjectLink, Volvo will be able to optimise how it uses resources with a common architecture across the group, driving down production costs, increasing flexibility and accelerating new product introduction. Kevin Ison, EMEA manufacturing marketing director at Autodesk, maintains that: You dont have to embrace PLM all at one go. In fact, he says, Autodesk was very wary of the term PLM until recently. We prefer to focus on the benefits of digital prototyping and associated solutions like Vault Collaboration, which can link multiple sites to a single database for small business enterprises, connecting to an ERP [enterprise resource planning] system. Portakabin uses Autodesk 3D Inventor and Vault to look after product data and multiple revisions with full traceability over the life-cycle of bespoke construction projects. Director of engineering Ian MacKenzie says: We needed a single reference point from concept, through configuration to disposal, whether supplying modules for schools, hospitals or whatever. PLM gives more design flexibility, better interaction with clients and competitive advantage, he says, but admits: We dont actually use the term PLM as labels arent important and many have never heard of it. Like the blind men and the elephant. Its not the name that matters but the benefits you get from dealing with it.
Industry view
Some users begin by creating a ShapeSpace and realise that they dont need to go for fullblown PLM solutions
every part based on its shape, rather than its description. In fact, some users begin by creating a Shape-Space and realise that they dont need to go for full-blown PLM solutions ShapeSpace offers such efficiencies that it could be all you need. We are confident that ShapeSpaces functionality and analytical results will impress you. So much so that for a limited time we will come to your site, create a parts analysis of your inventory using ShapeSpace, and produce a free report demonstrating the value of a permanent installation. To arrange a free ShapeSpace parts analysis call 0800 988 5593 or visit the website.
www.shapespace.com
Business Technology
June 2011
Industry view
Anticipating trends
As global brands acquire new markets, the options they must offer increase in both quantity and complexity; new customer bases mean more diverse body shapes. Fitting is very complex bodies throughout the world vary in shape, so one size definitely does not fit all, says Judy Gnaedig, head of PLM business development at Lectra. As companies confront the unique needs of their new global markets, they must also respond to local concerns. Fit and colour standards can vary as much within a single country as they do internationally. Staying up-to-date and being able to integrate this information into new designs determines a brands pertinence. The fashion industry is no stranger to changing design trends. It copes well with fluctuating hemlines and shoulder pads that are chic one minute and laughable the next. But now fashion must confront change on many timescales: a development process spread across hemispheres; the urgency to
anticipate trends; ever-shorter seasons. PLM provides the framework that supplies both the data for informed decision-making and the tools for strategic change. Collection development, speed-to-market and variety, and the challenges of a global market must be balanced to deliver products as fast as possible. PLM reduces administrative work, leaving designers free to do what they do best design. However, the apparel industry still struggles to accept technology in design. Many major companies are reluctant to move away
from an entirely manual creative process and embrace software that can help them control garment development from design to production.
Managing change
Todays extensive supply chains pose significant communication problems. Garments and collections are designed in one country and made in another, in places as far apart as China, Romania and India that dont necessarily share the same language, methodology or work patterns. PLM software can significantly impact this level of the development process, Harari points out. It allows global companies to work in multiple languages, while at the same time imposing standardisation across the supply chain, to reduce error and facilitate communication. Lectra Fashion PLM was developed to support brands, retailers and manufacturers in the twenty-first century. The PLM process encompasses the whole development cycle, from raw materials to design and engineering to production. Lectra Fashion PLM is collaborative and spans all the phases necessary to product development, says Gnaedig. Integrated CAD application software makes product design, pattern-making, and prototyping, from the initial creative idea to production, a smoother process.
PLM constitutes a powerful structure for collaboration. Data exists in a single version that can be instantly accessed by everyone, no matter where changes are made, says Gnaedig. This single database is flexible enough to apply changes at any time throughout the remaining phases of production development, without danger of anyone working from outdated specifications. Lectras fashion experience began in the French couture houses working with patternmakers at Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Dior. They built on this expertise to develop a full PLM suite that not only facilitates product development, but also serves as an exploitable asset database. The database contains the entire memory of a brand, the touch and look and feel. It can be used to guide business in a new direction without harming the brands core values. Lectra Fashion PLM is currently used by global brands such as Mango in Spain and Country Road in Australia. PLM is a powerful tool for strategic business direction as well as for day-to-day management. It provides a solid foundation for implementing change in an industry that is evolving at a bewildering pace. PLM is all about change management, Harari says. It is a very efficient way to adapt and change and share.
