Many companies are facing up to the challenge of adjusting
their evolved IT infrastructures to put them on the right course
for Industry 4.0. Karsten Theis, member of the Executive Board
of PROSTEP AG, investigates a number of scenarios in this context.
How must a tool infrastructure be designed if it is to make possible smart engineering that truly satisfies the requirements of Industry 4.0? The author is of the opinion that expanding an existing IT backbone, such as PLM, into a “data hub” will only lead to the desired result if important steps in the direction of openness and agility are taken. A position paper on the prerequisites for an IT infrastructure that make the digital master and digital twin possible.
Transferring existing incorrect or incomplete data during PLM migration places a heavy burden on the new environment. The robotics and automation specialist KUKA therefore systematically cleansed its inventory of ERP and PLM data at all engineering-to-order (ETO) locations during migration of the SAP data and the simultaneous replacement of the old PDM system with Siemens’ Teamcenter solution. Our PLM integration platform OpenPDM was the driving force behind the data washing machine.
The real value of a company is not to be found in gold or money, but in its data. The data embodies the intellectual property that gives a company its competitive edge. And it‘s not only the Chinese that have recognized it. The intelligence agencies in the West also appear to believe that no methods are taboo as they strive to access confidential information under the guise of combating terrorism. In an age of global collaboration, the protection of intellectual property has become a serious challenge.
Most machine and plant engineers still plan and document the assembly of their systems
using the object in question, in other words they assemble the system in its entirety or in parts
prior to delivery so that they can properly document the process. New photos and illustrations
are often created for the assembly instructions instead of using existing material from the engineering department. This approach is not only time consuming and labor intensive but also requires an unnecessarily large amount of space. The main problem, however, is that the technicians cannot start planning assembly and creating documentation until the system components have been completed, and by then time is usually short. As a result, changes made while the system is in operation are not systematically incorporated into the documentation, thus making maintenance more difficult. A PROSTEP solution for 3D assembly planning provides an alternative: documentation is converted into the 3D PDF format, thus ensuring that an up to-date version is always available.
The migration of existing data is one of the major challenges faced when replacing PLM systems. It often leads to a delay in the new solution going live or the failure of the entire project. Our PLM integration platform OpenPDM supports different migration strategies – from big-bang migration to incremental migration through to the temporary coexistence of the old and new systems. This allows customers to take a highly flexible approach to PLM migration.
The case involving Edward Snowden has shown us two things: Firstly, how remiss we are when it comes to handling confidential information and secondly, how shamelessly inquisitive intelligence services exploit this fact. It‘s anyone‘s guess whether they really only use the information they extract for intelligence purposes or also for economic purposes. What is clear is that e-mail encryption alone is not enough to protect our know-how – we need protection mechanisms that are integrated in the e-mail programs themselves.
Many automotive suppliers develop their products using the same CAD systems that their clients use. Sensor manufacturer Sensata Technologies spares itself having to maintain dozens of different CAD systems by having the 3D models and 2D drawings converted by PROSTEP. Ever since they adopted this approach, complaints have been few and far between, even though the expectations of the OEMs are increasing all the time.
The requirements relating to collaboration between partners are becoming increasingly complex. In joint ventures and other long-term partnerships, companies want to exchange large volumes of data at regular intervals in order to synchronize their development statuses.
Major projects in the automotive, aerospace and defense industries for PLM & ERP integrations, PLM migrations, secure B2B data exchange and lightweight Technical Data Package publication (TDP) help PROSTEP’s North American subsidiary achieve a record year. Despite COVID-19, PROSTEP Inc. increased its revenues by around 40 percent in the last fiscal year, which ended on June 30, 2020.
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