Archive for December, 2020
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2020
PROSTEP takes account of its automotive customers’ growing requirements in terms of data security. Last year we were certified in accordance with TISAX and have since extended the scope of this certification. In addition to company headquarters in Darmstadt, the branch offices in Berlin and Munich also recently passed their TISAX audits successfully.
The ever increasing level of networking in the automotive industry means that information security plays a key role when it comes to organizing business relationships. The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) has defined uniform requirements for this purpose and compliance is checked by means of regular audits: Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange, or TISAX for short. TISAX certification provides an important foundation for business relationships at numerous automobile manufacturers and automotive suppliers. It ensures that business partners comply with certain security standards when handling confidential and personal data. This applies to both the physical security of the premises and employees’ awareness of the issue of data security and to the protection of the IT infrastructure against cyber attacks.
The TISAX audit is based on the Information Security Assessment (ISA) developed by the VDA, a uniform catalog of questions that companies can use to assess their level of maturity in a variety of areas relating to information security. The actual certification process is carried out by independent service providers accredited by the ENX Association. The organization, which comprises European automobile manufacturers, suppliers and automotive associations, also monitors the quality of the assessments and the results.
At PROSTEP, TISAX certification is just one of many components that ensure reliable business processes and the compliant handling of confidential and personal data. During the course of a multi-day assessment, the auditors recently also verified compliance with the quality requirements relating to business processes (ISO 9001), the requirements relating to information security (ISO 27001), which serve as the basis for TISAX, and the data protection provisions according to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR or DSVGO in the German terminology).
Thanks to PROSTEP’s many years of experience with the certification processes and the excellent preparatory work performed for the audits, there was no cause for complaint. The auditors praised the excellent implementation of the DSVGO requirements in particular.
We passed the various audits with flying colors, even though the TISAX requirements and the inclusion of additional locations meant that the review was performed in greater depth than in the past. Successful TISAX certification enables us to take account of the growing data security requirements of our customers in the automotive industry and create a basis for collaboration in joint PLM development projects that is based on trust.
By Rainer Bugow
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Monday, December 21st, 2020
Our claim “Integrate the Future” means developing innovative products and services for you. Sponsored projects provide us with important ideas for this. In recent years, we have significantly increased the extent of our research activities. Four innovation projects are currently running simultaneously: V&V Methods, SET Level, ProProS and DigiTwin. In October, we applied for funding for two new projects (ImPaKT and HoliYard).
PROSTEP invests a lot of time and money in these projects and thus in its future – for the benefit of our customers. As a technology company, we want to ensure that our service portfolio is subject to ongoing development. The sponsored projects allow us to keep our ear to the ground when it comes to technological advances and gather important ideas and gain know-how. We develop demonstrators for new products, which we can then get ready for market faster. And it is thanks to this that we were granted the first patent in the company’s history for the “procedure for the electronic documentation of license information” based on the use of blockchain technology this year.
Participation in these projects benefits us in a variety of ways. Our close contacts with renowned research institutes working in new fields such as artificial intelligence, cryptography, systems engineering and autonomous driving have over the years made it possible for us to expand our own know-how and attract new employees. At the same time, we work closely with (potential) customers and become more familiar with their requirements, which helps us develop software solutions that meet their needs. We are also gaining a deeper understanding of the industry in new application areas, such as shipbuilding in the ProProS and HoliYard projects for example.
Our traceability solution Tracy would certainly not have reached the level of maturity it currently has without the impetus provided by the V&V and SET Level projects. Within the framework of ImPaKT, a newly proposed sponsored project that will probably be launched in January, we intend to work together with both industrial partners like CLAAS and Schaeffler and SMEs like Hofmann, a specialist for balancing machines, on expanding OpenCLM to include functions for the use case of cross-domain impact analysis of changes. It will also involve the use of artificial intelligence methods. You will find more information about the use cases on the OpenCLM web page.
