Archive for the ‘PLM Integration’ Category
Monday, March 2nd, 2020
PROSTEP has released Version 9.1 of its PLM integration platform OpenPDM, which is designed to help customers find their way into the cloud. Its new MicroServices architecture with independent connectors to common PLM systems makes it particularly suitable for hybrid PLM scenarios in on-premise and cloud infrastructures.
To enable the use of OpenPDM in distributed software architectures, PROSTEP has broken down the integration platform into smaller software components and designed the mapping and process engine as independent MicroServices. In addition, the import and export functions are now part of the connectors, which the system administrator can configure individually via a web-based interface. Thanks to the consistent use of REST interfaces, each OpenPDM connector can thus run independently and can be used, for example, with message brokers such as Apache Kafka in conjunction with ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) architectures. In addition, PROSTEP has integrated Docker technology so that OpenPDM can be run in a cloud-based container environment such as OpenShift.
The neutral OpenPDM data model also had to be extended for the new software architecture. Process modeling is now carried out with the proven workflow engine Camunda, which is also used by customers such as NASA and T-Mobile. The Camunda Modeler has a graphical user interface that enables intuitive modeling of BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) workflows and DMN (Decision Model and Notation) decisions.
The new architecture allows customers to flexibly use the proven OpenPDM functions for PLM integration, migration and collaboration in hybrid PLM scenarios. Version 9.1 currently offers MicroService-based connectors to the PLM systems 3DEXPERIENCE R2019x and R2020x from Dassault Systèmes, PTC Windchill R11.1 and R11.2, SAP PLM R3, R3 EHP and S4 (on premise) and the IoT platform PTC ThingWorx 10.x. PROSTEP will migrate additional connectors to the new architecture as required.
The new OpenPDM version is not backward compatible with versions 8.x. PROSTEP is thus primarily addressing new customers who want to use PLM and/or ERP systems from the cloud and integrate them with their existing IT infrastructure. Existing customers with complex integration, migration or collaboration scenarios based on OpenPDM 8.x do not necessarily have to migrate their installations. PROSTEP will also continue to develop its existing software and will soon launch a new version 8.7 with connectors to the current versions of all connected PDM/PLM and ERP systems.
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Sunday, February 9th, 2020
The Bremen-headquartered Lürssen shipyard group, the Machine Tool Laboratory (WZL) at RWTH University in Aachen and PROSTEP have launched the ProProS research project. The aim of the project is to create a digital twin for the manufacturing and assembly processes at shipyards and use it for status monitoring and optimizing shipbuilding. The shipbuilders want to minimize delays in the processes.
Lürssen, a family-owned company, expects digitalization to improve transparency in production and reduce throughput times says Dr. Bernhard Urban, Head of Development & Innovation: “The joint research project with PROSTEP and WZL provides the basis for increased digitalization in our manufacturing and assembly processes. We hope that the development program will help us drive the broad-based digitalization processes at our company forward in a targeted manner and thus do justice to the leadership claim regarding performance and quality formulated by the founder of our company, Friedrich Lürssen.”
As part of the project, PROSTEP is working together with the WZL’s manufacturing experts, who will be responsible for developing the production technology logic, to develop the demonstrator for a digital twin. It maps the planning data from the target process (product structure, work orders, assembly sequences, scheduling, etc.) in an end-to-end data model and compares it in real time with the actual data from production and assembly.
The first step involves detecting disruptions in the process flow, e.g. caused by a missing or unfinished component, at an early stage based on a unique component ID and assessing their impact on the schedule. But it is also intended that the digital twin perform control tasks and help avoid or minimize delays by simulating alternative production and assembly sequences.
The project, which has an overall budget of 3.2 million euros, will runs until 2022 and is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). The Lürssen shipyard group, which specializes in building yachts and naval vessels, is the project coordinator.
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Tuesday, February 4th, 2020
PROSTEP has joined the Association for Standardization of Automation and Measuring Systems (ASAM), which concerns itself with the new standards for the digital validation of autonomous driving functions. We want to become involved in the work performed by committees in new business areas like autonomous driving and help develop the necessary standards.
ASAM is a non-profit organization comprising leading OEMs, system suppliers and engineering service providers in the automotive industry as well as renowned research institutes. Their shared aim is to develop technical standards that will enable all the tools used for software development and the testing of control devices in vehicles to be linked together in a way that makes the end-to-end exchange of data possible. PROSTEP’s experts will primarily be involved in the simulation project groups (OpenSCENARIO, OSI, etc.), the associated transfer projects and in the activities currently being established.
All standardization-related activities for the digital validation of autonomous driving functions converge at national level in ASAM. The standards provide the basis for uniform methods and tool chains for the validation and verification of highly automated (Level 4) and autonomous (Level 5) vehicles in urban environments, which are being developed in the sponsored projects V&V and SET Level 4to5. PROSTEP is playing a key role in both projects as a mediator between industry and the research community.
