Abstract

The digitization of development processes is advancing at a rapid pace across all industries. Large amounts of relevant data for the product and its development are generated, especially in the simulation areas and on the test benches. Companies are thus faced with the challenge of managing the accumulating data volumes in a structured, secure and traceable manner (for customers and audits) and defining a corresponding IT solution concept. Simulation data management tools (SPDM) are specialized to cope with these requirements and thus establishing a continuous and (as far as possible) automated process chain from model setup, to simulation, and to a reporting of the results. Due to the digitalization of development, the introduction of an SPDM is therefore an absolutely necessary investment – so the theory. But often the investment is not made, why? In the course of the successful implementation of a SPDM in the context of virtual product development, some potential benefits can be raised and the own competitiveness can be secured. In the lecture, a calculation method for determining the potential quantitative benefits will be presented from :em AG's project experience from numerous SPDM implementation projects and substantiated with concrete figures as a calculation basis. Further qualitative benefit effects can be expected in the adjacent areas and will also be presented. They definitely lead to the improvement of competitiveness, fulfillment of customer requirements and thus to an increase in customer satisfaction. It will be shown that the investment in a SPDM has often a short payback period. The successful investment for an SPDM depends on the area of application and the respective initial situation. In order to introduce a SPDM and to select an appropriate tool, the concrete goals should first be defined and the scope for the tool needs to be defined. This becomes crucial for the later project success and the benefit assessment. Workshops are then held with the stakeholders to provide clarity on the roadmap and to jointly work out and quantify the concrete potentials and benefits of the new system. The next step is to involve the user base in the form of key users. Use cases and individual, representative workflows are analyzed and, based on this, the IT architecture and interfaces are defined. This information serves as the basis for a fit/gap analysis with regard to the additional investments required to introduce SPDM. These investments are compared with the expected benefits. In most cases, it will be shown that it is worthwhile to introduce a SPDM supported by the :em AG´s methodology.