Sponsored projects make an important financial contribution to our product development and also to marketing. They generate a great deal of public interest and raise our profile. The SAMPL project alone gave rise to 23 presentations and 24 publications in the media; we also presented our new blockchain solution at 34 events. Our demonstrator will soon be exhibited at the Digital Technologies Forum and will also be shown to international visitors.
As part of the SAMPL (Secure Additive Manufacturing Platform) project, we have worked with partners to develop an end-to-end solution for the forgery-proof exchange of 3D print data using blockchain technology. The project has now been brought to a successful close. During the course of the project, blockchain technology was integrated in our OpenDXM GlobalX software solution. We can now support new business models that exploit the advantages of blockchain technology and involve exchanging large amounts of data. We are about to win our first major contract.
Our employees are given the opportunity to explore exciting topics and grow as a person. They in turn make it possible for us to remain innovative and break new ground for you – our customers.
If you are interested in finding out more, please contact martin.holland@prostep.com.
By Martin Holland
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Saturday, December 19th, 2020
PROSTEP is increasing the pace of development of its PLM integration platform OpenPDM and will in future deliver a new release every six months. Version 9.2 will be on the roadmap at the beginning of February 2021. In addition to support for the current releases of the PLM systems Windchill, Teamcenter and 3DEXPERIENCE, it offers new connectors to GIT, Jira and to OSLC-enabled systems.
OpenPDM 9.2 is the second release of the new generation of our world-leading PLM integration platform, which is characterized by its cloud-ready software architecture. The new version not only offers connectors to Windchill 12.0.0, Teamcenter 13.0 or 3DEXPERIENCE R2021X, but now also supports the REST interface of Dassault Systèmes’ PLM platform. Via this interface, OpenPDM can now communicate very easily with a cloud instance of 3DEXPERIENCE. In addition, we have developed a direct coupling to EXALEAD based on OpenPDM, so that data from Windchill, Teamcenter or SAP can be evaluated with EXALEAD.
We have also enhanced OpenPDM 9.2 with a view to integrating systems for managing software code and controlling the software development process (Application Lifecycle Management or ALM for short). There are new connectors to GIT and Jira. Furthermore, we have ported the existing connector to the ALM solution PTC Integrity, now called Windchill RV&S, to the new OpenPDM generation. Our connector to the IoT platform ThingWorx offers the possibility to also display data from non-PTC systems with PTC Navigate.
OpenPDM 9.2 supports new data linking concepts through an OSLC provider. It enables OSLC consumers such as IBM RTC or DOORS Next to link requirements and functional models via OpenPDM with PLM information in other source systems.
The new version of our cloud-enabled PLM integration platform will be delivered to our customers from February 2021. In addition, they will receive a Feature Enhancement and Fix Pack for the current release every two months, which contains features requested at short notice in the projects.
By Mirko Theiß
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Thursday, December 17th, 2020
PROSTEP is presenting the new version 9.2 of its OpenDXM GlobalX data exchange platform, which offers extensive functions for integrated and automated data processing. This makes it even more comfortable to use for users and system administrators. The new features include a CAD client that allows users to send complete CAD assemblies from Windows Explorer.
OpenDXM GlobalX is not only an easy to use portal solution for secure data exchange but can also be integrated very easily into data processing processes. The aim is to make it as easy as possible for users to send and receive data and documents. To do this, they must be able to initiate the transfer from their familiar working environment. Therefore, we offer them additional client applications for the creation of transfer processes.
Version 9.2 of OpenDXM GlobalX, for example, includes a new CAD client that allows users to select the CAD data to be sent in the context of the Windows Explorer. The solution automatically identifies the documents that belong to a CAD assembly and transfers them in a structured form to a shipping container. A high-performance 3D preview function facilitates the selection of the CAD data to be sent.
In addition, we have once again significantly expanded the functional scope of the new web interface in version 9.2. All the important system administration tasks, including ENGDAT administration, can now be performed I the web browser. The web interface also allows the release of dispatch processes according to the dual control principle.
