CASE STUDY: BAE SYSTEMS LAND SYSTEMS:

BAE Systems Land Systems have deployed Fusion-DX™ to help deliver and support their advanced defense and aerospace systems for the air, on land, at sea and in space.

Fusion-DX deployed to aid the MoD FCLV Military Combat Vehicle Program

BAE Systems Land Systems won the contract for the UK MoD's Future Command and Liaison Vehicle (FCLV) program in 2003. The vehicle, named the 'Panther' Command and Liaison Vehicle (CLV), is BAE Systems Land Systems/Iveco Multipurpose Lightweight Vehicle (MLV) fitted with its new 'Enforcer' overhead weapon station supplied by Selex. The development and demonstration phase of the program was commenced at BAE Systems Land Systems' Center for Vehicle Technology in Telford, UK. Now, it has been transferred to BAE Systems Land Systems' Scotswood Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne site where the production is to take place.

Data Migration across CAD Systems

One of the challenges that faced BAE Systems Land Systems was the migration of design and bill of materials (BOM) data from the Centre for Vehicle Technology in Telford to the Newcastle-upon-Tyne site. The challenge was a complicated one as the two sites were using different CAD, PLM and ERP systems.

Autoweb was approached to deploy a solution to meet this challenge. The timescales were tight and BAE Systems Land Systems had 1000s of files to migrate. Manual migration was not an option. At Telford, design data was generated in Pro/ENGINEER and managed in Pro/INTRALINK and the BOM data was managed in SAP and TIF drawing directory system. At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UGNX and Teamcenter Engineering is used. Autoweb's Fusion-DX™ solution was selected as it could be delivered to meet this challenge.

Fusion-DX™ Solution

Autoweb worked side by side with BAE Systems Land Systems to define a requirements specification for the required Fusion-DX™ solution. The key components of this solution were:

• Fusion-DX Pro/ENGINEER integration module
• Fusion-DX UGNX integration module
• Fusion-DX BOM checker module
• Fusion-DX Elysium's CAD.command Pro/ENGINEER to UGNX translator integration module
• Fusion-DX Teamcenter Engineering integration module
• Fusion-DX Media Manager

The Fusion-DX™ solution was delivered in time to ensure BAE Systems Land Systems could meet FCLV program milestones that relied on data being available in Teamcenter Engineering for engineers at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and subcontractors.

Autoweb worked closely with BAE Systems Land Systems IT and Engineering teams during the deployment of Fusion-DX™. When asked what it was like working with Datranet the BAE Systems Team Leader stated, 'Datranet demonstrated a high level of professionalism throughout the project, they integrated well into the BAE Systems IT and Engineering teams and had a friendly, flexible and extremely helpful approach.'

He added, 'Fusion-DX is incredibly simple to use with minimal training required. We were delighted with the speed at which Pro/ENGINEER assemblies were converted into UGNX assemblies and uploaded into Teamcenter Engineering in a one step process. It would have been extremely difficult to meet the project milestones without the use of Fusion DX.'

The automated processes that Fusion-DX™ delivered allowed BAE Systems Land Systems engineers to concentrate on value added design activities and not worry about migrating data manually from Telford to Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Autoweb's project manager for BAE Systems Land Systems commented, 'We are pleased that Fusion-DX™ is being used for FCLV and that other sites within BAE Systems are also exploiting its capabilities through its web interface and access across the company WAN. We expect that BAE Systems will start to benefit from the other capabilities Fusion-DX™ has, especially in the area of subcontractors integration.'

About Autoweb Limited

Autoweb Limited is a privately held developer of web technology based product design communication and collaboration solutions. Autoweb's Fusion-DX™ product line provides low cost of ownership, scaleable and thin-client web portal based solutions to ensure efficient, fast and secure availability of CAD and related product data within engineering supply chains. Fusion-DX™ products are available direct from Autoweb or through Value Added Resellers in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Autoweb Ltd, Leeds, United Kingdom.

Press Contact:

Nina Dimeglio-Zaleski
Telephone: (248) 601-7157
Email: learnmore@autoweb.net