Watching Charlie Chaplin working the assembly line makes a lasting impression of what manufacturing means. Nuts and bolts, big wheels turning, adrenaline pumping. Clearly, manufacturing is where things are done.

Think of Ford’s production of the Model T like “Tin Lizzy” which started just over 100 years ago in 1908. The goal: produce a reliable automobile at a price people could afford. The price was just 400$ at the time and this was quite an achievement, but the color was black and custom changes not at hand. Fifteen million models of the same car have been produced at the Highland Park Plant in Michigan during a period of 19 years (video).

Times have changed no doubt. After the revolution of Total Quality Control which has driven the manufacturing industry to re-engineer their processes, improve their tools and train their staff to focus on better and better products, market demand for Mass Customization has forced discrete manufacturing to allow a great deal of flexibility to build individual variants from product platforms. See for example what offers the Mini brand to customers: not only they can configure their new car online with colors and all features, but they are also invited to add their unique design to go on the roof top of a car which hereby becomes a custom product.

And of course there is an ever increasing and pervasive pressure for short time to a global marketplace, surely at competitive cost structures, to be realized at the best locations, at the same time meeting demand for best quality, the right features, and all meeting legal regulations.

This makes a seemingly simple product like a printed T-shirt a global challenge. With designs changing about every 5 weeks at a leading fashion retailer … 5 sizes, 4 cuts, 10 colors, 100 variants of prints, 10 production sites in 5 countries, 1500 shops in 73 countries … you do the math regarding what needs to be accomplished to have those products ready for sale in stores for customers.

Manufacturing today has acquired an enormous complexity. The challenge: enable managers to visualize the global picture and gain the controls needed to take the right decisions. Supply chains, equipment and resources need to be managed. Production schedules and logistics need to be organized.

Manufacturing has also become an integral part of the PLM process which is interwoven with design and engineering. Production needs to be prepared early during the design process and product changes need to be accommodated with no delay, even long after production has started. PLM software has become the backbone to manage the challenges in collaborative manufacturing. Read more about how DELMIA’s 3D virtual factory solutions support the creation of innovative production systems and enables experience of the complete manufacturing lifecycle.

A key component to the success of the 3D virtual factory is the ability to integrate with enterprise-wide ERP systems, to connect product engineering with manufacturing execution. These systems allow production people visualize what “is to be produced” and track change requests in real-time. To serve that need, Dassault Systèmes DELMIA has established a close partnership with Intercim, a leader in Manufacturing Execution Systems.

With 25-year experience and over 200 customers in data rich manufacturing, Intercim takes care to proliferate information required to build the product to the shop floor, by bringing engineering, manufacturing and quality communities on the same collaboration platform. Thanks to the deep integration with Dassault Systèmes PLM platform, customers can reuse all their virtual information for real production and vice versa. Find Intercim on the PLM Marketplace.

The close loop between the real world and the virtual environment creates tremendous benefits and makes it an indispensable ingredient for customers who aim for 21st century manufacturing operations.

Enjoy a beautiful month of May.

Best,
Michael

Earlier, I shared some of Dassault Systemes’ views on the energy market and the potential for PLM to play an important role. This afternoon, I heard the same thing from some of our industry customers and partners. The afternoon sessions included presentations from ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), Entergy, Hydro-Quebec, NuScale Power and BCP Engineers.

Each presentation had its own interesting aspects and information, and BCP’s Chris Staubus gave some great perspective about the energy industry’s use of “PLM.” Chris gave a presentation about bridging silos of information (he also blogged about it here), in which he touched on the “P” in PLM. Most of us know PLM as Product Lifecycle Management, but in the energy industry they think about it as Plant Lifecycle Management, which I thought was worth noting.

Generally speaking, PLM in the energy industry is used to improve productivity and reduce risk for each phase of the plant lifecycle, and since a plant can operate for 60 to 70 years (or more), it brings a different set of challenges.

For example, some specific plant maintenance tasks may only need to be performed every 15 years, in which case the people that preformed it the last time may no longer be around the next time. And if the same people are still there, chances are they probably won’t remember exactly what they did anyway. PLM can capture how the maintenance was preformed, and better yet, a 3D simulation can demonstrate exactly how it was performed.

Well…off to see some more demos in the technology showcase, which continues to impress. Last post, I shared my experience with a pair of 3D glasses that put me in the middle of a virtual power plant. This afternoon I met a guy that seemed to have mini ping-pong balls strapped to his arms and legs – they were actually sensors. While I spoke with him, any movement he made was mimicked by the “virtual him” on the screen behind him. Pretty cool, and just another example of how 3D technology can be used for plant operations.

Kit

Everyone here at the Dassault Systemes 2009 Energy Conference is passionate about energy, and it’s easy to see why. Every day we read and hear about the world’s energy challenges in the news – from rising worldwide energy demand, to the complex challenges of carbon dioxide emissions – and we are here in Orlando to learn how 3D and PLM technologies can help meet those challenges.

Energy is not only top-of-mind on the world’s stage, but at Dassault Systems as well, as the industry has great potential to benefit from 3D products in the future. We learned from our EVP Philippe Forestier that the energy market will be a key priority for the company in 2009. Learning from design challenges in other industries such as automotive and aerospace, where we have a deep heritage, the customers that we’re hearing from have already applied technology to help plan plant extensions and revamps and increase project complexity, while accomplishing tasks in less time and with less risk than before.

Between sessions, I had the opportunity to put on a pair of 3D glasses and stand in front of an 8 foot screen which placed me inside a nuclear power plant – virtually, of course. But, the lifelike experience demonstrates how valuable such technology can be to plan and perform maintenance, for example. I’ve never set foot in a nuclear power plant, but now I have a better understanding of what it might be like. A trained engineer with this technology at his disposal could show up on-site being completely prepared to perform a specific task that he simulated earlier.

It made me think of this year’s SuperBowl commercials — if you watched, you’ll know that a couple of them were in 3D. Are we at a ‘tipping point’ where 3D will start to become mainstream? It seems that way. We’re learning from other speakers how technology used previously for consumer products like video games is now being applied to a work environment with tremendous value.

More to come from Orlando!

Kit