Data protection is further improved by the fact that the double opt-in procedure can be activated for newly created accounts. This means that the generated user profiles can only be used for data exchange once the users have expressly confirmed this. If they refuse to use them, their personal data will be deleted again in accordance with the basic data protection regulation (DSVGO). Data security is also a top priority for us, which is why we have subjected the new version 9.2 to a penetration test by an external service provider.
In addition to Oracle, OpenDXM GlobalX has been able to run on MS SQL databases since Version 9.1. With Version 9.2, we have added PostgresSQL to the supported database systems. The new version of OpenDXM GlobalX is now available. As usual, software and documentation are available via our download portal.
By Udo Hering
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Monday, December 14th, 2020
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was not only PROSTEP TECHDAY 2020 that was held online this year but also almost every other event at which we normally make an appearance. In recent months, we have participated in numerous online events with presentations and virtual booths. The feedback was rather restrained: What our speakers missed most was contact with the other participants.
One of the events we have been attending for years is LiveWorx, where we demonstrate the solutions in our portfolio, and in particular our OpenPDM integrations to Windchill, Creo and the IIoT platform ThingWorx, to the PTC community. Although this year’s trip to Boston was canceled, our appearance was not. In one presentation, we demonstrated to participants how our integration platform can provide support for end-to-end digitalization in heterogeneous PDM/PLM landscapes and make data from different enterprise applications available in role-based ThingWorx apps. You can watch the video here.
The 3DEXPERIENCE Conference EuroCentral organized by Dassault Systèmes was also held online this year. Our participation in the event comprised not only a virtual booth but also two live presentations. In the first presentation, we explained to participants how our data exchange platform OpenDXM GlobalX supports 3DEXPERIENCE (3DX) platform users in the context of cross-enterprise collaboration. The second presentation focused on data migration. We used concrete use cases to demonstrate how companies can migrate metadata and CAD data from legacy systems to the 3DX platform in high quality with the support of PROSTEP’s experts and our OpenPDM integration platform. Several presentations were also made at our booth, including one on how 3DX can be incorporated in an EA-based PLM strategy.
Our PLM strategy consultants also responded to the constraints placed on their ability to travel by participating in online events. One highlight was most certainly the joint presentation given together with Bosch at the prostep ivip Symposium in which we presented the current status of the SetLevel and V&V research projects. The two projects deal with the question of how the traceability of simulation steps and results can be ensured when it comes to validating autonomous driving functions. A video of the presentation, which was also shown at the 6th Symposium Driving Simulation, can be found here.
At the same time, our consulting specialists made an appearance in the former plenary hall of the German Bundestag in Bonn as a sponsor of LeanIX EA Connect Days 2020, one of the most important conferences in the field of enterprise architecture management, which was a smart combination of physical and virtual event. In an interview, Dr. Martin Strietzel explains the role EA (Enterprise Architecture) plays in PLM and the digitalization of the product development process and what PROSTEP expects from its collaboration with LeanIX.
We gave a number of presentations at the NAFEMS DACH 2020 conference, which was ultimately held online following several postponements. The presentations covered a wide range of topics from the challenges posed by the digital twin to the role of simulation in the platform economy through to a concrete representation of end-to-end digitalization using the system model in systems engineering as an example. You can find out more about these topics in our white paper.
Some of our customers in the maritime industry like MEYER Werft and MEYER Turku are using the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to rethink their PLM architectures. Our shipbuilding experts made use of a variety of online activities to help them come up with new ideas. At a virtual booth at PI Marine USA, we showcased our integration platform OpenPDM SHIP, which connects shipbuilding-specific development systems with each other or with mechanical CAD systems and all the leading PDM/PLM and ERP systems. You can find more about this in our white paper.
We also presented the results of a cross-enterprise survey on the digital twin in the maritime industry at the start of the 5th Schiff&Hafen Maritim 4.0 conference, which was held online this year. Details of the study, which attracted a great deal of attention, will be provided in the next newsletter.
