Industry Insight: Jaguar Land Rover’s 7 Key Enablers for Maximizing 3DEXPERIENCE
Jaguar Land Rover has deployed Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform to aid in its simulation, testing efforts, and supplier integration but the key to unlocking the software’s true potential lies in making vast changes at the company itself.
This is according to Jose Garcia-Urruchi, Head of Digital Engineering Capability at Jaguar Land Rover, who has outlined the seven key enablers for maximizing the use of 3DEXPERIENCE.
Here are the key enablers that Jose Garcia-Urrachi and the Jaguar Land Rover team require to make their vision of an engineering continuum a reality:
Jaguar Electric Vehicle
#1: Synchronization between the Engineering Bill of Materials (EBOM) and the Simulation Bills of Materials (SBOMS).
With 3DEXPERIENCE, we’ve got the perfect platform to enable this, but we are still not there. We make continuous changes to the Engineering Bill of Materials that reflect the evolution of the design of our products. It still takes a rather long time to create a Simulation Bill of Materials.
This integration between CAD and CAE has to cover all the way changes in the Engineering Bill of Materials and these changes happen very, very frequently. We need to be sure we can create a simulation bill of materials as soon as we have the optimization.
#2 Automation of the model build process.
This is an area we have talked about for many years. We have made some progress in this respect. But if we want to get to our ambition of live feedback from the CAE then the model build process has to be completely automated.
For many years we have been accepting geometry upstream, from the designers. Then in the CAE world, we had to simplify. We are changing that now. We expect the geometry to be created in a way that can be processed very quickly for CAE.
So, there is no resistance anymore within the CAD community to change the CAD methods if necessary to create CAE models as quickly as we possibly can. We don’t need to be apologetic anymore within the CAD community and can demand that they create geometry in certain ways so that we can automate the process.
What we need to make sure of is that the CAD community understands what is required of them so that the geometry they create can be automatically used.
#3 Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) models feeding geometry-based simulations and vice-versa.
Electrification and autonomy have changed the landscape of the automotive industry. Take, for example, a braking system. Not long ago a braking system was separate, and it was an electro-mechanical system, self-contained. That’s no longer the case.
Now with regenerative braking, the powertrain is involved in braking too. This is an illustration of our systems becoming very complex.
Model-based systems engineering is something that we are pushing very hard on within Jaguar Land Rover. We now have some wonderful tools that enable us to do model-based systems engineering better than we have ever done before.
We want to make sure that we can feed the 3D models from our system models. But just as importantly, we want to make sure we use detailed system models to refine the system models.
The connection of 1D to 3D has to work both ways. So 1D informs 3D, but also detailed simulations are used to refine the system models.
#4 Access to up-to-date and traceable non-geometric data.
Non-geometric data for a long time has been the poor brother or the poor sister of CAE and CAD. It is important not to ignore the importance of handling non-geometric data appropriately.
The simulation models are only as good as the information that you put in them. Having access to the right material data and other non-geometric data is key.
We need to make sure this is no longer the poor sister or poor brother in the whole CAD and simulation world.
#5 Characterization of the functional attributes of a design in the face of millions of possible variants.
A problem that we are battling with now is, “What is a nominal car?” When you look at our models for the Defender, you can customize ad infinitum. The reality is we have millions, sometimes billions of possible combinations of a car.
So when it comes to characterizing the functional attributes of a car, which car are we referring to? This is not trivial at all and we haven’t got a solution for it. The solution for this issue will likely require a different view, approaching this problem from a different level.
Chances are we’ll need to introduce probabilistic analysis to evaluate the validity of our cars. Because we no longer have a nominal car that is representative of all possible combinations.
#6 Organization design that enables the optimum breakdown of the system into subsystems and components.
Organization design: this is rather difficult but is essential. In most automotive companies, we are organized around the design of a car that no longer represents the car of today.
Think of the example of the brake system. In the past, that would be done by the chassis team, and they would work pretty much in isolation to develop a braking system. Today, with the concept of electric cars where we want to recover energy, so all of a sudden the system spans across many areas of the organization.
The problem that we’ve got is that we need to move away from organizing ourselves according to technology that is now no longer applicable, and cars that are no longer applicable today.
We must organize ourselves around the technology and the type of cars that we do rather than organize the breakdown into systems and components following a model which is completely obsolete.
At Jaguar Land Rover, we think the effect of 3DEXPERIENCE is being done with a massive reorganization exercise that we are going through across the company. For the first time in decades now we are reorganizing ourselves to make the most of the technology that is available to us. 3DEXPERIENCE has prompted a company-wide reorganization. Which is great to see. It is essential not to underestimate the importance of organizational design to make the most of the technology.
#7 Engineers who, although specialized in one discipline, have a wide working-level knowledge.
We are indeed trying to democratize the CAD and simulation worlds, but we still need specialists and will continue to need specialists in the areas for a rather long time, forever. You need specialists to develop your templates, to develop your workflows.
But increasingly we are expecting our engineers to be specialized in one discipline but at the same time to have a much wider of other functions. It is what we say are “T-shaped” engineers. Tee, because the vertical of the specialized in one specific area, but the top of the tee, this is what illustrates that you need to be able to work in areas that are outside of your area of expertise.
Our products are becoming more complex, so being specialized in the area of brakes is no longer enough. There is an expectation for all of our engineers that at the very least they need to have some working-level knowledge of more areas than they have been specialized in.
To discover more about how Jaguar Land Rover is utilizing the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, and to explore how TriMech Enterprise Solutions have been supporting their supply chain, take a look at our JLR 3DEXPERIENCE Page.