June 2011
Business Technology
Fashion
Were all fashionistas these days, and keeping us a la mode is a complex business. Typically we want new clothes in our size, our shape, our style, in the latest colours, to match or mix, and we want them now. And next week or next month, well want something else, new and different. The business is complex, competitive and cut-throat. If the fashion chains get it wrong, the customers go elsewhere, probably just a few minutes later, to somewhere else along the high street or to another website. This combination of complexity and competitiveness is why PLM vendors see the fashion and apparel sector as one of todays big growth targets. They reckon their systems can handle it. Insiders date big changes in the fashion business to around 10 years ago when global brands using the internet to manage worldwide supply chains developed the concept
The business is complex, competitive and cut-throat. If the fashion chains get it wrong, the customers go elsewhere, probably just a few minutes later
of fast fashion. Traditionally, there used to be two, maybe four, fashion seasons a year: summer, winter, maybe spring and autumn too, says Elizabeth King, executive director of software products at fashion PLM specialist Gerber. Now there are at least 12. Alongside this came an explosion in retailing opportunities and greater consumer expectation. Consumers said they wanted more newness on the high street and that they wanted to be able to buy a bikini at Christmas, says Judy Gnaedig, head of PLM business development for another fashion industry specialist, Lectra. The changes had the effect of squeezing timescales while stretching supply chains in a sector where there were continual pressures
to maintain quality and to reduce cost: Basically, you have less time to do something thats a lot more complicated, says Susan Olivier, apparel industry specialist at PLM supplier Dassault Systmes. Some complexities are inherent in fashion. Clothes have to look and feel right on a range of human anatomies, as well as fulfilling their specific function. Even fairly basic items have a lot of individual components, probably made by different suppliers and all needing to be co-ordinated in colour and availability. There are lots of different sizes, matching items to bring together and a complex distribution operation involving retail outlets in every town and every country. What PLM offers fashion companies, say all the vendors, is the ability to handle these variables and impose control over the many people involved in the process worldwide. For each garment or shoe for that matter, because the same things apply in footwear too the central concept is of a single version of the truth. This means having a central file that contains up-to-date details both of the product itself and of the project to bring everything together on a retailers rail. PLM, the vendors say, is the only system that can do this. But what kind of PLM? Gnaedig at Lectra insists that fashion and apparel goods are different from cars and planes. The principles are the same but what we are constructing is so different. Each season were constructing hundreds of t-shirts and trousers and theyre all different and in different colours and sizes too. We have to approach PLM from a fabric point of view. King at Gerber identifies differences in the design phase, where creative tools far removed from those used in engineering are the rule. Its very different the speed with which you take a sketched-out concept and then get down to the nitty-gritty of how many buttons, what size and where, she says. But if specialist suppliers are strong, then the PLM companies with a background in manufacturing such as Dassault Systmes, Siemens and PTC are there too. Fashion is very much the chic area of PLM to be in. Who wouldnt want to be fashionable?
Business Technology
June 2011
Industry view
It is easy to implement and is backed by the experts at BMS, who have decades of hands-on experience in the fashion technology sector
thing putting a complex design into volume production, in a range of sizes and with all the accessories, is quite another. For that you need computer assistance. Speed is vital in todays fashion trade, says Karina Kogan, CEO of Business
users to see every part of their data stream. It gives garment makers the power to turn mountains of raw information into reliable, concise data the kind of data you need to make the right decisions about design, production and marketing of your products. Above all, VerTex PLM creates a communications framework bringing the entire workforce together to collaborate effectively. Unresolved issues are flagged in real-time so action can be taken before a problem becomes a crisis. In short, VerTex eliminates the most stressful and costly data control problems in the fashion supply chain. VerTex was created specifically for the fashion industry, so it is Mac-compatible and
ready to use across multiple platforms. It is easy to implement and is backed by the experts at BMS, who have decades of hands-on experience in the fashion technology sector. It is this expertise that has made VerTex the software of choice for leading fashion houses around the globe including Celebrity, Theory, Donna Karen International, Ellen Tracy, Helmut Lang, and Elie Tahari, among others. So, the next time a global fashion event sparks an overnight demand, make sure your company is ready to react. With the VerTex system in place, you can conquer the chaos and bring complete control to your business.
www.bmsystems.com
Fluent in fashion
Using the latest technology and drawing on the expertise of industry veterans, Visual PLM.Net is designed to meet the unique needs of the fashion industry allowing firms to see their business clearly
In a competitive market product development is inevitably tied to profitability. Fashion demands the rapid delivery of new products and the realities of business dictate that they are designed, sourced and sold in more markets than ever before. When it comes to managing this global information and supply network, insight is everything. To remain competitive in a difficult climate, companies of every stripe have come to consider product life-cycle management (PLM) as a vital tool for critically examining and streamlining their business. Properly chosen, a PLM solution can support collaborative working and data sharing across distributed teams, speeding up the design iterations and complex processes that are vital to creating the best possible products and simultaneously reducing cost and time to market. The right PLM solution is internet-based, intuitive and interoperable. The right vendor is one who understands your business. This year, major European retailers and brands have followed more than 400 companies in the North American market in choosing a solution that marries peerless power and accessibility on the ground and at an executive level from a vendor who is fluent in fashion. They have chosen to see their business clearly with Visual PLM.Net. Deploying the latest technology and the unparalleled insights of a team of industry
A la mode: success in the fashion business requires increasing speed and agility
The right PLM solution is internet-based, intuitive and interoperable. The right vendor is one who understands your business
experts, Visual PLM.Net is a user-friendly, end-to-end solution specifically engineered for the clothing industry. Whether its providing a granular management overview of worldwide business or an intuitive, flexible day-to-day development environment, Visual PLM.Net works seamlessly and transparently at every stage of the product life-cycle. A broad range of capabilities means that
the solution can be deployed as a stand-alone system, ready to optimise your ways of working, or be integrated with a wide range of expanded software suites and libraries. From inception on the drawing board to arrival on store shelves, Visual PLM.Nets web-based infrastructure and broad support for industry standard processes provide the power and strategic insight to deliver optimum business value from your product development. At every level, too, our growing customer base has praised the user-friendly nature and day-to-day experience of working with Visual PLM.Net. With a fully customisable interface, batch processing functionality, a robust and powerful search engine, version control and an intuitive tab structure, Visual PLM.Net can accommodate the unique requirements of designers and executives alike. The Visual PLM.Net brand is built on
proven foundations of technical expertise, process knowledge and an absolute focus on usability. A successful debut in the UK and European markets this spring brings with it our industry-leading global training and product support networks. Some of the biggest names in fashion the world over now rely on us to improve the accessibility, compatibility and quality of the vital information that drives their worldwide product life-cycles. For them, Visual PLM.Net delivers on the central promise of PLM, allowing them to streamline every stage of their business, collaborate smoothly and securely, and see a quantifiable difference to their bottom line.