By Joachim Christ
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Sunday, December 13th, 2020
Finnish shipyard MEYER Turku, part of MEYER Group and one of the world’s leading builder of cruise ships, ferries and special ships, plans for the future of shipbuilding. In a Proof of Concept (PoC) led by PROSTEP, and in cooperation with TECHNIA the shipyard examined the advantages of model-based, visually supported work planning using DELMIA software in the production process.
MEYER Turku’s aim is to optimize planning and control in production and thus to reduce the production time of individual ships. This requires a restructuring of the historically grown IT landscape, which is strongly adapted to the shipyard’s specific needs. The Finnish engineers use the shipbuilding specific CAD system AVEVA Marine for basic and detailed design of the steel structures (Hull). For work planning and control, production-relevant data is then transferred to NESTIX, a MES tool perfectly adapted to the existing production processes. The software however cannot directly use 3D design models, which makes data consistency difficult and impedes visual work planning.
When looking for a future planning software for manufacturing, the project managers in Finland did not need to look far afield: DELMIA is part of Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE already in use as a PLM platform at the sister shipyards in Papenburg and Rostock. In view of the ongoing harmonization of the IT landscapes at the different shipyard locations, the idea of a practical test of the Dassault software in Turku was therefore obvious.
Another obvious choice was to cooperate with PROSTEP’s shipbuilding experts, who have been supporting MEYER for years as system-neutral consultants in the integration of its CAx and PLM landscapes. They took the lead in the project team that was to carry out the evaluation of DELMIA’s Out Of The Box (OOTB) functions from a user perspective. With a view to later productive use, the aim was to clarify whether DELMIA could provide all the necessary functions, how much customizing would be required and how the software could support closer integration of hull and outfitting design in the future.
As part of the PoC, PROSTEP’s experts developed a concept for converting and transferring the geometry and metadata from AVEVA Marine to 3DEXPERIENCE and coordinated the activities of Dassault partner TECHNIA, which was responsible for testing the DELMIA software and introducing users to the new, integrative way of working. “The cooperation between PROSTEP, TECHNIA and the users at MEYER Turku was very targeted and worked perfectly. We were able to carry out the project in time and budget and achieved all expected results” praised Pekka Puranen, CAD/PLM Developer at MEYER Turku.
During the implementation of the project, the two consulting firms combined their core competencies. The experts from TECHNIA contributed their industrial best practices in applying DELMIA, while PROSTEP brought in its experience with shipbuilding processes, PLM as well as agile project management. In addition, PROSTEP also developed the integration to provide AVEVA Marine 3D model data in DELMIA for testing purposes. The company benefited from years of close cooperation with the Finnish shipyard and the proven in-house integration platform OpenPDM SHIP, whose functions were used to implement the integration.
TECHNIA’s experts tested DELMIA together with the work planners at the shipyard so that they could gain practical experience with the model-based approach. It was found that visual work allows them to control the progress of the work much better. In principle, the PoC was able to map the defined use cases with DELMIA OOTB. For productive use, however, the software would have to be customized in order to fulfil all essential requirements of the Finnish shipyard. For example, an automatic time calculation for the planned work is missing as basis for the resource and capacity planning. “If we achieve a similarly high degree of automation with DELMIA, we will need much less time for work planning due to the integrative approach”, concluded Pekka Puranen.
By Nils Sonnenberg
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Friday, December 11th, 2020
Online conferences can be rather tedious affairs. PROSTEP proved that it doesn’t have to be that way with its PROSTEP TECHDAY. The professionally moderated online sessions with short presentations about key new products and interesting presentations by customers offered participants a diverse and entertaining program. “The quality was almost as good as on TV,” said one of the viewers.