PROSTEP sees autonomous driving as a key future technology and a promising market for the company’s wide range of consulting and solution offerings. As a member of ASAM, we will be able to help develop appropriate standards together with experts from the major carmakers and system suppliers. We also want to further expand our expertise in the fields of electronics and software development and systems engineering within the framework of committee work.
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Monday, January 27th, 2020
Engineers at numerous companies still prepare their 3D data manually in order to make it digitally available to colleagues in purchasing or production planning. Not so at the Brose Group. The manufacturer of mechatronic components and systems for the automotive industry has completely automated the preparation, conversion and provision of CATIA data in JT format using PROSTEP solutions.
With 26,000 employees and annual revenues of 6.2 billion euros, the Bamberg-headquartered Brose Group ranks among the world’s top 40 automotive suppliers. Every second new vehicle that rolls off the production line worldwide is equipped with at least one Brose product to increase safety, comfort and efficiency. The core competence of the company, whose success story began with a crank drive for retracting car windows, is the synthesis of mechanical, electrical, electronic and sensor systems. The product range includes door systems, liftgates, adjustment systems for front and rear seats as well as electric motors and drives for a number of different of uses in vehicles.
The (autonomous) driving experience of the future begins as soon as you get in a vehicle – with doors that open automatically, provided that there is nothing in way, seats that adjust automatically to whoever is driving and a preheated vehicle interior. Door, closure and seating systems are thus becoming complex, mechatronic or even cyberphysical systems whose development not only requires new tools, methods and processes but also a more efficient use of existing information. “Far too much information is still contained in TIFF and PDF/A documents and is therefore not available in digital form to downstream processes,” says Walter Redinger, head of Development and Production Systems/Information Systems at Brose.
The IT department has therefore defined a clear digitalization strategy together with the company’s business operations. In addition to the automation of design processes using assistance systems and the virtual validation of prototypes, it also involves an approach to OEM collaboration that is oriented to a greater extent towards, for example, systems/model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and the use of new technologies such as augmented reality (AR). The objective is to have a digital master that not only includes the 3D models but also the electrics/electronics (E/E) information and software versions and makes all this information digitally available.
Multi-layer PLM landscape
Redinger goes on to say that the key to digitalization is an end-to-end PLM tool chain that covers everything from requirements management to designing the software, printed circuit boards and mechanical components through to test procedures and simulation, including digital production planning and control. “The aim behind this end-to-end digitalization is to integrate the individual disciplines more tightly and enhance the core efficiencies in the processes. This not only requires cultural change in the organization but also places new demands on our PLM landscape.”
The PLM landscape at Brose comprises multiple layers. The PLM backbone is a SAP system that is used to create parts, materials and BOMs, approve drawings and manage changes. It is closely integrated with MS SharePoint, which 5,000 Brose employees worldwide use to handle their customer projects. ENOVIA VPM, the team data management (TDM) system used for mechanical and E/E development to date, is currently being replaced by the 3DEXPERIENCE (3DX) platform. The software developers are currently still using Virtual DOORS software and the Rational Suite set of tools for application lifecycle management (ALM) but will gradually be switching to codeBeamer ALM software solution.
As Redinger says, OpenPDM assumes the role of a hub for connecting the different environments within the PLM landscape. This applies in particular to the successfully implemented project for ENOVIA/3DX-SAP integration, which allows CATIA data to be converted into JT format and made available worldwide. Brose has used the integration platform and PROSTEP’s services in the past, for example to provide joint venture partners with selected data and synchronize it at regular intervals. The solution was also used when the company took over Continental’s electric motor division and the division’s PLM data had to be extracted from Continental’s environment. “PROSTEP is a long-standing and reliable partner with well-functioning tools and very experienced staff,” says Redinger.
3D data for downstream processes
Unlike other automotive suppliers, Brose uses its own CATIA environment for mechanical development rather than the system used by the respective customer. All the engineers at the 25 development sites – i.e. approximately 1,000 employees – use a uniform methodology and apply the same standards, thus making it easier to collaborate on cross-site development projects. “Working in the customer’s environment would be easier for the departments, but would make it more difficult to exploit the synergies offered by standardization and data reuse,” says Redinger. The IT department nevertheless maintains about 30 different customer environments in order to prepare the CAD data and convert it into the respective customer formats. PROSTEP’s OpenDXM GlobalX data exchange platform has been managing data conversion and exchange for a number of years.
