STEP, XML, and UML: Complementary Technologies
Joshua Lubell, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Russell Peak, Georgia Institute of Technology, Vijay Srinivasan, IBM Corporation, Stephen Waterbury, NASA
Abstract
The Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) contains the high-quality information models needed for electronic business solutions based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML). However, this information is represented using languages that are unfamiliar to most application developers. This paper discusses efforts underway to make STEP information models available in universal formats familiar to most business application developers: specifically XML and the Unified Modeling Language™ (UML®). We also present a vision and roadmap for future STEP integration with XML and UML.
Introduction
Many businesses are turning to business-to-consumer and business-to-business solutions based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) [1] to reduce transaction costs, open new markets and better serve their customers. These solutions require basic information about products. Missing from these solutions is a rigorous definition of the business information concerning the design, manufacture and support of these goods. To ensure this business data’s longevity, it should be represented using a language defined by an open standard and not dependent on any particular software application. In this paper we discuss three open standards we believe are useful for representing product information: the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) [2] [3], XML, and the Unified Modeling Language™ (UML®) [4].
Types of Standards
What do we mean by an “open standard” in the context of technical information management? Open standards are one of at least three types of standards used in industry, as described below.
- Open Standards relate to the general idea of interoperability and integration — an agreement that people make so that products and systems made by different parties can work together. Open standards are not software applications; they are only specifications explaining how information should look. Open standards are developed in a quasi-democratic industry group. There is a tremendous variation in the membership rules of processes for these organizations, and they range from official organizations like the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO (http://www.iso.ch), to small vertical industry groups. STEP is an example of an open standard. It is developed by ISO, with the help of industrial consortia such as PDES, Inc. (http://pdesinc.aticorp.org) and ProSTEP (http://www.prostep.de/en/). XML and UML are also open standards, even though they are not ISO standards.
- Industry Standards are technologies that are commonly used, but are not open or democratically managed by a group of users. The Java™ technology is a well known example of an industry standard. There are a number of companies involved in the Java Community Process (http://jcp.org), but one company wields a tremendous amount of control over the process. Because one vendor exerts this extreme amount of control over the technology, Java is classified as an industry standard, not an open standard.
- De facto Standards are in wide use because of their value or association with other technologies, and not necessarily because they were produced by a standards organization. A commercial software product may be a de facto standard because of its wide adoption. The Microsoft Windows operating system is a de facto standard for personal computers. The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) [5] was initially a de facto standard, because of its broad use in Web services, though it has now been formalized as an open standard in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). De facto standard status does not mean that there are no alternatives to a particular technology; such alternatives are just rarely used.
In addition to the three types of standards mentioned above, there is open source software. Open source software is not necessarily an open standard. Open source refers to software source code that is available to the general public and does not have licensing restrictions that limit use, modification or redistribution. The GNU/Linux operating system (http://www.linux.org) and Eclipse software development environment (http://www.eclipse.org) are examples of open source technologies. Some companies frequently release software as open source when they want to lower the barrier of entry for certain technologies. The XML4J (XML for Java) XML parser (http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/xml4j) and the Apache project’s SOAP implementation (http://ws.apache.org/soap/) are two such examples.
Gunnebo Johnson: Hooked on SMARTEAM
Leading crane hook assembly manufacturer synchronizes engineering and ERP data and meets customer demand for rapid project turnaround with SMARTEAM .
Gunnebo Johnson, a leading manufacturer of crane hook assemblies, works on 800 new designs every year and constantly faces customer demand for rapid turnaround.
“Turnaround is very important,” said Ken Sellers, Vice President of Engineering for Gunnebo Johnson. “Our product tends to be the last component our customers think about, so they are always scrambling at the last minute and we are always under the gun to turn projects around quickly.” “We do custom engineered products with six to eight week delivery,” added Gary McBurney, Gunnebo Johnson’s Chief Engineer. “So we have to design, procure the materials, build it, and ship it in just a few weeks. If we can access up-to-date revisions quickly and leverage existing designs, that saves us engineering time and manufacturing time — it filters through the organization and saves everyone effort.” By delivering a fast and efficient method to access existing designs and other project documents, and share those documents with authorized users throughout the company, SMARTEAM helps streamline the engineering process and get quality designs out the door more quickly.
