DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM FOR ENGINEERING

 

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about sharing data across the variousprimary engineering communities of practice (COPs), and the software tools used bythem. This paper provides our perceptions of some of the various digital COP domainsand the typical software tools they use. It also offers some thoughts on the subset ofshared data used to synchronize across these life cycle engineering COPs.

THE PRIMARY LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING COMMUNITIES

We would suggest there are five primary engineering COPs that perform work acrossthe life cycle of equipment-centric systems. An integrated system-of-systems view -with an associated shared/agreed data set – between these COPs is needed to ensurenot only that the equipment assets meet each customers needs, but also that thesupport for these systems ensures they are sustained within the tailored and correctsupport solutions for each customer/asset.

We suggest these primary life cycle engineering COPs are:

• System Engineering – which defines, analyzes, and manages complex systems across their lifecycle. Focuses on requirements, architecture, interfaces, and integration.

• Design Engineering – which develops physical or digital designs of components and systems including mechanical, electrical, and software aspects

• Production Engineering – which translates designs into manufacturable processes, focusing on tooling, workflows, and quality assurance Configuration Management – which controls product configuration baselines, versions, changes, and documentation across the lifecycle.

• Integrated Life Cycle Support – which ensures systems are supportable and maintainable throughout their lifecycle, including designing and managing support solutions encompassing a wide range of support processes and resources.

THE DIGITAL & DATA CHALLENGE

Fundamental to successful and integrated engineering of such a system-of-systems is the synchronization of common data across the whole engineering workspace, and throughout the full life cycle for each customer – from early concepts through design and build phases to in-service use and even in disposal. However, as depicted below, we need to recognize that the shared common engineering data is only the top layer of a very complex digital engineering ecosystem needed to perform and capture the work within each engineering COP.

Each COP has a wide range of software tools and data they use to complete their work, but they also rely on data originating and developed with the other COP “silos”. Each COP is a very large engineering work “thinking box” which in some respects needs to connect across to the “thinking” in other COPs..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Configuration Management can and does play a key role in synchronizing common engineering data, by, for example, mapping System Engineering requirements, Design Engineering drawings and Integrated Life Cycle Support data to a common configuration item structure and the associated evolving approved baselines.

As depicted below, across the life cycle, the work within each engineering COP shouldcontribute to a common engineering digital thread, enabled by some of the primarytypes of software shown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTES:

1. New acronyms are MES (Manufacturing Execution System), CAD (ComputerAided Design), DFM (Design for Manufacturing), DFA (Design for Assembly),ECO (Engineering Change Order), CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing), R&M(Reliability and Maintainability), LSAR (Logistics Support Analysis Record), PLM(Product Lifecycle Management), PDM (Product Data Management), CAE(Computer Aided Engineering), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).

2. During the Sustainment stage, additional engineering changes may drive therecycling/reworking of engineering activity shown in earlier stages, to create andintegrate digital content for any changed datasets across all engineering COPs.

3. The ILS COP should repeatedly re-optimize the holistic “support solution” duringthe Sustainment stage.

 

LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING SOFTWARE ENABLERS

The table below offers a glimpse at some of the software enablers used by these five engineering COPs across the life cycle. The identified software tools should be considered indicative and do not represent a complete list. Rather, they highlight thediverse types of software tools needed to enable the work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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TOWARDS AN ENGINEERING SW ECOSYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

 

Our review suggests that a software architecture for life cycle should include the following:

1. Engineering Shared Data Layer - An integrating top layer to share commondata created by the engineering program of work across the five COPs. Thislayer would be centered on:a. Requirements – tools for top-down management from effective SystemEngineering of requirements decomposition across and to the COPs;synching requirements with actions/product/data produced within eachCOP.b. Configuration Management – tools to manage mapping to configurationitems of approved requirements, design/production engineering andILS data, managed as evolving baselines across the life cycle, makinguse of PLM and PDM tools

2. Design Engineering Layer – tools to enable design analyses and creation ofdesign data, such as MBSE models, CAD designs and specifications. Someapproved data is mapped into the shared data layer for each approved baseline.

3. Production Engineering Layer - tools to enable manufacturing analyses andcreation of production data, such as CAM, MES and QMS tools. Some approveddata is mapped into the shared data layer baselines.

4. ILS Engineering Layer - tools to enable supportability/sustainment analyses andcreation of support data, such as LSAR, MBPS, Reliability, Publicationsauthoring and Training development tools. Some approved data is mapped intothe shared data layer baselines.

 

All of these engineering-centric layers are enabled by the associated:

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1. Enterprise Integration Layer – tools to enable integration of engineering datawith other enterprise software, such as API and interface tools. These mayinterface from the shared data layer as well as directly from the otherengineering layers. They may integrate within a single enterprise/organization, orout to related enterprises who are stakeholders in the equipment system-of-systems across the life cycle.

2. Enterprise Resource Planning Layer – tools that use engineering data toexecute enterprise activities and provide feedback data across the life cycle,such as ERP and maintenance/inventory management tools.

3. User Interaction Layer – tools that enable and simplify user interactions, suchas web portals, visualizations and workflow dashboards.

 

CONCLUSION

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We have tried to present a picture of the overall engineering digital ecosystem, centredon five primary engineering COPs within a life cycle equipment system-of-systems. As shown, there are a very broad range of software enablers and of engineering data objects that enable and define the overall ecosystem.

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In many cases, the limited shared data layer is only mapping and representing a small portion of the overall ecosystem dataset, with most of the data held within the separate COPs as they analyze, develop and eventually share approved data objects. Thus, the shared data layer is primarily a presentation of data objects sourced from the COPs.

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However, the mapping of the diverse approved data objects to a set of agreed common configuration baselines is a critical component of effective engineering integration.These baselines will evolve across the life cycle. Peeking out of our COP “silos” to understand the related engineering activities and the data sources should help create a more integrated engineering effort, and a more accurate related digital ecosystem.

 

SUPPORTING INFORMATION

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Some supporting information is shown below
EXAMPLE SOFTWARE BY TYPE:
- IBM DOORS Next, Jama Connect, Polarion – Requirements Management
- Cameo Systems Modeler, Rhapsody, Enterprise Architect – MBSE Tools

- SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, Creo – CAD Tools

- Altium Designer, Mentor Graphics, Zuken – Electrical Design

- ANSYS, Abaqus, MATLAB/Simulink – Simulation & Analysis

- PTC Windchill, Siemens Teamcenter, ENOVIA – PLM/PDM Systems

- Siemens Opcenter, Rockwell FactoryTalk – MES

- Mastercam, NX CAM, CATIA DELMIA – CAM & Digital Manufacturing

- Tecnomatix, FlexSim – Process Simulation

- Minitab – Quality Management

- Git, Subversion, ClearCase – Version Control

- Jira, ServiceNow – Change Management

- SharePoint, OpenText – Document Control

- Reliasoft, Isograph – Reliability & Maintainability
- GenS, OmegaPS, Eagle, Slicwave – LSAR Database
- R4i, EPS, HiCo, Arbortext, Oxygen XML – S1000D Authoring
- Analyzer, Opus Suite (SIMLOX, OPUS10), SEER-H – MBPS tools and Lifecycle Cost Analysis
- Unity, Unreal Engine – Training & Simulation