With almost 150 participants, this year’s PROSTEP TECHDAY was better “attended” than ever before. The response was extremely positive. Many of those participating congratulated us via e-mail on the “super event”, the great format, the professional support provided by TV and event host Julia Bauer and the informative and professional presentations by the speakers.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s customary meeting of the PROSTEP community took place on screen, to some extent like a TV series with three episodes and different protagonists. Each session kicked off with a brief review of what has been achieved since the previous TECHDAY and how PROSTEP is positioning itself as a partner for the digital transformation. There is no way around the cloud. According to Gartner, 75 percent of companies are navigating their way to the cloud, which is why we, too, have made our software solutions cloud-ready.
In cooperation with the DARZ data center in Darmstadt, we are making our OpenDXM GlobalX data exchange platform available as a SaaS model – an offering that is already in productive use at customers like OSRAM Continental and Valeo Siemens. The cloud offering is soon to be expanded to include additional services such as the data conversion service OpenDESC.com. We also have plans to offer PLM integration to an increasing extent as a service based on our cloud-capable OpenPDM product suite. To facilitate the deployment of applications in different cloud infrastructures, the company is working intensively on integrating technologies like Docker, Kubernetes and OpenShift, said Udo Hering, head of Product Management.
Getting to grips with topics of the future is of strategic importance to PROSTEP, which is why we participate in numerous research projects. They play a key role in the context of developing new software products such as the OpenCLM traceability solution, which product manager Dr. Fabrice Mogo Nem presented to a wider audience for the first time at PROSTEP TECHDAY. As Dr. Mogo Nem pointed out, it is not merely another PDM/PLM system but a layer that makes the relationships between the information distributed across different data silos and domains transparent, thus reducing the amount of time and effort required to find information and ensure requirements regarding traceability are being met. OpenCLM will be available from July next year but can already be put to the test in a proof of concept.
Client for CAD data processing
OpenDXM GlobalX was the protagonist in the first session. In the current version 9.2, PROSTEP has expanded the new web interface to enable administrators to also perform all their essential tasks on the web, as Product Manager Daniel Wiegand explained. A new and powerful CAD client is now available to companies that want to use the data exchange platform without PDM/PLM integration. It analyzes the components stored in a directory and independently puts together the assemblies that are to be sent. The client also offers a convenient 3D preview function that allows the assemblies to be viewed prior to being sent. The OpenDXM Broker can be used to automate processes like data conversion.
We have expanded the range of PDM integrations offered to include a new plug-in for the 3D dashboard that is part of Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform. The plug-in makes it possible for multiple data sets to be sent in a single operation. The roadmap for the next version of OpenDXM GlobalX includes not only improving security functions using two-factor authentication but also another plug-in for the Teamcenter Active Workspace client.
Alexander Meier from the automotive supplier HBPO used the ECTR plug-in as an example to illustrate how quickly OpenDXM GlobalX can be integrated into the SAP landscape and how easy the solution is to use. HBPO develops and manufactures high-quality front-end modules, cockpits and center consoles for the automotive industry. Users at the company can not only create send jobs in their familiar interface but also receive feedback in SAP ECTR as to whether the job has been successfully transferred to the data exchange platform and the data delivered to the recipient.
Function for hollowing assemblies
TECHDAY’s second session focused on the automated provision of product data from PLM and ERP systems to downstream processes in manufacturing, assembly and service. Product Manager Timo Trautmann explained the technological transformation of PDF Generator 3D, which has become a powerful platform for converting 2D and 3D data into a wide variety of formats, to participants.
It not only allows 3D PDF documents to be created automatically but also makes it possible to publish 2D and 3D data in HTML5 format so that it can be displayed in a normal web browser. An agile release process ensures that customers are always able to use the latest CAD formats as input.
The session also provided participants with a brief overview of the standardization activities being conducted by the 3D PDF Consortium, of which PROSTEP is a member. Significant progress has been made, particularly with regard to ISO standardization of the PDF/ A-4e format as a standard for the long-term archiving of engineering data. The committee is also working on new topics such as the ability to embed native STEP data in 3D PDF documents so that it can be viewed directly with Adobe Reader. As Trautmann said, our roadmap includes support for this option as from version 10.1 of PDF Generator 3D.
