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High-profile projects help extend PLM technology through the entire aerospace supply chain
High-profile aircraft programs that highlighted product lifecycle management (PLM) technology's value over the last decade had an unintended side effect: They contributed to the misconception that PLM is only for multinational OEMs and top-tier suppliers with huge stakes in product design. Most aerospace suppliers that concentrate on manufacturing and have relatively little stake in design still don't consider PLM a logical investment.
There are two issues with this mindset. The first is that it isn't entirely true. PLM encompasses manufacturing processes as well as design and collaboration. The second is that by failing to more seriously consider PLM, aerospace manufacturers are shutting themselves out of new revenue streams created by an aircraft development business model that the Boeing Co. (Chicago) pioneered with its 787 Dreamliner program.
It has been well-publicized that Boeing designed the 787 in a 3-D PLM environment. The 787's radical new design prompted Boeing's technology partners to break new ground in PLM technology and, for the first time, integrate manufacturing process planning into the aircraft design process from the very beginning. The manufacturing component was crucial. With design work so decentralized, Boeing needed to know that the 787 would come together as planned without costly late-stage errors. A digital manufacturing environment was the only way to model production processes throughout the early phases of the 787's design.
Those aspects of the story have overshadowed an equally important aspect. The PLM innovations that emerged from the 787 project were spurred by the new business model Boeing developed to design and produce the aircraft. Boeing spread the 787's development costs among its partners in return for a larger share of profits. Suppliers that were once responsible only for manufacturing a Boeing-designed component were now designing it as well. That changed the design cycle's dynamic, and created new opportunities for almost every company in the supply chain. The 787 project's success hinged on keeping internal and external design teams in synch. Boeing chose to do this through a Dassault Systèmes 3-D PLM environment that, for the first time, extended PLM from design through manufacturing and maintenance.
This leaves aerospace suppliers with two things to consider. The first is that PLM technology is...