Bombardier chooses ENOVIA for product and process development

Bombardier Aerospace, Dassault Systèmes with ENOVIA Corp. announce the signing of a joint project to provide a total product and process information system using ENOVIA solutions.

The solutions will optimize the development, manufacturing engineering, documentation, exploitation, configuration and management of future aircraft by allowing their behavior, production and operational deliverables to be designed and tested without building physical prototypes. They offer a new approach to product data management (PDM) allowing Bombardier to focus on the excellence of its products.

Bombardier Aerospace is already a major customer of Dassault Systèmes’ software which implements CATIA’s powerful digital mockup facilities throughout the design and manufacture of all its new products starting with the Global Express long-range business jet. This new project will support the strategy within Bombardier Aerospace to optimize the management of the sales matrix, product configuration, product structures, technological links and manufacturing processes within the complete and extended enterprise including partners, to reduce costs and shorten schedules.

This project will further strengthen the close relationship developed during the Global Express, Dash 8 and Canadair Regional Jet Series 700 projects between Bombardier Aerospace and Dassault Systèmes as well as extending the digital mockup concepts in production at Bombardier Aerospace to downstream functions in the enterprise in order to optimize the manufacturing process and reduce cost of ownership.

The new information system will be used by Bombardier Aerospace professionals and management personnel. The initial implementation is planned to support configured product structure definition and engineering actions in a controlled, secure environment provided by ENOVIAVPM (Virtual Product Modeling). Manufacturing engineering will then be phased in, followed by functions for customer support documentation and finally maintenance engineers. During the project, Bombardier Aerospace will also rationalize its use of design and data management tools. The information products developed during the partnership are a part of the Dassault Systèmes and IBM PDM II (Product Development Management II) strategy.

PDM II is a set of software tools to control and electronically simulate a product throughout its life cycle from concept to use. The tools support advanced, objective-driven working practices such as design in context, controlled change propagation, concurrent engineering and change reconciliation, advanced notification of data availability ("maturity management"), extended enterprise, associative document production and specification-driven product modeling. To do this, ENOVIA solutions integrate workflow, product modeling and design functions to create a coherent, distributed database that manages "intelligent parts": parts that are not only described by their geometrical features, but also by their context (their relationships to parts within the product, the manufacturing technology used to produce them, the rules determining their conditions of use and so on), and their design and manufacturing. Change and other processes are managed by a graphical workflow application specifically adapted to the manufacturing enterprise.

The initial ENOVIA solutions suite include applications for graphical engineering action control, bill of materials, assembly management, configuration definition, configured document production and access authorization management. The applications are built on specifications derived from the STEP standard; they support and extend configuration-controlled design as described in AP203 and AP214. ENOVIAVPM is based on a set of infrastructure frameworks built using the most recent programming standards and methodologies (Corba, Java, Internet, etc.). Access to the functions is through a system-independent graphical interface or using a Web browser.

Mr. John Holding, Executive Vice-President, Engineering and Product Development, Bombardier Aerospace, commented: "This new project with Dassault Systèmes is in line with Bombardier’s strategy of participating very early in the development of innovative information solutions to ensure that they are perfectly adapted to the requirements of our customers and our products. Key to our success in delivering the Global Express on time was the use of CATIA’s digital mockup facilities, and we are convinced that by extending the concept to other sectors of our business, we will further enhance our competitive advantage."

Mr. Bernard Charlès, President of Dassault Systèmes, said: "Bombardier's comprehensive and extensive approach to the deployment of ENOVIAVPM is a major step toward establishing a coherent product life pipeline. We are delighted that our new subsidiary company ENOVIA Corp., responsible for implementing our PDM II strategy, is already proving its capacity for responding to the challenges of our most dynamic and visionary customers."

Mr. Bruno Latchague, Dassault Systèmes Executive Vice-President R&D, CATIA Products Infrastructure and CATIA Software Engineering and Customer support said: "The new technologies we are deploying in our products, including those delivered by ENOVIA Corp., enhance our ability to incorporate changes. They are allowing us to remain at the forefront of the CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM II marketplace and adapt rapidly to our customers’ requirements."

Joel Lemke, Chief Executive Officer of ENOVIA Corp. stated "We are proud to be chosen as partners to develop these projects with Bombardier Aerospace. ENOVIA Corp. is totally dedicated to satisfying thePDM II market; working with customers like Bombardier will ensure that our solutions are in line with their objectives to develop innovative products and processes while reducing their product development times."