One of the highlights of the current version is the new “hollowing” function, which makes it possible to automatically hollow out assemblies and remove components that cannot be seen when preparing them for spare parts catalogs. As Trautmann pointed out, this provides better protection for the know-how inherent in the assemblies. But PDF Generator 3D offers more than just the ability to generate product-specific spare parts catalogs at the touch of a button. The solution also supports change reporting when releasing new data sets by displaying changes made to the geometry or associated PMI information, e.g. tolerance specifications.
The presentation by André Hieke from Siemens Large Drives Applications (LDA) demonstrated just how versatile PDF Generator 3D is. The manufacturer of customized high-voltage motors and converters initially used our software to automate the creation of offer documents in the pre-sales phase. It is now also being used productively in housing manufacture. Siemens LDA thus provides both its own workers and external partners with manufacturing documents without any need for drawings. Unlike the JT technology, which was originally used for this purpose, the 3D PDF-based solution enjoys a high level of acceptance among users. It is therefore planned that it also be implemented in shaft manufacture and at other locations, as Hieke said.
OpenPDM with cloud-capable architecture
The highlight of the third session was the customer presentation given by Clifton Davies from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. The manufacturer of military aircraft uses our PLM integration platform OpenPDM in combination with Red Hat’s service bus architecture Fuse to export part information, manufacturing BOMs and work schedules from the 3DEXPERIENCE platform or DELMIA to the SAP ERP system and the MES system Solumina from iBASEt. The timeframe for the integration project was very tight and was complicated by a changeover to a different version of 3DEXPERIENCE, which PROSTEP carried out in less than 24 hours, as Davies said in praise. Lockheed Martin wants to use the solution to integrate other PLM systems such as Teamcenter and enable bidirectional data exchange.
As of version 9, PROSTEP has placed the architecture of the PLM integration platform on a new technological footing to facilitate cloud deployment, as Product Manager Mirko Theiß explained. The new process engine is based on the open source software Camunda and makes the graphic modeling of integration processes possible. The connectors can be used independently of the platform and communicate with it via REST APIs. Even though the OpenPDM 8.x versions will to continue to be supported, in the future we intend to place primary focus on the cloud version and also want to develop additional connectors for integrating production planning processes, software development and application lifecycle management (ALM).
We consider our first online TECHDAY a resounding success, even though we sorely missed face-to-face contact with our customers and interested parties.
If you did not have the opportunity to participate online and would like to know more about our solutions, the three sessions are available for viewing.
You can find the records here.
By Peter Pfalzgraf
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Monday, December 7th, 2020
The MEYER Group is capable of supporting most of the drawing management related processes with ENOVIA’s standard functionalities. This is the most important finding of a comprehensive proof of concept (PoC) that PROSTEP’s shipbuilding experts carried out for the shipyard. MEYER intends to reduce the time and effort required for customization and updates by using a more standardized PLM solution.
The MEYER Group is one of the leading manufacturers of cruise ships with shipyard locations in Papenburg, Rostock and Turku, Finland. The shipyards use different IT systems for the generation and management of shipbuilding information, which are to be more closely harmonized in future. In Papenburg and Rostock, for example, an AS/400-based mainframe application is still in use for drawing management together with two ENOVIA versions adapted to selected process steps. The applications are highly customized and are gradually running out of maintenance, which is why MEYER wants to replace them with an OOTB (out-of-the-box) solution that can be used throughout the company if possible. The idea of emulating the existing mainframe functionality one-to-one in the new environment was rejected as too costly and not target-oriented.
OOTB in this context means that there is no need to program customizations in a software beyond configurations already provided by the manufacturer in the platform to provide the required features and functions. However, it does not mean that customer-specific adaptations are no longer possible. The advantage for users is that they can use all the necessary features virtually out of the box, while IT can more easily upgrade installed applications to new versions. However, users must accept that the solution may not optimally support all shipbuilding-specific processes they are used to or that modifications to the processes may be necessary.
