Digital Product Simulation
daratechDPS2004

October 4-5, 2004 • The Sheraton Detroit Novi, Novi, Michigan

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LEADING THE WAY

Manufacturers Validate Digital Product Simulation Strategies

Leading Organizations Champion Increased Analysis, PLM Frameworks at daratechDPS2004

By Daratech Research Staff

October 13, 2004 -- At daratechDPS2004 Digital Product Simulation & PLM, professionals from Automotive, Aerospace, Defense, Off-Highway, Consumer Products, and Electronics met in Novi, Michigan to share ideas, explore new technologies and champion the expanded use of digital product analysis within a PLM framework at their companies and in manufacturing industry at large. Charles Foundyller of Daratech outlined the future of product development in his address titled "PLM, CAE/CAD, Test: Coming Inflection Points." Chris Theodore, Vice President, Advanced Product Creation, at Ford Motor Company spoke of the importance of maintaining one set of reliable and transferable data in his presentation titled "PLM/Digital Product Simulation Successes and Challenges." Mark Chernoby, Vice President, Advance Vehicle Engineering at DaimlerChrysler addressed the evolution of corporate processes used to manage vehicle programs in his presentation titled "Product Lifecycle Management: Managing Revolutionary Change."

Jean Mallebay-Vacqueur, Director, Environmental Emissions Testing Labs, DaimlerChrysler Corporation spoke about the importance of reliable data to make timely decisions along the design process. Current market dynamics dictate that every lead-time improvement creates a competitive advantage. Mark Kuhn, Director, Design Engineering, Ricardo, Inc. described the methodology of effective integration of analysis, simulation and test activities to drive the design and product development process.

In the session titled "Integrating Digital Simulation with PLM Infrastructures & Processes," Subhasish Roychoudhury, Manager, CAE Systems, Ford Motor Company explained that during automotive product development, scores of virtual performance attribute assessments are performed, and therefore one of the keys to successful vehicle program is managing the large volume of design creation and validation information generated during the process. Jagmohan Kohli, Program Manager, General Motors outlined GM’s vision to create an integrated IT environment to support a lean, productive product development organization with access to the necessary tools and data.

Other sessions included a discussion of the Joint Strike Fighter project at Lockheed Martin and the Ford Focus program—both of which had extremely aggressive goals in terms of time to completion, quality and cost. Dr. Paul Bevilaqua, Chief Engineer in the Lockheed Martin "Skunkworks" department, described the "golden rule" of the Skunkworks: a good design tested now is better than a perfect design tested next year. Bob Trecapelli, Director of Global C3PNG Methods and Development at Ford Motor Company discussed how the designers and engineers on the Ford Focus program in Europe redesigned their processes to ensure better data availability and concurrency—all to drive the development time for the new design from 2 years to 18 months.

Working group sessions allowed attendees to interact on many topics, leveraging one another’s areas of expertise in areas such as Design for Six Sigma, Knowledge- Based Engineering, Strategies for Outsourcing Engineering, Simulation Data Management, Overcoming Interoperability Challenges and many others.

The lessons from the conference are clear: there is an overwhelming business justification for the use of simulation and analysis technologies within manufacturing to foster innovation, cut cost and improve time to market. And while its meaning may vary from company to company, product lifecycle management is for real. Manufacturers want their software suppliers to help them execute their PLM strategies with bold ideas and integrated tool sets within the context of the manufacturers’ "corporate DNA," as Mark Chernoby put it. This means understanding that every company is different, with its own unique set of problems, requirements and competencies, and therefore, the providers that are capable of understanding and mapping their solutions to the customers’ business processes will win out.

Software suppliers must support the manufacturers’ efforts to differentiate their products. A sales pitch of "It works for Company A, so it will work for you," is not only ineffective, it is the opposite of what most manufacturers want to hear. With intense global competition across every industry, manufacturers can no longer afford empty promises, and they intend to make this clear with their checkbooks.

In addition to digital product simulation, this conference touched upon some of the overriding themes of PLM that will be the subject of daratechSUMMIT2005, to be held at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge Massachusetts February 14-16, 2005.

© Copyright 2004 Daratech, Inc. All rights reserved.
Images courtesy of ANSYS, CD-Adapco, Function Bay, IBM, LMS International, NASA, PlassoTech, UGS, and VISTAGY Corporation.