Tony Walker is European sales director for Visual 2000 +44 (0)161 408 5553 www.visual-2000.com
June 2011
Business Technology
Manufacturers have been using 3D modelling, simulation and complex management systems to define and assemble products for decades, but construction has been dragging its heels. The sector still lags behind in the drive to use digital workflow, 3D modelling and collaboration to improve efficiency. A succession of government reports have identified the systematic failings within the UK construction industry. For example, there was Sir Michael Lathams report in 1994 followed in 1998 by Rethinking Construction from Sir John Egan, former chief executive of Jaguar. Nonetheless, progress to address the problems has been incredibly slow. Faced with additional challenges such as carbon emission targets, the industry is now looking towards a radical solution. PLM is not a term commonly used in the construction market. However, there are
relatively new software tools coming on stream that use 3D modelling, analysis and collaborative technologies to offer benefits similar to those that PLM technology has afforded the aerospace and the automotive industries. Under the label Building Information Modelling (BIM), architects and construction engineers can collaborate to develop a 3D database which contains all elements of the building, structurally, mechanically and electrically. This single model can be used for analysis such as clash detection, lighting and power consumption, and to derive construction drawings, bill of materials, life-cycle maintenance and ultimately demolition of the structure. With such a wide ranging change, Peter Wickens, chairman of Mott MacDonald Group describes BIM as possibly the greatest revolution in the construction industry for over 200 years.
Culture change
Moving from producing thousands of individual 2D drawings to creating a common BIM dataset requires a considerable change in how people work together and inevitably affects the entire value chain. These changes also render standard industry contracts redundant and require new levels of trust and collaboration. Typically, structural engineers will redraw the architects drawings to ensure accuracy before starting their own work, and charge accordingly. With BIM all firms share the risk in delivering the building on time and at the
agreed cost through collaborative framework arrangements. Its a radical culture change which many in the industry fear taking on. As a result, UK adoption of BIM is in the early stages. Merely 10 per cent of UK building projects today have used the technology. Current champions include architects HOK and AEDAS, interdisciplinary practices such as BDP, and engineering and construction firms like Mott McDonald and Laing ORourke. BIM is a better, more efficient way of working , says David Light, BIM specialist for HOK London. Clients understand a 3D model better than 2D drawings and the design work is all co-ordinated, leading to fewer errors and less wastage. However, Light also recognises that adopting BIM brings its own challenges. Our CAD operators had to be up-skilled and there were increased hardware requirements to run BIM software. Its important that new common working standards are established, and its still hard to find partners that have adopted BIM. The governments chief construction adviser, Paul Morrell, wants to accelerate UK adoption of BIM as recent research concluded that it could improve the return on investment of taxpayer money. Moreover, BIM could help cut the UK CO2 emissions by 29 per cent by 2022 and by 80 per cent by 2050. Morrell suggests that in the future, all bidders and contractors to government will be required to use BIM. Indeed, there are already Scandinavian and US government mandates to use BIM on all public projects.
To help manage the highly complex engineering content across 31 contracts, Crossrail has implemented Bentley Systems ProjectWise software. This has been configured to apply the latest BS 1192 workflow which establishes a specific method for managing the production, distribution, and quality of construction information collaboratively. The system now manages about 500,000 CAD files that can be shared by more than 1,650 engineers in multiple office locations. By late-2012 it will be handling over 1.5m documents among more than 2,500 engineers. Crossrail estimates that ProjectWise saves 26 man-days of work per month for each of the 31 contracts which adds up to 9,672 man-days per year. Automation of the CAD quality assurance process is estimated to save a further 50 man-days per month. MD
Business Technology
June 2011
Industry view
As consumers demand more new and innovative products, pressure is growing for manufacturers to deliver them to the market faster and more cheaply. Since business is also increasingly global, fluid and complex, organisations must become more adept at managing their businesses, particularly their product life-cycles, to create sustainable competitive advantage. Siemens argues that product life-cycle management (PLM) offers a business model that can boost the introduction of new products and halve time-to-market. Through its PLM software division, it has established a powerful track record with leading companies such as Aston Martin, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever and JCB. PLM has become a key business enabler that supports top-line growth and cost-containment. Dr William Magill, the PLM principal consultant at Siemens IT Solutions and Services Ltd, says: PLM is about business transformation rather than only software. Though enabled by the underlying technology, PLM is about adapting the way a business operates and affects the whole life-cycle.