Therefore, the core question was whether and to what extent the functionality of the OOTB Dassault solution is suitable for the shipbuilding process requirements of the MEYER shipyard. To find out, the company commissioned PROSTEP’s experts to carry out a PoC. As general contractor, they contributed their project management experience and their knowledge of MEYER’s customer-specific processes to the project, while PROSTEP’s partner CENIT provided the necessary ENOVIA expertise. The two companies worked together very efficiently at the PoC over a period of several months, even though shipbuilding was uncharted territory for CENIT employees.
Together with the users at MEYER, the project team analyzed the processes in the legacy systems and defined the use cases to be supported by ENOVIA and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform from scratch. Some of these processes contain automatisms specially tailored to the ship topology. Then the team checked if the processes described can be mapped to the OOTB solution in principle, which standard objects and functions are required for this, how the use of the standard functions affects the processes, and at which points gaps may arise between the previous and the new way of working. The main functions that were considered were project management with milestones and tasks, document management with version management, classification, and the ability to distribute documents to specific people for release.
This methodical procedure met with great acceptance among users. It turned out that they can handle most of the tasks in drawing management with the standard functions. What is missing out-of-the-box is the automatic assignment of ENOVIA objects to the ship topology, i.e. to the block in which the user in question is currently working. There are also a few gaps in the connection to the planning system for the ship development process, which must be closed by developing an interface. In addition, the Excel import must be extended in order to import the drawing lists with thousands of drawings per project into the new environment.
At some points in the process, users will have to change their way of working to be able to use ENOVIA largely OOTB. For example, the software manages drawings or metadata differently than the legacy system, in which they are stored as one object together with planning data such as milestones, deadlines, etc. The project team therefore made the decision to separate the planning aspects from the drawing management and to use the project management functions from the ENOVIA standard. One of the advantages of this separation is that tasks can be defined independently of the drawing, and 3D models and other project-relevant documents can be assigned to the planning data in future. In other areas, the project team was able to provide additional functions from the standard, for example for the ship- or project-specific classification of certain documents as a working standard. This was not possible in this form before.
The focus of the project was expanded several times, so that the project, which was originally designed to last three to four months, ended up taking almost a whole year. As part of the extensions, the project team was commissioned to test the suitability of the OOTB solution also for drawing management at the Turku site, where other IT systems are in use. The PLM experts at PROSTEP concluded that the OOTB solution was basically suitable for this purpose, but recommended prioritizing harmonization for easier implementation.
Following the successful completion of the PoC, MEYER began preparing the implementation in Papenburg. “ENOVIA OOTB is a very important and forward-looking topic for the entire MEYER Group”, says Executive Board Member and Head of Design at MEYER WERFT Malte Poelmann. “Enabling digital and cross-location collaboration within the group in a maintainable PLM platform was the motivation for this project. The consultants from PROSTEP and its partner CENIT made a decisive contribution to the success of the project with their industry and PLM expertise”.
By Jan Bitomsky
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Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
PROSTEP has been providing car manufacturer Daimler with support for the maintenance and further development of its central PDM system for several years. The established project structures, which had evolved over time, reduced transparency and made coordination more difficult. To help address this issue, PROSTEP and Daimler introduced an integrative, agile approach based on the Scaled Agile Framework.
Around 70 developers from PROSTEP and sub-suppliers have been working for several years in a number of small teams at Daimler on maintaining and further developing Daimler’s central PDM system. The tasks they perform also include developing innovative new PLM functions, creating a completely new, state-of-the-art PDM architecture and migrating existing functionality to the new architecture.
In the past, development was carried out within the framework of multiple smaller and larger projects, and the team structure was more technically oriented. Developers often worked on several projects in parallel, which led to resource conflicts and made it difficult to perform forward-looking resource planning. In addition, specialist knowledge was often concentrated in a small number of people, which led to bottlenecks and a considerable risk of losing know-how.
