Success stories

Prior to implementing STEP, the process for exchanging data between companies and vendors was considerably slower and more expensive. Custom software for data exchange had to be developed, and data re-entry added to the overall expense of building fighter aircraft. STEP, on the other hand, captures the complexities of fighter aircraft design, manufacture and support in a digital format.

As a result, the company has realized significant savings and process improvements. For example, within engineering design, programs have shown a 10 percent improvement in reliability of data exchange, 10 percent process savings for non-composite parts, and 50 percent process savings for composites. For manufacturing, the projected savings for tool design on CAD/CAM systems is 27 percent, and 38 percent for numerical control CAM systems due to elimination of data re-entry.

Providing accurate solid model conversions quickly and easily

Bristol Aerospace Limited -- a Magellan Aerospace company -- is a leader in Canadian aerospace, operating manufacturing and repair and overhaul facilities in Winnipeg.

Beginning in 1996, Bristol launched a new project to design aircraft structures to customer requirements, including structure interfaces. The company quickly identified the need to share three-dimensional solid modelling data in different formats during the project. Based on past experience, Bristol knew that this would require significant effort. The translators that had been used previously had some shortcomings. These shortcomings could be overcome with some effort, but because of the short schedule to both design and manufacture this product, another approach was needed.

Bristol turned to STEP. Although Bristol was not that familiar with STEP, it was being used experimentally on one program and offered the capabilities and results the company was looking for. In this case, Bristol used STEP to exchange data within its own organization, rather than with another party. This allowed Bristol to exchange data while learning and developing processes associated with this exchange tool.

One of the largest benefits of STEP is the ability to exchange complete assembly-level data. This helped Bristol maintain the association of components to each assembly.

The company continues to explore and learn about STEP and the inherent capabilities of this tool. Bristol also encourages its customers and suppliers to explore the use of STEP.

Manufacturer and suppliers get in STEP

Boeing Commercial Airplane Group and Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce and GE Aircraft Engines use STEP to help verify the form and fit of the parts that integrate the engines and the aircraft in the 777 and 767-400 Extended Range programs. Previously, the companies exchanged large assemblies of solid models using the proprietary data format of Dassault Systeme's Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application (CATIA). The engine companies used expensive and difficult-to- maintain software translators to exchange data between their CAD system and CATIA. They also had to rework the models by hand to prepare them for the exchange process.

Boeing and its engine suppliers have now implemented a new exchange process based on STEP translators offered by the CAD suppliers and verify results by comparing the mass properties (volume and centre of gravity of the solids) between the sending and receiving systems. This new process was developed through the PowerSTEP project, which built on technology developed by the PDES Inc. AeroSTEP pilot project.

Using the new approach, between 80 and 90 percent of the production models exchanged transfer successfully without any intervention. In the remaining models, typically only one of the components will have a problem and old processes and/or manual intervention will solve it. Processes are in place to improve the success rate with the goal of eliminating the old processes and all manual intervention. The exchange process is performed by the end users, not STEP specialists, and is capable of hundreds of exchanges per week.

Getting new products to market

The General Motors (GM) STEP Translation Center helped to overcome some of the barriers that slowed down the pace the company could bring new vehicles to market. The centre, which started production operations in Troy, Michigan, in May 1996, uses STEP to transfer the design of common vehicle models that have been created by various design teams in GM's operating divisions.

Since these divisions have different CAD systems based on their individual engineering requirements, GM has been able to use STEP to replace less effective methods of data exchange. These older methods were barriers to streamlining the process of developing new vehicle models in shorter design cycles.

The centre not only increases cooperation and collaboration among GM divisions but also, and ultimately more significantly, with first-tier suppliers. The ability to digitally collaborate on product designs enables the shortening of the design cycle and reduces the associated costs. The obvious significance is in a more rapid time to market. The first GM divisions using the centre to exchange part designs with suppliers are Delphi Automotive Systems, GM Powertrain and Delco Electronics Corporation. Significantly, these organizations all produce complex and critical components that are used in several GM vehicle families.

Technical data exchange over the Internet

Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems, Northrop Grumman Commercial Aircraft Division, ISS Inc., InterData Access and seven local suppliers are running a pilot project to use STEP standards to share technical data over the Internet. During the STEP Web Integrated Supplier Exchange (STEPwise) pilot, the companies are exchanging formatted and encrypted technical data packages (TDP) using a common data transfer mechanism known as FTP (file transfer protocol). Each data package contains a packing list conforming to the STEP Application Protocol 232 digital data exchange specification.

