Eberspächer is one of the leading system suppliers for exhaust technology, vehicle heating systems and bus climate systems. Eberspächer is also a competent partner to the automotive industry for vehicle electronics. With over 60 locations in 26 countries, the company network spans around the world. Eberspächer has set itself the goal of quality and technology leadership in all product groups. Eberspächer maintains its innovative speed and is always at the forefront of research and development, thus actively contributing to the mobility of tomorrow. The requirements for an exhaust system increase with ever shorter development times. These include the increasingly stringent emission guidelines and the reduction in the weight of the vehicles required for lower fuel consumption. Due to the global competition, the development processes for exhaust systems have to be constantly improved and shortened in order to withstand the high cost pressure and ever shorter product life cycles. For this reason, simulations and computational optimization from the development areas of durability (FEM), acoustics, thermodynamics (CFD) or manufacturing (forming, welding) are carried out even in early development phases. The share of virtual development, its importance and complexity will keep on increasing steadily in the next years. In order to handle the large number of simulation data efficiently and to enable global "simultaneous engineering" as well as offshore development in best-cost countries, the use of a suitable data management system is necessary for the simulation disciplines. For this reason, at Eberspächer Exhaust Technology, the introduction of Dassault Systemes Simulia SLM as SDM system is running since 2014. It was a strategic decision at the beginning of the project to implement as much as possible by ourselves through a coaching approach in order to develop own know-how for subsequent further development of the system and for internal support activities. Eberspächer would like to use SDM for cross-site collaboration in product development simulations within the enterprise group. This is to achieve synergies between simulation projects within a discipline and between different
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
disciplines. By improving the transparency and traceability of the simulation processes, a higher quality and a process-safe execution of a constantly growing number of simulations and simulation variants are made possible. SDM will help reduce costs by reducing the time and effort required for information retrieval, model production and reporting and by a high degree of automation as well. For this reason, focus is set particularly on standardized and largely automated simulation sequences. Since the middle of the year 2016, approx. 30 employees from the area of durability and CFD have been using the SDM system productively. After the global rollout at the end of 2017 / beginning of 2018, some 90 CAE colleagues will work with the SDM system at our development sites. In this lecture, detailed information about the introduction of a SDM system at Eberspächer Exhaust Technology and its status is presented. In addition, Eberspächers expectations, experiences and challenges with SDM are shared. Finally, with some usecases, it is discussed whether SDM is already a success story at Eberspächer and what are the next steps.
1. Motivation for SDM at Eberspächer Exhaust Technology While exhaust systems of passenger cars or commercial vehicles should basically clean exhaust and reduce emissions, design tailpipe noise and influence power properties of the engine, their design layout is complete different. Exhaust systems for passenger cars are assemblies of a variety of single components from alloyed steel like manifolds, catalysts, particle filters, mufflers and pipes mainly welded together and attached to the underbody of the chassis. Variety is depending on vehicle platform, engine, drive or side of the steering wheel. Therefore, exhaust systems for commercial vehicle can be seen as one rigid compact system which is positioned to the side of the frame and work as small chemistry factories. These single boxes have often very complex and difficult to access parts.
Requirements for these modern exhaust systems increase with ever shorter development times due to stricter emission guidelines to meet the country specific legislation or due to the reduction of weight. Global competition leads to constantly improved and shortened development processes for exhaust systems on global development sites in Germany, France, USA and China. To gain more efficiency, simulations and computational optimization are carried out already in early development phases. Simulations take place in the development areas of durability (FEM), acoustics, thermodynamics (CFD) or manufacturing (forming, welding). Therefore common simulation tools like Nastran, Abaqus, Fluent, Star-CCM+, GT, Wave, HyperWorks and others are used. Often commercial tools are not enough for an efficient usage, so also
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
own scripts are developed for data converting, correlation of simulation and measurement, postprocessing, reporting and automatization.
Simulations are running at all global Eberspächer Exhaust Technology sites as well offshore in best-cost countries. The importance and complexity of our simulations keep increasing and large numbers of simulation data has to be handled efficiently each day.
Figure 1: Increase of durability simulation data from years 2010 to 2015
Figure 2: Increase of durability simulation method complexity from years 2000 to 2012
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
The different simulations are part of a global “simultaneous engineering process” between different development and production departments.