If you are buying a product with a long life-cycle, such as a plane, issues are critical. Who better to look after the aircraft than the p
Happiness is efficiency
June 2011
Business Technology
Industry view
A driving force
The motor industry, at the forefront of shaping PLM, has been instrumental in driving down costs and spreading best practice
Motor manufacturers and suppliers face increasing complexity on all sides bringing vehicles to market. There are thousands of components, multiple new models and a constant need to innovate in a highly globalised supply chain. There is also the need to cut the carbon footprint, to improve safety and sustainability, and to increase performance while giving consumers more for their money. A tall order? All of these tasks can be achieved with product life-cycle management (PLM). The motor industry has helped to shape PLM, moving from the drawing board to computer-aided design, and from product data management to PLM in only a couple of decades. PLM is a philosophy and business change engine, not simply a set of software tools, says Mark Parry, director of Majenta PLM, the leading Siemens UK PLM Software partner. Now PLM is reshaping the automotive business too.
Its one thing to buy the kit quite another keeping it airborne
in the car industry. As consumer tastes shift, manufacturers are under pressure to reduce time-to-market, align production to demand and increase customisation. This is a challenge when software, electronics and regulatory compliance continue to increase complexity.
No need to compromise
The old approach to design required a physical buck (prototype) for which every design change was costly, time-consuming and painstaking. Today, designers can make multiple iterations on a digital prototype, sharing ideas and best practice globally and throughout the supply chain. PLM enables design changes early in the design cycle, which allows for digital packaging and tolerance analysis, virtual commissioning and simulation. Digital prototyping allows you to optimise rather than compromise, says Stapleton. New programmes, products and manufacturing projects can be jump-started by reusing knowledge and proven methods across the enterprise. Many companies using PLM are achieving double-digit productivity improvements by gaining access to product designs, manufacturing processes and other content that can be reused in future vehicle programmes.
Digital backbone
PLM provides a digital backbone with one version of the truth, says Parry. When a new component iteration comes along, everybody is better informed and knowledge and best practice can be shared and reused.
ely on
Rudd. This approach is well aligned with the move towards predictive and condition-based maintenance. These trends generate more information to manage with PLM, so that critical parts stay in service for longer, reducing waste and costs.
tenance
through-life support very effectively. PLM encourages collaboration and produces comprehensive information and 3D model visualisation that can be fed back into new product design. It also provides an established knowledge bank as the systems continue to operate long after service engineers and design teams have moved on. Siemens Teamcenter software offers state-of-the-art capability for MRO and asset tracking, recording all the product configurations that have been designed and built. Teamcenter can handle large, complex design changes with concurrent engineering and manufacture in mind, so design changes are reflected by the way you manufacture and build new product, says Rudd. As configuration changes are made during maintenance, Teamcenter also ensures that accurate details are recorded. PLM can eliminate the guesswork in service quotation and decrease service time and costs by delivering better product knowledge to technicians. The use of PBL with PLM ensures a good price for the customer for long-service products, and gives the supplier the confidence to make a reasonable estimate of future service and support costs under power- by-the-hour contracts. Stock levels also become leaner with detailed MRO information to hand. Better knowledge-sharing improves the quality of products and encourages new product innovation. Nevertheless, Rudd emphasises, PLM is not just a design tool but enables through-life support.
Globalisation has increased complexity exponentially. Today, manufacturing is often on the other side of the world. PLM real-time collaboration offers seamless communication between continents, on a 24/7 basis, removing the complexity of language and time barriers, he says. Majenta enables digital collaboration with more than 750 automotive suppliers, handling about 2,200 file exchange transactions a month. PLM ensures that product data transfer is seamless and always up to date, and thus everyone is making decisions using the most up-to-date information, explains Trevor Stapleton, a Majenta director. Improving the flow of knowledge also accelerates the time to market. Red Bull Racing, for example, states that before it used PLM up to 75 per cent of a designers time was spent doing mundane, repetitive tasks. These were automated with PLM. The same savings can be applied to major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)
PLM also offers a fountain of knowledge for young engineers to get up to speed quickly with best engineering practice, says Parry. Majenta ensures that suppliers have access to best practice and processes in a controlled environment, either by implementing PLM or using a hosted PLM solution. This ensures that even the smallest supplier can service the OEM to the most exacting standards of design and engineering. PLM is a journey, says Parry. You have to think seriously about your business transformation requirements, rather than focusing on the software implementation alone. For successful implementation and lasting change, these projects require buy-in from the whole business and a good communication plan. PLM is as much applicable to small business as the major OEMs the benefits can be enormous. Indeed, of the 68 million vehicles produced worldwide in 2008, Siemens PLM software was used on more than 64 million.
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Business Technology
June 2011
Industry view
Power to change
The energy sector has been slow to appreciate the potential of product life-cycle management, but disasters such as the Fukushima nuclear accident have prompted a change of heart
When it comes to using product life-cycle management (PLM) data, the energy and utilities sector lags behind most others. There has been a culture of confrontation and secrecy between operators, contractors and the supply chain. But things are changing. PLM is the missing link in the utilities sector, says Adam Summers, energy and utilities director for Siemens PLM Software. The aerospace and defence industries, on the other hand, have embedded PLM strategically for 20 years to capture data at source for large-scale product and project traceability, knowledge management, in-service support and regulatory compliance. Summers says that reliance on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and enterprise asset management systems for financial life-cycle management, simply dont give utilities the full scope of benefits offered by PLM. By using PLM, the utility sector can rely on a single source of plant, product and process information for long project and product life-cycles, which can be used to manage innovation across all stages, for better safety, efficiency, productivity and increased topline revenue.
