Dassault Systemes/Deneb with Chrysler Redefine the Envelope for Digital Manufacturing.

TROY, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 1998--

Concurrent optimization of product, manufacturing processes

and resources to save time and money

In the development program of a vehicle, 75% of the total program cost is committed at a very early stage, when the concept is frozen. On the other hand, only 20 to 25% of the expenditure is on engineering and development. The rest is tooling and production equipment. This is where time and money can now be saved. Any wrong decision will have an impact on each unit produced; on capital immobilization; on tooling equipment; on production line acceleration; and so on. The first question derived from this situation became: "how to simulate the process that will have to be implemented to produce this design option?" This is the purpose of Digital Manufacturing.

Digital Manufacturing was born in 1995 in the car industry when the Chrysler Corporation with Dassault Systemes initiated the project " DMAPS " (Digital Manufacturing Production System), a fully computerized end-to-end product and process management system which enables the auto maker to design, construct and run a "virtual manufacturing process".

Thanks to this strong partnership, Dassault Systemes with Deneb Robotics, Inc. its digital manufacturing company, provides today all the necessary tools for Digital Enterprise Support. It offers a revolutionary environment where Product, Processes and Resources can be modeled, simulated and optimized simultaneously. The benefits can certainly be measured in terms of money and time savings, but also through higher quality of the products.

Digital product definition:

The live digital mock-up 

To simulate a complete product in a digital way, it is first necessary to create a computerized model of all components that define the main characteristics. CATIA allows the design of products, with all their components and technological relationships, as well as engineering views and assembly structures including positions and tolerances.

Anyone involved in the design stage can easily access the up-to- date and accurate CATIA digital mock-up to better understand how parts relate to each other and it is then possible to use the work so far achieved by all team members as background references for design of other parts. With the 4D Navigator, CATIA also provides tools for Digital Product Synthesis such as clash and clearance detection, and automatically generates optimized paths in the very intricate environments.

In order to avoid re-inventing the wheel for each new project, and seize the best design approaches, CATIA digital mock-up contains all the product geometrical and technological information. It is now possible to associate knowledge to the different components, and once best practices have been identified, to incorporate them into the software to automate design and processes, for a better definition of how the product is to be manufactured. Manufacturing staff improving their processes can feed the information back to design which in turn will better incorporate production constraints and so on. Because the manufacturing process is simulated at early product definition, the product is defined for the lowest production cost.

The Digital Manufacturing Production System (DMAPS) which creates and manages the process data enables progress from digital mock- up to digital manufacturing. How does DMAPS work?

Digital resources definition, allocation and simulation:

The devices to manufacture the product

Next stage of the common data model is the modelisation and storage of all the resources necessary to manufacture the product. These resources instanciate the manufacturing technologies available in the company. They are chosen within a pre-defined catalog, which represents the current technological "toolbox" of the manufacturer. Such a physical representation allows the performance of "what if?" analysis on the digital mock-up. If a design option requires specific production means that are not available in the company (ex: not enough robots available), it must be identified early on. The option will be carried on if the company is ready to invest in additional means or another option will be researched if the additional cost is to high.

Using similar tools in CATIA Solutions, the workcell where some part of this product will be manufactured or assembled, along with the tooling are described, with their mechanical and structural definitions. The workcell is created from a catalog of devices and company specific know-how. Tooling is concurrently engineered and linked to both product and processes definition. When all the workcells are created, the engineer links them together and can then work on a virtual model of the production line, which will implement this manufacturing process.

All this production equipment can be modelized in the context of the plant. The virtual plant is a fabulous communications tool. Anyone is able to zoom in on a model of the plant, and get a close-up of the production line, go and see the operators, the machines, the components of the product. With a maximum of integration into a single system, the user is able to estimate the impact of a modification on a product, the production processes, costs and in the plant.

Digitalization of the process:

The link between product and resources

As soon as product and resources design have started, the process engineer begins working on creating and validating the process for manufacturing and assembling the product in the right production environment. This process incorporates the link between the product and production devices for a realistic simulation.

