Bombardier Aerospace Meets Rapid Market Challenges with DS V5 PLM

By DE Editors

Innovation is at the heart of Bombardier Aerospace, the third largest civil aircraft manufacturer in the world and a leading supplier of business, regional and amphibious aircraft. The company leads the pack with its ground-breaking aerospace product development in the 50, 70, and 90-passenger regional carrier market.

Bombardier Business Aircraft offers five models of narrow-body aircraft marketed under the Learjet brand,  with four wide-body business jets under the Challenger and Global Express brands.

Bombardier must meet the intense challenge of rapid changes in the airline and business jet markets. This means producing innovative aircraft at an even faster rate, while maintaining the high quality of their products. Additionally, aircraft designs must sometimes be rapidly repurposed from one program application to another to respond to such sudden market shifts.

To achieve this, the company must tightly coordinate activities of its global product development network,  comprised of internal teams and global development partners. These teams need tools and data to collaborate with both upstream disciplines like design and product planning as well as downstream divisions such as sales and marketing,  manufacturing, and after-sale services.

Bombardier Aerospace selected Dassault Systèmes (Paris,France) Version 5 Product Lifecycle Management Solutions (DS V5 PLM) and the IBM PLM Solutions team to help them integrate their global engineering organization.

As Bombardier had been a CATIA customer for two decades, choosing V5 PLM was a natural decision for them.

Tools that Bombardier found could meet this vast challenge are CATIA V5, ENOVIA V5 PLM and DELMIA.  At Bombardier, CATIA V5 serves as the centerpiece of new product definition methods as its 3D model is the central repository for all product information.  Extending the power of CATIA V5 is ENOVIA VPLM, which enables globally dispersed teams to collaborate anytime and anywhere, and avoid unnecessary rework or errors. Using ENOVIA, each collaborator can access up-to-date product information with ease. DELMIA brings to the table the improved efficiency of Bombardier’s global manufacturing operations. The product allows users to evaluate designs quickly within the context of a part, large assembly or entire product portfolio.

Bombardier has implemented V5 PLM on a program-by-program basis within the test integration department which serves as a laboratory for innovative design and manufacturing methods. Because any implementation must respond to continuous change very efficiently, it also serves as a template for the entire organization.

Some significant changes that Bombardier has enjoyed include:

1. Time savings in the test integration group – Within two hours the group was able to rescale a wind tunnel model used to accommodate an internal motor that simulates engine flows.
2.  The CATIA V5 model was used to calculate buoyancy on the wing of a new jetliner by providing the volume and density information for each of the wing’s components, reducing the calculation time to four hours, a process that would have previously taken 80 hours to complete,  and reaping a 95% time savings.
3. The custom interior of each Global Express business jet is designed from the bottom up incorporating many one-of-a-kind components such as cabinetry, custom upholstery and other features. ENOVIA VPLM is used to manage design information at the Bombardier Completion Center Montreal, reducing the time to market by 80%, eliminating the time it takes to find data and providing only the most accurate data.
4. DELMIA software is used by engineers to simulate what-if scenarios for  manufacturing operations for a proposed new production facility. The 3D model facilitated a 50% reduction in factory size compared to its previous size and helps engineers identify bottlenecks in the design. Potential savings are estimated at US$9 million.  

Future plans include the goal of extending the benefits of V5 PLM from the test integration department throughout the extended enterprise,  on a system-by-system, program-by-program basis. Going forward, Bombardier Aerospace plans a full integration with V5 PLM solutions for all of its global design teams, global design and manufacturing partners, suppliers and the full range of after-sales activities.

The successes reported by Bombardier in various areas of calculation, multiple design iterations of existing designs, customization and locating design information, serve as a notable example of what can be accomplished in the integration of a global engineering organization.

Dassault Systèmes
Suresnes Cedex,France
Woodland Hills,CA
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