Up until now, only 2D drawings derived from CATIA were transferred to the SAP document management system as TIFF or PDF/A and approved there so that they could be made available for downstream processes such as procurement or production planning. Only then did the engineers approve the associated 3D models in ENOVIA. When buyers or suppliers needed 3D models in addition to the 2D drawings to process requests for quotation, engineers had to prepare them, filter out certain details if necessary and convert them to the supplier’s preferred format. The manual processing was not only time-consuming but also had the disadvantage that the purchasing department could never be sure that all suppliers had received the same level of information.
In order to simplify the enterprise-wide use of 3D data, Brose implemented a solution with PROSTEP’s support that automatically triggers JT conversion when 3D data is approved in ENOVIA, or in the future in 3DX, and transfer the JT models to SAP. The solution is essentially based on OpenPDM with connectors to ENOVIA/3DX and SAP as well as PROSTEP’s newly developed batch processing framework (BPF), which manages the third-party converter for converting CATIA data into JT and other formats already available at Brose. When it comes to automatically importing data into the PLM backbone, the data exchange platform accesses SAP web services that ensure that the JT models are correctly linked with the BOMs and can be automatically updated and versioned if changes are made. If a part or assembly is modified, a JT file with a new index is created once the part or assembly has been approved so that its development history is retained in SAP.
PROSTEP has adapted the solution so that the individual process steps, from exporting the data to converting it and importing it into SAP, can be performed in parallel and independently of each other. The reason for this is that Brose also wants to gradually make 3D data from projects launched before the solution went live available in SAP. This will significantly increase the volume of data to be converted. As Redinger says, between 100 and 150 JT files are currently being uploaded to SAP every day.
Savings in downstream processes
Redinger admits that the fact that Brose needs individual parts as well as subassemblies and assemblies converted leads to certain redundancies. “But it has the advantage that the JT models can be exchanged more easily and used for downstream processes. The buyer can send them directly to the supplier, at least when requesting quotations. JT is ideal, especially in the early offer phase, because it is a uniform format with a reduced data volume that does not disclose too much know-how. It is also enjoying growing acceptance in the automotive industry.”
The information contained in the 3D models made available in JT format can be used in a number of different downstream processes since relatively few details are filtered out during conversion. Although product manufacturing information (PMI) is not yet embedded, the JT models are extremely helpful to production planners when they want to obtain a quick overview of the shape of certain components without having to always bother the engineers. If, however, the 3D models are to be made available earlier in the process, generating them in JT format would have to performed separate from approving drawings, says Redinger – possibly with a restriction note or for a selected group of users.
In general, all employees with access to the PLM backbone also have access to the JT models. A simple JT viewer is available in SAP for displaying the models. The IT department provides fee-based visualization tools with an extended functional scope to users who want to use the JT data to carry out clash detection analysis for example. However, this only applies to internal users. In the case of suppliers, Brose recommends that they use the free JT2Go viewer. The company’s objective is to get all its suppliers to start using JT over the course of the next few months so that it can do away with manual conversion entirely.
It is not only the engineers who benefit from automatic JT conversion. “We are seeing significant savings in the downstream processes – thanks in part to the format’s clear-cut structure,” says Redinger. He expects additional benefits from more widespread use of JT data in other application scenarios such as review processes, which are currently performed on the basis of CATIA data. The availability of 3D data in SAP lays the groundwork for the digital master, which now of course needs to be rounded off with other information that fills any gaps.
By Udo Hering
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Tuesday, January 21st, 2020
The shipyard thyssenkrupp Marine Systems has commissioned PROSTEP AG’s shipbuilding experts to draw up a roadmap for the shipbuilding production area in Kiel to digitally integrate manufacturing. The shipbuilders want to make the coordination processes in development, production and assembly more digitally integrated and thus accelerate manufacturing of steel construction.
Today, the departments and companies involved in shipbuilding generally still exchange their product information on the basis of drawings and often even paper, which makes coordination time-consuming and error-prone. Consistent information models and the use of digital technologies can significantly improve the integration of cross-departmental processes. A prerequisite for this is the reliable identification of interruptions and bottlenecks in the information flows.
Starting from the existing enterprise architecture, PROSTEP used a standardized method of capability-based potential analysis, which is based on value stream mapping, to create a capability roadmap for shipbuilding production. In a sense, it describes the target status and allows our shipbuilding experts to identify potential for improvement in the information flow and IT support for the communication processes between design, work preparation and steel production.
Together with the project team at thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, PROSTEP’s shipbuilding experts have identified three key areas of action with 20 concrete measures.
They are to be implemented in the next project steps:
- Firstly, the establishment of a digital twin of hull construction with the aim of being able to map and control the production processes digitally;
- Secondly, the implementation of digital documentation processes for the quality inspections of welding processes and seams and
- Thirdly, the digital connection of the semi-finished product and material suppliers to the digital production processes.