The main objectives of the project are to integrate PDM systems, to promote common development tools and methodologies, and to develop and document a STEP business case.

Once a subcontractor is satisfied with a TDP and decides to move forward with the job, the company loads, or vaults, the TDP contents into its PDM system. If the TDP to be reviewed relates to a previous TDP package, the PDM system establishes and maintains the relationship with the previous package. This is a critical function that enables the coherent and consistent control over product configuration between prime and subcontractors. One of the main thrusts of the pilot project is to integrate PDM systems using STEP.

The STEPwise pilot team concluded that an individual supplier would save an estimated US$64 000 every year using the new methods developed during the pilot project. In addition, there were a number of benefits to subcontractors, including using a common standards-based approach for multiple customers, possibly leading to the elimination of parallel computing systems. Customer changes were easier to manage and there was quicker receipt/utilization of customer data. In addition, CAD solids were received from customers using STEP.

Managing product change throughout its life cycle

One of the more difficult tasks for any manufacturer is managing product change throughout the product life cycle. This is especially true for an aircraft such as Boeing's C-17. Adding to the complications is the fact that more than half the costs associated with building the 40 airplanes Boeing has committed to making are related to supplier components.

In the case of the C-17, due to the large number of suppliers, Boeing normally would have had to use many point-to-point translators. This would be both a time-consuming and expensive task as well as one with many opportunities for problems. Boeing, Northrop Grumman and InSync set up the C-STAR (C-17 STEP Transfer And Retrieval) project to simplify the coordination and configuration management issues between Boeing's operations in Long Beach and St. Louis, as well as with the many suppliers.

Using the STEP data definition specification and exchange architecture, a computer hardware- and software-neutral file was created that was then made available to any supplier. Several program benefits resulted from this exchange effort, including improved quality of information, operational scheduling and data sharing, as well as reduced costs. Some of these are described below.

Applying STEP and using the specified formats enabled Boeing to eliminate ambiguity in design terminology. This, in turn, meant that the "source" data had consistent definition and were not subject to interpretation (or misinterpretation). As the parts and assemblies moved towards the production floor, the manufacturing process requirements agreed with the original design data. When issues arose, all the parties had access to the same information and could collaborate on design changes more effectively and rapidly. The quality of information has had a direct impact on the quality of the product itself. (Boeing received the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award for the C-17 program.)

The quality of information impacts the operational schedule. Design and work standard modifications (change orders) became processes that were completed overnight rather than in anywhere from three weeks to two months. This improvement, in turn, enabled almost the total elimination of delays in scheduled completion due to incorrect information. Boeing experienced a reduction of thousands of hours of effort in the development of change orders, their release and implementation through production planning, and their release to the assembly floor. This led to reductions not only in the various engineering cycle times but also in the production cycle time.

Cycle time reduction is also cost reduction. The use of STEP on the C-17 program eliminated redundant (duplicating) functions. Most significantly because of the absence of misinterpretation of designs and specifications, there was a major reduction in reworking and scrapping of parts with all the associated costs.

The ultimate objective of the project was to create an environment that could support multiple suppliers with multiple segments of the information that they need to do their work. The C-STAR implementation has also pointed to several potential enhancements to the system. First, the system needs to support the collaborative two-way exchange of information that would empower the supplier base to improve the product. Second, the system must operate at the piece-part level. What has also become obvious to Boeing is that these enhancements can be accomplished in the supplier base through STEP-based applications.

Integrating second- and third-tier suppliers

STEP can be used to support not just the prime contractors and their direct suppliers but also second- and third-tier suppliers. The STAMP (Supply-chain Technologies for Affordable Missile Products) project effectively demonstrates this. STAMP created a collaborative design environment with supplier participation using affordable, extendible technologies linking product data management systems in a secure manner benefiting all supply chain members. Although it is intended to fit into the design phase, STAMP has an impact throughout the entire product life cycle. The processes and tools that Raytheon, ELCAN (a Canadian company) and Boeing North America are using in the STAMP project have broken down the barriers traditionally placed between the customer, the contractor and the supplier.

The contractor first prepares the configuration-controlled product information. This STEP-based information is then made available to the specific supplier through the implementation of the specific business rules regulating access control that were described previously as part of the STEPwise pilot project (see page 20). The supplier can reach through the contractor's "firewall" and access this information. Since it is the real data, and it can be placed directly in the supplier's systems, direct discussions can take place between the contractor and the supplier. The controlled access and the elimination of paper-based information transfer have improved the quality and reduced the cycle time for enhancements to the products.