The Challenges
Product quality is a major issue for Gunnebo Johnson because crane hook assemblies are used in safety critical operations. To ensure quality and minimize turnaround time so as to meet small delivery windows, Gunnebo Johnson needed a data management solution that would increase productivity and accuracy across the organization.
Challenge: Handling 3D-CAD Files
“Our customers want 3D views for their service manuals, and they want a certain quality,” said Sellers. “We must have 3D-CAD to fit into their world.” Prior to SMARTEAM, Gunnebo Johnson used a homegrown electronic document management system, but it could not handle 3D-CAD drawings. “We have about a thousand solid model parts in 3D-CAD that are not usable because they were not maintained properly in the right management system,” Sellers added.
Challenge: Managing Design Revisions
With so many designs in process and thousands of design changes per year, proper revision management is essential. Gunnebo Johnson had to enter data twice for all document revision levels — in the document manager and in SAP — because the two systems were not integrated. “While most revisions were accurate, there were enough cases that were out of sync, and it was causing difficulty,” McBurney recalled. “Pushing the wrong revision of an assembly or component to the workshop is very expensive. In the past, we have made the wrong revision level of component, got it to the shop and it didn’t work. It cost us in lost materials, man-hours and turnaround time.”
Challenge: Locating Previous Designs and Specs
“Prior to SMARTEAM, locating previous designs was a real problem for us,” said Sellers. “We had paper files, and we were not able to manage that very well.” The paper drawings were stored in project files, which would eventually be taken to off-site storage, where they could take several days to retrieve. “We do not want to reinvent the wheel,” Sellers explained. “We worked the design out already and we built it. We know that it can be manufactured and works in the field. If we can find that design and leverage it, we are better off — but we can see that before SMARTEAM we have designed many products over again.”
Another problem was searching design descriptions. “If you have 50,000 BOMs, how do you find the features in that bill?” asked Sellers. “You can only say so much in a description.” In addition to their own designs, Gunnebo Johnson has to keep track of customer specifications. Each customer has a unique way of designating their products, and Gunnebo Johnson relied on a paper spreadsheet cross-reference which was hard to maintain and keep current.
The Solution
SMARTEAM was introduced at Gunnebo Johnson to replace the document manager and provide direct integration with SAP through SMARTEAM-Gateway, Biztalk 2002 and SMARTEAM SAP Adapter. About 70,000 data records were loaded from SAP to SMARTEAM, as well as numerous records from the legacy document management system. Communication between SMARTEAM and SAP goes both ways. While Gateway automatically receives new SAP material order and scheduling records and creates corresponding items in SMARTEAM, engineering document records and document to material links are simultaneously pushed from SMARTEAM to SAP. This seamless bi-directional integration ensures full synchronization between engineering and manufacturing bills of materials, helping Gunnebo Johnson optimize smooth order fulfillment and avoid errors and shortages.
Managing Revisions Accurately
SMARTEAM controls revisions and the status of documents. The web-based SMARTEAM-Navigator tool is deployed so that the entire company can have fingertip access to view the most up-to-date revisions of engineering files. Industrial Engineering, Purchasing, Estimating, Customer Service, and Quality departments can all access the system for the engineering documents they need right away. SMARTEAM's direct SAP integration ensures data consistency between Gunnebo Johnson’s engineering and manufacturing departments, guaranteeing that the shop floor users access the most up-to-date revision of a design. “Without a product like SMARTEAM, keeping all these revisions in order, so the rest of the company is reacting to the right documents, would be a nightmare,” Sellers confirmed.
Handling 3D-CAD Effectively
As Gunnebo Johnson migrates toward the use of 3DCAD, SMARTEAM supports the management of 3D assembly models created in Autodesk® Mechanical Desktop®. “Not everyone can do 3D, and not everyone can do it on a timely basis. It is a competitive advantage for us to be able to do it quickly and correctly,” said Mark Monteiro, VP, International Marketing. “Anybody that considers getting into 3D-CAD must have a management system like SMARTEAM,” Sellers added.
Leveraging Existing Designs
“For Gunnebo Johnson, 25% of our business is designed and built to order, so it is very important that the process goes smoothly and quickly,” said Sellers. “Before, we would have to order the files from off-site storage, and it could take several days to get to the file,” McBurney added. “With SMARTEAM, it only takes a few seconds to find the design.
