Most product development organizations know that using realistic simulation throughout the design process delivers more innovative and reliable products to market faster and more cost effectively than conventional prototyping and physical testing alone. However, even those who apply simulation effectively often fail to capture the processes, manage and re-use the data, and secure their simulation-generated intellectual property.

Simulation technology traditionally lives outside most organizations’ product lifecycle management systems and tightly managed business processes. The tools and data are often controlled by small groups of experts. Generally, simulation results are stored on local hard drives, meaning they are inaccessible to others. This leads to repeating analyses unnecessarily, or - even worse - losing valuable simulation results. For simulation to be an integral part of the product development cycle, the associated simulation processes, authoring tools, data, and resulting intellectual property must be managed, shared, and secured as strategic business assets.

To address these issues, SIMULIA, the Dassault Systèmes brand for realistic simulation, has developed a new solution for Simulation Lifecycle Management (SLM). The SLM vision brings order to simulation processes and, similar to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, ensures knowledge capture, data integrity, traceability, and collaboration throughout the simulation lifecycle. SLM assists organizations in leveraging their simulation assets more effectively and reaches a new level of efficiency that shortens development cycles, reduces waste, and improves product quality while fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation.

SIMULIA SLM

The initial release of SIMULIA SLM provides the technology for managing simulation data, processes, and tools in a collaborative environment. SIMULIA SLM is built on a mature PLM platform from Dassault Systèmes - the ENOVIA Collaboration Platform - enabling best-inclass PLM operations that act upon the simulation entities exposed within SLM. To associate the simulation process and key results with product intellectual property, SIMULIA SLM enables four critical elements of the simulation lifecycle:

• Collaboration
• Simulation data management
• Integration and process automation
• Decision support
  

COLLABORATION

Product development involves a number of teams working together to make design trade-off decisions based on a variety of performance parameters such as strength, weight, vibration, and durability. SIMULIA SLM supports cross-functional collaboration by giving everyone in the development process access to the most current simulation results, which can be reviewed in relation to the full system performance specifications

SIMULATION DATA MANAGEMENT

The SIMULIA SLM solution collects, secures, manages, and associates simulation data with related product data in a central repository. It maintains the relationship between engineering targets and key simulation results, and provides a searchable environment for related data. It also facilitates tracing the history of individual simulation processes, including parameters, assumptions, and results that influence key design decisions.

INTEGRATION AND PROCESS AUTOMATION

A broad spectrum of best-in-class and proprietary simulation applications facilitates complete product performance analysis. SIMULIA SLM connects these various tools in an open, yet controlled, manner. As the management of an organization’s simulation data and processes mature, SIMULIA SLM provides the resources to capture, automate, and deploy approved simulation workflows to a wider group of expert and non-expert simulation users.

DECISION SUPPORT

To ensure a product meets it’s functional and manufacturing requirements within the constraints of time and cost, organizations must leverage simulation results across multiple departments. The SIMULIA SLM environment gives individuals and groups access to simulation-generated information and knowledge through an intelligent and intuitive interface. This dashboard provides the quick, cross-functional insight into data needed to support design and business decisions throughout the development process.

WHY SLM NOW?

Shorter product lifecycles, higher material costs and the expanding role of international regulations are just a few of the factors that ensure simulation will play a growing role in overall product design and manufacturing. In a December 2006 white paper entitled “Enterprise Simulation Management,” CIMdata predicts that the role of simulation will expand beyond specific validation phases to permeate every element of product development. Its capabilities will span an enterprise, from purchasing to sales and many others, to empower more informed and confident business decisions. Together with the increasing volume of simulations being performed, it is clear that organizations leveraging realistic simulation on a regular basis need an economical and effective tool to manage, share, and secure their simulation assets. SIMULIA SLM will help these organizations gain control of their simulation-generated intellectual property, transforming it into a valuable corporate asset