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Flexibility and Partnerships Are Keys to Future, Says Dassault’s Edelstenne
Successful firms in the 21st century will use cutting-edge computer tools and dynamic partnerships to create higher-quality, lower-cost products with shorter development cycle times, according to Charles Edelstenne, Dassault Aviation’s chairman and CEO. The Falcon 7X, involving 27 partners, and the Neuron UCAV design project, being developed in conjunction with firms in France, Greece, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, exemplify the types of new programs Dassault Aviation is pursuing.
“With the 7X program, Dassault Aviation has pioneered a revolution in industrial design,” Edelstenne explained. The 7X was designed using a digital platform hosted by the firm’s computers at its St. Cloud headquarters. The partners used CATIA version 5 to create the model, ENOVIA for product life management [PLM], and DELMIA to hone manufacturing processes.
“However, new approaches such as PLM are only part of the story,” Edelstenne said. There’s also a cultural revolution under way at Dassault and at several of its partners. These firms are learning design and development agility. They’re using advanced computer tools to create a virtual platform that enables the participants to perform concurrent engineering.
“We believe this heralds an entirely new approach to collaborative product development that promises to transform working relations between companies and even to revolutionize the entire air transport industry,” Edelstenne said. Dassault pioneered the concept with the 7X program and now Boeing is validating the concept by embracing it for the 787.
Future Dassault Aviation programs will require lower investment because the firm intends to be the “light cavalry,” commanding a “virtual enterprise” of the best outside industrialists rather than building up a large in-house infrastructure. --Fred George
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