Gunnebo Johnson’s new design and design change processes are initiated in the ERP system. Meanwhile, Gateway generates parallel processes in SMARTEAM and automatically updates the appropriate items and documents. When engineering’s product release and release check processes are automatically executed in SMARTEAM, Gateway pushes the document records to SAP and links them to the appropriate SAP materials. The tight integration eliminates errors and redundancy and maintains one definitive product history. In addition, SMARTEAM helps Gunnebo Johnson keep track of customer documents that relate to designs, providing a comprehensive cross-reference that was not available before, bridging the gap between customer reference numbers and unrelated Gunnebo Johnson part numbers. Streamlining the Process for Higher Productivity
“SMARTEAM helps free up everyone in Engineering, where effort was being wasted using intellectual power to sync revision levels and descriptions between systems,” said McBurney. “Now that power can be used more productively.”
>> print documents as needed, Gunnebo Johnson saves time for Engineering and enables other departments to respond rapidly to customer needs. “We have the ability to generate documents and certificates ourselves at a moment’s notice,” said Kent Daniel, Quality Assurance Manager for Gunnebo Johnson. “With a manual tool it can take several days, but with SMARTEAM we can deliver those documents in minutes.” “SMARTEAM reduces the load on Engineering and is more timely. People need information right at that moment and if they have to wait for Engineering to respond, it can delay an entire project… Given the variety of CAD designs we do, without a system like SMARTEAM to manage electronic files, I can’t imagine how we would do it. We would be lost,” sums up Ken Sellers, Vice President of Engineering.
SMARTEAM allows Gunnebo Johnson to streamline the process and phase out paper files. By providing direct access to users throughout the company to view and
Christopher P. Sciacca
Strategic Communications, Manager
IBM Product Lifecycle Management
Sennheiser Makes Beautiful Music With PLM Solutions From IBM and Dassault Systèmes
TransCAT GmbH & Co., a division of Rand Worldwide and an IBM Business Partner, announced that Sennheiser Electronic GmbH & Co. KG, a leading manufacturer of top-quality, custom-made products in all areas of sound recording, transmission and reproduction, has selected an IBM Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Industry Solution for the electronics industry.
The 1,600-employee, mid-sized company has been synonymous with innovation for almost 60 years. To continue its reign as market leader, Sennheiser looked at PLM to provide an integrated, open and easy to use product development environment. After a competitive benchmark Sennheiser selected IBM's Integrated Mechanical Product Development for Electronics (IMPD) Industry Solution, based on CATIA V5, for 3D digital product definition and SMARTEAM, for collaborative product data and lifecycle management both developed by Dassault Systèmes. TransCAT will provide the project development, implementation, training and consulting.
The IMPD solution links the applications and disciplines involved in mechanical product development and enables manufacturers to reuse valuable corporate intellectual property. By maintaining the product's design history across all stages of development and unifying the often fragmented approach to product development in the E&E industry, the IMPD solution enables electronics companies to shorten time to market and focus on innovation. "The PLM solutions from IBM and Dassault Systèmes complement our existing software infrastructure," said Dr. Heinrich Esser, President of Research & Development, Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG. "We expect a return on investment of less than two years." CATIA V5 will be used for mechanical design, functionality of surfaces and the integration between the electrical design and photorealistic visualizations, used in marketing and sales. SMARTEAM will be used throughout the company to manage all of the product data including designs, product manuals and prototype test results.
TransCAT and IBM developed together a high-performance concept based on the PLM solutions CATIA and SMARTEAM that fulfils the demands of the electronic industry concerning development and integration," said Rolf Wiedemann, Director of Sales and Business Development, TransCAT GmbH & Co. KG. For almost 60 years, the name Sennheiser has stood for top-quality products and tailor-made solutions in all areas of sound recording, transmission and reproduction. Microphones and headphones of every kind, RF transmission equipment ranging from vocals microphones to complete systems for musicals, conference and visitor guidance systems, products for the hearing impaired and headsets for aviation—Sennheiser products have become firmly established at the pinnacle of audio technology throughout the world.
