GKN Westland - exploiting powerful CAE software to gain competitive advantage

Citation

(1999), "GKN Westland - exploiting powerful CAE software to gain competitive advantage", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 71 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1999.12771eab.001

GKN Westland - exploiting powerful CAE software to gain competitive advantage

GKN Westland - exploiting powerful CAE software to gain competitive advantage

Keywords: GKN, Software, CAE, Helicopters

GKN's two UK aerospace businesses have enjoyed a long-lasting relationship with INCAT, a business which helps manufacturing companies to gain competitive advantage through design process improvement and by applying CATIA computer-aided engineering (CAE) technology. This case study charts their relationship over ten years and explains how Westland has moved on from being a basic user of 2D drafting tools to one of the aerospace industry's most advanced users of CAE.

Employing over 8,000 people, GKN Westland has established its reputation in the design and manufacture of complete aircraft systems, structures, and components for both commercial and military aircraft. The company is involved in major civil and military aerospace projects, such as the Anglo-Italian EH101 advanced medium lift helicopter and the development of airliners in North America and Europe. Although owned by GKN since 1994, Westland's manufacturing operation still trades as two separate businesses: Yeovil-based helicopters, helicopter design authority, manufacturer and systems integrator; and Isle of Wight-based GKN Westland Aerospace, a supplier of composite structures.

INCAT and Westland Helicopters

INCAT's first involvement with Westland began with the helicopter company's decision to explore the benefits of three-dimensional CAD in 1989. To begin with, the company took just one seat of CATIA to perform data interchange and a modest amount of design work for a SAAB aircraft project.

At the time, Westland were using 130 seats of 2D CADAM design software with a remote mainframe link from Yeovil to the IOW sister business. Then, in 1990 aerostructures management on the island took the decision to fully migrate from 2D CADAM to their own 3D CATIA and to integrate their design and manufacturing departments on a common platform. The structures business had ambitions to win a bigger share of external design and manufacturing work and needed to be able to compete with the best aerospace contractors in the world. INCAT was chosen to be the supplier, implementation, training and support organisation for 32 mainframe CATIA seats.

Meanwhile, following a similar CATIA benchmark at Helicopters in Yeovil, INCAT had installed six seats to carry out rotor blade design on the long-running EH101 search and rescue helicopter programme, a joint venture with Agusta in Italy. The software soon proved its worth, saving 50 per cent on rotor blade design cycle times.

In 1996, INCAT introduced digital mock-up (DMU), solid modelling and CATIA Data Manager (CDM) for evaluation. Helicopters' management wanted to leap-frog competitors by applying the best technology to reduce lead times. They also had the desire to bring back design work previously outsourced. These powerful design tools became instrumental in Westland's re-design of the Lynx helicopter to produce the "Super-Lynx" and in delivering time and cost savings across all programmes. In one example, Mike Evans, mechanical CAE project manager, cites the design of new EH101 rescue hoists, where a clash on the surface structure was detected early: "DMU allowed us to identify the clash at the design stage, way ahead of cutting metal, at which stage it would have been very costly to correct."

Also in 1996, INCAT's programming skills were put to the test when Helicopters sought to link HDMS, its proprietary product data management (PDM) system, to CATIA. The business wanted to speed up the transfer of product data by introducing an automated process and to remove the need to re-key information - a point at which errors can be introduced.

Currently, INCAT engineers are working with Westland and Dassault specialists in a leading-edge pilot project involving the use of the CATIA Composites product. The design and manufacture of rotor blades is one of Westland's core competencies and the team's aim is to explore the boundaries of rotor design to produce the next generation blade.

In another pilot project, INCAT is working to enhance Westland Helicopters' wire harness design and routeing systems with CATIA E3D, a solution from the equipment and systems engineering suite of CATIA products. This will give engineers significant design automation and full integration with the rest of the design department.

Today, Westland Helicopters has 33 seats of CATIA and plans further investment to replace its remaining 2D CADAM network.

"We see CATIA as the way forward and plan to do considerably more design work on this platform in future. We are also looking at VPM* and replacing our proprietary PDM system to take us forward to a new level of digital design and simulation. It's comforting to know that INCAT people will be alongside us - helping us to get there", concludes Mike Evans.

INCAT and GKN Westland Aerospace

From its Isle of Wight base, GKN Westland Aerospace (GKN WAe) provides a comprehensive ''cradle to grave'' capability embracing structural and systems engineering design, analysis and testing and in-service support. As well as being involved in engine nacelle design and manufacture, the business now claims to be one of the world's largest advanced aircraft structures manufacturers.

INCAT's partnership with GKN WAe dates back to 1990, when the arrival of mainframe CATIA signalled CAD independence from the Helicopters business in Yeovil. After migrating from mainframe to RS6000 workstations in 1993, the next major investment in CATIA came in 1995, when GKN WAe won the Dash 8-400 nacelle design and manufacturing contract from Bombardier-de Havilland. Supported by Bombardier, GKN WAe planned to install DMU and CDM and awarded INCAT the contract to supply, install and commission 12 additional seats of CATIA. INCAT programmers built a replica of Bombardier's CDM environment allowing GKN WAe designers to work seamlessly with their Canadian customer. Design methodologies were also significantly changed at this time with an INCAT consultant seconded to the Island for 12 months to introduce and support new organisational structures and concurrent working practices.

According to chief engineer Peter Chivers, today's GKN Westland Aerospace business is contract opportunity-driven. "Once we have secured a contract we have to be very fast on our feet, ensuring we can deploy the right people and the right technology resources in the shortest possible time. INCAT has been good at understanding and accommodating us in this respect. They have often shown willingness to go the extra mile to help us deliver our promises."

Today, the kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement permeates GKN WAe, applying just as much to design and information technology as it does to organisational and manufacturing procedures. Some £5 million alone has been saved through its quality-based improvement scheme in the last four years. Savings such as this are backed up by strategic business improvement initiatives, which have resulted in significant technology investment, amounting to some £10 million in recent years. This has equipped the business with CATIA, networked PCs, a Baan IV ERP system and most recently EnoviaPM (formerly IBM's product manager PDM system).

Currently being implemented by IBM, the PDM team included Ray Dingwall, a CATIA specialist at INCAT. Project team member Nick Massey describes Dingwall as a respected CATIA expert who was seen as a more credible PDM, convert, showing engineers the linkage between EnoviaPM and CATIA.

Having just secured its single largest nacelle contract from Allied Signal for a new Bombardier business jet, the IoW business is now investing £1.8 million in a further 28 CATIA seats, taking its total number of seats to 114 worldwide. As well as providing implementation, training and support services, INCAT's role will be to ensure the business maintains its continuous improvement record by further exploiting DMU and PDM. Already, GKN WAe and INCAT are looking at Chrysler-style digital simulation of manufacturing and assembly lines to identify further opportunities to deliver cost and cycle time reductions.

( EnoviaVPM (VPM for short), is a PDM 11 solution originally developed for leading-edge CATIA users Chrysler, Boeing and Bombardier. PDM 11 encompasses the notionally separate domains of product date management (PDM) and virtual product development management (VPDM). It means managing and enabling access to all data generated during manufacturing - covering product development, design, and production processes. Enovie Corporation is a new joint-venture between IBM and Dassault SystÉmes designed to develop and market new PDM 11 Solutions.)

Further details are available from: INCAT Ltd. Tel: +44 (0) 1442 281200; Fax: + 44 (0) 1442 243308; Website: www.incat.com