The days of products being designed using the “over the wall” process is dead. Today’s products REQUIRE a systems based approach. Full stop.
Everything we touch today is a system of systems. The smartphone, electric car, turbine engine, and IoT enabled refrigerator all require significant integration between the mechanical, electrical, electromechanical and software domains. This requires strong Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) capabilities to establish how the system(product) will operate and behave. Systems Engineering lays down the foundation of your product. Here is where a firm will find out if it can reuse product modules, where new tech will be developed, where challenges will be, and if the product is even viable.
But, to really unleash the power of MBSE you need to connect it to your PLM system. Creating models and leaving them in a shared drive or emailing them around is only a partial fix. Firms need their PLM system to be the hub of all product data and bring all the various domains together in the context of their business processes. They need to have MBSE data abstracted into the PLM data structure to provide the necessary information for solid decision making. Making a commitment to an integrated product design landscape with MBSE models and analysis flowing through PLM driving your MCAD, ECAD, CAE, and documentation you really have something great. All of your data is accessible to your entire enterprise. Now all of your teams can think in terms of systems and make smart decisions for when to reuse vs creating new. CAD is the easy part!
At Aras, we talk about powering your Business of Engineering and we believe that this is about giving your firm the ability to create great, profitable products. The Aras open reference architectures for ALM-PLM integration and MBSE-PLM integration are changing how the industry sees PLM. Industry has a jaded view of Legacy PDM being a boat anchor – never living up to its hype. We are replacing that with a view of PLM that is flexible enough to be molded to the firm’s particular Business of Engineering.
If your business is developing the connected products of the future, you need to be making decisions based on a system view and integrated data – legacy PDM does not provide that capability. It’s time for a change.
-Dave
Posted Wed, Aug 3 2016 10:04 AM by David Ewing Jr.