OK, I know Perspectives is supposed to be about 3D and Innovation. But, I gotta be up front. I’m going to skip the 3D for a second.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the COE User Group – an anniversary that was celebrated at last week’s COE Annual Spring Conference and Technifair. This year’s event was held in Seattle with Dassault Systèmes and IBM, COE’s founding partners, in attendance (of course). Despite the tough economic times, a whole host of COE members and DS partners showed up. Sure, fewer than last year, but… the dedication and vibrancy of the organization was only more evident in these times. Even some competitors showed up, hoping to sneak in and see the latest on the PLM front from the industry leader and its customers.

I was struck by the community’s dedication. Some of these guys have been coming to this event for 20+ years! I know there are similar user orgs with similar levels of dedication out there in the software world (especially in the CAD world… SolidWorks users, I’m lookin’ at you!). But, for a company that focuses so much on collaboration, seeing the interaction going on between DS and its users was revealing. No wonder DS believes so strongly in collaboration as an enabler of innovation. We’ve plainly benefited from this very paradigm.

I watched Kevin Fowler of Boeing Commercial Aircraft discuss his company’s cutting edge implementation of Dassault Systèmes’ PLM solutions on the 787 aircraft program. And you know, he didn’t sugar coat it. He didn’t give a standard customer event puff piece. He laid it out. Good (lots!) and not so good (some challenges which they –successfully – faced). But he wrapped it up with an honest assessment, as captured by Rita Stange of ConnectPress in her summary article: “he concluded by saying that he can’t speak highly enough of the V5 capabilities.”

I watched users stand in the hall and talk to their DS counterparts about migration issues, about new functionality, about requests for changes.

I listened to open exchanges between board members and senior DS execs. I saw (tough) questions asked and answered. I saw competitor FUD dispelled by simply discussing the issues clearly, in the light of day (well, maybe ‘light of the main stage’). I saw decisions made, action items slated, all before a large audience.

Every comment, every idea, every suggestion going towards better software, better solutions, better strategies.

There is no doubt in my mind that DS’s passion for innovation and collaboration stems partly from this constant interaction. We are only half the innovation equation. Would we lead the PLM marketplace without this? Without the collaboration between our users and us? Would DS be nearly what it is without 25 years of collaborative innovation?

No.

Derek Lane is Dassault Systèmes’ Americas PR manager and a regular COE attendee.

Hi everyone. For my last day at Laval Virtual, I can’t help but blog about another CLARTE creation, Ergo Wide 3. CLARTE worked in tight collaboration with INERGY for three years to create exactly what was needed. Here’s the real-world scenario that this VR application resolves:

A fuel tank manufacturer called INERGY contacted CLARTE because they were losing too many employees to sick leave. Because of certain production line work station ergonomics, workers were taking long periods of absence due to work-induced injuries. On top of that, the company didn’t have the time or resources necessary to study multiple work station scenarios for all their locations.

Traditionally INERGY’s factories would receive production line set-ups with very limited adjustment/personalization options. For example, maybe the only thing the work station employee could adjust would be the height of the table. If the station was designed by really short people but used by really tall people, the tall workers would quickly start experiencing back pain.

The fact that the world keeps “getting smaller” and companies are spreading their manufacturing internationally multiplies the possibilities for work station mismatches and injury.

But what if the people actually working on the production line helped to design their work stations?

This is possible with Ergo Wide 3.

In fact the application is already in production by a subsidiary of INERGY called Troy. The first usage was for a workstation design for a factory in Korea. Through the application, someone at Troy headquartered in the US worked with a factory worker in Korea through a Web-based immersive virtuality environment.

