Dassault Systèmes drives experiential learnings
“The 3D wheels-connected factory will help us make people aware of the new trends,” told Shree Harsha, India Marketing Director, and Xavier Silhouette, VP Sales T&M Industry, Dassault Systèmes, to Sricharan R of Auto Components India in an interview.
Q: How does the 3D wheelsconnected factory help the outreach programme attain its objective? Harsha:
With this outreach programme we are taking the technology to the customer’s doorstep. In India, many forums talk technology but the experiential learning of real-world technology is found to be a miss. What we are really trying to do is to bridge the gap with our 3D wheels-connected factory by giving hands-on experience in the factory. The whole 3DExperience is coined around differentiating between the virtual and real. We make use of PLC controllers, hardware, conveyors etc. just as it is used in a real-world shop floor. A virtual replica 3D model that loops back the virtual and real is called the 3DExperience twin. So, it means you learn from the physical and feed it back as learning into the virtual world. Iterations and optimisation in terms of what could potentially happen are carried out. This whole thing will cover almost 150 customers in the West and South of India.
Xavier:
We share a vision with a wider number of people through this. This helps in a manner such that people can start to project themselves in the new system. It helps in scalability. In academic
institutions, we are trying to educate people and help them understand by witnessing the technologies as they unfold.
Q: Who are the customers who have adopted this 3DExperience platform? Harsha:
In India, we have around 10,000 customers. Among OEMs, we have Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, VE Commercial Vehicles, Ashok Leyland, Royal Enfield and others. The suppliers include Suprajit, Sandhar, Endurance Technologies to name a few. Over the last two years, the 3DExperience platform has been adopted well in the automotive supplier base. We categorise our segments into five: OEMs, suppliers, railways (another segment which we are actively looking at in India), motorcycles, and performance racing. Others include engineering suppliers, line builders, and engineering service providers.
Xavier:
From a global perspective, one of our important customers is Renault and they have deployed around 16,000 of this 3DExperience. We have carried this out across France, Romania, Russia, Korea and even in India. All these are connected to the same platform and to the same database. We have a unique view and an up-to-date view at any
moment of the vehicle or the part of the project we are working on. The most interesting part is, out of the 16,000, we have 7,000 which are actually deploying 3D with the rest into engineering, purchasing, marketing, after-sales among other activities. It was also used in the process of building the Renault Easy Flex. Here I would like to draw attention to the cloudbased system. Imagine these big mainstream activities happening, and a small organisation designing on the cloud. This is where I think the cloud is becoming a significant part of people who innovate. Using the cloud is also easy because you can connect immediately and have the ability to start designing.
Q. How does the 3DExperience improve customer operations in the real world? Harsha:
Imagine a customer takes up a new truck project. It involves six to seven stages of product strategy including gathering product architecture, analyse the load condition, and performance characteristics of the truck. 10,000 to 15,000 tests are carried out thereafter to demonstrate the workings of the components. Next, the company may launch an all-new truck and it will have to invest in the line again. It may cost around Rs.300 crore to
Rs.500 crore. It is a big investment and a risky one. Through 3DExperience, we undertake product strategy, planning, vehicle architecture, design concept, ergonomics, styling validation, prototyping and manufacturing processes as part of the value chain. The entire value chain is digitised and passed on to the customer in a 3D format making it possible for the customer to carry out virtual decision making. If it works only then the customer deploys it on the shop floor. For OEMs like Ashok Leyland, it is very economical
Q. How robust is the platform when it pertains to data security? Xavier:
In terms of data security, we have put in place all the requisite standards of security. We are also running through some certification processes. We have all the process necessary to protect the data. And, we have several places where we can offer cloud services. The cloud storage is made available across Europe, the USA, China where people can connect and do their job. In India, we have partnered with Amazon AWS in addition to a standalone cloud source here.
Q: Does it benefit EV manufacturers too? Xavier:
The offer we have is quite interesting for EV makers. We plan to go very deep into the simulation process. We want to do better design and can also help them with faster validation through simulation. Simulation plays a key role in the EVs. For instance, the EVs are heavily dependent on the battery and you can simulate battery management from the perspective of keeping the batteries safe and ensuring a longer battery life. The chain of simulations starts from the material itself. The next level is when you start to integrate 3D into battery manufacturing. There is a provision to simulate battery performance with respect to heat. Here, the heat simulation process is key to attain the desired performance characteristics.
