Driven by tighter production deadlines and an increasingly complex supply chain network, product development within the global aerospace and defence market continues to evolve. All companies within the sector must streamline their processes; yet collaborate more effectively than ever with a variety of partners, suppliers and customers around the globe. The strategic aim for many major aerospace OEMs is to harmonise their product lifecycle management (PLM) environments in a way that will deliver improved enterprise integration, reduced time-to-market and increased overall product quality.
Product development specialist, PTC says it provides PLM solutions designed to meet the requirements of a global industry. Solutions that enable digital automation of product development and aircraft programme management processes, as well as complete visibility and control over programme information for secure, collaborative product development.
Once regarded as a computer-aided management tool and the sole preserve of R&D departments, PLM is now seen as an integral component of business systems, allowing the simultaneous development of products and services, business resources and logistic support.
“Increasing globalisation and product complexity are two major trends affecting today's aerospace and defence industry,” begins PTC's business development manager, David Hughes. “Industrial partnering is becoming more commonplace and the indications are that single aerospace OEMs building platforms by themselves will become a thing of the past. Instead we are seeing collaborations of multi-nationals, pan-European and global partnerships. However, this will create challenges in terms of the way OEMs assemble workforces that can cohesively design, deliver and support an aircraft programme through its entire lifecycle.
“By far the biggest trend PTC has had to respond to is the fact that the entire manufacturing industry is being asked to support these platforms. Taking a digital design and product representation and turning them into something meaningful and that will support a physical asset - plus the amount of time this asset is going to be in service means that OEMs will need to track the evolution of each product as a result of ongoing operational feedback. This will also change throughout its lifetime and has become a huge challenge for PTC to address.”
So when it comes to adopting a traditional systems engineering approach to the design, build and support of the aircraft, the growth in globalisation and multi-national partnering means that the systems integration role must be approached not only from a physical engineering activity, but from a systems engineering activity too. The ability to somehow bring these two entities together ‘digitally' before the ‘physical' work actually begins may help the OEM minimise any programme threatening product development issues that may occur during the aircraft's lifecycle. This is where PTC's PLM software solutions come in.
“Our product development system (PDS) technology is the mechanism by which we deliver PLM,” explains Kevin Asbridge, PTC's UK manager. “At the very heart of our PDS is Windchill, which is a pure web-based PLM tool and ideal for addressing these kinds of challenges.”
The truth is out there
When an aircraft manufacturer begins its detailed design phase it also has to consider how the equipment will be maintained in the field. According to PTC, total lifecycle systems management and through-life support are the most predominant trends currently in the marketplace.
“One aspect concerns the portability of information out in the field,” Asbridge continues. “For example, by deploying service information on handheld tablets or ruggedised PCs linked back to the core PLM system, an OEM can actually obtain the kind of operational metrics and reliability data that is now part of today's PLM footprint, such as analytical tools for tracking reliability and product failures. Another aspect is one of agility. By using the capabilities of Windchill and leveraging the IP embedded in the configuration controlled product structure within the PLM environment, an OEM can very quickly change the design, improve the areas that need it most, send retrofit packs out into the field and re-engineer those products that have come back for repair.
“The ability to deploy Windchill globally to the right level and with information at the right exposure controls, and then be able to manage the information flow back to the field means that PLM has not only become a genuine through-life management tool, but a holistic one for the design, build and support and the single source of truth. If it's integrated with the rest of an OEM's product information then it will be in the best position to make any changes and drive cost out of the lifecycle.”
And reducing cost is indeed a moot point. Can PTC provide any tangible evidence in the benefits of its PLM offering and just how fast is the payback? According to Asbridge, he is now seeing PLM implementations measured in a few months rather than many years becoming more and more commonplace.
“It's difficult to evaluate the payback in monetary terms, but the overall benefits will certainly be flowing within a matter of months,” he affirms. “This is what our customers are demanding. They can't afford to spend 3-4 months defining the scope of the project and then another 18-24 months implementing PLM - it's just not quick enough.” Hughes agrees: “It also depends on where the customer concentrates their efforts. We identify those areas of value that we think can be addressed the quickest and then implement a way of realising the best solution with which to offer the customer.”
Everyone reaps the benefits
In order to achieve the specific needs of the OEM and its supply chain, PTC forms joint ventures that not only benefit the OEM itself, but its entire supplier base too. This enables PTC to further strengthen its products to support multiple companies who share similar requirements.
“Once we've built a process framework to enable the OEM to provide its PLM capabilities it can then be offered to its supply chain,” concludes Asbridge. “Smaller suppliers can now benefit from the OEM's process experience and interact with its systems and environment; larger tier suppliers can also benefit too. Although they may have their own processes and ways of doing things, Windchill is sufficiently flexible enough that larger companies can mix, match and move people around in an effective manner between the OEM's methodologies and their own.”
Whatever the size of company, the more progressive organisations are quickly realising the only way they can be truly be competitive and enable global product development processes is through the implementation of PLM technology.
www.ptc.com
