Northrop Grumman CIO talks collaborative CAD and data management
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 2/1/2005 7:00:00 AM
Aerospace & defense product development is more high-tech than ever, requiring a large degree of intercompany collaboration. Developing the U.S. Navy's next-generation destroyer—the DD(X)—is no exception. Manufacturing Business Technology spoke with Jan Rideout, CIO of Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems (NGSS) sector—the prime contractor on the DD(X)—about the product life-cycle management (PLM) solutions in place for the program, which enters detailed design this year, with the lead ship entering service in 2011.
Manufacturing Business Technology: NGSS will be using Dassault Systemes' Catia for design creation and Enovia for engineering data management in support of the DD(X). Why turn to these types of tools?
Rideout: Destroyer programs tend to be long-lived, so first and foremost, we needed a design and data management solution that would have the legs—technically and commercially—to be around for the life of the program. We also needed software capable of handling the complexity of this program.
If you look across Northrop Grumman within the aircraft and space sectors, Catia has been a successful product, and we believed it to be the best product for this program. Additionally, the [CAD] decision was made a few years ago—when DD(X) was in the proposal stage—and we've been working closely with Dassault and IBM to optimize Catia for shipbuilding. One of the things we've developed is a function called online interference checking, which allows the engineers to instantly know they've made a mistake or created something that interferes with another part of the design.
Then is your PLM focus on design creation rather than product data management (PDM)?
No, it's very much on both. Initially, the interest was in the design creation aspect, but the data management need evolved afterward, and is still evolving in terms of fully understanding the power of having that data, and being able to very smoothly move that data downstream into manufacturing. Collaborative data management was not the primary focus at first, but it is becoming more so.
It's also important to note we have two data management solutions. Enovia will be used to manage engineering content, but we use Teamcenter [a UGS data management solution] as our enterprise PDM for the program. Most of the collaboration with outside entities is via Teamcenter. We have the systems interconnected, and that link does work. Previous to this program, Ship Systems did not have much familiarity with PDM packages, but Northrop Grumman has vast experience with PDM and with Teamcenter in particular, so we were able to bring that expertise to bear.
Are there any external users of the Dassault solutions?
Yes. The main partner that will be using Catia and Enovia with us is Bath IronWorks, known as BIW. At times, they are competitors, but on this program, they are involved with the design and construction of this class of ships. In military shipbuilding, the typical scenario is that one competitor wins the design and the construction of the first ship, but ship construction is alternated between the companies. We are the prime, and were awarded the design and construction of the first ship, but BIW will be building some of these ships going forward. So it is very important for them to have the same data we have.
Is it a scenario in which some of your closest partners use the same CAD tools or even PDM system, but with others, you use Web-based viewing and collaboration tools?
If everyone could be on the same tools, it would make life a lot easier, but the reality of the situation is that will never happen. There has to be something that sits on top of internal systems that allows for collaboration, even if you're coming from different tools. So we collaborate along both lines: some partners are on the same tools, and with others, we used Web-based collaboration features that aren't tied into a particular product, but still allow access to the same documents and drawings.
At the end of the day, what is the key benefit of these capabilities?
We believe they will allow the project to cost less. With these more sophisticated design tools and better data management, you don't need as many people to facilitate the program. I'd say these solutions also will shorten some cycle times within the program, but the big selling point to the Navy—and the Navy was very involved in our decision to move forward with this software—centers around cost savings associated with the design—like having fewer design errors, and simply giving engineers better ability to visualize the ramifications of what they are doing."
