STEP from a Life Cycle Point of View - The PLCS Initiative

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STEP from a Life Cycle Point of View - The
PLCS Initiative

• NASA STEP for Aerospace Workshop
• JPL Pasadena, 17 January 2001

Presented by Howard Mason, BAE SYSTEMS Position
Chairman of the Board, PLCS Inc. Chairman, ISO
TC184 SC4
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Agenda

• Key Business Drivers
• Impact of the Internet - B2B exchanges
• Overview of Current Standards
• About the PLCS initiative
• The PLCS Technical Approach
• Questions

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Key Business Drivers

• International Collaboration demands product data
  exchange and sharing across many organisations
• Defence and Airline customers and major aerospace
  companies want a single way to exchange digital
  product data
• Suppliers want a unified approach from prime
  contractors
• Worldwide operation demands a worldwide standard

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Key Business Drivers

• Shared or Integrated Digital Environments demand
  accurate information on product configuration,
  which is
• Achieved on delivery
• Maintained through the lifecycle
• Communicated between customer and supplier
• Communicated along the supply chain
• Integrated software needs configuration
  management
• Product software is a key element of the platform
• Need closer control of product structure than
  ever before
• Need to integrate and maintain information from
  multiple sources and systems

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The Internet changes everything...

• The emergence of the internet and the associated
  opportunities has sounded a wake-up call to all
  product development organisations across the
  world to change and adapt the way they do
  business or risk being run over
• GartnerGroup, Strategic Analysis Report
• How you gather, manage and use information will
  determine whether you win or lose
• Bill Gates, Microsoft Corporation
• The internet is driving business change and
  technology change and it lets you use the open
  standards to run your business
• Oracle Corporation

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Which industries are likely to embrace B2B
solutions?

• We conclude that industries that are B2B
  inclined exhibit certain key characteristics.
• Some of these characteristics include the
  following
• The supply chain is highly diffuse
• Techno-innovators dominate the culture
• Process represents more than 20 of total costs
• Products exhibit complex configurations
• Expense pressure is intense
• www.goldmansachs.com/hightech/research/b2b

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Opportunity of a lifetime or Business as
usual ?

• by 2004 the aerospace sector will have the
  largest proportion of internet-based Business to
  Business (B2B) sales, 35 B2B 2b
  or not 2B?, Goldman Sachs, 11/99
• but today
• only 3 of all transactions involving sales of
  aviation parts are conducted on line
• Shop Talk Parts. Planes and B2B exchanges,
  Red Herring, 24 Feb 2000

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Different types of B2B Exchanges
Few largestrategic customers Capture Customer
Requirements and Develop Winning Products
Many customers (potentially unknown) Attract New
Customersthrough Personalized Products
Capitalize on Supplier Competency and
Capacity Sub-contractors, contract manufacturers,
and strategic suppliers
Dynamically Identify Sources and Reduce
Transaction Costs Direct Materials Indirect
Materials New suppliers
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Overview of current standardsfor the Aerospace
Industry

• Transaction oriented
• Defence AECMA 2000M
• Commercial ATA Spec 2000, EDIFACT, ANSI X.12
• Content oriented
• Manufacturing and process centric
• ISO 9000, STEP
• Operations and maintenance centric
• Defence MIL-STD-1388, Def-Stan 00-60, AECMA
  1000D
• Commercial ATA Spec 100, 200, 2100
• Summary
• Current standards are very specialized and focus
  on either
• a piece of a business transaction, I.e. Order,
  Part or Invoice
• presentation of specific content, I.e. Aircraft
  maintenance manual

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What is the adoption rate of these standards?

• ATA Spec 2000
• 342 Spec2000 participants
• 84 airlines out of 750
• 78 non-airlines out of thousands
• 180 suppliers out of tens of thousands
• AECMA 2000M
• many of the recent large defence programs, i.e.
  Tornado, Eurofighter
• only the largest EU AD manufacturers
• some of the larger EU defence ministries
• Conclusion
• modest penetration, mainly with the largest Tier
  1 operators/suppliers
• barrier to entry ( , expertise) is too high for
  the majority

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So what is missing?

• Available standards do not address product
  support requirements
• Major problems keeping technical information in
  line with the changing physical product through
  life
• Major problems linking support information to
  relevant product information
• Software applications use proprietary data
  standards and are often difficult to integrate
• Inconsistent data definitions

Existing standards are insufficient to support
the forecasted growth in e-business
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Business Problem...

• How to keep the data needed to operate and
  maintain a product in line with the changing
  product over its life cycle?