Considering all above mentioned topics, it’s no surprise that the responsible teamleaders of the simulation groups came to a bottom-up-decision: Eberspächer Exhaust Technology needs a SDM system to address the increasing complexity in simulation and manage simulation data and automated simulation processes efficiently.
Benefits should be - increased simulation capacities - more time for simulation analysts for the value-added activities - an increasing of the quality or meaningfulness of the simulation results - productivity increase by approx. 20 - 40% in the final expansion - IT consolidation and better usage of hard/software
With a detailed business case, high management could be convinced and the SDM project “Purchase and Implementation of a program system for Simulation Data Management (SDM) at Eberspächer Exhaust Technology” was finalized in 2013/2014.
2. Details to SDM project
Since 2014, the SDM-project at Eberspächer Exhaust Technology” is running. First work and efforts started already in 2012 and 2013 with an intensive SDM system evaluation process. In the very first step, all requirements were condensed and an evaluation matrix was built up. With that, a detailed analysis of several SDM systems, verification of reference systems and a 3 month proof of concept with two vendors were the subsequent steps. After all, Dassault Systemes Simulia SLM (V6R2013X) was chosen as SDM system for Eberspächer Exhaust Technology.
Based on experiences with development and external customization of other database systems at Eberspächer in the past, there was a decision against outsourcing the implementation this time. The strategy is to implement as much as possible by ourselves through a coaching approach in order to develop our own know-how for subsequent further development of the system and for internal support activities. The project is a close collaboration work between the CAE methods department and the technical IT application department. The price for this “do-it-yourself” implementation was well known: it takes a lot of effort – especially to get the knowledge of the software tool itself – and a lot of own capacity in form of human resources. Since the beginning of the project, 3 IT and 3 CAE staff members are working approx. 70% of their time on SDM.
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
Although SDM was started bottom-up, it is now part of a high prioritized management initiative to increase product engineering efficiency and has to be reported regularly to the executive committee.
After two years of development, the first simulation processes in SDM were rolled out in the middle of the year 2016 for durability (FEM simulation) and CFD. Right now, approx. 30 colleagues work in the system on daily base. After the global rollout at the end of 2017 / beginning of 2018, some 90 CAE colleagues will work with the SDM system at our development sites in Germany, France, USA and China.
3. Requirements to SDM system
Applying product development simulations within the whole Eberspächer Exhaust Technology enterprise group on several global sites, the SDM system should be an enabler for multi-site collaboration. Transparency, traceability, higher quality and worldwide standardization should be guaranteed thru SDM and a process-safe execution of a constantly growing number of simulations and simulation variants should be made possible. On any Eberspächer Exhaust Technology site the same standard processes should be available and running to get reliable and comparable results. It must be clear for any simulation, what was done, how it was done, which standard was followed, what is the status of the simulation and what are the results and conclusions. To do simultaneous engineering and using results of one simulation as input for a next one, synergies between simulation projects within a discipline or between different ones should be achieved for better interdisciplinary work. SDM should help reduce costs by reducing the time and effort required for information retrieval, model production and reporting and by a high degree of automation. For this reason, the focus lies in our solution particularly on standardized and largely automated simulation sequences. It must be possible to run and handle all our processes completely in the SDM systems. Vision is a “one-click” result.
For Eberspächer, SDM is definitely more than just management of simulation data. Simulation processes are in the main focus. That’s why although internally the term “SDM” is used at Eberspächer, “SPDM” would describe it much better.
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
4. Abstract simulation process at Eberspächer Exhaust Technology
Figure 3: Generic durability / CFD simulation process at Eberspächer
A typical simulation task starts with a work request in the J. Eberspächer Request System (JERSY) by a project engineer. JERSY is a web-based in-house developed database solution for requesting simulations, tests and measurements. Furthermore, it can be used for capacity planning of human and test bench resources. The JERSY request contains necessary metadata for a simulation like OEM, project, engine information, type of simulation and drawing numbers. In the next step, simulation analysts have to collect CADdata from our PDM system CimDatabase. Special CAD models prepared for simulation (e.g. with mid-surface) are stored in a special space and can be identified with the drawing number. The pre-/postprocessing as well as the solving is done with the – in the automotive industry standardized and well known – classical commercial simulation tools like HyperWorks, Nastran, Abaqus, Fluent, Icem, Star-CCM+, GT, Wave, PBS or own inhouse scripts. Results and conclusions have to be documented in reports (PowerPoint) and finally stored in the PDM System. After presenting and discussing of results with project engineers considering “simultaneous engineering”, the simulation task can be closed in JERSY. To increase efficiency, this workflow is running in the SDM system completely with a grade of automation as high as possible.
