Mar 15, 2019
About the Customer
Engineering Industries eXcellence’s Industries eXcellence team is completing the first implementation phase of an enterprise Industry 4.0 initiative for an American leader in Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing. The customer is a global diversified product manufacturer and service provider for the commercial, industrial, defense and energy markets. Created in 1929, by the end of World War II, the company was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States. Since then, the manufacturer has evolved away from final assembly of finished aircraft, becoming a component manufacturer specializing in actuators, aircraft controls, valves and surface treatment services. For this project, our team worked with the customer’s turbine production division.
The Big Picture
As a leader and innovator in their industry, the customer recognized the value of adopting digitalization to support their manufacturing operations, but they needed help understanding where the greatest inefficiencies resided in their processes, what systems should be given priority, as well as what timeline and implementation plan would be cost-effective and best suit the needs of their organization at the same time. Our team of digital manufacturing specialists was first brought in to execute a complete Industry 4.0 Assessment of the customer’s requirements, processes, business groups and systems in order to define a strategy and create a roadmap for their digital transformation initiative. The result delivered was a Solution Maturity Model that will be used to guide the customer through the numerous phases of a multi-year digital adoption plan for their organization.
About the Project
Our Industries eXcellence team is finishing up the first phase of the implementation plan based on the digitalization roadmap defined during our Industry 4.0 assessment. One of the greatest and most costly challenges the customer's turbine production division was facing was due to the widespread use of paper on the factory floor. This led to inefficiencies, outdated and/or inaccurate data, excessive rework and quality issues, as well as a lack of communication between manufacturing engineering and the operators executing production on the shop floor.
After an in-depth analysis of the customer’s data management processes, our experts recommended a complete Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution based on Siemens Teamcenter Manufacturing in order to streamline processes and create a single source of truth for the management of engineering product data, manufacturing product data (BoM) and manufacturing process data (BoP). In addition, the system would enable up-to-date, accurate Electronic Work Instructions to be digitally and easily available to operators on the shop floor. As both business consultants and technical experts with over a decade of experience delivering the Digital Thread to discrete manufacturers worldwide, our team will also lead the design, implementation and go-live of the PLM solution for the customer. Upon completion of this first phase, the customer will be one step closer to achieving true paperless manufacturing.
Solutions in Scope
- Teamcenter Manufacturing Foundation
- Manufacturing Process Planner (MPP)
- Electronic Work Instructions (EWI)
- Bill of Materials (BoM) Management
- Shop Floor Connect for Siemens Teamcenter
Engineering’s Advantage
While most companies see PLM as a tool to manage engineering data alone, we focus on PLM solutions to bridge the gap between engineering and production as it relates to manufacturing. With a true concurrent engineering solution that allows parallel execution of product engineering and process planning activities, manufacturers can drastically improve profitability, time-to-market and quality. After the successful implementation of the customer’s manufacturing data management system, the next phase in their solution roadmap will be the integration of a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to better control, manage and monitor work-in-process on the factory floor. Engineering Industries eXcellence looks forward to leading this initiative and many more as we help the customer navigate each step along their unique and exciting journey towards Industry 4.0.
