Archive for the ‘PLM’ Category
Tuesday, April 7th, 2020
Digital Twins offer the possibility to simulate the behavior of physical assets, to monitor them during operation and to continuously improve them. The data and models from planning and development form the context in which the operating data can be interpreted correctly. Putting them together from the wealth of available information is an essential prerequisite for the use of digital twin applications.
The Digital Twin is the digital image of a physical object or system, which can be a product, a production plant, but also a company or a process. The Digital Twin connects virtual planning and development models with the real product or production world in order to give people a better insight into the system and its condition or behavior. A vision in the sense of Industrie4.0 is to enable technically complex systems to control themselves autonomously and behave more intelligently through digital algorithms, virtual models and status information.
The functional relationships of a product or a production plant are defined based on customer requirements and in consideration of a multitude of legal requirements in product planning and development. Without knowledge of these interrelationships, the operating data that the real asset captures and provides in its later product life cannot be interpreted correctly. If you do not know how a machine or system is actually supposed to function, it is not possible to identify the causes of deviations from this target state or behavior beyond doubt and take appropriate countermeasures. At the same time, knowledge of the history of origins is also important in order to be able to assess for what reason, for example, a bearing has failed and which other machines could also be affected by the problem.
This connection between the real asset and the development and planning models describing its history is called a digital thread. It is the digital “red thread” that links the information of a real product instance across processes and IT systems. On the one hand, this makes it possible to bring together all the information from the life cycle of the product instance or the real asset and thus forms the basis for the creation of a digital thread. Without a digital thread, the digital twin can be reproduced manually, but it is difficult or impossible to keep it up to date. On the other hand, traceability along the Digital Thread allows decisions in development and production to be questioned and optimization potential to be identified with the help of the operating data.
Management of product configurations
From a PLM point of view, the starting point of the digital twin is a specific configuration of the product or production system, for example the asset in its delivered state. This includes not only mechanical, electrical/electronic and software components with their models, but perhaps also service-relevant information, such as the service life of certain components. Bringing this information together and maintaining it manually is time-consuming and error-prone, especially since the configuration changes over the course of the product’s life, whether through software updates or other measures in the context of maintenance or further development of the asset. The expectation of today’s PLM systems is to automatically extract the configuration for the Digital Twin and keep it up-to-date.
We speak here of the concept of Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM), which makes it possible to generate temporally valid views of the product across IT system boundaries and to manage product configurations across all phases of the product lifecycle. The main function of CLM is to create and keep consistent the various views of the digital product model during the life cycle, and to document their validity over time. To do this, it uses cross-system and cross-discipline baselines. These baselines document the state of the configuration at a certain point in time or maturity level and thus also control the representation of the Digital Twin. They enable companies to immediately and reliably answer the question at any point in the process whether and how the product or asset meets the requirements placed on it or in what state the asset was at a defined point in time, for example, which product configuration was delivered to the customer.
In order to manage the configuration of a product along its entire life cycle in a traceable manner, the use of a powerful PLM integration platform with connectors to all IT systems involved is required. As an intermediate layer spanning all IT systems, it creates the prerequisite for bringing together the information from the individual IT systems in a way that corresponds to the digital thread concept.
Cross-company collaboration
In industries such as mechanical and plant engineering or shipbuilding, companies face the challenge that the manufacturer who builds and provides the Digital Twin is not necessarily the operator and user who feeds it with operational data. Both the digital data and the operating data, or at least part of it, must therefore be exchanged and synchronized across companies in order to keep the Digital Twin up to date and to be able to use the operating data for the continuous improvement of real assets. Questions such as data security, protection of intellectual property and ownership of the data therefore play a very central role in the development and use of a digital twin application.
More and more customers today require their suppliers to deliver digital data and models to support Digital Twin applications along with the physical assets. CLM can be used to control not only the amount of information provided, but also the level of detail of the information and the formats in which it is delivered. They can be compiled largely automatically and made available to the customer as a data package, for example in 3D PDF format.