Culture change
Siemens Teamcenter PLM solution offers the capability to increase revenue while keeping costs in line; to extend and maintain the safe use of long-life assets; to ensure safe and secure delivery of products along the supply chain; to connect global teams; to optimise risk management in volatile markets; to facilitate worker safety; to ensure quality and regulatory compliance; and to capture and protect intellectual property. A major French
nuclear power company has been deploying Teamcenter for a decade to manage generic nuclear reactor design. Regulatory safety compliance is paramount. One of the key things which keeps directors awake at night is safety and compliance, remarks Summers. PLM also offers significant benefits in terms of culture change, as it captures and embeds processes and new ways of working to enable effective business re-engineering. Faced with an ageing workforce, PLM also helps to capture knowledge before vital skills are lost.
Ensuring efficiency
Risk management is vital in ensuring that investment is cost effective and deployed for safe and efficient high performance. Neil Dunsmuir, vice-president of EMEA marketing, Siemens PLM Software, says that Atomic Energy Canada uses PLM to simulate robotic operations in a virtual environment,
to ensure the adoption of the fastest and safest procedures. PLM helped the company to reduce costs using a virtual environment, while also producing documentation records for safety purposes. PLM offers considerable benefits in terms of collaboration, and it is fundamental in delivering efficient energy projects, such as the new offshore wind-farms, to time and cost. Leading contractors such as Balfour Beatty are using Teamcenter to improve collaboration, to add more value, and to work more closely with energy operators and other parties. The aim is to ensure that everybody is on track with the right information, at the right time, working as team. PLM optimises configuration management throughout the life-cycle of a plant as designed, as planned, as built and as maintained providing a clear understanding of why certain decisions were made and the potential impact of any future changes.
Exporting success
When retailers try to break into emerging markets, they dont want to have to reinvent the wheel. With PLM, they dont have to
These days, brand and private label manufacturers and retailers have to streamline operations to squeeze every bit of margin out of sales. Continuous efficiency improvement, increased collaboration along the value chain and reduced complexity go hand-in-hand with accelerated innovation. Product life-cycle management (PLM) offers four key value propositions for companies operating in retail and consumerpackaged goods (CPG) markets, according to John Kelleher, the UK consumer industries manager for Siemens PLM Software. Then its a matter of cut and paste of key elements to match the needs of new markets, says Kelleher. Although the product formulation may remain the same, ingredients may change to meet regional, religious or dietary needs, or the language, graphics or images on packs may have to be adapted. But the brand owner can keep most of the established product configuration. Do it right, and the brand gains the edge in the race for first-to-market. chain partners. Synchronising new product development in such a disparate value chain can be very difficult. But PLM helps to identify best practice for every partner so that it can be repeated elsewhere. With complex task management on a high level dashboard, brand managers can check that products are on time and budget, and identify potential bottlenecks across the globe. A leading retailer reduced its new product development (NPD) life-cycle by 30 per cent by using PLM in this way. Fashion items, for example, must be fresh, so processes start as late as possible. Predictability and confidence in the critical path is fundamental to success in the fashion business. To meet demanding store deadlines, the back-end process often has huge additional costs in terms of air freight, staffing, and labour time, says Kelleher.
PLM is useful for ensuring compliance with REACH, RoHS, WEEE and other environmental directives, as well as applying best practice to portfolio management, product development and manufacturing integration. Theres no one piece that drives sustainability, says Kelleher. PLM enables a company to examine the sustainability of all stages in the product life-cycle and to investigate its impact on economic, environmental and social values. Product development has to be driven by innovation, market demands, efficient manufacture, profit and sustainability. PLM can help to achieve all these goals.
June 2011
Business Technology
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Sustainability
Everyone wants to be green or at least seen to be green. At one time, a corporate focus on the environment could be viewed as a nice-to-do public relations gambit. Now its inescapable. Consumers want to know, and regulators want to know too: what exactly is inside that product? How is it made, by whom and under what conditions? Whats the carbon footprint, energy signature and its recyclability? PLM and related systems can help manufacturers and service companies comply with ever-increasing regulation and legislation. There are also spin-off benefits. Much of the work is on systems that identify and certify what materials are being used in a product and can demonstrate what effects a change of materials might produce. This is the right target to attack, says Tom Shoemaker, vice-president of product marketing at PLM software group PTC. If a company is interested in where they can make a difference, and then focuses on product materials rather than housekeeping items, like switching out the lights, they can hit 80 per cent of possible benefits. PTC is building environmental data into the latest version of its Windchill PLM system
under the name product analytics. The analytics system attaches detailed environmental information to the bill of materials that accompanies each component or product through its development phase, and on into its service life. This information can be updated at any time and is also matched to the regulatory requirements. Environmental compliance on hazardous substances demands loads of form-filling. The system automates this process and also helps manufacturers keep their suppliers in line. For a complex product such as a major sub-assembly for a car, there could be hundreds of components and many suppliers. The amount of information is huge and keeping track of it is tough, let alone ensuring environmental compliance. SolidWorks and Autodesk have both also brought materials expertise into their mainstream design technology. SW Sustainability from SolidWorks and the Eco Materials Adviser in the 2012 edition of Autodesk Inventor both give designers a view of the environmental impact of their designs on a range of measures including carbon footprint, energy usage, water and air pollution. This isnt precision data, nor is it meant to be. Theres a lack of precision about
environmental data which means we always say that differences of plus or minus 20 per cent are not necessarily significant, says Jamie OHare from Granta Design, the Cambridge-based company behind Autodesks new system. Rather, these systems offer design engineers pointers to potential environmental problems and encourage them to try substitute materials. We see this as the start of a discussion, says Sarah Krasley, Autodesk product manager for environmental systems. The aim is to make it easy for non-experts and experts to communicate the choices in terms people can understand. But these systems can also flag up where there might be a problem with environmental regulations. Whats more, by early deployment in the design process, before much of the development cost has been incurred, they can stop some expensive mistakes at least.
