Until recently mainly the administration of mechanical product data was concerned, today also electronic and electro technical components need to be managed and software control as well as imbedded software need to be reflected. Also complete processes, responsible persons and systems are often integrated and thus PLM represents a really complex and finally intelligent back-up for a company and its environment. Furthermore the topic is often discussed as very different groups of people inside and outside the company need to access product data. Previously the data was mainly interesting for product developer, whereas today many other functions such as marketing, sales, service and suppliers need to access PLM.
Back to aircraft manufacturing: The topic can be illustrated using the example of an airline buying new seats. All data of the seats need to be correctly integrated at the aircraft manufacturer digitally. „This might sound simple, but is very complex“, says Michael Kirchgässner, Director PLM-Services at the consultancy company Altran. Not only is the size of the seat concerned. „Such information as flammability, weight, ecological characteristics of the seats, material, cabling etc. need to be integrated, completed Michael Kirchgässner. As Altran consultant he traditionally works on the interface between suppliers and aircraft manufacturers and knows which information is required. „We support the seat manufacturer to correctly provide this information. “
Actually a number of concrete benefits stand for a sophisticated PLM: Which, if integrated in an optimum way, can manage products and product data along their complete life cycle significantly better. Also cross-functional cooperation in the company will be improved and costs are reduced demonstrably, i.e. because possible synergies can be used for procurement or the IT environment has been optimised and the time-to-market is being reduced.
Also engineering becomes more effective. Many engineers need to spend a lot of time to retrieve certain data and to then transfer it from the existing system into the own system. With a PLM managed correspondingly these hours are not needed any more. You also do not require the resources for the data transfer between the different systems, formats and locations. „Today managers should not consider PLM as IT investigation – PLM is the transformation of product development“, says Michael Kirchgässner.
At the same time companies can reduce risks with innovative PLM systems: After an accident the responsible authorities need to go through many data of the components within a few days searching for indications for the accident. Also a lot of suppliers often need to disclose detailed test data and data of the purchased procurements. Companies who cannot provide this data at all or who only can provide the data at considerable cost in the required quality can be sanctioned with severe penalties. „Against this background we today consider PLM as enabler in order to create processes and products more efficient“, reports Michael Kirchgässner.
A major problem for aviation projects is the obsolescence of used hardware and software during the product’s lifecycle: Facing project runtimes of 20 years and more hardware and programs design has been started with are already outdated once the development is finished and thus useless. When at the end of the development additional hardware components are required it comes as surprise that the required products are no longer manufactured because the PC manufacturer considers his workstation as outdated. PLM used in an intelligent way can indicate problems in good time and corrective action can be taken.
No matter for which PLM strategy you decide companies maintaining their systems on a regular basis reduce the risk to be facing sudden obsolescence. „Decisive for success is to precisely formulate the requirements of product components and their processes to ensure that the different PLM disciplines can implement them correspondingly in the software“,explains Michael Kirchgässner.
Altran’s service at this stage consists of the provision of IT systems, the development of methods and establishing processes which make digital information available. „ We introduce PLM and consult the customers how to benefit the best from the programs“, says Michael Kirchgässner.