In order to maintain digital consistency in cooperation across company boundaries, the exchange partners must first agree on the scope of the information to be exchanged and agree on common standards for handling this information. But the central question is where the Digital Twin should live? PROSTEP is convinced that it is advisable to set up a joint collaboration platform for this purpose, which will become part of the information model. This platform will provide customers with the information they need to build their Digital Twin application while the development process is still underway and will also allow them to synchronize changes to the master models during operation if necessary. The common platform can also be used to link parts of the operating data required by the manufacturer for new service offers such as predictive maintenance or product improvements with the Digital Thread.
Three building blocks for the Digital Twin
The foundations for the Digital Twin are already laid in product development and production planning. To bring it to life and keep it alive, the digital umbilical cord must not be cut. This is why an integration platform is needed that makes the digital information from the various authoring and data management systems available at any time. A powerful configuration management system that manages the relationships between the information scopes and their validity is essential for building a Digital Twin. However, digital consistency is not a one-way street. In order to derive maximum benefit from the product twin in terms of closed loop engineering, traceability between Digital Twin and Digital Thread must be ensured. The creation of a collaboration platform maintains digital consistency even beyond company boundaries.
By Lars Wagner
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Friday, April 3rd, 2020
In one fell swoop, the robotics and automation specialist KUKA has migrated its SAP installation, introduced Teamcenter as its new PLM system and reorganized the entire engineering-to-order process. Crucial to the project’s success were the soft PLM migration, during which the legacy and new system coexisted for a short period, and the consistent cleansing of the data, which KUKA undertook with the assistance of PROSTEP AG. PROSTEP also accompanied KUKA during the changeover to the current Teamcenter version.
KUKA, which is headquartered in Augsburg, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of automation solutions. KUKA offers customers everything from a single source: from robots and cells to fully automated systems and their networking. The company, which was founded over 120 years ago, employs around 14,200 people worldwide and generated revenues of 3.2 billion euros in the 2018 financial year.
The first step in the company’s transformation program – “Power ON KUKA 2020″ – was to standardize the process and system landscape in the engineering-to-order (ETO) sector. ETO is the term KUKA uses to describe everything relating to the development of custom-built production systems for the automation of manufacturing processes– in contrast to its configure-to-order (CTO) business involving robotic components and systems. The PLM migration project was driven first and foremost by the ETO sector, as Project Manager Matthias Binswanger affirms. However, the project also had to be synchronized with the consolidation of the global ERP landscape that was taking place at the same time.
KUKA previously had a very heterogeneous ERP and PLM landscape, which was partly due to the increasing scope of the group structures. For example, the ETO specialists in Augsburg worked with a local SAP instance and an older version of the former Eigner system, Oracle Agile e6. After an in-depth system selection process, KUKA decided to implement the Teamcenter PLM system from Siemens Digital Industries Software as the global solution for all its ETO locations.
Teamcenter is intended to support the future product engineering process, including functional engineering, manufacturing process planning and simulation, as well as control engineering change management. To do this, it has to be familiar with the relationships between the mechanical, electrical and fluid components of the functional units (for example valves, sensors and their processes), which were mapped in a separate application in the old world. Changes are part of the ETO sector’s everyday business because the systems are often designed before the products to be manufactured on them are fully defined. “One major challenge is the complexity that results from the sheer volume of changes to thousands of components,” explains Binswanger.
PLM implementation was already underway when KUKA launched the parallel consolidation of the heterogeneous ERP landscape in order to give greater transparency to its project activities. The simultaneous changeover to SAP S/4HANA considerably increased the complexity of the PLM migration, as Binswanger explains: “To introduce the new solutions, we made use of a clear project control mechanism with a flexible, multi-stage project structure that did not previously exist in this form. This went hand-in-hand with changes to the engineering processes and methods, which in turn had repercussions for the PLM landscape and therefore also had a big impact on PLM migration.”
To migrate the PLM system, the project team called on the services of the experts from PROSTEP, who brought to the project not only their PLM expertise and many years of experience in performing migrations but also PROSTEP’s proven OpenPDM integration platform. “There aren’t many companies that have certified connectors to Agile e6 and Teamcenter. As a result, there was really no real alternative to PROSTEP,” explains Binswanger. The PLM consulting and software company also assisted the customer during the cleansing of the master data prior to the start of the migration. When considering this step, it is important to understand that at KUKA materials, BOMs, etc. are currently created in the PLM system, or in both systems, and then published to the ERP system.