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June 2011
Industry view
We saw the problem and have evolved a solution which is driven through a deep understanding of project needs its not just about technology
gressive assurance designed to deliver the evidence that a safe and effective system can be handed over to the rail system operator, in accordance with all requirements, on time. In the past, this was a huge and chaotic task, involving hundreds of contractors all working independently. Keeping it all in check purely through contractual boundaries involved major compromise to specifications. And over time, the squeeze on time and money tended to overwhelm issues of quality and conformance, says Rolison. Faced with project creep, this turmoil has a detrimental impact on quality as time runs over and costs climb. Furthermore, compromises during delivery stages have an impact on maintenance performance throughout the lifetime of the infrastructure. Comply Serve recognised the scale of the problem and Rolison led a team to tackle the compliance challenge head on. ComplyPro has been developed specifically to ensure that major infrastructure projects stay on track, not just in terms of time and budget but also to specification, he says. Design and build compliance is proved electronically with real-time reporting, so outstanding issues can be viewed across the supply chain and rectified quickly. The system manages the complexities of project hierarchy with a powerful workflow capability, making the process of compliance easy for designers and build contractors alike. Conventional document management systems dont allow all of those involved to see compliance issues in real time, says Rolison.
On track: getting the trains to run on time is more complicated than it looks
We saw the problem and have evolved a solution which is driven through a deep understanding of project needs its not just about technology. He recognises that compliance and assurance, though mandatory, is cumbersome. The audit trail, for example, means tackling myriad complex spreadsheets so the client finds it difficult to see issues as they occur. Traditional compliance and assurance systems are offline, and are not treated as an intrinsic part of design and delivery processes, says Rolison. ComplyPro changes all that. We provide a collaborative, easy-to-use, web-based system which joins up everybody across the project organisation, from the programme director through to the second tier supplier. The system gives the parties a single view of the project specification. There is always lots of change in big infrastructure projects, and estimating the impact and cost of change is resource-intensive and expensive. ComplyPro can identify issues quickly and shares the information across a wide collaborative environment. This can reduce the assessment of the
impact of change from weeks to hours, in concert with more accurate cost assessments, says Rolison. Early adoption of ComplyPro on the East London Line rail upgrade main works project gave the projects commercial team an unprecedented overview of when and where changes were required as they arose, resulting in a dramatic reduction in the manpower required. The complex project was brought in on time, within budget and with significant impact in terms of change management and conflict reduction where previously projects had suffered from a culture of claim and blame. Crossrail is now in the latter stages of detailed design and construction is under way. Others are following its example internationally. Danish Rail is using ComplyPro on the Banedanmark re-signalling project and further projects are under way in Scandinavia, France and the Middle East. Comply Serve also plans to move into allied markets to handle compliance in large projects in aerospace, oil and gas, energy and utilities where the same issues apply.
www.complyserve.com
June 2011
Business Technology
13
Compliance
Sharing data between different elements of the production process has been a dilemma since the early days of computer-aided design (CAD). Until recently, it was a problem largely confined to the machine shop or analysts office. It reared its head among designers only when an existing CAD system was dumped in favour of a newer, better model and legacy data became an issue. However, with the advent of globalised, collaborative manufacturing and product life-cycle management (PLM) systems, datasharing has become a massive challenge. The data solutions company TrancenData Europe has found that 20 per cent of a typical numerical control programming job is spent preparing data for processing. The figure rises to 70 per cent for stress testing; highly qualified engineers are spending two-thirds of their time second-guessing design intent. One major issue is that there is no shared view of how PLM should work. Some organisations simply want to share data within the enterprise, while others want to share information at every stage with suppliers, customers and so on.
Do or die
In todays manufacturing world, collaboration is more than a competitive differentiator, its a business must, says Marc Halpern, the
research vice-president of the Gartner Group. Demographic and economic trends make collaborative design a requirement for global manufacturing enterprises that expect to survive and remain competitive over the next 10 years. They have to be able to work across diverse applications that share data. Over the years, there have been a multitude of approaches to data-sharing. One of the first efforts was IGES, which used common file formats that could be read by everyone. This was essentially the industry standard for 30 years and, if you were lucky, it worked 95 per cent of the time. However, IGES tends to fail under pressure that is, when users hadnt the spare capacity to fix it. The effectiveness of STEP, the modern common file format for 3D data, is patchy at best. What is more, IGES and STEP are basic geometry translations that offer none of the model intelligence characteristics of a modern PLM system.
