Ford Motor Company Scores Quick Win with Teamcenter Simulation Process Management (TT)
12/7/2010
Teamcenter Simulation Process Management was recently installed at Ford Motor Company, which quickly realized substantial gains in their process to develop CAE models. Ford began planning to exploit Teamcenter's simulation process management capabilities in 2009; the system was installed in April 2010 and deployed to production in May. One key objective was to fully leverage an out-of-the-box solution and not a dedicated or proprietary solution. Virtually no customization and a low effort on configuration of Teamcenter were required, in part because Ford has had extensive experience with the toolset. Within a few weeks, Ford saw efficiency gains of four to eight times in critical steps for creating and managing CAE configurations. Success factors for Ford include clear expectations, good planning, and good vendor support. Ford has a clear vision of the benefits of an integrated suite of PLM tools. Also, the new tools supported an established business process. This increases the likelihood of successful deployment because many projects fail when they involve new tools together with drastic changes in how people do their work.
Keywords: Ford Motor Company, Siemens, Teamcenter, simulation, CAE, CAD, Team Center, ANSA, PDM, PLM, data management, process management, Ulrich Fox, CAE model, common model, CAE mesh, project management, simulation data management, simulation process management, SDM, SDPM, CAE process automation