While the changeover to SAP S/4HANA was to follow the “big bang” approach, KUKA chose the soft route for its PLM migration, with the legacy and new systems temporarily coexisting. Although Teamcenter is the target system for the new architecture, the idea was to conclude any open projects in the old PLM environment. Binswanger explains that migrating them all in one fell swoop would have required enormous effort. Agile only works with documents, materials, BOMs and structures, whereas the CAD data is managed using a file-based approach or in containers. Teamcenter, on the other hand, provides interfaces to all the CAD systems, system versions and releases used at KUKA, which means that CAD files in different formats can be stored together with the materials for the first time.
Direct synchronization of the PLM data
The changeover to SAP S/4HANA and the temporary coexistence of the two PLM systems meant that the migration resembled a billiards shot across three cushions. First of all, Agile e6 had to be updated and interfaced with the new ERP system so that materials and BOMs could be correctly linked to the new project structure. It was then necessary to connect the two PLM systems in order to achieve the cross-system synchronization of standard parts, catalog parts and other materials. Binswanger explains why it was not sufficient to simply synchronize them via SAP: “PLM data with no logistical relevance is not published to the ERP system in the first place. However, this data is important for the Teamcenter users so that they can re-use the materials stored in Agile.”
The OpenPDM integration platform provides the basis for PLM data synchronization. It is designed to transfer all the materials between the two system environments and not only the standard and catalog parts. PROSTEP adapted the Teamcenter connector a number of times in order to take account of changes in the data model. All types of document are now also transferred together with the PLM metadata. Automatic quality checks ensure that the documents meet the requirements of the Teamcenter data model. “We have an activity-driven application which automatically synchronizes the data sent to Teamcenter every five minutes, that is to say it creates new materials together with their attributes, structures and documents or updates modified ones,” says Binswanger.
Contrary to the original planning, KUKA decided to actively shut down the legacy system rather than simply phasing it out gradually. This allows the company to save on the high license and maintenance costs involved in operating two systems. In order to meet requirements regarding traceability, the documents relating to long since completed projects also have to be migrated to Teamcenter. Binswanger explains that in order to do this, it will be necessary to relax the quality requirements a little and store the documents uncleansed in a separate archive, where they can be accessed only for reading and printing.
Data selection and cleansing
Due to the simultaneous changeover to SAP S/4HANA, the PLM migration in Augsburg started later than planned but with considerably higher-quality input data. The project team took advantage of the delay to implement a clearly structured, documented OpenPDM-based process for cleansing the data. One clear specification was that, of the 3.3 million data records in the old SAP solution, only those materials that are relevant for future projects should be transferred to the new environment. Therefore, it was first necessary to identify the data that needed to be migrated.
On the basis of over a dozen criteria and taking account of various attributes, PROSTEP calculated the so-called Total Article List (TAL) from the 3.3 million data records in SAP and Agile. The TAL is a list of all the articles that have been ordered or installed in systems, used for service purposes in recent years or are still in stock. It now comprises “only” 1.2 million articles. According to Binswanger, PROSTEP’s ability to resolve the structures and identify the components for any given article is of decisive importance.
The TAL controlled not only the big-bang migration of the SAP data but also acted as master for the selective cleansing and migration of the PLM data. In particular, the repeat parts (standard parts, purchased parts, semi-finished products, etc.) had to be augmented with additional data and classified before being imported into Teamcenter. To do this, KUKA used the software classmate from simus systems together with other solutions. OpenPDM controlled the entire cleansing process, from the extraction of the data to manual or automatic cleansing through to validation of the results, and also generated the corresponding quality reports. A total of approximately 80,000 articles passed through one or other of the programs in the “data washing machine”. Only the data that ultimately met all the quality criteria was automatically imported into Teamcenter.
