PLM Hub 2.

0: a single collaborative platform for all, based on ENOVIA Version 6

By Christian Robichon

AERONAUTICS
Pierre Faure Executive Committee President at BoostAeroSpace, and e-business/ CRM Director at Dassault Aviation

More than 70% of an aircraft is designed by partners of the prime manufacturer. With the nature of partnerships evolving toward a risksharing model, Dassault Systmes has developed PLM Hub 2.0, a generic solution based on ENOVIA Version 6. PLM Hub 2.0 is designed to allow project stakeholders to control information flow, making it possible to reduce cycle times and product development costs.

Four questions for Pierre Faure

or more than a decade, Dassault Systmes has helped its customers with their complex collaborative product development projects. The latest DS breakthrough is PLM Hub 2.0, which provides an integration platform to consolidate PLM data before it is used in collaborative activities such as catalog sharing, context data distribution, and instant co-review. For OEMs, this environment provides an intermediate space for validating partner data before it is integrated into their PLM systems. Moreover, PLM Hub 2.0 provides partners with the flexibility they need to make the data required for collaboration available to the community, allowing each party to strike an appropriate balance between collaboration and confidentiality.

In addition, the OEM can see where product development stands with all of the project contributors (partners and subcontractors) and can involve actors beyond the industrial sector (customers, certification authorities, universities, etc.). This environment, which complements existing PLM solutions in the industry, also makes it possible to pool resources (cloud computing), making the most advanced PLM technology accessible to companies of all sizes..

Contact mag: What was the context when BoostAeroSpace was created? Pierre Faure: This project is part of an overall strategic vision laid out in 2003 by the GIFAS (French Aerospace Industries Group), already embodied in several standardization or support projects for SMEs (small and medium enterprises): e-PME (2003), BoostAero (2004), Seine (2006) and e-Aero (2007). In the Aerospace & Defense industry, the majority of product value is generated by our suppliers, mainly SMEs. In international competition, it is no longer possible for any company to win alone; competitiveness is now in the realm of the extended enterprise. Inter-company digital collaboration thus becomes vital for all programs in our industry, throughout the supply chain. Contact mag: What are the challenges for the Aerospace industry? Pierre Faure: In early 2008, spurred by GIFAS, Airbus, Dassault Aviation, EADS, Safran and Thales decided to create the European digital hub BoostAeroSpace, supplying high-added-value secure, standardized collaborative services. This hub will be operational in 2011. These services cover the areas of PLM, SCM and generic collaboration (collaborative websites, virtual meetings, etc.). They are provided by Dassault Systmes for PLM, EADS for digital certificates, SupplyOn for SCM services and Thales for collaboration. The challenge for the Aerospace & Defense industry is to allow all supply chain manufacturers (including SMEs) to achieve gains in competitiveness, first by standardizing the applications of prime manufacturers, and second by making these services available to them in SaaS (Software as a Service) mode to work with their own suppliers. Contact mag: What is the value of harmonizing design processes and adopting specification standards? Pierre Faure: Harmonizing the design process is necessary for collaboration at acceptable costs for suppliers, and for the interoperability of information systems. Standards (STEP for PLM, BoostAero for logistics) are needed to avoid the additional costs suppliers incur by having multiple interfaces. For example, at some Tier 1 suppliers used by Airbus, Boeing and Dassault Aviation, the extra cost for design teams due to the lack of standardization is 10%. Contact mag: How is the international dimension of the project manifested? Pierre Faure: The Hub will be global because the suppliers are global, and they will all have to use BoostAeroSpace to get orders from Airbus, for example. On the other hand, the governance of BoostAeroSpace will be European. It is already clearly Franco-German, as is the choice of service providers. Other major European and American companies will be actively mobilized beginning with the Paris Air Show 2011, which will host the worldwide launch of BoostAeroSpace, backed by GIFAS and its German counterpart, BDLI.

How does it work?

To address the diversity of collaborative engineering situations, the PLM Hub 2.0 solution, based on the ENOVIA Version 6 platform, relieson remote, online access to a unique environment that connects all contributors to a project, allowing them to share secure data and applications. The hub also uses the data exchange between PLM systems whether they are all Version 6 or a mix of platforms to deposit, collect and maintain PLM data. PLM Hub 2.0 also provides services integrated with ENOVIA Version 6, including technical services such as data orchestration, encryption, transmission and interfacing with a security gateway, as well as administrative and maintenance services.

A Hub architecture
PLM Hub 2.0 represents a break with the hierarchical mode of collaboration, where project participants are in a one-to-one relationship. In a hub architecture, each party is interconnected with the others, forming a harmonized, more competitive whole. Advantages of the system include the ability to spread common development methods throughout the extended enterprise, provide up-to-date context data for all actors in the design chain, and conduct short-loop multi-disciplinary impact studies (feasibility, performance, cost, etc.).

The European Aerospace Digital Hub Project

EADS/Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Safran and Thales are working together to create a European aerospace digital hub called BoostAeroSpace. The projects objective is to increase the effectiveness of the European aerospace and defense industry and reduce product development cycle time and cost by mastering the overall supply chain with a single secure PLM and SCM (supply chain management) hub, enabling multi-tier collaboration for European aerospace and defense programs. To better understand the projects context, scope and objectives, Contact mag spoke with Pierre Faure, president of the BoostAeroSpace Executive Committee and e-business/CRM Director at Dassault Aviation.

For more information: www.boostaerospace.com

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