Here’s an example of how the configuration works:

• Said worker in Korea is inside a VR cave wearing body captors that translate his or her very unique anatomy into an anatomically correct avatar. The worker is immersed into a virtual representation of the proposed workstation design.
• Said employee in the US is in front of a large screen watches a virtual representation of the workstation setup, including the Korean worker within the particular workstation environment. The two talk to each other through Skype to work out the design kinks.
• There are several boxed the worker must access. US-guy asks Korean-guy to reach into the top left box. As he really does this, so does the avatar. In fact the avatar is like his virtual puppet.
• Because the movement is health hazardous, the avatar’s hand turns red. US-guy asks Korean-guy to rearrange the boxes and place the too-high-up box in a more comfortable spot.
• Repeat the motion of reaching into said box. This time the hand turns yellow. The placement still needs improvement.
• The workstation employee rearranges the box until it’s comfortable for him and his virtual hand is green when reaching into it.

You can watch this CLARTE-created video to get a better feel:

Here’s what I like best about Ergo Wide 3:

1. Crowdsourcing. What a smart concept to let the actual production line workers help design their workstations. Everyone wins this way.
2. Ergonomic science. I love how they’ve linked industry-standard ergonomics norms into the application. It’s precise and practical.

Bravo to the teams from CLARTE, INERGY for a great application!

Best,

Kate

P.S. Here’s the skinny on the software. They use SolidWorks and CATIA to create the production line environment and objects and 3DXML to import the CAD data into the VR cave with 3DVIA Virtools. They use 3DVIA Virtools VR Pack for the cave, 3DVIA Multi-User Pack for the distant collaboration, and the 3DVIA web player for the remote application.

Hi, last time you heard from me I blogged about the link between Product Portfolio and Program Management and PLM as the enterprise backbone. Today I’d like to focus on another “vertebrae,” issues tied to the supply chain. There are two points I’d like to present:

1. PLM establishes supplier leverage and gives visibility to all part volumes by supplier.

When integrated to the product development system, direct materials sourcing and extended enterprise collaboration enhances a manufacturer’s negotiation leverage for new and existing supplier contracts, and helps resolve supplier and partner performance and design issues. Sourcing, commodity and acquisition integration programs can be globally managed to the latest product attributes and designs. Spend can be more effectively aggregated to the preferred suppliers, optimizing volume pricing, reducing both parts proliferation and material and service costs. By identifying sourced components based on part-reuse and product and manufacturing platform alignment, manufacturers can reduce inventory levels and respond with greater agility to shifts in demand. It streamlines the process of identifying alternate or functionally equivalent parts when standard parts are not available.

There are other benefits such as standardization, allowing every participant in the quoting process (the manufacturer, customer, suppliers and partners) to manage the same version of the product definition, including revisions and program changes. PLM also facilitates cost analysis and supplier negotiations.

Negotiations with preferred suppliers go beyond obtaining best prices and favorable terms. When run on a PLM backbone these otherwise standardized processes become avenues for harnessing supplier innovation and design alternatives, allowing manufacturers to address market needs quickly and efficiently. Suppliers become true partners by not just providing components and services, but by also proposing new technologies and solutions to meet market requirements.

2. You can employ PLM to manage a global dispersed set of engineering centers and partners.

Oftentimes corporations not only have globally dispersed engineering, research and development centers, but equally dispersed partners, alliances and supply-chains. Maintaining a single system of record in a PLM architecture provides the means for a company to maintain visibility, flexibility and real-time 24/7 management of its global strategies and business development initiatives.

Supplier Collaboration on a Global Network

Establishing PLM as a key enterprise backbone sets competitive capabilities for new product programs by assuring the alignment of engineering to established platform and sourcing strategies. The cost and quality advantages of reusing existing and standard parts, coupled with the ability to negotiate new program costs, based on a manufacturer’s total purchasing volume with a supplier, increases the ability to control cost, quality and timing requirements of the new product programs. These sourcing and supplier collaboration competencies are critical for companies to establish and maintain performance improvements capabilities. This helps companies to apply their engineering resources more uniquely on resolving market requirements and revenue opportunities, and less time on resolving design and quality issues with their suppliers.

So leveraged these ways, PLM gives visibility to a company’s total spend exposure by supplier, and identifies the preferred parts by supplier, as well as enhances the ability to collaborate and resolve design issues in key areas of new technologies.

In my next article in this PLM as the Enterprise Backbone series, I will address the ability of PLM to mitigate the risks of regulatory compliance and environmental challenges.

Best,

Brian