COPS October Meeting Minutes

The minutes for the CATIA Operators of Puget Sound October meeting are available.
http://www.engineering.com/content/COPS/minutes_october.htm

Minutes for November 2004 CATIA Operators Exchange of North Texas, Regional User Group Meeting

Part Solutions
Mr. Brady Teter with PARTsolutions provided a very informative presentation of their Electronic Parts Catalog Management software. This software has the unique ability to deliver to multiple CAD platforms from a single database. The parts a created in each CAD system with all functionality and history of a part created in that system. Also demonstrated was the Intelligent Parts Management System which is a central point of to manage components and standard parts. PARTsolutions integrates directly into the workflow and closes gaps between processes. It links the different data bases of CAD- and ERP-systems to allow access to relevant information. Check it out at: http://www.part-solutions.com.

Rillos Engineering
Mr. Kaae Rillos of Rillos Engineering demonstrated a Web Based CATIA V5 training program which allows V5 instruction without V5 CATIA being loaded. The student trains for the selected course at work or at home over the web. This allows them to familiarize themselves with the functional and graphical interface of CATIA V5 in a low cost environment. The student then signs up at lab locations to do the same familiar course practiced over the web but using live CATIA V5 with the associated Parts and Products. An instructor is provided to assist them if/when questions arise. Labs can also be held on-site at a company's facilities. Courses are currently offered in; Intro to CATIA V5, Assembly Design Fundamentals, V5 Sketcher and Auto-Constraints, Part Design Fundamentals, V5 Part & Product Integration, V5 Drafting Fundamentals and V5 Wireframe Fundamentals. Mr. Rillos generously offered 500 points of FREE training to meeting attendees. For an overview of this program go to: http://www.2xdt.com.

COE Overview
Summaries and reviews of the September COE in Wichita, Kansas were presented by Tim Thompson of Bell Helicopter, Bruce Hyden of Vought and Troy Martin of Bell Helicopter. Tim showed two presentation on changes and improvements in the NC tools (sorry about the technical difficulties Tim), Bruce covered the area of Model Based definition and Troy covered Electrical and the General Session which featured Space Shuttle Astronaut, Sam Gemar. These reviews were a brief glimpse of all that occurs at the Aerospace Industry COE.

Round Table
New to the COE-NT was a “Round Table” discussion on “Model Based Definition or Drawingless Design and Manufacturing.” Our thanks to the tabled members of the forum; Robert Leslie of Vought Aircraft, Don Coon of Bell Helicopter, Larry McNay of Lockheed Martin, Lee Harmon of IBM, Larry Corder of IBM, and Brian Kleve of INCAT. This discussion revolved around industry concerns on getting rid of “Paper” drawing and using the CAD model and it’s associated data as the build to item description.

Elections
Two of our committee members’ terms are up at the end of 2004. Sandra Nowack of Lockheed and Alan Richbourg of Vought. As per our by-laws an election was held and the replacement committee members Richard Guillot and Ann Arra were chosen. Here is a list of current committee members:

Pat Ehmann, Bell Helicopter
pehmann@bellhelicopter.textron.com
817-280-8768
2 year term (to Jan 2006)

Tom Schneider, Vought Aircraft
schneto@voughtaircraft.com
972-946-3843
2 year term (to Jan 2006)

Rick Zimmerman, Lockheed Martin Aero
rick.zimmerman@lmco.com
817-777-3655
2 year term (to Jan 2006)

Richard Guillot, Former Lockheed Martin
flyin_g@hotmail.com
817-714-3749
2 year term (to Jan 2007)

Ann Arra, Bell Helicopter
aarra@bellhelicopter.textron.com
817-280-8924
2 year term (to Jan 2007)

Summary
It was a very successful Users Group Meeting. Attendance was about 40 people from local industry and students. According to the sign in sheet user interest for future meetings is as follows:

A special thanks to Tarrant County College, Technology Department for the use of the facility and all of their help, to Weatherford College for sponsoring the morning break, to Bell Helicopter for sponsoring lunch and to Invention Machine for sponsoring the afternoon break, your contributions add so much to our meetings.

Mark your calendars for next year’s meetings: February 18, May 13 and November 11.

GLACOE Elects Fecek as President

Mr. Mike Fecek was elected as the new president of Great Lakes Catia Operators Exchange (GLACOE), which is the local chapter of COE in the Great Lakes region. Mr. Fecek is succeeding Mr. Robert MacKool, who led the organization for the prior three years. Mr. Fecek indicated he plans to expand GLACOE’s membership and focus on addressing the technical and business needs of the regional Catia community.

Mr. Mike Fecek has an extensive background with over 30 years of manufacturing and automotive experience. His early engineering career was spent at Chrysler and General Motors developing computer simulation programs for the sheet metal stamping process for large body panels. He also worked for IBM as a senior automotive specialist and led the CATIA implementation team at American Motors Corporation in the mid 1980’s. He founded FAB Consulting, Inc., which was the first CATIA training company in North America. As its President and CEO for 15 years, he expanded the company into a full service business partner, offering hardware, software, and implementation and support services to its customers. In the late 90’s, Mr. Fecek merged FAB with DECS to form INCAT and was its North American president until 1999. He subsequently started a private consulting practice and developed a web based java product focused on enterprise level workflow and program management for automotive suppliers. Currently, Mr. Fecek is the Vice President of Virtual Services and is responsible for the company’s technical operations and lean product development initiatives for its clients. Mike earned his bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cleveland State University and holds an MBA from Oakland University.

Want to find a local user group? Interested in creating a local user group? Discover how COE is reaching out to support regional user groups (RUG). For more information on acting locally, see http://www.coe.org/resources/other.cfm and get involved.