The interdisciplinary team not only identified the measures, but also prioritized them and arranged them in a roadmap. After a project duration of only six weeks, it was able to present the project results to the central production management of the Kiel shipyard. This was a complete success for the shipbuilding production division, which hopes that it will be able to prioritize its digitization projects at the Kiel location more effectively.
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Friday, January 17th, 2020
Around a year ago, PROSTEP AG acquired a majority shareholding in Bartscher & Hasenäcker Consulting GmbH in order to enhance its expertise in the area of PLM/ALM for E/E (electrics/electronics) and software development. In this interview, Philipp Hasenäcker explains what E/E and software mean for PLM/ALM and what synergies he expects to achieve from working with PROSTEP.
Question: Bartscher & Hasenäcker Consulting specializes in PLM/ALM for E/E and software. Was this your business model right from the start?
Hasenäcker: Our current specialization was not originally an explicit business model. Instead, it has evolved over time. To start with, we were involved in a wide variety of PLM projects for a large carmaker, but we were always very close to the departments responsible for development. And it was here that we also became aware of the shortcomings in E/E and software development. The various organizational units for mechatronics development had their own custom processes and methods and the system landscape was extremely heterogeneous, having many isolated solutions that lacked a unifying framework. We then had the good fortune to be able to participate as external consultants in a major PDM project for E/E thanks to the expertise we already had in the OEM’s PLM toolchain and our sound reputation in the organization. We very quickly recognized that this was a crucially important issue for the future, and from that point on we focused all our energies on this area.
Question: What is the significance of E/E and software in today’s automotive industry?
Hasenäcker: From long years of experience, all the major carmakers know how to produce high-quality, first-class mechanical products. Increasingly, however, the things that really make a difference are mechatronic assistance systems, smart features and, more recently, digital services and the fusion of the vehicle with its environment. It is a sign of the times that a highly innovative technology such as the MBUX multimedia system is first introduced in the A-Class rather than in the S-Class in order to attract new, digitally-minded target groups. As Daimler CIO Jan Brecht once said at the EDM Forum, the company must transform itself from a product-oriented to a service-oriented group, and software, whether as a component of mechatronic systems or in the form of digital services, will be the decisive driver for this transformation. Against this backdrop, I am firmly convinced that it is hardly possible to overstate the importance of E/E and software for the automotive industry.
Question: Doesn’t the amount of software in the vehicle sometimes scare you a little? Software is never free of errors and can be hacked.
Hasenäcker: In my opinion, and the statistics back me up, the many different assistance systems have made driving significantly safer. In 2019, there were fewer fatalities on the roads than at any time since statistics began more than 60 years ago. Quite apart from that, we nowadays have few qualms about boarding a commercial aircraft in which the autopilot takes over a large part of the flight, using state-of-the-art avionics and highly complex software. Future success will undoubtedly crucially depend on whether we are able to master the heterogeneity in the development and management of software – over the entire lifecycle of vehicles.
Question: What are the particular challenges in E/E and software development?
Hasenäcker: To start with, the number of people involved in the development of mechatronic systems is much larger and more heterogeneous than in the traditional mechanical environment. The hardware developer, for example, usually doesn’t even know who is developing the software. There are complex supplier relationships and many different responsibilities, and all of these combine to ultimately ensure that the system functions robustly and consistently. This results in a considerable level of complexity that has to be managed in one way or another.
Question: What are the concrete challenges regarding PLM?
Hasenäcker: In our experience, one of the core challenges is compatibility management, in order to make potential conflicts transparent for all parties involved at all times. We are talking about networked mechatronic systems with many dependencies that have to be compatible with each other both internally and externally. The whole issue of traceability is another challenge. It must be possible to trace back the huge volume of information in mechatronic systems and components, and it all needs to be documented and versioned along the lifecycle. It is no secret that software develops far faster than, for example, the housing of an ECU or the PCB. An unbroken traceability chain continues to be an essential aspect of verification and certification processes, and it becomes all the more important the more the industry considers highly automated or autonomous driving as of level 3 and higher.
Question: Why are there still no suitable IT systems available for this? Have PLM vendors been caught napping?
Hasenäcker: PLM vendors will undoubtedly disagree, but I do not see PLM as a monolithic system, but rather as a composite made up of processes, methods and ancillary IT applications. The challenge in such a scenario is to combine traditional PLM and ALM capabilities and functionalities. ALM (application lifecycle management) has to be tightly integrated in this environment in order to manage the software artifacts appropriately. The interface between ALM and PLM is highly individual. In other words, a custom solution is always needed for the customer’s particular ecosystem, product profile and requirements.
Question: What kind of solutions do you develop in customer projects?
Hasenäcker: Our approach involves first working with the customer to build a joint understanding at the level of business processes in order to reveal the heterogeneous nature of the company’s operations. In a second step, we make use of our experience and best practices to help the customer design the actual solutions. In other words, we are not simply process consultants: Our proposals go far deeper, encompassing concepts and specifications, right down to the attribute level in the data models of affected IT applications. The only thing we do not do ourselves is realizing the software for the IT applications. In this area, we work together with partners and now, of course, also with PROSTEP.
