The first decade of the 21st century has presented unparalleled challenges to the aerospace industry with the concurrent growth in all segments. Moreover, the complexity of advanced aircraft, engines, satellites, etc., has increased to the point that some designs consist of over a million parts, not to mention numerous embedded interdependent systems. This level of complexity creates enormous design and manufacturing challenges, at the same time companies are under increasing pressure to aggressively reduce costs.

Aerospace and defense companies are faced with the challenge of synchronizing the activities and workflows of these complex products and extended enterprises with thousands of knowledge workers across protracted life cycles of 30 to 50 years or even longer. Meanwhile, regulatory and other compliance requirements such as Contract Data Requirements List/Subcontract Data Requirements List (CDRL/SDRL) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) are increasing at a rapid pace.

To address these challenges, some aerospace and defense companies have created virtual enterprises consisting of globally distributed design teams and operating sites. These virtual enterprises leverage collaboration with global partners and suppliers to accelerate innovation, reduce time-to-market and optimize resources. But managing a virtual enterprise to function as a highly disciplined, integrated and synchronized value chain for a multi-decade product lifecycle presents enormous challenges.

As a result, extended-enterprise performance has emerged as the crucial issue for sustained profitability. Extended-enterprise performance applies not only to the development phase of a new program, class of aircraft and/or aero engine, but rather to all phases of the protracted life cycle: development, manufacturing, assembly, test, certification, and then on throughout the complete operating and service cycle. The isolated and often autonomous operational silos of the past must now be aligned and synchronized across the extended-enterprise from the initial requirements until the final aircraft, engine or ship is retired.

The legacy of systems and processes that have built the aerospace industry over the last 50 years of the 20th century were clearly not ready for the new realities and challenges of global collaboration and total lifecycle knowledge management from start to finish.

Enterprise business systems were implemented extensively throughout the aerospace industry in the ‘90s, but now there is a clear need to create an enterprise-wide knowledge management platform that organizes and manages the complete product structure (including massive 3D models) and all related technical information throughout all phases of the complete lifecycle and the extended-enterprise. Product Life cycle Management (PLM) has emerged as an extended-enterprise knowledge management platform that provides the total extended-enterprise with instantaneous and concurrent access to the complete technical definition of the most complex product.

The Integrated Digital Enterprise (IDE) that results from the implementation of a PLM platform performs a number of crucial functions for the globally dispersed and diverse aerospace extended-enterprise: (1) controls access to the most sensitive information by worker classification (with full ITAR compliance), (2) coordinates and synchronizes development changes across the extended-enterprise and (3) manages both the bill of material and bill of process to ensure configuration and process compliance. Additionally, the digital models contained in the PLM system enable assembly and maintenance specialists to simulate every aspect of each process before a single set of parts is assembled, optimizing processes the first time and every time.

The PLM platform offers unprecedented control, access and discipline throughout the complete lifecycle of major global enterprises that are now critical to the success of most programs. Additionally, the PLM platform offers the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) the knowledge management system to successfully pursue performance-based logistics and/or power-by-the-hour business opportunities that have become the norm in most major new programs. It provides a crucial, secure, collaboration platform among partners, suppliers and customers at diverse and often dispersed sites to function in complete harmony as a virtual and very adaptable team, thus enabling design anywhere, build anywhere and support anywhere capabilities.

The importance of PLM to the success of a 21st century aerospace enterprise cannot be overstated. PLM has already enabled several global coalitions to design and assemble new advanced aircraft in record time by working 24x7 around the world from a single master-source of all technical knowledge and metadata.

One aerospace and defense leader turned to PLM to meet the challenges of delivering a family of next generation advanced aircraft. The company estimated a 35 percent reduction in the design cycle, representing billions of dollars in savings. It anticipates that assembly time will be reduced by up to 66 percent with a huge reduction in tooling. Spare parts requirements are expected to be dramatically less than other fleets. Additionally, the cost of service and support of this fleet of aircraft is expected to be half that of contemporary models.

Additionally, a major aero engine OEM for commercial and military aircraft was able to significantly reduce design cycle times by tightly integrating manufacturing and product design. The company dramatically streamlined its product development process by providing a single representation of engine configuration that reduces design time by facilitating effective collaboration among design specialists across the value chain. As a result, the company has reduced launch cycle times from 42 to 24 months and realized hundreds of millions in savings with each new design.

In the coming years, the aerospace industry, including both government agencies and industry, will face greater challenges than ever before, such as building new global air traffic management systems, launching new manned missions to the moon and beyond, coordinating counter-terrorism activities around the world and transforming legacy government infrastructures into viable global enterprises. These new challenges facing the aerospace industry in the immediate and foreseeable future will exert even greater pressure on global enterprises to work seamlessly and efficiently across the protracted life cycle of most programs.

PLM can help meet these challenges by providing a synchronized platform to align and harmonize the extended-enterprise. PLM is more than a new technology; it is a business imperative that, when embraced and supported by all levels of the leadership team in the extended-enterprise, can enable a quantum leap forward in total enterprise productivity, cost reduction and time-to-market.

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Related links and articles:

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics expands use of Siemens PLM Software

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