Getting in deeper with Jim Roche

In 2012, CIMdata took the decision to leverage our more than 30 years of PLM consulting, research, and education experience to develop specialized offerings and services for the specific needs of a few key industries. The Aerospace & Defense Industry Practice was announced at that time. Two years later the A&D PLM Action Group was formed.

The group was formed in February of 2014 with four charter members – Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, and Gulfstream. Over the years the Group has grown to ten members, with Rolls-Royce Engines, GE Aviation, Dassault Aviation, SAFRAN, Pratt & Whitney, and Mitsubishi joining. The group is an association of aerospace & defense companies within CIMdata’s Community. The Group’s mission is to function as a PLM advocacy group for setting the direction for the Aerospace & Defense industry on PLM-related topics that matter to the members; promoting common industry processes and practices between the members and with their supply chain partners; defining requirements for PLM-related capabilities; communicating with a unified voice to PLM solution providers; and sponsoring research on member-prioritized industry and technology topics.

Multiple View Bill of Materials is one of the Group’s research topics. In the early days, the Group identified 12 topics of high interest, but could only afford to invest in two. Each year the members review progress, adjust priorities, and decide on go forward investment. In 2016, the Group modified their strategy to include staffing and funding of cross-company teams of domain experts. The Group is currently funding four project work streams. Multi-view BOM is a top priority topic and has enjoyed four years of continuous investment.

Today’s PLM tools allow for multiple views of the BOM and product structures. This offers each participant in the value stream a level of independence to optimize configuration for performance within their domain. The multi-view BOM concept must facilitate a consistent representation of the product across its lifecycle from Design Engineering to Manufacturing Engineering, Procurement, Certification, and postproduction services. Previous work by the Multi-view BOM project team explored the dichotomy between single BOM and multi-view BOM approaches, analyzed current state “pain points,” and, within this context, proposed an architectural solution with supporting architectural principles. The team subsequently developed a set of use cases that illustrate BOM Restructuring and Accountability requirements and are currently collaborating with PLM software providers to perform benchmark demonstrations of these use cases on current and under development PLM solutions. This presentation reports on the benchmark objectives, approach, execution timeline, plan for reporting results, and the Group’s plan for institutionalizing the outcome.

From the Group’s inception, members have consciously adopted the posture of collegial cooperation with PLM solution providers and have followed a defined process for engagement at each of four stages in progression of their project workstreams. PLM solution providers are informed when the Group decides to invest in a topic and invited to participate in initial research, they are invited to review all project team direction statements and position papers prior to finalization and publication, and, when appropriate, are invited to participate in project workshops and, in this case, benchmark demonstrations.