HP Lends Wings to Airbus Data Challenge

Airbus is an innovative company. It is one of the major aircraft manufacturers in the market for large commercial airliners. It designs, builds, sells and supports commercial aircraft with a capacity of 100 seats or more.

Airbus boasts one of the most modern and comprehensive airliner families in the world. More than 2,500 Airbus aircraft are currently in operation with 189 operators in all regions of the globe. Airbus reached a turnover of US$17.2 billion in 2000 and had booked more than 4,300 orders by the end of July 2001. It produces more than one aircraft every working day and this rate keeps increasing. Impressive! But, that is not all that is increasing - so is the amount of data and the design complexity.

The engineering task at Airbus is large, complex, and utilizes shared data spread over multiple regions. They design with some of the industry's finest applications: Dassault Systemes CATIA and ENOVIAvpm. But underneath it all, Airbus had a big challenge. Sharing big engineering files across different sites in a highly secure environment is not an easy task. However, at the same time making sure that designers don't waste time by working with the wrong version of a component makes it even more challenging. The assignment was this: enable engineers in Hamburg Germany to co-design with engineers in Bremen, more than100km away.

When accessing data from a remote site, the performance was sub-optimal. Users typically had to wait longer than they preferred, causing productivity losses. To avoid the security risk of having engineers hide their files on local drives instead of saving them on the central repository, which could lead to problems with data consistency and make it difficult for IT to consistently back up the environment, Airbus took action.

They considered several options and ultimately chose to do multi-site replication with custom software from Hewlett-Packard Consulting (HPC). This solution was chosen because HPC proved to Airbus that they could deliver on their promise: enable two geographically distributed sites to carry the same data, and allow simultaneous work. The IT replication was designed to allow fast local access, and to completely restore one site with data from the other in case of disaster. It included:

• Synchronous replication that prevents dual check-out of a part
• Asynchronous replication of file data
• Transparent replication features for the user
• Minimal response time impact
• WAN breakdowns handling, extensive logging, and easy administration
• Prevention of database inconsistencies

The effort took approximately three months and lots of innovation. Today at Airbus, the solution has been in place for one year without any downtime.

Wilfried Rieckmann from Airbus will share their story and answer questions about the IT Replication project at COE Spring 2002.

Digital Product Synthesis DPC and the Enhancement Request Process

Some time ago, COE and Dassault Systemes Management requested a re-engineering of the Development Planning Council (DPC) Process for enhancement requests. An electronic tool, named WEBCOS-SER was put in place and deployed. The WEBCOS-SER provides for online collection of the enhancement requests from the DPC sessions and Dassault domain leaders have the commitment to answer all individual requests entered. All COE members can submit requirements for the products through the COE DPC working sessions. The requirements are collected by the chairperson and discussed with the DS Development manager and IBM Domain leader. After COE, the chairperson enters the requirements in the database. The DS Domain Leader analyses and discusses the request and the IBM Domain Leader has complete visibility to the discussion on WEBCOS-SER. The DS development manager then closes the requirement by including it in the product or rejecting it. The DPC chairperson makes sure the solution is valid and accepts closure of the enhancement request.

Frederique Slansky, administrator of the tool provided extensive support to get the enhancement process working efficiently for Digital Product Synthesis DPC. After working past the usual (or maybe not so usual) access problems, hardware incompatibilities and firewall issues I can say that the DPS committee has 16 enhancements online. Seven of the enhancements have been implemented, one is in work, and eight are open submit or new drafts. My old paper documentation, email, and Microsoft word data is a thing of the past. I can now use the actual WEBCOS-SER database on my laptap during COE and I have up to the minute status. This is a true success story for COE and Dassault and I encourage more use of the COE SER database as well as the addition of future enhancements to make the process even more stream-lined.

Do want to be part of the DS development team?
The primary objective of the COE Development Planning Council (DPC) is to assure that the CATIA users' needs for enhanced functionality are properly communicated to the Dassault Systemes developers. This includes Enhancement Requests as well as Top Strategic Requirements. Dassault's Strategic Enhancement Request (SER) system has been an integral part of the COE DPC process since the spring of 2000.

