CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
25 October 2012
Product News
SAP Brings Enterprise Mobility and 3-D Visualization to Aerospace Manufacturing
SAP AG today announced a series of new and updated products to help transform the SAP for Aerospace & Defense (SAP for A&D) solution portfolio. With these updates, SAP is accelerating the ability to provide new business value to customers in the A&D industry. The announcement was made at the Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing Summit, held in Las Vegas from October 25-26, 2012.
In an environment of constant change that also requires strict regulatory compliance, A&D companies can struggle to keep engineering, manufacturing and the supply chain working together. Many still utilize paper, text and 2-D drawings as the interface for technicians, supervisors and inspectors to execute their work. This approach can be inefficient and costly to keep pace in accelerating global markets. Globalization also means that A&D companies are bringing new production facilities online in non-English-speaking regions around the world, creating a global supply chain with international partners.
"In this economy, budget pressures are increasing, requiring us to think, act and execute differently when it comes to operations, while staying focused on delivering the highest-quality products at the least possible cost," said John Patrick Batache, director, Lifecycle Systems and Support, Northrup Grumman. "Due to less rework and more efficient operations, delivery times have been reduced by 15 to 20 percent for work where the software is used."
SAP enables engineering, manufacturing and supply chain departments to execute integrated end-to-end processes collaboratively in order to help optimize manufacturing processes, cut costs and improve product quality. For example, frequent engineering changes can be consistently and efficiently implemented in manufacturing to minimize production and supply chain disruptions and improve production throughput. With the introduction of mobile technology and 3-D product visualization, SAP is transforming the way information is delivered to the point-of-work on the shop floor. Technicians can receive assigned work orders, view up-to-date 3-D visual work instructions, collect required production data and complete work directly on their mobile tablet — reducing waste and improving quality.
"We are helping A&D companies apply the principles of Lean and Six Sigma to information delivery," said Magnus Bjorendahl, global head, Aerospace and Defense Business Unit, SAP. "With the delivery of information on mobile devices, technicians are less frequently pulled away from their work areas, no longer forced to climb in and out of large assemblies just to update IT systems. The early adopters of these solutions have cited improved worker safety as an additional benefit."
By integrating 3-D product visualization directly into SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards software and through the SAP HANA platform, SAP has retooled the way manufacturing operations can be analyzed. A&D companies can use a 3-D model of the aircraft or assembly as navigation structure or canvas when analyzing the vast amount of operational data. Through this, they can identify additional waste and anticipate production disruptions before they occur. Multi-language capability enables deployment in non-English speaking A&D hubs such as Russia, China and France. The use of 3-D graphics helps reduce and in some cases eliminate text-based work instruction documentation, thereby helping to both reduce errors due to communication barriers and lower documentation costs.
For more information, visit SAP for Aerospace & Defense page on sap.com and the SAP Newsroom.
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