Industrial Automation Magazine India

DELMIAworks is a unique combination of MES and ERP software

Published on : Friday 01-10-2021

Ramakrishnan Venkataraman, Director, Customer Role Experience – Dassault Systèmes.

What is DELMIAworks and how does it help manufacturers?
In early 2019 Dassault Systèmes acquired IQMS, a US-based ERP software company, which was integrated into the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and named DELMIAworks. It is a suite of manufacturing ERP solutions that addresses many of the challenges in manufacturing. It is a unique combination of manufacturing software, MES software and ERP software, specifically tailored for the factory environment. It is an affordable solution that helps improve manufacturing efficiency and collaboration, and is scalable as the business grows. The reason why manufacturers adopt this solution is mainly because they are looking at automating many of the tasks and one of the major tasks is production planning and scheduling, which comes before any manufacturing happens. If planning is done properly, you are assured of your delivery timeline committed to the customer. 
 
Even before the pandemic there were disruptions in the supply chain, which in turn disrupted the timelines and left customers dissatisfied with not getting their finished goods right away. So they started looking for modifications and corrections, and found out production planning and scheduling are two key areas, which were going haywire. So, this convinced them to say, okay, let's start here with MES or manufacturing execution system, starting from production planning and system control. So that is the reason they invested in DELMIAworks and the results have given a lot of benefits to those companies. In fact, one of the customers here in India, Ahmedabad based Shaily Engineering Plastics Limited, mentioned as much in a press statement during our India launch. Initially they had started with the ERP package, and then slowly expanded, and scaled up to MES, and then manufacturing operations management solutions and the like. So digital transformation is happening in the manufacturing space and shop floors. The pandemic has acted as a catalyst.
 
In the manufacturing environment, how does this software suite mesh with the machinery and other hardware? Are there any issues related to integration?
This is a good point since India has a whole range of legacy equipment with which automation started in the pre-globalisation era, say before the 1990s. So even today many Indian manufacturers have conventional machines to a large extent. Tapping data from conventional machines is one of the biggest challenges we face in digital transformation projects in the shop floor area. With the acquisition of IQMS, Dassault Systèmes got both the software, plus the hardware component, the latter predominantly comprising the IoT devices and sensors, which convert conventional machines into IoT-enabled machines with retrofitting. This way the customer does not have to spend a huge amount converting legacy equipment into smart machinery. The next step is data collection – now that the hardware and software both talk to each other in a seamless way, the machine relays the information which is tapped for further action. Typically in any manufacturing operation, there are various parameters like temperature, pressure, vibration, etc., monitored on a continuous basis to understand the state and efficiency of the machines based on real-time information, which is achieved by bridging the hardware-software gap.
 
What about the data thus collected? Where and how is it stored and what about the integrity?
Yes, a whole lot of data is generated – process data and product data. The product data comes from the ERP system, or maybe the PLM system, and the process data comes from the MES software. It is a very Herculean task for any company to manage this data securely. We provide both the options – storage on premises and the cloud, and it is up to the customer to decide whether they want to store it on premises or use the cloud computing architecture to analyse this data. While at it, our 3DEXPERIENCE platform is going to be the backbone for relaying and collecting all the data from the various systems, and display it through our business intelligence dashboard but the choice of storage is for the customer to decide.
 
Now what happens if the company is using various other software in its process or applications – is it all compatible with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform?
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform is a business platform, it is not restricted to a particular software application or protocol. The way we look at the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, it needs to give the right information to the right audience or the right stakeholder of the right hierarchy level at the right time, so that the information is available for them to make the decisions quicker. So that is the fundamental premise of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. In that context, we need to work with many software vendors. So we provide open applications and APIs to integrate with any of those software, whether it be an engineering CAD software, or an ERP-based software, or an SCM or the CRM software. So we do have the integrations available, which can be for any third party application so that way we are open to integrate with all the other third party applications to work on. At the end of the day, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform will connect all the systems to give a holistic view of the process.
 
What is the experience of DELMIAworks in the Indian market, the target segments and how fast will it scale up?
DELMIAworks can be implemented in any manufacturing business that are in business for several years – especially small and medium sized companies – for on premises applications for production planning and control. Now typically, in manufacturing, there are four to five distinctive processes: one is the injection moulding process, another is metal cutting process; the third is the fabrication side and fourth, the foundry and casting. Most of the manufacturing processes fit into these areas. We have the sweet spot in three areas: one is the assembly process, like any automotive OEMs and other suppliers, where 100 to 200 parts come together to assemble stage by stage, and then it moves to this assembly process. Another area is the injection moulding process, because the usage of plastics is huge, almost like an alternative material for some of those metal components, and much cheaper in terms of raw material and many of the companies who have put a lot of plastic injection moulding machines will be looking at us. Because every time it happens in volumes – it's a big volume business, the numbers are big, so if you want to monitor at each and every level, have the relative production data, again a sweet spot for DELMIAworks. Then there is the industrial equipment and machinery segment, and the life sciences and medical devices segment. So these are typical areas we focus on.
 
Finally, what about the cybersecurity and intellectual property concerns in adopting DELMIAworks on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform?
Okay, first and foremost, Dassault Systèmes has partnered with Amazon Web Services for the backend cloud data architecture, which is helping our customers to adopt any of these cloud computing technologies. So, as we all know, AWS has a Gold Standard in terms of cybersecurity as well as intellectual property. There are multiple levels, multiple layers of security before we pass any of the data processed through AWS, so in that context, we abide by all the compliances, and then also make sure that this is also passed on to our customers when they adopt the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
 
Ramakrishnan Venkataraman, has been in the CAD/CAM/CAE/PLM industry for the last 24 years. He has been instrumental for the Business transformation for the manufacturing industry sector by providing his expert consulting services and solutions to address the challenges. He is very passionate about helping organisations in bringing new products to markets faster by engaging with them from concept to production. His technical background with deeper understanding in product design and manufacturing has made a distinctive connection with various CXOs in the Indian manufacturing sector. 
 
Ever since 2008, Ramakrishnan has been strategically working with the manufacturing sector in transforming their business experiences by helping them with industry proven solutions from Dassault Systèmes. Last 2 years have been on a journey on Manufacturing and Shop floor efficiency transformation for the Discrete manufacturing sectors like Automotive, Consumer Products, Life sciences and Industrial machinery and helping organisations to improve their bottom line.