Question: So you design integrated tool chains for E/E and software based on the process requirements and the IT systems used?
Hasenäcker: That’s right. We are particularly concerned with the integration of existing applications and the way they communicate with each other and exchange information. However, custom software is also used in a significant number of our projects because there are no suitable off-the-shelf solutions. Incidentally, the PDM project for E/E mentioned above also resulted in a fully customized software application.
Question: So the PDM project on E/E for a carmaker has been your most important customer project to date?
Hasenäcker: Yes, I think that’s fair to say. The project provided huge impetus for us because we were able to have a positive impact in some development domains. As a result, we are now at home in the entire field of E/E and software management, with a clear focus on all software artifacts that are in some way significant for the ECUs. And we are extensively involved in the design of E/E release management. This is a core E/E integration process that ensures that up-to-date versions of E/E components, complete with hardware and software information, are made available for testing and validation in a coordinated way at defined points in the vehicle development process.
Question: What synergies are you hoping to achieve together with PROSTEP?
Hasenäcker: Up to now, our biggest challenge has been our focus on a single large carmaker. We hope that working with PROSTEP will enable us to acquire new customers and projects in the automotive and other industries, as the company is a highly respected partner for PDM and PLM throughout Germany and beyond. We are working together intensively to firmly establish our range of solutions for E/E and software in the PROSTEP Group so that we can use the enhanced profile to acquire new customers or address new fields with existing customers.
Question: Is this already making a noticeable difference to day-to-day business?
Hasenäcker: At operational level, there are already a number of projects in which we are bundling our strengths. For example, we had a contract to develop a solution for extended functional testing in the field of E/E in which we brought PROSTEP on board as a development partner. The staff at the Polish location programmed the software for us so that we were able to offer the customer an overall solution from one provider. And there are already two joint projects for another large OEM in which we want to become more deeply involved in the future. Together with colleagues from PLM strategy consulting, we have also expanded the capability landscape to include E/E-specific aspects so that it can also be used when dealing with questions relating to mechatronic products.
Question: Are you also involved in the subsidized projects for the digital validation of autonomous driving functions, in which PROSTEP is playing an important role?
Hasenäcker: Up to now, our involvement has only been peripheral, but we have already taken steps to intensify our collaboration in this area as well. I attach great importance to these projects because we need common standards for autonomous driving. Standards are essential if German carmakers and suppliers want to continue to be strong in the future.
Mr. Hasenäcker, thank you very much for talking to us.
(This interview was conducted by Michael Wendenburg)
About Philipp Hasenäcker:
Philipp Hasenäcker (born in 1980) heads up Bartscher & Hasenäcker Consulting GmbH (BHC) in Böblingen, which is part of the PROSTEP Group. Hasenäcker hails from Paderborn and studied industrial engineering in Detmold. He has been working as an external consultant for PLM/ALM for E/E and software in the automotive industry for more than 15 years. Since 2016 he has been co-owner and managing director of BHC.
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Saturday, December 21st, 2019
At Aras ACE Europe 2019 in Munich, PROSTEP presented the OpenPDM integration platform with the connector to the Aras Innovator PLM platform. Integrations between Aras and other PLM systems are now on the Aras price list. Through the intensified cooperation between Aras and PROSTEP, users of the Aras platform will be optimally supported in realizing complex multi-PLM integration scenarios in the future.
OpenPDM is the world’s leading platform for the integration of various PLM, ERP, Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and simulation data management systems, which also supports the integration of IoT platforms. It serves as a neutral intermediate layer through which metadata and structures between different enterprise applications can be automatically exchanged and synchronized. The standards-based connectors help to minimize the integration effort and facilitate the quick integration of new systems into an existing system landscape. Thanks to its modular architecture and the use of microservices, OpenPDM can now also be used in hybrid cloud scenarios.
PROSTEP has been offering a powerful OpenPDM connector to Aras Innovator for some time now, which makes it possible to integrate the Aras platform into heterogeneous PLM system landscapes. Aras has now added PROSTEP integration solutions to its price list, underscoring its interest in continuous further development and maintenance of the integration module. The connector supports Aras Innovator from version 11 and can also be used with the current version 12, which has been available since the middle of the year.
Thanks to the large number of available connectors to other PLM systems, PROSTEP’s integration platform offers good support for companies that want to use Aras Innovator as a cross-system PLM backbone for merging data from different enterprise applications – one of the typical application scenarios in the Aras customer base. But the dedicated connection of a single other PLM system to Aras Innovator can also be optimally implemented within the OpenPDM solution suite based on predefined use cases.
