Supporting Business in the Age of Experience
Published on : Friday 08-10-2021
Where Experience is Relationship – the 3DEXPERIENCE Forum India 2021 explored stories from user industry leaders.
It was a professional gathering that brought together stakeholders from the industry, government and academic institutions for two days of knowledge and experience sharing at Bangalore, in mid-September 2021. After 18 months of holding events, conferences, product launches and training programmes in virtual space thanks to the pandemic, Dassault Systèmes – the 3D Design and Engineering software services company – organised its flagship 3DEXPERIENCE Forum India 2021 in a hybrid format with a relatively small physical gathering of about 100 persons, with thousands more including some speakers participating digitally. The forum explores stories from user industry leaders about their experiences on how the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and its applications have enabled them to achieve breakthroughs by enabling innovation and collaboration, shortening the time to market.
Setting the tone of the forum, Deepak NG, India Managing Director – Dassault Systèmes, emphasised the company’s focus on three key macro-economic spheres of industrial growth in India, viz., Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Life Sciences, and referred to the various policy initiatives and support measures of the Government of India in sectors like automotive including electric vehicles, aerospace and defence, and how these are leveraging the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform speeding up new product development. The company has added 1200 new customers in the last one year despite the pandemic (or maybe because of it!) with the total number of customers over 12,000 now in India. “We at Dassault Systèmes are trying to contribute and help; with the help of our 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, many organisations today are leveraging data for their business analytics and as you all know, the virtual twin day by day is becoming the industry norm, because this is one thing which will not only support their own internal processes in business but also give the end customer the right experience in what they believe and what they expect,” said Deepak. Emphasizing the importance of the cloud-based platform for the seamless experience of business continuity, Deepak noted it can thus be called ‘Supporting Business in the Age of Experience’.
Addressing the gathering via videoconferencing, Bernard Charlès, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO, Dassault Systèmes, said, “Virtualisation can help the manufacturing industry to Make in India, provide sustainable experiences, new products and solutions. We can from that standpoint apply innovation technology across so many sectors of the economy. The 3DEXPERIENCE Platform is a catalyst, an enabler to accelerate the transformation that is adding high value to your industry. We are also providing students – schools and colleges – and startups, the capacity to learn the new way of creating using these virtual twin experiences to prepare the workforce of the future.” He also mentioned how the time to develop a vaccine which normally stretches to years, has been reduced to just a few months, with the help of technology. Bernard Charlès was joined by Olivier Ribet, Executive VP EMEAR, Samson Khaou, Executive VP, Asia Pacific and Erik Swedberg, GEO Managing Director, Americas – all senior executives of Dassault Systèmes, in a virtual round table in providing examples from across the world using the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, with Samson Khaou highlighting four major projects L&T is doing in India, using the platform.
The plenary session had interesting presentations from industry leaders including: Dheeraj Hinduja, Chairman – Hinduja Group, on Automotive Industry Trends and the Role of Technology in New Product Development; Vinnie Mehta, Director General – ACMA Outlook for Auto Component Manufacturing Industry in Post-Pandemic Era and the Future of EV Industry; Jitendra J Jadhav, Director, National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) and Dr Abhay Pashilkar, Program Director, Civil Aviation Programmes CSIR, NAL on Passenger Experience Solutions Benefits for SARAS-Mk-II Programme; and Sanjay Chakraborty, CIO L&T Defence, whose live and lively presentation on the Role of Technology to Propel Defence Engineering and Manufacturing enthralled the audience. It was followed by a large number of breakout sessions spread over two days.
The ‘Passenger Experience’ solution
An interesting presentation was how NAL, a constituent of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has adopted the ‘Passenger Experience’ industry solution based on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to design civil aircraft in India, specifically the Saras Mk-2 program. NAL is using DraftSight, a feature-rich 2D and 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) solution for 2D design standardisation in the manufacturing of civil aircraft. This helps in reducing engineering costs in cabin completion by up to 40% through engineering, manufacturing and certification processes automation. The ‘Passenger Experience’ combines emotion and automation across engineering, manufacturing and certification processes to allow completion centres to deliver personalised cabin interiors profitably. The DraftSight solution unifies essential 2D drafting, advanced 2D CAD or all-in-one 2D and 3D design with full 3D capabilities for modelling, prototyping, manufacturing and laser cutting. "The 3DEXPERIENCE platform-based 'Passenger Experience' solution has been deployed in designing the Cabin and Cockpit of the Saras Mk-2 program. Virtual twin-based insights offered by this solution helped us to configure the cabin for various use cases and scenarios," said Jitendra J Jadhav.
Saras Mk-2 will be a 19-seater aircraft with features like high cruise speed, lower fuel consumption, short landing and take-off distances, low cabin noise, pressurised cabins and low acquisition and maintenance costs. It will be operable from high and hot airfields, and from semi-prepared airfields.
AIM boost to innovation
More interesting is how the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), the Government of India’s flagship initiative to create and promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, along with NITI Aayog, in partnership with Dassault Systèmes’ is all set to rave up the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem across the country. According to a Statement of Intent (SoI) signed with AIM, Dassault Systèmes will support and promote the various AIM beneficiary programmes. With an aim to promote innovation and entrepreneurship amongst aspiring entrepreneurs, this program will act as a catalyst for an open innovation collaboration to accelerate disruptive innovation in the community.
The SoI features six aspects of engagement between Dassault and AIM. These include access to Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Lab start-up acceleration program to selected AIM start-ups; mentorship to selected AIM start-ups for capability building of their products; 3DEXPERIENCE Lab related global community access to selected AIM start-ups; industry connect for selected AIM start-ups with Dassault Systèmes’ worldwide customers, partners and technology collaborators as and when applicable; participation of selected AIM start-ups in Dassault Systèmes national and global events; and organisation and participation in joint events, hackathons, challenges with AIM and NITI Aayog
“This initiative will open a new window for select Indian startups as they get access to the Dassault Systèmes global start up ecosystem – their accelerator program and a chance to connect with peers, industry experts, engineers, designers and be a part of the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab, which I must say I am very excited about because of its ability to accelerate startups, and with community worldwide,” said Dr Chintan Vaishnav, Mission Director AIM, during his presentation.
“Our engagement with AIM will further strengthen our common objectives on how startups can leverage technology, industry best practices and policies driven by the Government,” said Deepak NG about the engagement with AIM. “Our 3DEXPERIENCE lab will give access to technology and community for emerging startups in new domains like electric vehicles, batteries and charging infrastructure, medical devices, energy and materials sector, and even to frugal innovators providing sustainable solutions for the industry of the future,” he concluded.