In Augsburg, SAP S/4HANA, a new Agile version and Teamcenter all went live on the same day. An important milestone for KUKA. According to Binswanger, PROSTEP, its OpenPDM software platform and its expertise played a key role. KUKA successfully took advantage of the migration project to cleanse its database of unnecessary clutter.
The Teamcenter application was continuously further developed after the go-live. This repeatedly required adaptations to OpenPDM, which PROSTEP implemented in agile sprints. One major challenge was to migrate the documents from ongoing Agile projects because the data models in the two systems are very different. The last hurdle for the time being was the changeover to the new Teamcenter version 12, which required a change of integration platform version. Thanks to PROSTEP’s support, the company was also able to surmount this hurdle without any problems.
By Andreas Hoffmann
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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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Sunday, February 2nd, 2020
It is an oft-cited piece of wisdom going back to Confucius that to stand still is to go backwards. But not all movement represents progress: It all depends on the direction. And identifying the direction is far from easy for companies in a new age characterized by a global lack of certainty. The difficulties facing the management of companies are often described with the acronym VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity). And agility is the key to mastering these difficulties.
There are plenty of examples of companies that failed to heed the signs of the times and have as a result either lost their supremacy or even disappeared from the market completely. Success often leads to sluggishness. At PROSTEP, we have learned that we constantly have to reinvent ourselves if we are to remain successful. Without neglecting our existing solutions and services, we have continuously updated our service portfolio and will probably have to do so even more frequently in the future, as digital transformation is inexorably piling on the pressure to change. And we, too, must respond with even greater agility.
Some 80 percent of our current portfolio of services has been built from scratch over the past ten years, and the process has not always been entirely smooth. Developing new services such as PLM strategy consulting and launching them on the market takes time, especially if they are aimed at new customers. We have now also made a name for ourselves as a competent PLM think tank in the fields of mechanical and plant engineering and have been able to acquire big-name customers such as Trumpf and Festo for our consulting services. We can and intend to build on these successes.
In software development projects for major customers in the automotive industry, we now take on different and more demanding tasks than we did a few years ago. We use agile software development methods to support Daimler and others as they restructure their PLM landscapes. These methods enable a fast and flexible response to new requirements. The acquisition of our new subsidiary, BHC, means that we are expanding our range of services to include PLM integration of E/E (electrics/electronics) and software development. Here too, we now offer the full range of services from strategy consulting, through the design of concepts and architectures and right up to the implementation of the technical solution.
In order to be able to react swiftly to the constantly changing requirements, we have to be right at the forefront of new developments and fully attuned to our customer’s needs. Our close collaboration with the prostep ivip Association and our active participation in standardization bodies such as the ASAM (Association for Standardization of Automation and Measuring Systems) help us to understand the challenges companies face and how we can help them to respond. We are involved in numerous sponsored projects on relevant topics that will shape the future, and these give us important impetuses for the further development of our range of solutions. For example, as part of the recently launched ProProS project, we are working together with the Lürssen shipyard group and RWTH University in Aachen to develop a digital twin for proactive production control in shipbuilding.
Research and development provide us with an important source of new ideas for products and services. This is why our colleague Martin Holland, as member of PROSTEP’s executive board, takes explicit responsibility for R&D and ensuring technology transfer to our company when research findings are available. This clear commitment did not only lead to our leading role in the SAMPL project, which led to the development of a blockchain-capable platform for the forgery-proof exchange of 3D print data, but also to our active participation in the current sponsored projects for the digital validation of autonomous driving functions V&V and SET Level 4to5. Within the scope of these projects, we are among other things developing a demonstrator for a solution that is intended to ensure traceability during the simulation and homologation of automated and autonomous vehicles.
For us, the sponsored projects represent a massive investment in the development and expansion of our expertise in areas that we consider essential for our future business development. They also ensure that PROSTEP is perceived by the market as a competent partner for the issues that arise in the context of digitalization. We are also investing in the further development of our existing range of solutions, for example by making it possible to use our proven PLM integration platform OpenPDM in hybrid cloud scenarios. To stand still is no option for us, because the digital transformation of industry demands new answers. And we want to continue to keep abreast of these changing demands in future.
By Karsten Theis
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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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