No way to track the impact of product changes

Gamesa

Gamesa needed an effective system to manage its electronic mockup process

• Gamesa sought a complete solution – one that would interface with its CAD and ERP systems, provide the ability to detect design errors upfront and manage the entire digital product development approach.

Design errors lengthen certification cycle

Gamesa, a Spanish industrial group, provides assemblies such as fuselages, empennages, wings, nacelles, main landing gear doors and interiors for commuter aircraft and helicopters. The challenge during the development cycle of a new aircraft is that the numerous design changes have ripple effects throughout the entire aircraft. “Keeping track of these changes when each of them could create interferences or other problems was a nightmare that led to large numbers of design errors,” says Jose Ignacio Uriarte, manager of project management and scheduling, Gamesa.

New technology must interface with CAD and ERP systems

Gamesa engineers evaluated all of the leading PDM systems. They needed a system that would interface with their Catia CAD and Bann ERP systems. Another requirement was for software that required little or no customization so that it could be fully implemented in six months. This was so it could be used on a major upcoming project – the rear fuselage and vertical/horizontal empennage of the Embraer ERJ-170 aircraft, which has a total of 2,400 different parts. Gamesa engineers developed a functional test that highlighted the ability of each package they considered to manage their specific design process. The Teamcenter® digital lifecycle management solution ranked first on each of the company’s individual tests and was determined by the evaluators to best fulfill the company’s overall requirements. The implementation process was completed on schedule in less than six months.

Teamcenter manages electronic mockups, providing the ability to detect errors upfront

“Teamcenter manages our Catia solid models and allows us to construct complete electronic mockups by serial number for each individual prototype,” says Uriarte. “Now in seconds our engineers can call up an assembly model of each individual aircraft that incorporates the actual solid models used during the design process. After the design is validated, the bill of materials is transferred electronically to the Baan ERP system.”

The mockups are used to evaluate each individual prototype design and detect interferences. Without Teamcenter, such interferences typically would not be uncovered until after the prototype was released for manufacturing, causing time-consuming design changes and rework. Uriarte notes that the use of Teamcenter was the main reason why design errors were reduced by 88 percent on the ERJ-170 project and that this reduction played a major role in the improvement of the manufacturing cycle through subcontractors’ chain. “The bottom line is that Teamcenter helps us easily determine the impact of modifications through the entire subassembly, which dramatically reduces the potential for mistakes,” says Uriarte.

Automatic BOM configuration

Teamcenter provides a scalable architecture that handles a single work-group economically yet offers a distributed environment that allows design and manufacturing engineers, purchasing agents, marketers and others scattered around the globe to collaborate on a product as easily as if they were in the same room. Bills of materials (BOM) are automatically created during the design process and can be configured with rules to handle an infinite number of product variations without programming. Teamcenter collaboration and BOM capabilities were the main reasons why design errors were reduced by 88 percent on the ERJ-170 project.

Related Links:

• Gamesa

Challenges:

• During the development cycle each prototype has important differences
• Each design change can have wide-ranging effects
• In the past, with no way to track the impact of changes, errors were common

Keys To Success:

• Achieve tight integration with Catia CAD and Baan enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
• Use Teamcenter® to control electronic mockup as a function of aircraft serial number
• Provide access to right documentation in real time

Results:

• Interferences and other design errors are now detected prior to prototype build
• Customers are impressed how Teamcenter is generally used in majority of departments
• Teamcenter played a major role in the improvement of the manufacturing cycle through subcontractors' chain

Industry:

• Aerospace & Defense

Client's Primary Business:

Gamesa is one of the biggest manufacturers and suppliers of technologically advanced products, installations and services in the aeronautics and renewable energy sectors.

Business Initiatives:

• Value Chain Synchronization

Solutions/Services:

• Teamcenter

Client Location:

Minano Mayor
Spain

"Teamcenter helps us manage electronic mockups of each individual aircraft during the development cycle that we use to detect the vast majority of design errors before we begin building the prototype."

Jose Ignacio Uriarte

Manager of Project Management and Scheduling

Gamesa