Around 380 customers worldwide currently use the Aras platform – mainly larger companies with relatively complex PLM installations in the automotive, aerospace, mechanical and plant engineering, high-tech and medical device industries. This is exactly the clientele that PROSTEP addresses with its range of consulting and solutions. This is the reason why we want to try to work more closely with Aras and its partners on customer projects in the future.
By Peter Pfalzgraf
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Wednesday, December 11th, 2019
PROSTEP has entered into a partnership with the manufacturer of the LeanIX enterprise architecture suite with the aim of providing customers with optimal advice on the development of their enterprise-wide PLM architectures. As a certified LeanIX partner, we can now offer our customers our proven methodology of capability-based strategy consulting in a model-based form, thus ensuring the sustainable management of their enterprise architecture (EAM).
PROSTEP has been pursuing an EAM-based consulting approach in PLM strategy and process consulting for some time, which is oriented to customer-specific PLM requirements from the as-is analysis to roll-out planning. Based on our many years of experience as PLM consultants, we have developed a capability map that covers the applications of the digital product lifecycle from systems engineering to digital twin. On this basis, we work with our customers to develop individual heat maps (prioritization) from which the further development of the PLM architecture can be derived.
One of the challenges in consulting projects is to document the current status of the enterprise architecture in such a way that the documentation can also be used for the further development of the PLM architecture and can be easily updated during adaptations in order to maintain an overview of the development and its anchoring in the business processes at all times. As a certified LeanIX partner, we now offer our customers the opportunity to map their enterprise architecture in the LeanIX EA suite and thus document their business requirements, PLM capabilities, actual and target architecture in a sustainable manner. If you are not already using the EA suite, you can purchase a license for the duration of the project at a reduced price.
LeanIX offers its EA software as a service from the cloud (SaaS). It enables companies to make transparent IT decisions faster and on a solid data basis. More than 250 customers worldwide use LeanIX software, including leading automobile manufacturers and suppliers such as Audi, Bosch and Volkswagen, as well as well-known brands such as Adidas, DHL, Vodafone and Zalando. Founded in Bonn in 2012, the start-up employs more than 170 people worldwide and has a US headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. It is growing very dynamically and is now considered one of the relevant players in the EAM market. This is demonstrated not least by the large number of participants at the latest EA Connect Days in Bonn, where PROSTEP was also represented as a freshly certified LeanIX partner.
With this partnership, PROSTEP is breaking new ground in holistic and comprehensive PLM strategy consulting that also considers the corporate strategy and organizational level of digital transformation. With the help of LeanIX’s EA suite, we are building a bridge between corporate and PLM strategy and activating the EAM potential for engineering. Our customers can use the consulting results directly and document the lifecycle of their PLM architectures traceably with LeanIX even after the consulting project has been completed.
By Martin Strietzel
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Tuesday, October 15th, 2019
The shipbuilding experts at PROSTEP had a “hot” autumn with a wealth of events. Our new flagship product OpenPDM SHIP was always with us. The integration platform, which connects special applications for shipbuilding with classic mechanical CAD applications and common PDM/PLM and ERP systems via standardized connectors, attracted attention everywhere.
We officially introduced OpenPDM SHIP at ICCAS 2019 in Rotterdam, the world’s largest vendor-neutral conference for computer applications in shipbuilding. Of course, visitors to the AVEVA World Conference Marine Europe in Malmö, the ShipConstructor EMEA Conference in Lisbon and to number of other events at which we were represented were also able to take a look at the integration platform and its most important components. With OpenPDM SHIP, PROSTEP underscores its claim to be the leading specialist for the creation of end-to-end digital processes in shipbuilding and shipping.
With approx. 150 participants from shipyards, suppliers, classification societies, universities and software manufacturers, ICCAS was the ideal forum for presenting OpenPDM SHIP. We were not only represented in Rotterdam with a booth but were also able to inform the visitors in two lectures about the potential benefits of the integration platform when using Best in Class tools and setting up a digital thread for shipbuilding and shipping. The digital thread is the prerequisite for the digital twin, which was a dominant topic at ICCAS. In addition to the technical challenges, the question of who really owns the data and who may use it was also discussed. Shipyards, ship owners, operators, suppliers and classification societies still have to agree on a common usage model.
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) were also important topics in Rotterdam, with this year’s discussion focusing on possible applications in production and operation. This showed that the effort required to process the data is still an important obstacle to the wider use of the technology. Between the presentations, we had interesting discussions with shipyards and with our partners about weak points in the tools and processes, which provided us with important suggestions for the further development of OpenPDM SHIP.