Within a supply chain, effective coordination among its members yields distinct benefits. Since the PDM systems of the supply chain remain synchronized in real time, the members in the chain are always working to the same configuration. This reduces the opportunity for either fabrication or assembly to use obsolete or superseded parts. It also means the supply chain can operate with an agreed-upon sequence of events and work flows. Members can establish policies together, and the business rules flowing from those policies can be similarly implemented throughout the supply chain. Furthermore, the PDM systems can establish and maintain common functionality. Because STEP provides for a platform of neutral data exchange, the implementation of a change order can be accomplished throughout the chain almost seamlessly.

Streamlining data transfer

General Motors Diesel Division (GMDD) in London, Ontario, and its largest suppliers, including Delco Defense Systems Operations and Caterpillar, use different CAD/CAM systems in the design and manufacture of components and assemblies for Light Armoured Vehicles. The companies estimated that at least 25 percent of design time was spent in non-productive data transfer. STEP offered a standardized way of transferring these data with reduced loss and error.

GMDD believes that STEP will improve the product design process by adding to what both the design engineer knows about manufacturing and what the manufacturing staff know about the design. The company hopes this will promote more concurrent engineering practices throughout the company. As such, the practice will enhance what the design engineer planned and help get it into manufacturing without any dilution of concept. Ideally, this strategy will connect the full range of product life cycle processes commencing with the product concept or the very earliest design reviews.

The business case is a simple one: improving the quality and timeliness of data exchange will enable GMDD to reduce its overall product development costs and delivery lead times. This initiative is also leading GMDD to re-engineer its product design and development processes to make the best use of the entire supply chain's talents during product development. GMDD is also now in the process of developing new supplier qualification criteria that address technology issues such as electronic data interchange capability, data security and CAD system interfaces and standards. STEP experience may also be considered as part of the evaluation criteria for future supplier alliances.

The project produced the following benefits and improvements for GMDD:

• reusability of product design data
• sharing and exchanging of design data
• data availability over the product's life cycle
• integrity of data throughout all of the product's life cycle phases
• improved multiparticipant configuration management throughout the supply chain
• ability to leverage the work of many different groups both internally and externally
• ability to detect potential conflicts among product design activities early on and eliminate them.

In the future, GMDD expects to experience improved work flow, greater productivity and accelerated development throughout its product design and development processes. It is hopeful that in the next two to three years most GMDD projects will have adopted STEP, and it is envisioned that economies of scale will be achieved across those activities that are using STEP.

(Adapted from a case study conducted within the "Connectedness and Manufacturing" project of the Manufacturing and Processing Technologies Branch of Industry Canada.)

STEP advances in Europe

To evaluate the suitability of neutral data exchange standards for the European space industry, the European Space Agency/European Space Technology and Research Centre investigated STEP Application Protocols that could be used for routine CAD data exchange between companies involved in European space projects. In particular, the study team looked at AP-203 (configuration controlled design) and AP-214 (core data for automotive mechanical design processes) because of their broad support and maturity.

The study team comprised Alenia Aerospazio and OHB System GmbH, along with ProSTEP GmbH, which pioneered the development and distribution of STEP within Europe. Alenia's Space Division is a typical prime contractor for European Space Agency programs. The company uses CATIA for design, and requires that its suppliers do also. OHB System is a typical medium-sized aerospace company, and has several subcontracts with Alenia. OHB used, until two years ago, AutoCad, but moved to Unigraphics to achieve higher productivity and three-dimensional capability. ProSTEP was the consultant on this study and performed the data exchange with AP-214. Three CAD models, two created with Unigraphics and one with CATIA, which reflected the typical data structure used in the space industry and consisted of solid and non-solid data, were selected for the study. The models were transferred into AP-203 and AP-214 files and sent via the Internet from one company to the other, opened in the second CAD format, modified, and transferred through STEP and the Internet back to the originator. The study team members closely monitored this process and evaluated any deficiencies and proposed a "best practice" to minimize problems and optimize the transfer of models.

The study demonstrated that the two Application Protocols can be used effectively to exchange CAD geometry data between different CAD systems. During the study, data exchange was performed daily, with up to several hundred megabytes per week being transferred, with almost 100 percent success. As a result, the study team concluded that AP-203 and AP-214 are sufficiently mature to be introduced as a standard for CAD data exchange among European space companies. In the meantime, a working group promoted by the European Space Agency has been created to establish STEP exchange standards within the European Cooperation for Space Standardization initiative, which will use the results of this study as the basis for product data exchange guidelines.