Dassault's SER system was implemented to gather, prioritize and track enhancement requests originating from multiple sources including the American, European and Japanese user organizations. This process was intended to complement, rather than replace, other processes for submitting and tracking enhancement requests such as the Program Enhancement Request (PER) process and Customer Validation Internal (CVI) process. COE has been a major force behind the development and deployment of Dassault's SER system.

Enhancement requests must be submitted to COE in writing. Verbal requests identified during a DPC session at a COE conference will be written on the appropriate Enhancement Request form and submitted by the DPC chairperson. Enhancement requests may also be submitted electronically at any time using the COE Web site. Enhancement requests submitted via the Web site are emailed to the appropriate DPC chairperson.

Once the chairperson has received the request, it is reviewed by the DPC and the IBM and Dassault Domain Managers for completeness and appropriateness. If the request is incomplete, the DPC chairperson will attempt to obtain more information from the submitter before forwarding the request to Dassault. If the request is not appropriate for the SER system, the request will be rejected and the submitter will be advised as to why it was rejected and how they might proceed. For example, if the request is believed to be a defect, the submitter will directed to the Problem Management System (PMR) established by IBM and Dassault.

Once accepted by the DPC, the DPC will develop a consensus as to how many users or companies will benefit from the enhancement and how big a benefit will be realized. These criteria will be used to establish the SER priority. Next, the DPC chairperson enters the request into Dassault's SER database and informs the submitter that his or her request has been submitted to Dassault.

Once the request has been entered in to the SER database, the Dassault Domain Leader will either 1) request more information from the DPC chairperson (status = "in work"), 2) close the request as "refused" (e.g. not compatible with planned product development), 3) close the request as "implemented", but not yet be generally available, or 4) accept the request (status = "capitalized"). If the request is accepted, the Dassault Domain Leader will generate a "public" SER which is visible by others with access to the SER database, but does not have as much detail as the original SER and change the status to "under analysis". The Dassault Domain Leader will also determine if the work is planned (status = "accepted planned" or "accepted unplanned") and identify when the enhancement will be implemented. When coding is complete, the Dassault Domain Manager will change the status to "implemented."

The DPC chairperson has access to the SER database and is responsible for reporting the status of each SER within his or her domain during subsequent COE conferences. Once the requested enhancement becomes generally available, the DPC is expected to review the enhancement and determine if the requirement has been met. If it has, the DPC chairperson will change the status in the Dassault SER database to "closed." If the requirement has not been met, the DPC will discuss the situation with the Dassault Domain Leader and arrive at an appropriate course of action.

The COE organization and Dassault have agreed on metrics to measure how well the SER process is working. These metrics will be reported during a general session at each conference.

Where is the Opportunity Tomorrow?
By David Ballard, BorgWarner

Who wants to be a part of that statistic? You know the one: 5.8 percent of workers in the United States are unemployed due to economic slowdowns. Manufacturing orders are declining, housing starts are down, and the lights shining on dreams of recreational travel, prosperity, and security seem to be burning out for those folks. But the reality of it is you are a part of that statistic. If you are reading this, then you are probably on the 94.2 percent side of the work force that is still employed. While often the folks without a job have very little control over what has happened, perhaps over the long term, they could have done something to help ensure longevity and staying power in the workforce. Attitude and agility are key elements that can enhance an individual's knowledge and experience, which is ultimately what the employer is buying from you.

Attitude is the most readily recognizable trait an individual has. Think about the people that you work around, and identify the traits that make them enjoyable to work with, or can irritate people just by walking into a room. More often, the people that project positive attitudes are those identified as likeable and more desirable to associate with. Attitude challenged folks are like a rain shower at a picnic. How does agility come into play? Examine how people react to change, particularly process changes, software changes, and market trends. Workers that resist change and choose activities in their comfort zone, affect their agility, which in turn affects a person's value as an asset to the company.

What is the thought process behind management decisions to cut back the work force? Obviously from a micro perspective they are cutting costs. From a macro perspective, they are proactively seeing a future failure, a roadblock. By doing cutbacks, they are actually planning for success. Choose this approach when developing your career, whether you are just beginning, or nearing the end of it. Pick out those roadblocks and avoid them and you will be successful in the end.

Surround yourself with successful people, with positive attitudes; learn from those showing agility and foresight, and plan to succeed. COE can provide the networking and contacts necessary for you to understand the market trends, the future, and naturally to be successful.