Within DMAPS, users graphically represent the manufacturing process flow with the different product components and the operations that are used to manufacture and assemble these components. The process engineer retrieves the pertinent part of the product or the assembly to work on. He also has access to libraries of standard processes and activities. The engineer defines the order in which the components are to be assembled, or what activities are needed to manufacture the product, through the sequence of tasks to be performed. The actions defined in the process are assigned to the various workcells, and are also linked to the elements of the product involved on those actions. At any time the process engineer can select a symbol in the process, and by clicking on it, get all the information on the relevant parts and related manufacturing resources. This illustrates the DMAPS link between product, processes and resources.

The process describes the set of activities performed to manufacture a product, taking into account product definition and allocated resources. One single process may work on different configurations or types of product, implementing branching conditions and activities for specific types of product, sequencing information, conditions for starting and executing the activities in a simulation of the real shop floor.

Using QUEST, Deneb Robotics, Inc.'s flexible object-based discrete event simulation tool, the user can accurately simulate and determine optimal facility layout, throughput, costs and process flow. Both 2D schematic and physical models are quickly created through push button interfaces, dialog boxes and extensive libraries. Real-time interaction enables modification of model variables and viewing parameters during runs.

Building upon the DMAPS process information, complementary software solutions such as Rockwell Entreprise Wide Control System, automatically generate programming of control code to operate each workcell on the plant floor. Workcell control logic is thus defined much earlier, prior to the construction of the toolings. The validation of control code in a virtual world rather than on the plant floor greatly reduce workcell verification, thus shortening the launch time of manufacturing facilities.

Digital simulation:

The validation of the manufacturing processes

The final point stage of DMAPS is the integration of the product information, the production processes and the manufacturing resources including off-line programming of automated workcells and definition of the necessary cycle time optimization. Digital simulation validates and optimizes the manufacturing processes before the first part is even produced. This simulation starts as soon as possible in the development cycle.

Combining the three Deneb Robotics Inc. products, IGRIP and Ultra for robotic off-line programming, Virtual NC for program validation, and Deneb/ERGO for simulation of ergonomics and human motion tasks analysis, the user can easily validate and optimize the production environment.

IGRIP(R) and Ultra products are robotic simulation tools for design, evaluation, and off-line programming of robotic workcells. Incorporating real world robotic and peripheral equipment, motion attributes, kinematics, dynamics and I/O logic, IGRIP and Ultra products produce extremely accurate simulations and programs. Virtual NC(R) emulates machine tools, controllers and material removal. NC programs are proven off-line without taking valuable machine tools out of production. Deneb/ERGO(TM) is a human motion and task analysis tool to rapidly evaluate multiple scenarios. In Deneb/ERGO, human motion is rapidly prototyped or "captured" into the virtual environment, enabling quick and precise analysis of reach, lift, posture, cycle time, visibility and motion. -0- Dassault Systemes is a worldwide recognized leader in CAx and PDM II markets. CATIA-CADAM Solutions with Deneb, the digital manufacturing company, address the CAD/CAM/CAE process-centric market. Through a unique strategic partnership, CATIA-CADAM Solutions are marketed, distributed and supported by IBM worldwide. This unique partnership is now extended to PDM II solutions. SolidWorks, a Dassault Systemes company, addresses the CAD design-centric market, with its flagship native Windows NT product and its dedicated distribution channel. In the network-computing environments, the Java-based CATweb product line provides a graphical window into native enterprise product data. In the PDM II market, with its ENOVIA company, Dassault Systemes is focusing on delivering a new multi-CAD collaborative and innovative environment for virtual product and process modeling and management across the extended enterprise. -0- Dassault Systemes press releases are available at http://www.dsweb.com

CATIA is a registered trademark of Dassault Systemes SA. CADAM is a registered trademark of Dassault Systemes of America. IGRIP, Ultra family, ENVISION, Deneb/ERGO, Deneb/Assembly, QUEST and Virtual NC are registered trademarks of Deneb.

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