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
5. Status of SDM project
A look on the maturity diagram shows the status and the KPIs of the SDM project.
Figure 4: Maturity of SDM project
The system is mostly set up and rolled out for durability and CFD simulations in Germany. Efforts like training or basic process implementations for these disciplines are quite far in opposite to the efforts for other simulation disciplines or other global simulation sites. In 2017, more focus will be put on these open issues.
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
6. Challenges
Eberspächer Exhaust Technology is a leading system supplier for exhaust technology and therefore an expert for the development of exhaust systems. Eberspächer build up an own business operating system and optimizes its program and product management with a continuous improvement process. It is known very well what to do if a new solution for an exhaust system or a component of the exhaust system has to be developed in an efficient and effective way for our customers.
Implementation of a SDM system is a complete other story. It is a mix of software development and software implementation project with its own specific characteristics which has to be handled in a total different way. Already at the beginning of the project it was necessary to change from classical project management (waterfall) to a more agile one. With the help of the “SCRUM” technique, a better handling of such a project with huge at the beginning not exactly defined and now permanent changing requirements was possible. Applying this management technique the first time took some time and effort.
After seeing many reference systems and also hearing about fast progress of SDM systems on many conferences, our expectations to the systems and their implementers were very high, maybe even too high. So, on the one hand, missing functionality, less user-friendly interfaces and bugs turned out to be challenges, which lead sometimes to delays or time consuming and expensive customization without guarantee for later update ability. A coaching approach with no fixed targets, poor availability of experts and mostly agile trial/error development on our own was disappointing at some time.
On the other hand, well known in the round of experts, implementing of a SDM system is an assessment of own processes and structures. Only during implementation of a simulation process into the SDM system, it can be seen whether the standardization is good enough or not. Partially it was necessary to re-define some processes and our scripts had to be adapted extensively to the SDM system.
IT issues like unique global operating systems, same software levels on server or localhost machines, storage sizes, common browser settings, software development with subversion or proper use of queuing system, to name a few, turned to build up new construction areas. SDM didn’t cause these issues. It just put focus on them and needed fixed solutions.
User acceptance is one main challenge and it is still necessary to work on it on a daily base. SDM brings many changes to daily work and RFQs or taskforces
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
are not always suitable to learn a new way of working. So, at the moment, analysts should work in SDM, but still can work the old way (with more and more restrictions e.g. less storage on drives, new tools only in SDM). It is very important that simulation analysts understand the benefits of a SDM system. Not only their own, but more important the benefits for the company and their colleagues. Only then, they will use it. SDM users don’t earn the efficiency gain of automated processes in SDM when they just archive results from external suppliers. Proper data management as benefit is often not enough to convince them. So, it’s the task of the SDM project team to make them recognize other benefits in their daily work.
The effort for training and support of SDM users was partially underestimated. Trainings with several workshops (general SDM basics, system basics, processes) and individual coaching as well as weekly consultation-hours and detailed manuals in our Eberspächer intranet are offered to all analysts. But while caring for the problems and needs of the user, the same staff should drive the development and the enhancement of the SDM system forward which is quite challenging with limited resources. So, capacity is definitely another main problem!
Next big challenge will be the integration of our global sites, which will be technically accomplished properly with a remote desktop solution. Intercultural changes, different time zones and different languages, new stakeholders or decision of location of simulation data storage are just some points to work on intensively in the next months.
Further challenges will be an enhanced variant comparison in the SDM system and an automated use of hierarchic CAD assemblies. As Eberspächer uses an old version of SLM (V6R2013X), this is properly already offered satisfactorily in newer versions of SLM to which Eberspächer has to migrate by the end of 2018.