Product in Focus
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The Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) initiative

• About PLCS
• A joint industry and government initiative to
  accelerate development of new standards for
  product support information
• An international project, managed within the ISO
  framework, to produce draft standard(s) within 3
  years.
• PLCS utilizes ISO 10303 STEP - the STandard for
  Exchange of Product model data
• PLCS Inc. established in 1999 by 14 leading
  private and public sector organisations

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PLCS Launch Members
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Goals of PLCS

• Improve product availability
• Reduce operating,support and maintenance costs
• Improve quality and accessibility of Product Life
  Cycle Support information
• Accelerate technical development of the ISO
  standards
• Encourage early implementation commercial
  software vendors
• Encourage early industry participation in the
  development and testing of the standard

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The Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) Initiative
Scope of STEP today
Shared Data
Life Cycle Data
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Key Deliverables

• New capability for support, based on simplified
  and integrated process components
• Interface standards defined to support enterprise
  integration
• Integrated data models using common terminology
• Cost drivers and performance metrics identified -
  generic and industry specific
• Information available for education and awareness
  programmes
• ISO standard for the exchange of product life
  cycle support data

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The PLCS Technical Approach

• Organisation
• Links to ISO
• Activity Modelling
• Data Modelling
• Testing

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PLCS Organisation
PLCS Board
Contract Service Provider
Project Management
Academic Experts
Vendor Experts
Domain Experts
STEP Experts
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Links to ISO
ISO Ballots and Publication
Draft for ballot
TS

NWI

Q
Q
AM development
AM Comment Resolution
Outline PLCS Scope, Activity Model, Module Struct
ure
Define Activity Model, Data Planning Model, APs
AMs
CD
DIS
Q
Q
AP development
AP Comment Resolution
Vendor testing
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PLCS helps facilitate business improvement
As-Is/To-Be process
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Top Level Model
Provide Life Cycle Support
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Level 1 Model Major Work Areas
Configuration Management and Change Control
Support Engineering
Resource Management
Maintenance and Feedback
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Areas of Development

• Support Engineering
• Provide and sustain the support infrastructure
• Resource Management
• Buy, store, pack, move, issue and dispose of the
  physical product
• CM/Change Control
• Manage change to a configured item throughout the
  life cycle including tracking of serial number
  where applicable
• Maintenance and Feedback
• Maintain, test, diagnose, calibrate, repair and
  modify physical product, including schedules,
  resources and feedback

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PLCS - main activity areas
Automate Current Processes
New Integrated Processes
Better , Cheaper Information
NATO CALS PP1 and TLBM
ISO Prelim Work Item
Usage Guides
PLCS Launch
To be Scenarios
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PLCS Inputs to project
POSC/ Caesar
Mil Spec 2549
Def Stan 00-60
AP208
TC184/SC4 WG3/T8 PWI
Mil Spec 1388
FMV CTG2
NCDM
AECMA 1000D 2000M
ATA Effectivity
PDM Schema
AP 233
STEP
AP203
AP214
OMG
ISO 15288
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Proposed PLCS Data Modules (20 off)
Work Areas
SE
MF
IM
Key Requirements Analysis
Data Modelling Established Standards
CM
Core
Time
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Implementation Plan Summary

• Year 1 - Nov 99 to October 2000
• Develop and document process models, and
  associated process definitions, for the top level
  support processes
• Support Engineering
• Configuration Management
• Maintenance and Feedback
• Inventory Management
• Develop scenarios for testing
• Year 2 - Nov 2000 to October 2001
• Develop data exchange modules
• Develop pilot implementation scenarios
• Year 3 - Nov 2001 to October 2002
• Trial data exchanges using draft ISO standard
• Progress standard through stages of ISO approval

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Current status

• Progressive release of Activity models and
  scenarios for industry review - from end 2000
• Launch development of data modules
• PLCS Core - PDM schema plus extensions from AP
  214 for tail-number tracking
• Resources and Task Planning
• Feedback from Operations and Maintenance
• Initial data modules available April-June 2001
• Trial implementation by October 2001
• Key customers looking a the process changes to
  take full advantage of PLCS approach

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Business benefits of PLCS ...

• Improved quality and access to support
  information, throughout the product life cycle
  and across the supply chain
• Reduced costs of acquiring, maintaining and
  delivering Product Support information
• Improved asset availability
• Provides ability to communicate consistently
  across COTS software
• Makes product change easier to manage
• Protects investment in product data

PLCS provides the potential to fully enable B2B
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In addition- the benefits of joining PLCS as a
member...

• Membership of PLCS during the development of the
  standard provides the following additional
  benefits
• Forum for exchange of views, experience and
  discussion of critical issues
• Develop new relationships, business contacts and
  sales opportunities
• Ability to influence the direction and scope of
  PLCS to ensure it meets your business needs
• Opportunity to learn about STEP and its benefits
• Early visibility of requirements to allow
  effective planning for implementation
• Access to existing data, business models and
  improvement initiatives from world leading
  organisations

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Summary

• B2B e-commerce is set to grow significantly in
  the next 5 years
• There is a growing trend towards leveraging the
  information asset to win new business in the
  Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) market
• After-market service is forecast to be a
  significant element of the B2B market
• Existing standards do not fully address the
  product support requirement
• PLCS standards will allow support information to
  be aligned with the changing product over its
  entire life cycle
• Adoption of PLCS standard will lead to reduced
  operating costs and increased product availability

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For more information ...

• Visit the PLCS web site
• or contact any of the PLCS core team members
• John Dunford ltjohn.dunford_at_eurostep.comgt
• Nigel Shaw ltnigel.shaw_at_eurostep.comgt
• Chuck Stark ltstark_at_aticorp.orggt

www.plcsinc.org
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Any Questions?