Collaborative engineering tends to happen in two distinct ways. When major corporations such as Boeing have control of all the engineering, they can usually view everything and intellectual property issues are rare. However, it is common for different people in the value chain to make individual parts of a product so they need different rights of access to view the data. This results in the thorny issue of digital rights management.
Companies need to be aware of this when considering investment in PLM. There are numerous data translators on the market and companies that will convert one proprietary data format into another. These systems are not, however, 100 per cent reliable. And unfortunately, Murphys Law dictates that a general purpose data conversions utility will let you down when you simply dont have time to tackle the job in any other way.
Industries such as aerospace and cars have used PLM to sort out their data-sharing issues
Mike Evans, of the Cambridge-based research consultancy Cambashi, points to the trend for globalised 24/7 engineering where a single project is developed around the clock and around the world. From a data management perspective, this means passing around a single copy of the master geometry of a product between global collaborators. This narrows the room for misunderstanding and human error as everyone receives the same information. Sophisticated PLM systems from vendors such as IBM, PTC and Siemens offer this kind of global functionality. Industries such as aerospace and cars have used PLM to sort out their data-sharing issues. However, PLM requires significant investment and, according to the PLM user group, some data management problems are still unresolved.
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June 2011
Industry view
Efficiency drive
Faster to market and right first time product life-cycle management is bringing enduring benefits to businesses of all size and shape
Christian Hehl
managing director, Karer Consulting (UK)
Mark Harrop
managing director, WhichPLM
Leon Lauritsen
director and partner, Minerva Group
Making business processes fit With PLM, youre potentially Smaller companies still have the the PLM system is wrong saving hours, days or even weeks same challenges as bigger ones
What do you see as the biggest benefits that PLM can help businesses to achieve?
We see it as one of the three main processes within a company, being the focus of the product information. We see it working alongside the other major processes of supply chain management and customer relationship management. With its focus on products, PLM can help to deliver products faster to the market, to get them right first time, and to ensure they comply with regulations. A lot of products these days require full traceability, so that last point is increasingly important.
What are the benefits that investment in PLM can bring to companies you deal with?
We specialise in the fashion and apparel industries and the key benefit is a reduction in the time it takes to bring products or services to market while maintaining the right level of quality. If you look at business systems such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), youre often shaving off just a few seconds in generating a bill or other paperwork. With PLM, youre potentially saving hours, days or even weeks. And when you extend that across the whole international supply chain, you begin to see compounded benefits accumulating over time, and then it becomes a really huge advantage.
What are the business drivers that encourage companies to adopt PLM?
The top ones are the time pressures to get new products to market without adding a lot of extra resources, and the lifetime of products actually is constantly being reduced. But more widely in the developed economies we have lost a lot of the production and that means we have to be more innovative all round. We have to be world class in innovation. And that is a driver too.
So does that mean that PLM is essentially a design and development tool for innovation?
No, in fact I believe there has been too much focus among the PLM vendors on research and development. Of course it is important, but you also need to bring in colleagues from procurement, you need to know about environmental regulations and many other things. What PLM should be about is bringing products to market faster and how we collaborate with all the people involved internally as well as externally, not just the blue sky thinkers and not just the mechanical design people.
How does that approach differ from the way that PLM has been tackled in some companies in the past?
At Karer Consulting we believe that all companies are different and there is never likely to be a one size fits all PLM system. Our job as consultants is to understand our clients business processes and to use the elements of PLM to enhance the business as a whole, throughout the entire lifecycle of the products. Making business processes fit the PLM system is wrong; we should use the PLM system to improve and augment the processes. Our first question to our customers always is: What is it that you want to achieve?
How well served has the PLM market been by the current systems developed by the major PLM vendors?
There are several issues here. One is that smaller companies still have the same challenges as bigger ones; they also have complex products and they have pressures to get them to market quickly. But the PLM systems from the big vendors have a cost structure geared to the big companies and thats a problem. And there are lots of different modules, and you find the bit you want isnt in the package you bought, so thats more cost. Then there are problems in the culture and understanding. A lot of these systems originated in engineering, built up from original computer-aided design packages. Procurement people and marketing dont think the same way.
Your company offers a PLM benchmarking service. How does that work?
Weve been in this business for more than 20 years, and we saw a gulf between the promise of PLM and consumers understanding of the true capabilities of the various fashion-specific solutions. It works both ways, though; some of the larger PLM vendors dont necessarily know a lot about processes unique to the apparel industry, and retail and fashion-focused suppliers arent always up to speed on how big PLM firms worked. So we built a bespoke software comparison engine and put it on our industry news and tools site, to enable companies in the industry to cut through the marketing bluster and compare what was actually on offer in terms they can understand.
PLM had a fairly chequered history in its early years. Is PLM now here to stay?
