Expanded consulting services partnership strengthens the ability to deliver broad and deep industry expertise in PLM and systems modeling & simulation that enable industrial enterprises, as well as solution providers, to successfully address evolving market opportunities and challenges.
Ann Arbor, Michigan, 25 January 2019—CIMdata, Inc., the leading global Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) strategic management consulting and research firm and SMS_ThinkTank™, an industry-leading firm providing systems modeling and simulation (SMS) expertise to develop and continuously improve engineering best practices for innovative product development, today announced the expansion of their two-year old strategic partnership. This partnership will help manufacturers and PLM/MBSE (Model-Based Systems Engineering) /S&A (Simulation & Analysis) solution providers successfully address the evolving challenges associated with the digital design, development, and lifecycle operations of innovative products, processes, and cyber-physical systems, as well as the associated digital transformation of businesses.
Significant global product development trends are making multi-domain, multi-physics, multi-scale, systems-level virtual prototyping, and performance simulation capabilities an indispensable element in enabling the digital-lead transformation to model-driven product development, especially for complex cyber-physical systems. These major business trends include:
- Digitalization of enterprise business and engineering functions, including product development and manufacturing, as well as in-service operations
- Design-for-sustainability and energy efficiency, green/conservation/re-use—the full circular economy
- Smart systems being driven by the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0, including physics-based “digital twins” with “augmented human intelligence” enabled by AI (Artificial Intelligence)/machine learning/deep learning and advanced data analytics
- Mass customization driven by software features that create key market differentiators
- Design-for-purpose materials from the molecular level up and new manufacturing methods (e.g., additive manufacturing/3D printing)
- Products delivered as services—an on-going innovation and utility business model that require manufacturers to re-think their product design, service, and obsolescence strategies
The complexity of cyber-physical systems across all industries is increasing exponentially due to embedded software and electronics components that account for an ever-increasing amount of the product value and competitive differentiation for industry-leading manufacturing companies. For many OEMs and suppliers to remain competitive, innovation is a key differentiator and simulation-driven systems development best practices in organization, process, and technology must be adopted to address the complex performance requirements and user-friendly features requested by customers. Tightly integrating the efforts of CIMdata and the SMS_ThinkTank™ will strengthen each organization’s ability to deliver leading industry-specific consulting expertise required to help manufacturers, as well as supporting solution providers, address these rapidly evolving market challenges and achieve the goals of Model-Based Design, Model-Based Systems Engineering, and Digital Transformation initiatives. Specifically, this partnership will help manufacturers and solution providers in defining application user stories, industry best practices and solution requirements to develop comprehensive implementation roadmaps with measurable ROI. These plans must account for the organizational process change and maturity necessary to achieve sustainable innovation via the implementation of state-of-the-art model-based engineering approaches in product development, manufacturing, and sustainment.
The SMS_ThinkTank™ partnership activity will primarily interact with and actively support CIMdata's Simulation-Driven System Development (SDSD) Consulting Practice that is headed up by Mr. Donald Tolle. In the expanded partnership, Mr. Tolle will act as the primary business development contact for both organizations and projects will be jointly quoted and staffed, as appropriate for the customer and project scope.
“There is a cross-industry recognition that the advancement of systems modeling and simulation is paramount to remaining competitive in a world of ever more complex products and processes. Companies need to consider how they can best implement changes in organization, process, and technology rather than focus on tools to solve the major challenges resulting from existing and future market demands. This expanded partnership will help companies to enable a greater level of control over unexpected engineering disruptions that challenge them on a daily basis.” said Edward Ladzinski, CEO and Co-Founder of the SMS_ThinkTank™ LLC.
“We are excited to expand our partnership with the SMS_ThinkTank™. The firm’s principals bring deep and broad industry expertise in the application of systems modeling and simulation technologies,” said Peter Bilello, President, CIMdata, Inc. “Our current and future customers will benefit significantly from this consulting services partnership.”
“The engineered systems and society’s requirements are producing new levels of complexity that are driven by focusing much more on the sustainability of nature and business. Hybridization, electrification, autonomous transportation, connected and interactive physical systems play a central role in our modern environment and thus, challenge businesses worldwide. By expanding our strategic partnership, we will not only provide our customers globally with the leading expertise to master these challenges but also provide a much more focused source for specific content development and deployment in this space,” said Frank Popielas, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of the SMS_ThinkTank™ LLC.
