Case Study
Concurrent engineering across the extended enterprise
Alenia Aeronautica
Growing participation in major international aircraft programs required company to introduce a new standard, flexible and highly functional operating model
Aggressive targets
Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica company, designs and builds aircraft and components for the military and civil markets, including applications for military transport, surveillance, special missions and training. The globally recognized Italian company participates in the main international programs, taking on different roles as appropriate, such as prime contractor, partner or major supplier and with different consortia, including European companies and international manufacturers.
If the industrial aeronautics world is extremely competitive, Alenia’s approach is definitely dynamic. Alenet Project Manager Marco Baroero notes, “Over the next few years, Alenia aims to significantly increase both revenues and related profits, to improve the relationship with its own clients and to carve out a leading role in the main and prestigious international joint development programs.We also aim at establishing a closer and more efficient cooperation with our suppliers to increase quality and to reduce time and costs. In our plans, our suppliers are essentially considered as a company inside our company.”
Business transformation
To achieve its goals, Alenia Aeronautica arranged itself in “business units” aligned with specific product industries. It also undertook the strategic project Alenet, which Baroero describes as “involving the whole company at 360 degrees,” including all of Alenia’s controlled companies and another new Alenia company (located in the United States) dedicated to the production of the C27J. The Alenet project has the responsibility of setting up and introducing a new standard company operating model, with the aim of consolidating and enhancing Alenia’s position as a global player.
The Alenia Networked Enterprise Transformation (Alenet) project started in April 2007 and has been extended to all offices as well as to company production sites. “The project entails the use of new operations practices – processes, skills and methods – and of new tools and technologies, for more efficient management of the entire product lifecycle,” Baroero says. To achieve broad-based integration and sharing of different processes, data and technologies across the various project stages, Alenia committed to and performed an extensive business transformation. “We pointed to standardization, simplification and innovation of processes and of tools, both for the company and for suppliers, to draw concrete benefits,” notes Baroero. The Teamcenter® digital lifecycle management solution from Siemens PLM Software played a key role in Alenet’s standard-setting approach.
Integrated processes, economic strength
Alenia Aeronautica’s integration of industrial processes has led to significant efficiencies. The company’s business strategies are reflecting positive economic results. For example, revenue (2007) was 2,306 million euros, with an order backlog representing 8,248 million euros and immediate orders accounting for 3,104 million euros.
Digital data management results in the sharing of knowledge from the preliminary project all the way through service and support. It is important to note that it facilitates the spreading of information across Alenia’s entire organization in an efficient and secure way. Baroero points out, “The heritage of experience of Alenia Aeronautica readily flows into the Alenet project. Skills and specific know-how of the various company functions are made available for the Alenet project in order to implement immediate and efficient concurrent engineering.”
PLM Competence Center Manager Marco Alemanni explains the implications of the company’s multi-faceted participation in the main international programs: “It was necessary to create a strong development model that is able to ‘rule’ the entire organization for our propriety products. And at the same time to be flexible, highly functional and easily interfaced in order to ensure collaboration by all key players, as well as adaptable to meet an evolving aeronautics market.We felt the model must create the smallest impact on procedures and production operations throughout Alenia Aeronautica, as well as consider the various partners involved, including the management of sub-suppliers all the way through post sales and services.”
PLM platform extends the value of company knowledge
Alenia Aeronautica management adopted Teamcenter as its base platform to dialogue and interface with different clients, partners and suppliers, to access updated and consistent digital data from any place and at any time, and to improve collaboration and the management of the work flow on different production programs. The company found that Teamcenter is widely used across various industrial sectors, and supports innovation and productivity for leading companies in the aerospace and defense industry.
By integrating all the engineering functions with the industrialization ones, Teamcenter facilitates the automation and the synchronization of processes. “In 2006, a working group was created with the aim of selecting the best PLM software on the market for the company’s needs,” Baroero says. “A series of parameters was taken into consideration: software functionality, system strength, presence of the supplier throughout the marketplace and in the specific sector of the aerospace industry, and customer support by the PLM provider. The final choice resulted in the selection of Siemens PLM Software, because it solved our problems in a markedly better way.”
Alemanni adds, “The first positive results from the introduction of the new organization model emerged with design and management of the models of the C27J, Meltem III, JSF, Neuron and the latest B787 by Boeing. It is about state-of-the-art aircraft, which required the collaborative design and production of various companies. Moreover, the Alenet project also foresees the migration of less recent aircraft models on the Teamcenter platform within 2011.”
The main challenge in implementing the Alenet project was making available new technologies while simultaneously addressing the engineering and production needs of the C27J program. The result was achieved by seeking constant compromise among the requirements necessary to satisfy the new processes, set by the new business model and those implicitly required by the development of a new aircraft, which must respect the time and the targets of the order.
The future
For the Alenet project, Alenia Aeronautica management foresees a development environment using “virtual” multidisciplinary methods based on integrated digital simulation and analysis. For example, this could mean simulating production flow, assemblies, accessibility and maintenance to answer a number of specific needs – including verifying and optimizing the ergonomics of a workstation to assure greater accessibility to a well-defined aircraft structure and verifying plant production capacity to anticipate and prevent any critical situation.
Innovation will come from the ability to virtually define, verify and validate the product development process from concept to manufacturing engineering, enabling collaboration between engineering, process engineering and production sites. This will be accomplished by integrating Teamcenter with the multidisciplinary CAE platform that is being developed in parallel within the Alenet project.
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Challenges:
- Integration and sharing of processes, diverse data and technologies from project start to finish
- A tight and efficient cooperation between partners, suppliers and sub-suppliers
- Introducing a wholly new operations approach while meeting current program needs
Keys To Success:
- Defining, introducing and gaining acceptance for a new standard operating model company-wide
- Standardizing, simplifying and innovating across processes and tools
- Teamcenter as the platform for data access and knowledge sharing by the extended enterprise – clients, partners and all suppliers
Results:
- Easier, more efficient collaborative design and production
- Company knowledge leveraged across the organization
- State-of-the-art aircraft
- Increased revenues and profitability
Industry:
- Aerospace & Defense
Client's Primary Business:
Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica company, designs and builds aircraft and components for the military and civil markets, including applications for military transport, surveillance, special missions and training. The company takes part in primary international aircraft programs, with responsibility for different roles as appropriate, such as prime contractor, partner or major supplier and with different consortia, including European companies and international manufacturers.
Business Initiatives:
- Commonization & Re-use
- Value Chain Synchronization
Solutions/Services:
- Teamcenter
Client Location:
Caselle (Turin) and Pomigliano d’Arco (Naples)
Italy
"In 2006, a working group was created with the aim of selecting the best PLM software on the market for the company’s needs. A series of parameters was taken into consideration: software functionality, system strength, presence of the supplier throughout the marketplace and in the specific sector of the aerospace industry, and customer support by the PLM provider. The final choice resulted in the selection of Siemens PLM Software, because it solved our problems in a markedly better way."
Marco Baroero
Alenet Project Manager
Alenia Aeronautica