Apart from ICCAS, we have been at numerous user conferences in recent weeks and months with the aim of intensifying cooperation with the respective software manufacturer and explaining the advantages of OpenPDM SHIP to its customers. The approx. 150 participants of the AVEVA World Conference Marine Europe showed great interest in the possibility of connecting AVEVA Marine very easily with common enterprise systems for controlling product development and manufacturing processes (PDM/PLM, ERP and MES) via our standards-based integration platform. In a workshop we were able to show them that our connectors not only reduce the integration effort, but also offer them maximum flexibility in selecting their CAx, PDM/PLM and ERP systems.
For the first time this year we attended the ShipConstructor EMEA Conference in Lisbon, also with OpenPDM SHIP and the new connector to SSI’s Autodesk-based ship development solution. With the latest expansion of our integration platform, we are addressing an interesting new customer base and consolidating our position as a leading integration specialist in the maritime industry. We presented two interesting integration scenarios to the participants of the event which met with great interest, namely the horizontal data exchange between NAPA Steel and ShipConstructor on the one hand and the connection to common PDM systems on the other hand. This enabled us to make interesting contacts with potential new customers.
We presented a somewhat different integration scenario to the approx. 100 participants at the User Seminar Korea organized by NAPA for the Korean shipyards, development offices and classification societies. The focus was on the loss-free exchange of feature information between NAPA Steel and AVEVA Marine Hull, but also on data exchange with mechanical CAD systems such as CATIA or NX. The interest of the participants has strengthened our decision to participate in the event in Korea. The cooperation with NAPA and the local user community is developing very positively from our point of view.
From Korea to Rostock, where the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft invited to the Go-3D again this year. The event, which was attended by numerous representatives of shipyards, design offices, the supplier industry, universities, software houses and of course PROSTEP, was primarily concerned with the application of 3D technology in industry and research. We impressed the participants with a lecture on “From a free data exchange format to a real design model”, which showed, using the example of the Meyer Turku use case, how native CAD models can be generated again from neutral IFC data for further processing. Impressive because our solution based on OpenPDM SHIP not only recognizes features, but also takes into account the different procedures of suppliers and shipyards.
It was a “hot” autumn, but participation in the events was worth it for all of us. We succeeded in generating the necessary awareness for OpenPDM SHIP and the uniqueness of our integration platform among the customers of the various software manufacturers.
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Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019
Being among the top 100 suppliers to the automotive industry, Webasto generated sales of 3.4 billion euros and had more than 13,000 employees at over 50 locations (with 30 of these being manufacturing plants) during financial year 2018. The core business comprises a wide range of products for vehicle manufacturers: sunroofs, panorama roofs and convertible roofs, heating systems for cars and commercial vehicles with all types of drive systems, together with battery systems and charging solutions for hybrid and electric vehicles. Webasto moreover has a strong market position in the aftermarket business and provides dealers and consumers with customized solutions and services for thermo management and e-mobility.
In the last ten years Webasto has also grown strongly through company takeovers. Important milestones were the acquisition of the convertible division of Edscha, the North American business of Karmann, the Diavia air conditioning business of Delphi Italia and the Efficient Energy Systems (EES) business of AeroVironment, which today manufactures charging solutions under the name Webasto Charging Systems Inc. In addition, the company has recently bought the shares of its long-standing South Korean joint venture partner. The joint venture Webasto Donghee, with headquarters in Ulsan (South Korea) that previously focused on production and sales of panorama roofs, is now part of Webasto’s worldwide development and production network, thus strengthening its position in Asia further.
Heterogeneous PDM landscape
One consequence of the takeovers is that the company today has a heterogeneous PDM system landscape. The roof and thermal systems division uses PTC Windchill, the convertible division SAP PLM, Webasto Charging Systems Inc. Oracle Agile PLM and the former South Korean joint venture, the Teamcenter software from Siemens PLM. The development and change processes of the various divisions are not uniform either, which makes it more difficult to handle global development and production projects.
Particularly in the field of roof systems, Webasto faces the challenge of developing products for global customers and manufacturing them at various locations. “Whereas we used to develop roof systems for a specific vehicle, we now offer our customers platforms that can be installed in several vehicle types or brands of an automobile manufacturer with certain adaptations,” explains Jorge Ortiz, who is responsible for user training in the central PLM project team. This saves development costs, but also means that every change must be coordinated with all development departments involved.
Another challenge is that Webasto is becoming a mechatronic focused company that develops and manufactures its own software and electronic components. The basis for this was laid, among other things, by the takeover of the electronics service provider Schaidt Innovations. This necessarily requires a closer connection of software development to the product development process and the IT systems supporting it.
The Webasto strategy is therefore to establish a uniform organization and implement a globally uniform product development process for all divisions, which can be mapped in a uniform system environment. This process will also support Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) in the future, as Ortiz explains: “We want to create a CAD/PLM development environment with uniform data structures and enable users to access data quickly and easily via a single point of truth, regardless of their location and region.