7. Is SDM a success story so far?
Is the introduction of SDM at Eberspächer Exhaust Technology already a success story so far? This is an interesting question and of course, the answer depends on who is asked. Sponsor, project leader, system developer, user, software vendor or other stakeholders will all have their own opinion. That’s why there is no final answer to the question now, but some hints to figure it out.
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
Timeline:
The effort was underestimated at the beginning and progress is not as far as planned originally. Mainly this is based on unforeseen challenges. Bugs and missing functionality in SDM system lead to costly customization work. Standardization of own processes and development of own scripts were more difficult than expected. An own development with a coaching approach byvendor turned out to be not satisfying. Nevertheless, this strategy is without an alternative from our point of view. Training and support of users parallel to development of the system (enhancements, new features) and above mentioned unplanned challenges lead to capacity problems and caused a delay in the project.
Simulation Process Templates:
The idea was to put high singular effort into customization and implementationof simulation processes. Besides simple and flexible ad-hoc processes, the target was to offer specialized processes for Modalanalysis (MA), Frequency Response Analysis (BSA), Operating Load Analysis (BWA) and Flow Distribution (FD) in SDM in a first phase and to enhance them step by step in future.
Figure 5: Simulation Template for Modalanalysis (MA) in SDM
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
These processes have highest automatization and standardization level and include the whole process workflow as described in chapter 4: get metadata from simulation request, data collection, meshing, assembly, defining loadcases and boundary condition, solving, postprocessing and reporting. It is even possible to get results and reports with „one click“. With these features the targets standardization, quality, traceability and efficiency are fulfilled.
Automated reporting:
With a report creating module, the analyst gets automated simulation reports with standardized layout and with all important information included. Manual work is reduced to minimum and standardization and efficiency are guaranteed.
Figure 6: Example for standardized automated Modalanalysis report (fictive project)
Usage:
On the one hand, user acceptance and usage is not as high as expected.
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
Figure 7: Weekly usage of SDM
The statistic in figure 7 shows a very uneven use of SDM. There is a high usage and acceptance from key-users and a hesitant but increasing use by 1/3 of the analysts. Although extensive training of all users took place, 1/3 of the analysts are not using the system. What are the reasons for this uneven use? Atthe beginning, important functionality or requirements often were not ready in the SDM tool and working without SDM was still possible. Additionally,urgent RFQs or taskforces during our roll-out phase and less user-friendly interfaces are not suitable to learn a new way of working. Meanwhile,functionality in SDM is enhanced, work without SDM is restricted and support and training activities are increased. In special use cases, where the SDM user only archive external generated results or run own ad-hoc processes in SDM,there is no efficiency gain of automated processes in SDM. Just to the contrary, working with ad-hoc processes takes even more time in SDM and has too much overhead. Nevertheless, working in a SDM system offers more powerful data management possibilities than working on a file system. Anyway, it is necessary to review our automated processes to find out what are the reasons for not using them. To prevent a too big step from ad-hoc to specialized processes, it is recommended to make the processes as simple as possible.
In spite of the above mentioned issues, at the end of 2016 usage was steadily growing.
Presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Stockholm, Sweden | 11-14 June 2017
Figure 8: Growing data volume in SDM storage from August until December2016
The SDM productive system contains after 5 months already approx. 400 simulation requests and a constantly growing data volume of 1200GB. Content like mesh models can already be reused or referenced in any simulation process. “Where used”-functionality guarantees their traceability. Search and find of data is reduced to minimum thru data management possibilities and the “Impact Graph” allows a graphical view on all related data of a simulation processes.
8. Summary
This work contains detailed information about the introduction of a SDM system at Eberspächer Exhaust Technology and its status. Main challenges are discussed together with some hints if it is already a success story or not. Themain targets transparency, traceability, higher quality and worldwide standardization are fulfilled thru the SDM system. Cost reduction for information gathering, model building and reporting will become even more evident as more analysts will run their simulation work with it. The further work will focus on higher automation for more efficiency and more user-friendliness for a higher user acceptance. After the global rollout and the implementing of further disciplines in 2017, it remains to be seen, if SDM can be an enabler for multi-site collaboration and improves the work in and across disciplines. Eberspächer believes strongly in the benefits and philosophy of SDM, even though there is still a long and challenging way to go.
