Introduction of a company-wide material data management system for the BMW Group

Starting in 2015, we have since been working together with our customer in the creation and implementation of a centralised material data management system. It is important to our customer that this system supports the entire product development process at numerous levels, regardless if it is in research and development, in simulation and calculation or in the final approval of materials, which will eventually be used in production.

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Starting in 2015, we have since been working together with our customer in the creation and implementation of a centralised material data management system. It is important to our customer that this system supports the entire product development process at numerous levels, regardless if it is in research and development, in simulation and calculation or in the final approval of materials, which will eventually be used in production.

 

The documentation of existing material know-how in product data management systems, PDM, is however, often not sufficient. Many – especially specific, physical – characteristic values of materials, as they are necessary within the automotive industry, cannot be included in a PDM. By means of a rigorous and inter-divisional preparation together with a consulting company, GPI Consulting GmbH, the requirements of the customer were very detailed. Consequently, IMA Materialforschung und Anwendungstechnik Dresden did convince the customer with the product WIAM® ICE and the proposed approaches and solutions.

Taking the manifold amount of materials and characteristic material values in all involved, inter-divisional departments into consideration, those main requirements were especially important to the customer:

  • An easy interconnection with other internal systems for simulation, calculation, laboratory information and product data,
  • A very high data security according to internal standards,
  • Approval as well as roles-rights-workflows with a high degree of detail,
  • Flexible data owners and
  • A universal data model with versioning.

Hence, intensive specification, workshop and workload periods as well as the simultaneous involvement of the IT department were key components to a successful and on-time start of the system, which is now roughly 2 years in productive operation. An enhancement of the application for the design department has successfully been introduced and further, new requirements are already in the pipeline. As the industry constantly changes, applications have to adapt and evolve with the customers’ requirements.

Source:

N. Papenfuß, M. Lieb, T. Ehrig, M. Just, L. van den Aarssen, M. Young (2016): Planung, Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines unternehmensweiten Werkstoff-Datenmanagementsystems
SIMVEC 2016, 18. Kongress SIMVEC Simulation und Erprobung in der Fahrzeugentwicklung, Berechnung, Prüfstands- und Straßenversuch.- Baden-Baden, VDI-Bericht 2279: 151-160, Düsseldorf (VDI Verlag)

The full article (only available in German) can be downloaded here. More information about SIMVEC!


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