The book in front of you is important for several reasons. Obviously the book is an artifact of Sogeti’s relentless drive to work “smarter” and to enhance productivity. The High Tech activity of Sogeti is passionately involved in the digital support and guidance of engineering and manufacturing activities. We are privileged partners in a number of key processes and innovations in many industries. The combination of simulation and digital manufacturing is the unique way chosen by Sogeti to address the new PLM challenges that companies are continually facing. At Sogeti High Tech, some 3,000 highly qualified engineers combine their expertise and experience to help clients improve their product and production quality, improve time-to-market and resolve environmental issues, so that they can meet their operational targets and innovation programs. As such, this book is a testament to Sogeti’s passion for technology, which drives our efforts to help clients get the best out of their technology investments. This is especially important in these times of economic turmoil, globalization and fierce competition.
The second reason why this book is worth reading is because it addresses the new wave of optimization that will drive a lot of change in the years to come. Every industry is required to constantly enhance productivity. That is what has driven economic growth for the last century and created the tremendous increase in the standard of living in western society. However, global competition is fiercer than ever. Those who are able to reduce costs by structural means and improve productivity, win. Those who are not, lose. It is that simple. Working “smarter” is the solution. This book discusses digital manufacturing and simulation as two key approaches for working “smarter” that have the potential to significantly enhance productivity and thereby strengthen the competitive position of an organization. This book offers you the possibility of increasing your understanding of the change that is underway, so that you will be better able to anticipate and decide how this change will impact your organization.
The third reason why you should take the time to read this book is that it explains how the next wave of manufacturing optimization is bridging the chasm between the physical “real” world and the “virtual” world that only exists in our computers. Being able to design, test, simulate, redesign and change a product in the virtual world, before it physically exists, means that huge “real” savings are possible, as this book will demonstrate. By virtually designing and analyzing the process by which a complex 10 product, like an automobile or aircraft, is manufactured, further gains are possible. Product and process are designed concurrently and can be constantly adjusted to find the right optimum. All before even a first prototype has been physically created!
The fourth and final reason why this book will inspire you is that it identifies the potential for a global, digital model of your product, existing only in virtual space, to generate new ways of collaboration between engineers or between supplier and customer. Creating a fully digital model of a product is now within reach, enhancing the collaboration between engineers and making it possible to test and simulate that model in a truly integrated way. This will undoubtedly make these engineers much more productive and enable them to develop better products in a significantly shorter timeframe. But that is not where it ends! The same model can be used to communicate with clients, to evaluate their response to products that have not yet been manufactured. Subsequently, products can be adjusted before they have been manufactured, to meet client preferences, thus taking some of the risk out of innovation and involving the consumer in the development of the product. Sophisticated 3-D models are emerging as a very promising platform for this new type of collaboration and open innovation.
This book will undoubtedly open your organization’s eyes and ears to the potential of digital manufacturing, simulation and open innovation. However, for this to happen you must set aside some time to read the book. What I can promise you is that it will be well worth your investment.
Luc-François Salvador
Chairman and CEO of Sogeti
For manufacturers, global competition has become increasingly fierce due to recent economic declines. Companies should embrace this situation as an opportunity and even a directive to rethink the way that products are developed and manufactured. Research carried out by the Aberdeen Group shows that over 85 percent of product costs are incurred in the pre-manufacturing phase, product design being the single greatest expense. Another finding is that there are three main reasons for development failure:
This means that innovation is imperative; not only at the technology level, but in every aspect of the product development cycle. Further research by Proudfoot Consulting demonstrates that 37 percent of time spent at work is unproductive, 75 percent of this part being due to the many difficulties companies experience around their operational management system. The major barrier to improving productivity is related to efficient planning and controls, which have declined over the last 4 years to arrive at 46 percent.
Both surveys lead to the conclusion that companies should focus more on effective means to reduce manufacturing costs and to better plan their activities. Digital manufacturing and simulation are the main enablers for obtaining such benefits. Digital manufacturing is the capability to define and simulate exactly how a product will be built in a global collaborative environment. Digital manufacturing allows production engineering staff access to product design at an early stage and also provides a clear view of the production environment. This results in better planning and validation of manufacture processes before a product is built.
Simulation is key to many business operations, and its application is still developing at a rapid pace. Today simulation ranks amongst the highest valued business techniques, and is supported by modern mathematics, by information technology and by computer graphics, to create a 100 percent lifelike experience.
By being able to reliably plan, define and simulate the events of any conceivable scenario – from materials and weather conditions to complex manufacturing and business processes – collaborative production solutions can be worked out at a speed 8 that was hitherto unknown. The combination of traditional computer-aided design simulations with business process flows has now begun to merge into a new form of digital manufacturing.
The book you are about to read covers these exciting possibilities and their accompanying challenges. Modern digital manufacturing and simulation offer new opportunities to efficiently and effectively conduct profitable business in ways that, even a few years ago, could only have been dreamt of. In the near future, lifelike experience and extended digital manufacturing will be at the very heart of any state-of-the-art manufacturing industry.
Philippe Charlès
CEO DELMIA– Dassault Systemes Group