Most of the projects were organized differently when it came to working methods, collaboration with customers, billing models, release cycles, infrastructure, etc. Some teams maintained very close contact with the customer, with no close internal coordination, others used Scrum and worked with the customer’s product owners, and still others worked to a large extent independently. Billing was based on either time and materials or on an agile fixed price. Story points were defined differently for the different commissions, which resulted in different criteria being used for estimates and for billing. These different working models significantly increased the time and effort required for coordination and meant that developers had to adapt to new circumstances every time they took on a new task. Ultimately, they prevented synergies from being exploited and made it difficult to respond to new challenges in a flexible manner.
Agile project based on SAFe
We launched the “PDM goes SAFe” initiative together with Daimler with the aim of simplifying and standardizing development activities in the field of PDM development. Instead of multiple projects with different billing and process models, the objective was to have a single agile project that used as uniform an approach as possible. This new project is based on the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). SAFe is the leading scaling framework and is used, among other things, to coordinate the work being performed by multiple Scrum teams.
We started off with eight cross-functional teams. However, it soon became apparent that the consistent use of cross-functional teams led to the creation of too many interfaces between the teams. This is why we have in the meantime switched to feature teams, which, unlike fully cross-functional teams, combine within the team the skills needed to implement specific features. A cross-team alignment meeting is used to coordinate the teams. Each team sends one or more delegates to this meeting. The delegates present the concerns of their team and coordinate them with the other delegates.
We have introduced so-called “communities of practice” to promote the transfer of knowledge between the teams. Communities of practice are interest groups in which people with common interests can exchange information on experience already gained and seek advice. Because knowledge transfer is essential, it is promoted within the framework of the project by providing a budget reserved specifically for this purpose.
A large number of developers and product owners needed training to learn how to use the new agile model. Although some of them had previous experience with Scrum, SAFe was entirely new to everyone.
Different architectures
The two different software architectures pose a particular challenge in the PDM project. The legacy system needs to be kept alive while the new architecture is being built and stabilized. In the past, the two architectures were supported by different teams. The challenge now is to shuffle the members of the teams around in such a way that the knowledge of the different architectures is consolidated without breaking up the teams completely. This is why we have distributed people familiar with the individual technologies across the various new feature teams to the extent that this is possible, while at the same time ensuring that features can, if possible, be implemented by a single team. The aim was to find a reasonable compromise between a focus on features with as few interfaces as possible and the desired transfer of knowledge.
Together with Daimler, we have also introduced a uniform, SAFe-based requirements process. The previous, project-specific individual backlogs were consolidated in a joint program backlog. The product owners define and prioritize the requirements in this backlog on the basis of the available budget. The program backlog is then used to derive the team backlogs.
Another challenge faced in the context of the end-to-end implementation of agile methods was standardization of the different billing models. We had to adapt the estimation criteria and convert the fixed prices into story points in such a way that customers ultimately receive the same service for their budget as before. This would not have been possible without Daimler’s active support and cooperation.
Switch to an agile approach completed
Transformation to the new project structure was performed over a period of four months. The kick-off was followed by a two-month preparation phase, which was carried out in the old project structure. The new project was officially launched at the beginning of this year, followed by an approximately two-month-long familiarization phase. In the meantime, the switch to an agile approach has been completed and initial benefits are already being reaped.
We have taken a major step forward when it comes to development processes, requirements processes, billing models and backlogs. Project structure, roles and communication channels are clearly defined and ensure greater transparency. We have also become much more flexible. There is still room for improvement in the flow of information on the customer side and in the transfer of knowledge. And not all the teams have fully understood and embraced the agile approach. SAFe has however proved to be a good guideline for the new, harmonized PDM project as it is compatible with the customer’s specific needs and we will continue to use it for guidance in the future.
By Frank Brandstetter
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