I believe very firmly that it is, but I think you have to regard PLM as a series of processes that surround the product, its creation, its deployment and through its entire life-cycle. In the past, maybe it was too centred on the design and development side. Now we can see the benefits are much wider. And I can see it will spread to new sectors, such as consumer goods and even financial services. They have products: PLM can work for them too.
www.karer.com
At Minerva you have been pioneering a different business model for PLM. What is different about it?
We were working with the major PLM vendors and we saw smaller as well as larger companies were having a difficult time. We could see that the PLM business was driven by very narrow competition and that prices werent really coming down. And then we discovered this PLM software called Aras. It is open source and what that means is that it is free to download: fully functioning, based on modern technology but free. Its really starting to rock the boat now.
www.minerva-plm.com
June 2011
Business Technology
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Industry view
PLM focuses a consistent information-driven approach throughout all phases of a product life-cycle and puts the product into the centre of all activities, a basis for innovation, lean development and production
aerospace. Building a complex product in a global, multi-company environment with severe consequences for technical failure requires total control over all information in the product life-cycle. PLM services like those
But the main benefit of the close coupling of PLM and MES is that it results in a better product, and in a safety-conscious era when relatively small defects in design or manufacturing can lead to a major product recall, that is likely to be a very significant reduction in risk.
www.cimpa.com
It is fully integrated into other peoples systems or you can do your own customised configuration and your own customised links
You can imagine the reaction, says Lauritsen. People said if it was free it couldnt be any good. But they were wrong. It was good: a fully functioning out-of-the-box PLM system that you could use as much of or as little of as you wanted. It is fully integrated into other peoples systems, computer-aided design systems, and ERP (enterprise resource planning) business systems or you can do your
own customised configuration and your own customised links. Aras is a very different business model from the PLM norm and at its heart is a different system architecture too: in simple terms, what you want to do with the system drives the way it operates, rather than the fixed needs of a hierarchical database. It is, says Lauritsen, typically 30 to 50 per cent faster than conventional PLM systems. There are other differences, and money does come into it at times. If you want regular support, you pay for that, and breakdown support and training too, all of which Minerva provides to Aras users. But you can do it entirely for free and you can do it your way.
So who has been taking advantage of Aras? Its not the smallest businesses, Lauritsen says. Its mostly been bigger companies who know what they want, whove been using the mainstream PLM from the bigger vendors; people who spent a lot of money and found it didnt solve their problems. From 100 new customers a month in 2008, its now up to 900 and still growing in a period when the big PLM firms have struggled to find new leads. This is really the only new thing in PLM, says Lauritsen. All the rest is same-old, sameold. Provocative, indeed.
www.minerva-plm.com
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Industry view
is that it assumes the design is mature, finished or maybe even manufactured so it can be trial assembled and photographed, making the planning activity dependent on the design office. Even when ready, the effort required to produce the planning information can be considerable, for design as well as manufacturing, and any subsequent change to the product or processes can mean significant reworking. The issue of translation and interpretation of instructions in a different language may also be a consideration if you are thinking about off-shoring some or all of your manufacturing and assembly. So how can the re-purposing of your digital asset with new tools drive benefits? For manufacturing, it can allow the planning activity to start much earlier in the development process, well before the design has been finalised, providing opportunities to improve quality, costs and manufacturability. This is done by using the design data directly to produce not 2D drawings but 3D simulations of the product assembly. By basing this on the actual design data, the planning information can be synchronised with changes, dramatically reducing the first run production and rework effort. Through providing a graphical rather Release Product Documentation Release Finalise Savings/Return on Investment Rework
than textual basis for these planning instructions, you can also solve the problem of language translation if you decide to relocate your production facilities.
much richer customer documentation, much faster, for less cost, in a more reactive manner and with the confidence that it is an exact representation of the product. Why stop there? Expand the customer experience to include interactive parts catalogues, service and maintenance guides and training materials, all serving to demonstrate your commitment to customer support.
Quantifiable benefit
The far-reaching impact and extended timescales involved in most PLM implementations often mean that it is difficult to fully quantify the benefits in terms of a return on investment, so it is viewed as a more strategic activity. However, the re-purposing of your digital capital for areas such as those we have discussed here provides a tangible and more easily quantifiable benefit. When you include the other areas which could gain from this approach, such as marketing, training and product maintenance, it becomes one of those Why didnt we look at that before? moments. So, whatever your drivers for business and process improvement, its worth taking stock of what digital capital you have in the business and looking at where this can be reused to support those laudable aims behind your PLM strategy. Altran Xype are part of the Altran group of companies, with 17,000 employees worldwide. We are a leading supplier of independent PLM consulting services, software engineering and engineering information systems training to many blue chip companies. We also supply and implement the product documentation software 3DVia Composer to many of them as part of an efficient PLM solution.
Altran Xype www.altran-xype.com
By providing a graphical rather than textual basis for planning instructions, you can also solve the problem of language translation if you decide to relocate production
instructions you find in your self-assembly furniture, is to trace a photograph of the product with illustration software to produce the final artwork. This obviously requires significant skill and knowledge in techniques and product and, as with the manufacturing example, it depends on there being a physical product to reference. Similarly, it involves significant upfront effort and may require considerable extra work as changes and different product configurations feed through. Added to this is the risk that the resulting illustrations may be incorrect or missing some key features. If, as with manufacturing, we use our source digital information to produce the technical information directly, and earlier in the development phase, we can produce