GKN Aerospace, a Tier One supplier to the global aviation industry, sought to eliminate the time-consuming process of troubleshooting composite lay-ups on the shop floor and avoid data translation concerns.
Leveraging Dassault Systèmes PLM solutions, the company reduced manufacturing engineering time and greatly improved collaboration throughout the extended enterprise. In that process, Pertinence Suite from Intercim was chosen to ensure digital continuity from engineering to production. The solutions enable GKN Aerospace to electronically deliver planning and work instructions to the shop floor, monitor information, and generate activity and quality reports to tightly connect the physical world of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) with the virtual world of PLM.

A Picture Is Worth One Thousand Words

Powerpoint presentation and brochures are really important to understand what a product can do. But it’s not always enough. The best way to understand something is to talk with someone who will explain all the features you have to know. A few weeks ago Intercim made a webinar about composite manufacturing and they had the great idea to record it. Everybody can now access to this webinar and see what Pertinence Suite can do.

Watch the recorded Webinar, « Operational Excellence for Composite Manufacturing »

As the chinese proverb says “A Picture Is Worth One Thousand Words”, here is a video about Intercim that is worth watching if you want to have an overall idea of what these guys do, in just 4 mins.

Intercim LLC, a global leader in Manufacturing Operations Management and Operations Intelligence software, congratulates The Boeing Company and the 787 Program team for the successful test flights of the first four most advanced aircraft in the industry. Intercim thanks The Boeing Company for the opportunity of being a partner on such a unique program.

The partnership between The Boeing Company and Intercim started in 2004. At that time, Boeing chose Intercim’s Pertinence Suite powered by Velocity® as a key component of the transformational manufacturing system processes defined for the 787 program. Building an airplane is an extremely complex and highly regulated process and Boeing was looking for a solution offering flexibility and scalability. The flexibility needed to be in how the company would handle reports and also gather data. In addition, Boeing wanted a scalable solution to keep pace with the growth of the program. Intercim was selected based on its ability to support these goals.

The first flight of the Boeing B787 on 2009-12-15

Today, Pertinence Suite in the 787’s Final Assembly is an important part of the Boeing toolkit that ensures materials and tools are accounted for throughout the process and installed according to the documented plans. On the shop floor, mechanics are equipped with a tablet PC and any information is available through the wireless device for real- time visibility on the production process of the airplane. The Pertinence Suite is helping Boeing’s partners and suppliers around the globe stay on track.

Pertinence Suite helps Boeing maintain a critical communication link with its worldwide supplier base. The solution supports the program with a real time and paperless process that improves production visibility. John Todd, Intercim CEO, concludes, “The extensive use of composite materials, a global network of component and subassembly manufacturing partners makes this aircraft truly unique; Intercim is proud to support the Boeing 787 team and to be part of this program. Our congratulations to The Boeing Company!”

Dear technology enthusiasts,
This Monday and Tuesday (September 28th-29th) is being held in Chicago the 2nd Composites World Expo.
Dassault Systemes is of course well represented, with a booth and several speaking slots. 
One of them, on Tuesday September 29th, is shared with the DS partner Intercim around the theme of Manufacturing Excellence for Composites.
We thought it would be interesting to look at what Intercim offers for Composite Manufacturers through a customer case.

In the wake of the all-new Boeing 787, the first airliner predominantly built from carbon composites, the entire industry is seeing a major shift of the demand.

To put things in perspective, let’s look at the market dynamics. The Industry is gradually transitioning from experimental and low volume productions to massive amounts .
The amount of carbon fibers consumed by the Industry is expected to double over the next 6 years. Are the manufacturers ready for that “bungee” jump?

Reducing costs of composite manufacturing processes while coping with production ramp-ups now becomes strategic. Let’s look at the case of EADS Composites Atlantic, and how difficult it can be to ramp up a composite production.

Wonder what it feels like not being able to deliver when the customer asks for more?

“In the fall of 2006, five years into a major contract for the biweekly delivery of ten types of products (leading edges, rudders...) to be used on aircraft manufacturing, we had slipped dangerously behind schedule in manufacturing and deliveries, up to 6 months late on one product in particular,” recalls Séverine Guitton, Head of Quality & Methods for Composites Atlantic Limited (CAL).
On the most heavily affected leading edge products, the scrap rate had reached 13% and rework hit 28%! However, there was absolutely no logic that could explain this highly irregular defect. All of the manufacturing parameters, constantly checked and rechecked, fit perfectly with the plans.

Once the INTERCIM solution for Composite Manufacturing (Pertinence Suite) was in place, workers began collecting 96 parameters at various stages of the  production process, for each new part that was manufactured. The “Rule Discovery” module from INTERCIM, a patented technology, quickly identified two totally unrelated and until then unsuspected characteristics as directly influencing the recurrent defects. “Rules Discovery enabled us to clearly establish specific rules regarding key parameters, far from any known scientific explanation and most strikingly in total contradiction to all of our intuitions,” underlines Séverine Guitton. Then the workers receive conditional notifications in real time during the execution with the INTERCIM Operations Advisor module, live on the shop floor. “By applying these rules to our normal operating procedures, we immediately reduced the scrap rate from 13% to zero and rework came down from 28% to less than 1%,” she continues.

Want to find out more on INTERCIM’s capabilities for Composite Manufacturers? Please visit www.intercim.com.

Does the Composites Atlantic example inspire you?
And what if that could apply to other industries as well?

Romain Lavault for Intercim and Jacques

Our Software Partner Intercim extends the value of V5 PLM product and process design to the shop floor. Their flagship product, Pertinence Suite, enables users on the shop floor and across the supply network to better collaborate on process definition, manufacturing execution, and quality management.

Their innovative Manufacturing Execution and Manufacturing Intelligence softwares are reputedly easy to deploy and are already implemented on the most advanced programs such as the 787 where 10, 000 users leverage daily the power of Intercim’s solution. Intercim has more than 100,000 users worldwide within accounts such as Airbus, Boeing, EADS, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney (Aerospace & Defense ) or Sanofi Aventis (pharmaceutical). The suppliers of these accounts represent a great business opportunity for our DS VARs.

The company is headquartered in the United-States with operations in Europe; don’t hesitate to call them when your prospects are requiring MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) solutions.

PS: Intercim will also provide an extended PLM-MES integrated solution with the V6 platform featuring

• 3D Work Instruction Delivery
• 3D Data Collection
• 3D Part Nonconformance Management
• Change Order Management
• 3D Work in Process (WIP) and as-built Digital Mock Up (DMU)

Jacques (on behalf of Intercim)