Approach to production
When selecting the new PLM solution, Webasto was faced with the alternative of either looking for greater proximity to the CAD landscape with CATIA V5 and Dassault Systèmes’ 3D experience platform as the target system, or approaching the SAP ERP system. None of the existing PDM systems met the requirements of an enterprise-wide PLM platform. In the case of Windchill, it was an older version that was gradually being phased out of maintenance and with which users were no longer satisfied with the usability.
After a longer selection phase, the project team decided to introduce the SAP-based PLM solution 4PEP from ILC GmbH, a decision that was backed by the assessment of an independent consulting firm. “4PEP gives us the opportunity to better integrate development and production processes by providing all information digitally,” says Ortiz, explaining the main reasons for the decision. The flexibility of the software and the willingness of the software manufacturer to consider Webasto’s special needs on the basis of the automotive-specific reference approach also spoke in favor of ILC. The software house also had a strong partner in PROSTEP AG for the integration of 4PEP and 3DExperience.
4PEP is an industry-specific PLM solution with preconfigured processes and methods optimized for the supply industry. Among other things, it offers modules for product structure and variant management, configuration and change management, master data management, but also for requirements management, project control and cost management. Webasto thus simplifies variant handling, for example, by no longer defining color variants of roof systems during development, but only during production coordination, explains Ansgar Villis, Deputy Managing Director of ILC GmbH and project manager in the Webasto project.
Cooperation with PROSTEP
The partnership with PROSTEP was very helpful in winning and carrying out the demanding PLM project, as Villis continues. The company is a recognized integration specialist with a wealth of industry experience, process know-how and technological expertise, as well as strategic partnerships with leading CAx and PLM manufacturers, Ortiz confirms. Based on the OpenPDM integration platform, the company has developed standardized connectors for 3DExperience and 4PEP, which can be quickly adapted to customer-specific requirements. Based on PROSTEP technology, Webasto also intends to integrate the Rational RTC software, which is used in the electronics sector for configuration and software management.
In close cooperation with ILC, PROSTEP implemented the data mapping for the various integration cases – starting with the transfer of design orders to the 3D Experience platform. During the pre-delivery of development stages for the procurement process, models and drawings are then converted into the neutral formats JT and 3D PDF, transferred to 4PEP and stamped with the note that they may only be used for requests. Once the design is complete, OpenPDM triggers a complex approval workflow in 4PEP that integrates purchasing, manufacturing, costing and controlling. If everyone approves the release, the integration platform reports the status change back to 3DExperience and ensures that the derived neutral formats are automatically re-stamped. The most complex integration case is the exchange of change orders, because with Webasto individual parts can be changed without immediately versioning the product structure or the parts list. This only happens when the parts are installed.
The integration cases must be partially readjusted, firstly because the new development environment is still under construction and secondly because the processes to be mapped are extended so that changes to the processes in 3DExperience and 4PEP occur. The flexibility of the integration platform, which allows changes or extensions to be implemented with minimal effort, has therefore proven to be an advantage, as Ortiz emphasizes: “OpenPDM is a very robust platform that has been in reliable operation since it was first launched.
The challenge of data migration
In the first project phase, the new CAD and PLM solution was implemented together with the integration platform in the convertible division and tested in a pilot project, which will be followed by others. “However, everything we do here is coordinated with the other divisions, which are already working with the new systems and can contribute their experience,” says Ortiz. This is important in order to standardize processes across all divisions.
One of the potential hurdles that arose during the pilot project was the coordination of the product structures between the participating systems 3DExperience, 4PEP and SAP. In principle, Webasto wants to manage E- and M-BOM in 4PEP to ensure consistency between development and production. Which of the three systems, however, is to assume the leading role in the case of changes has not yet been finally clarified. It will be a compromise to ensure the strongest possible link between the systems, without limiting their flexibility too much, as Ortiz says.
The pilot project also showed that the effort for data migration was greater than expected. “Existing parts and standard components lacked certain attribute information that the new systems and processes expect,” says Ortiz. “Another critical topic is the handling of the kinematics functions, which are very important for the convertible division. It has changed greatly from CATIA V5 to V6, so that the changed processes had to be taken into account during the migration.”
Points in the direction of digitization
At the end of this year, the second project phase will start with a pilot project in the field of roof systems. The biggest challenge will be to completely migrate the Windchill data to 4PEP and then to correctly link it to the CAD data via OpenPDM, which will be migrated in parallel from ENOVIA VPM to 3D Experience. A lot of information, which is represented in the form of tables on the drawings, must be transferred to the models or the PLM system. “Our goal is to no longer have drawings in PLM, but only models and information from which the representations can then be derived,” concludes Ortiz. “The PLM project should help us set the course for digitization and industry 4.0.”
By Mirko Theiß
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