Last week I shared the first impression from my favorite conference, the PLM Roadmap / PDT conference organized by CIMdata and Eurostep. You can read some of the highlights here: The weekend after PLM Roadmap / PDT 2019 Day 1.

Click on the logo to see what was the full agenda. In this post, I will focus on some of the highlights of day 2.

Chernobyl, The megaproject with the New Arch

Christophe Portenseigne from the Bouygues Construction Group shared with us his personal story about this megaproject, called Novarka. 33 years ago, reactor #4 exploded and has been confined with an object shelter within six months in 1986. This was done with heroic speed, and it was anticipated that the shelter would only last for 20 – 30 years.  You can read about this project here.

The Novarka project was about creating a shelter for Confinement of the radioactive dust and protection of the existing against external actions (wind, water, snow…) for the next 100 years!

And even necessary, the inside the arch would be a plant where people could work safely on the process of decommissioning the existing contaminated structures. You can read about the full project here at the Novarka website.

What impressed me the most the personal stories of Christophe taking us through some of the massive challenges that need to be solved with innovative thinking. High complexity, a vast number of requirements, many parties, stakeholders involved closed in June 2019. As Christophe mentioned, this was a project to be proud of as it creates a kind of optimism that no matter how big the challenges are, with human ingenuity and effort, we can solve them.

A Model Factory for the Efficient Development of High Performing Vehicles

Eric Landel, expert leader for Numerical Modeling and Simulation at Renault, gave us an interesting insight into an aspect of digitalization that has become very valuable, the connection between design and simulation to develop products, in this case, the Renault CLIO V, as much as possible in the virtual world. You need excellent simulation models to match future reality (and tests). The target of simulation was to get the highest safety test results in the Europe NCAP rating – 5 stars.

The Renault modeling factory implemented a digital loop (below) to ensure that at the end of the design/simulation, a robust design would exist.  Eric mentioned that for the Clio, they did not build a prototype anymore. The first physical tests were done on cars coming from the plant. Despite the investment in simulation software, a considerable saving in crash part over cost before TGA (Tooling Go Ahead).

Combined with the savings, the process has been much faster than before. From 10 weeks for a simulation loop towards 4 weeks. The next target is to reduce this time to 1 week. A real example of digitization and a connected model-based approach.

From virtual prototype to hybrid twin

ESI – their sponsor session Evolving from Virtual Prototype Testing to Hybrid Twin: Challenges & Benefits was an excellent complementary session to the presentation from Renault

PLM, MBSE and Supply chain – challenges and opportunities

Nigel Shaw’s presentation was one of my favorite presentations, as Nigel addressed the same topics that I have been discussing in the past years. His focus was on collaboration between the OEM and supplier with the various aspects of requirements management, configuration management, simulation and the different speeds of PLM (focus on mechanical) and ALM (focus on software)

How can such activities work in a digitally-connected environment instead of a document-based approach?  Nigel looked into the various aspects of existing standards in their domains and their future. There is a direction to MBE (Model-Based Everything) but still topics to consider. See below:

I agree with Nigel – the future is model-based – when will be the issue for the market leaders.

The ISO AP239 ed3 Project and the Through Life Cycle Interoperability Challenge

Yves Baudier from AFNET,  a reference association in France regarding industry digitation, digital threads, and digital processes for Extended Enterprise/Supply chain. All about a digital future and Yves presentation was about the interoperability challenge, mentioning three of my favorite points to consider:

  • Data becoming more and more a strategic asset – as digitalization of Industry and Services, new services enabled by data analytics
  • All engineering domains (from concept design to system end of life) need to develop a data-centric approach (not only model-centric)– An opportunity for PLM to cover the full life-cycle
  • Effectivity and efficiency of data interoperability through the life-cycle is now an essential industry requirement – e.g., “virtual product” and “digital twin” concepts

All the points are crucial for the domain of PLM.

In that context, Yves discussed the evolution of the ISO 10303-239 standard, also known as PLCS. The target with ISO AP239 ed3 is to become the standard for Aerospace and Defense for the full product lifecycle and through this convergence being able to push IT/PLM Vendors to comply – crucial for a digital enterprise

Time for the construction / civil industry

Christophe Castaing, director of digital engineering at Egis, shared with us their solution framework to manage large infrastructure projects by focusing on both the Asset Information (BIM-based) and the collaborative processes between the stakeholders, all based on standards. It was a broad and in-depth presentation – too much to share in a blog post. To conclude (see also Christophe’s slide below) in the construction industry more and more, there is the desire to have a digital twin of a given asset (building/construction), creating the need for standard information models.

Pierre Benning, IT director from Bouygues Public Works gave us an update on the MINnD project. MINnD standing for Modeling INteroperable INformation for sustainable INfrastructures in xD, a French research project dedicated to the deployment of BIM and digital engineering in the infrastructure sector. Where BIM has been starting from the construction industry, there is a need for a similar, digital modeling approach for civil infrastructure. In 2014 Christophe Castaing already reported the activities of the MINnD project – see The weekend after PDT 2014. Now Pierre was updating us on what are the activities for MINnD Season 2 – see below:

As you can see, again, the interest in digital twins for operations and maintenance. Perhaps here, the civil infrastructure industry will be faster than traditional industries because of its enormous value. BIM and GIS reconciliation is a precise topic as many civil infrastructures have a GIS aspect – Road/Train infrastructure for example. The third bullet is evident to me. With digitization and the integration of contractors and suppliers, BIM and PLM will be more-and-more conceptual alike. The big difference still at this moment: BIM has one standard framework where PLM-standards are still not in a consolidation stage.

Digital Transformation for PLM is not an evolution

If you have been following my blog in the past two years, you may have noticed that I am exploring ways to solve the transition from traditional, coordinated PLM processes towards future, connected PLM. In this session, I shared with the audience that digital transformation is disruptive for PLM and requires thinking in two modes.

Thinking in two modes is not what people like, however, organizations can run in two modes. Also, I shared some examples from digital transformation stories that illustrate there was no transformation, either failure or smoke, and mirrors. You can download my presentation via SlideShare here.

Fireplace discussion: Bringing all the Trends Together, What’s next

We closed the day and the conference with a fireplace chat moderated by Dr. Ken Versprille from CIMdata, where we discussed, among other things, the increasing complexity of products and products as a service. We have seen during the sessions from BAE Systems Maritime and Bouygues Construction Group that we can do complex projects, however, when there are competition and time to deliver pressure, we do not manage the project so much, we try to contain the potential risk. It was an interactive fireplace giving us enough thoughts for next year.

Conclusion

Nothing to add to Håkan Kårdén’s closing tweet – I hope to see you next year.