Headquartered in Wedemark near Hanover, Germany, the medium-sized company employs about 1,600 people throughout the world. Sennheiser has a total of four production sites in Germany, Ireland and the USA. Its worldwide network of sales subsidiaries and long-term sales partners established over many years ensure that the company remains close to its customers and always has its finger on the pulse of the market. A large research and development department in Germany and an R&D office in California guarantee that the company maintains the technical lead that it has always enjoyed. Founded in 1987, TransCAT GmbH & Co. KG is a fully-owned subsidiary of RAND Worldwide. Both a solutions provider and a systems integrator across the entire corporate IT spectrum, TransCAT acts as a systems retailer for the PLM solutions of Dassault and IBM. Its core expertise lies in the CATIA / SMARTEAM / ENOVIA solutions and in server/storage/system management concepts. The range of services offered by the 170-strong company helps its clients shorten product development times, increase profitability and cut IT costs. The client base includes well-known firms from the mechanical engineering and plant construction sectors, aviation, the automotive industry and manufacturers of consumer goods.
Christopher P. Sciacca
Strategic Communications, Manager
IBM Product Lifecycle Management
Seaway Designs from Bow to Stern Virtually with PLM Solutions from IBM and Dassault Systemes
World’s leading boat development firm to launch new Shipman 63 model designed with CATIA V5 ahead of schedule
IBM and Dassault Systèmes announced that Seaway, the world’s leading boating design, engineering and tooling company, has chosen their Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions to standardize its PLM platform for managing boat projects from conception to retirement.
Seaway chose IBM PLM Solutions CATIA V5, the world’s leading 3D product-development application, and SMARTEAM, for collaborative product data and lifecycle management, both developed by Dassault Systemes. The company has already completely designed the new Shipman 63, a descendant of the popular Shipman 50, in CATIA V5 and will launch it several months earlier than previously estimated.
With a global workforce of 110, Seaway offers its clients, both major European shipyards and smaller sail and power boat builders, a unique “one-stop shopping” service that includes everything from the initial 3D design stages to the engineering and manufacturing of production ready molds.
To offer this service efficiently, Seaway required an open PLM solution that could manage multiple computer-aided-design (CAD) formats including UGS and related product data. The environment also needed to be flexible enough to modify projects on demand to match the requests of customers and constraints of suppliers.
“One of the characteristics of Seaway is our constant research into new technologies,” said Luca Bonetto, manager Design Office, Seaway. “This has enabled us to develop a highly advanced product lifecycle environment ready to meet the ever increasing demands of the shipyards we work with. IBM and Dassault Systèmes are now providing us with the most advanced and flexible software tools on the market.”
“Openness and support of industry standards are pillars of Dassault Systèmes’ development strategy,” said Denis Senpéré, vice-president, PLM Europe, Dassault Systèmes. “Seaway’s easy addition of CATIA V5 and SMARTEAM with its existing PLM toolset is proof of the benefits of open solutions that enable companies to better connect, integrate and automate.”
Seaway will extend CATIA V5 to all the phases of design including the computer numerical control (CNC) processes. It will leverage SMARTEAM and its robust customization capabilities to rapidly provide a PLM solution that meets the needs of Seaway and its current and potential customers, providing a universal tool for exchanging data and ideas and collaborating with partners all over the world. SMARTEAM will also provide a highly usable graphical interface to customers, facilitating their remote, Internet-based access to relevant drawings and 3D models.
About The Seaway Group
Seaway is the world's leading boat development company, based on the J&J design studio created in 1983 by Jernej and Japec Jakopin. We provide design, engineering and tooling to production sailboat and powerboat builders. Seaway has a unique 110-strong team of international talent in designers, engineers and boatbuilders, a full range of most up-to-date 3D design, engineering, CAD/CAM, 5-axes milling and boatbuilding software and hardware joined to unmatched experience and tradition with production boatbuilders worldwide. In the past 20 years we served 34 production boatbuilders from 17 countries. We created over 170 projects which gave life to more than 34000 sailboat and powerboats and yachts. Our projects received 20 Boat of the Year Awards in EU, Germany, France, UK and USA. A range of components for the sailboat and powerboat industry is designed and manufactured in the Components division. We are currently world's largest producer of sailboat rudders with bearings. More information about Seaway and its services can be found at http://www.seaway.si.
Christopher P. Sciacca
Strategic Communications, Manager
IBM Product Lifecycle Management
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