Q: How has the 3D modelling software evolved and what are the key trends that are emerging? Harsha:
From a CAD market perspective, we have matured quite a lot. India was 2D-centric for a long time and we have reached 3D only now. It
is changing the way we communicate. When it comes to manufacturing tolerances, especially design tolerances, with 3D, it is expected to meet the desired surface finish quality that is communicated in 3D. In terms of tech communication, illustrations typically used in paper form have been digitised now. Even material illustrations have been transformed into 3D all of leading to better turnaround times. Another major trend is 3D printing which again is a completely new dimension.
Q: And in factory automation and robotics with respect to IIOT and MES?
Industrial IoT and manufacturing execution system are all directed towards improving the efficiency of a factory. Second is how does one reduce the cost of production. The third is about incorporating innovative ideas in a bid to introduce new products faster to the market. People might use any sort of PLC controllers, but you need a platform. And, we will be able to provide it as a 3DExperience platform. We are confident of being able to cater to the needs of design manufacturing, sourcing, testing service, aftersales among other areas of manufacturing. For instance, you have an electrical harness. It runs through the entire vehicle. Let’s say if the government were to introduce a recall policy, how does one figure out the cable supplier, manufacturing date etc? The answer is that through a barcode, I marry the chassis number of the truck or a car to the electrical harness cable. So, the entire history of which part is going to which vehicle gets recorded paving the way of traceability. This is how digitisation is taking to the next level. This can be applied in scenarios of inventory management, warehouse management, quality management, inspection management and other such areas.
Q: How can digital tools help optimise and resolve existing challenges at the supply-chain level?
Harsha: When you look at the supply chain of manufacturing, you look at a typical automotive supplier business. He gets a drawing or 3D data and is expected to quote for a piece. Within a span of seven to 10 days, he has to respond back to this RFQ from the OEM. So his efficiency mainly lies in scanning historic data before finalising the best quote. That is competitive enough and orders can be local customers who want to go global. We have a solution called ‘Bid to Win’. This is more about how a supplier can be agile and efficient in order to be competitive. It is where we enter the supply chain.
Q: Any tailored products for autonomous vehicles? Xavier:
This is another challenge area in the sector. We have a systematic approach to the engineering part which allows our customers to simulate the real-world behaviour. That apart we have electric and electronic modelling capabilities, in terms of architecture modelling. So, we have some tools which allow you to do the architecture modelling of your car, but also of all the embedded software that goes into the car. We have purchased a company called No Magic. It has a very powerful tool called Cameo, which is a system modelling tool. It can be used in ways to integrate not only the geometry design and configuration of the car but also its equivalent configuration in terms of software. We also have an agreement with an Israeli startup where using tools we can build virtual environments.
Harsha:
In summary, we are reducing the New Product Development (NPD) time from four to five years to an estimated 18 months period. A 100 per cent simulation might be possible in some cases. For example, companies do crash testing. The number of times to crash test is reduced now and it may even reduce further. That is a significant saving. The second example is the wind tunnel tests. We put the final concept car into a wind tunnel and see the drag of the car with the design. It means you need to drag coefficient because that will affect the vehicle fuel efficiency. Without products, we can reduce the physical test for the vehicle. And for thermal testing, how will they drive a vehicle across Rajasthan, to Kashmir for instance in extreme temperatures that the vehicle needs to withstand. A 50 per cent success rate achieved here would be considered a successful effort.
As a company, we are evolving and growing with new technology. That’s one of the primary reasons we are a strategic partner to many of our customers. We even have a customer who is our partner since 1981. To sum up, the whole concept is called a 3DExperience platform because it’s like an iPhone iTunes platform. Depending on your needs you can select what you need. We have different applications right on the items platform with the same concept. We have Catia, a CAD tool for 3D modelling; we have Delmia, the manufacturing software and Simulia, which is a simulation. This is the kind of suite we sell to customers and offer value addition, and position ourselves.
Q: Going forward, what is it that we can expect from Dassault in India? Harsha:
We are in excess of 2800 people in India and this is one of the biggest R&D centres for us contributing to customers in India and globally. While we have been growing over the last three years, we expect to continue to grow with our diversification plans. We are moving on to new domains like EV battery for instance. We started an incubation programme specifically in India to promote EV startups. We would be offering free licences to all startups who qualify through our programmes. They will be trained on aspects from how to develop a new battery to how to come up with new solutions around the whole new concept of mobility.
And, if you want to come out with a new product, we have our own labs where mentors from the industry coach startups. Startups can register themselves and can go through the qualification process. Electromobility accelerator is a startup kit for
EV for example. Anybody who is entering the battery, charging, full vehicle modelling or even in the domain of developing apps on mobility, on analytics platform will be provided with an entire bundled kit. From funding to conceptualisation, to commercial rollout. Our 3DExperience Executive Center in Chennai is like a fabrication laboratory where people can descend to understand the industry.