Industry-Specific Solution Sets (Part 2):
Future Simulation Work Environments
Ora Research Letter on Digital Prototyping, Simulation & Analysis December 17, 2008
By Bruce Jenkins, CEO
Simulation software providers' growing movement to package their technologies in industry-specific solution sets is welcomed by practitioners as a boon to help them advance the simulation maturity of their organizations. [For background see Industry-Specific Solution Sets (Part 1):
Overcoming Constraints on Simulation’s Value and Advancing Simulation Maturity:
Industry Benchmarks, Priorities, Directions.] We interviewed program managers, discipline leads and analysts at a range of manufacturers in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific to find out: what does each industry want?
First we examined business drivers for investing in simulation and analysis in each industry studied. Then we investigated what constrains each of these businesses from getting fuller value from their simulation investments. Finally, to understand what can help overcome these constraints, we identified critical capabilities that each industry wants its future simulation work environment to support.
Last issue detailed our findings in three major manufacturing sectors – aerospace/defense, automotive powertrain and consumer electronics. This week presents our findings in two more industries: aircraft engines and off-highway equipment. Contact us for more on this research.
| |
Simulation business drivers |
Constraints |
Future work environment |
Aircraft Engines
|
- Boost product:
- Quality
- Performance
- Efficiency
- Shorten program schedules
- Reduce development costs
|
- Limited availability of CAE discipline experts
- Program schedules
- Need to make more efficient use of existing engineering staff and analysis tools
- Better CAE data and process management
- Better transfer of CAE data between tools at different levels of abstraction/ resolution
- Better transfer of CAE data from one design stage to next
- Overlay tools/ methods to exercise CAE software more efficiently
|
Focus on
- Six Sigma
- Systems engineering
- Simulation process improvement
Enablers
- DFSS – Design for Six Sigma
- MDO – Multidisciplinary Design Optimization
- DOE – Design of Experiments
- Robust design
|
Off-Highway Equipment
|
- Shorten time-to-market, increase time-in-market
- Increase product performance, innovate
- Comply with emissions/green laws
- Cut development costs
|
- Shortage of expert analysts
- Shortage of time to make more use of analysis
|
Focus on
- “Virtual product development” initiatives – driving toward analysis-driven, right-first-time design
- Lean design – zero physical prototypes
- Corporate convergence on common analysis toolset
Enablers
- Knowledge capture tools
- Process automation tools
- Simulation data management framework
- COTS tools that facilitate integration of internally developed codes
- Readily customizable COTS offerings
- Broad line of simulation tools that work together
- Solvers and meshers for structural, nonlinear, flow, durability, NVH…
- 1D or functional simulation (combustion, hydraulics, controls…)
|
| 
