IEN: How much progress do you see toward integrating the different segments of product development -- design, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain? What major hurdles remain, and how can they be addressed?

Clambaneva: This is actually much further along than many realize. Managing the entire lifecycle of a product across all the organizational functions and in particular, the integration between design, engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain, is fundamentally the backbone of PLM. When IBM and Dassault Systemes coined PLM in June 2000, we described it as the linkages between PDM, ERP, SCM, and CRM, and the "glue" pulling all these individual enterprise systems together with a common PLM architecture that is flexible, dynamic, and based on open standards. This PLM architecture consists of IBM middleware, WebSphere, the adopted solution of all of the major software vendors including Dassault Systemes, Siebel, JD Edwards, and SAP. So when customers begin to link the systems, the underlying connectors (standard API development) are already embedded in the software code. But there is still much to be done. And IBM is doing its part by participating in user organizations like STEP, open standards groups, and by partnering with key vendors, such as Engineous and IDe, making it easier for customers to collaborate.

IEN: How can/will collaborative manufacturing management strategies address problems related to integrating design with the industrial enterprise?

Clambaneva: Some of the pain points of industrial companies include: the need to reduce cycle time for design projects and for bidding on new projects, increasing product complexity and international standards and rapid change in customers needs. PLM addresses all of these problems by enabling global teams to share and test out new ideas in real time virtually, without having to build expensive prototypes. As products become more complex and as more design or manufacturing is outsourced, PLM will play a crucial role in keeping OEMs, suppliers, and customers on the same page. And for smaller businesses that don't have large IT budgets, IBM is delivering industry-specific solutions to solve these problems with an offering called PLM Express, with pricing starting at $15,000. PLM Express is built to address these pains for particular industrial enterprises with less than 1000 employees.

IEN: Will Product Lifecycle Management play an increased role in design? Why/Why not?

Clambaneva: Yes, it already is. PLM is a strategic approach to creating and managing a company's product-related intellectual capital, from its initial conception to retirement. 3D design is a crucial component of this approach. What it does to effect design can be summarized in the following bullets:

• Enables more innovative products: Since everything is virtual, engineers can take a more creative approach in product development. They can test the waters and try out new ideas virtually without costing the company the expense of prototypes. This in turn brings more innovative products to market that customers want, at the right time and at the right price.


• Shortens the design cycle time while concurrently developing better quality products, with less downtime: Since PLM closes the loop between concept and retirement, all of the data that a product builds in the field doesn't go unused. For example, if an automobile over a period of 5 years had the same problem in 15% of the same models, a PLM environment will pass that data back to engineering, so when the next model of that auto is designed they can address the problem that occurred in the first model.


• Better prices: Another benefit of PLM is parts reuse. A major issue with manufacturers is that for every product design, no matter what the product does, engineers would rather recreate the part instead of searching for hours to reuse a design from one of their colleagues. Having an integrated approach enables engineers to use data management tools like SMARTEAM (see screen shot, above) to instantly find the common part they are looking for, which they can then apply to their design. Parts reuse along with the elimination of costly mistakes and prototypes leads to a better-priced product. Plus, companies can purchase the parts in greater quantities and benefit from discounts.

IEN: What innovations are in store for users of CAD?

Clambaneva: Knowledge-based Automation -- Workforce reductions and natural attrition can result in the loss of acquired knowledge. Knowledgeware solutions can help you retain valuable knowledge assets and avoid bottlenecks with shared access to data and information and automate the processes to reduce development time and costs. CATIA v5, the leading computer design application from IBM and Dassault Systemes, offers a number of knowledgeware modules to help retain this information.

Functional Modeling -- Based on semantic features that capture design intent and are independent of order of creation, the new CATIA-Functional Molded Part product enables Electronics and Consumer Goods plastic parts designers to concentrate on what they want to model and not how to model it. This provides unbelievable productivity gains while taking full advantage of the native integration within the CATIA v5 product design solution.

Collaborative Peer to Peer Design -- Just like it reads, this eliminates the walls that split design teams that are based all around the world, giving them a virtual sandbox to mesh ideas together for truly innovative products. It also breaks down the walls of the different functional silos within the company so that mechanical, electrical, systems engineering, manufacturing, and analysis processes use one integrated collaborative environment, stimulating innovation.

IEN: How can security issues (managed firewalls, spam control, managed virus scanning, etc.) be resolved? What about communication issues (wireless and other protocols, etc.)?

Clambaneva: For many product manufacturers, their core competency lies in product development, not security, spam control, and thwarting hackers. To address these complex IT issues many companies are beginning to outsource these departments to service providers, such as IBM Business Consulting Services, where it is our core competency to solve customers' security needs. Specifically, these are a few services we offer:

• Managed Firewall: Experienced IBM professionals install, configure, test, monitor, and manage your dedicated devices (either IBM- or customer-owned) in your hosting environment, helping you achieve the highest level of protection around the clock for your Internet applications.


• Virus Alert Services: Designed to provide a one-stop source for the information and support you need to respond quickly to malicious code threats, freeing you from the time-consuming task of combing through journals and news sources to uncover virus-related information.


• Ethical Hacking: IBM security consultants can help your organization to minimize the risk of a hacker causing damage to your network by performing a range of intrusion tests using the same techniques known to be used by the most common hackers. Their findings can help you circumvent actual loss by identifying weaknesses and recommending specific security measures that can protect information and processes.


• IBM Tivoli: enables an IT organization to reduce the total cost of ownership and improve service levels of the IT infrastructure. Tivoli systems management software helps traditional enterprises and e-businesses worldwide manage security, storage, performance and availability, and configuration and operations.

IEN: Where are the R & D hot spots?

Clambaneva: IBM's fabled Research Labs around the world are working on a number of solutions to address collaborative design and PLM. Specifically, the benefits of grid computing for crash simulation are a top priority right now. Also, pervasive computing has a lot of potential in enabling maintenance workers to take PLM data into the field to service products faster.

IEN: What role will rapid prototyping play in collaborative design?

Clambaneva: Rapid prototyping already plays a significant role in collaborative design. No matter how realistic your 3D design is, some customers are still going to want to touch and feel your design before they purchase it. The designers will want to be able to take advantage of the instant feedback of their customers and "morph the design" on the demand of their customers. This is why CATIA v5 has Stereolithography and CNC modules that can program most rapid prototyping machines without any extra translations, saving engineers both time and costs.