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by Greg MacSweeney, MA Editorial Staff   | Abstract: | Innovative PLM program increases design efficiency and saves more than $1 million annually. |
Too often in business, as in life, objectives become clouded, and people lose direction. Sometimes a simple, clearly-stated goal is the key to getting everyone in an organization moving in the same direction. Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC), a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. (UTC), has just such a straightforward objective and, so far, is moving rapidly to reach it. As Amal Girgis, P&WC's CIO, puts it, "Our goal is to become the industry leader in using digital technology to design our engines right through the lifecycle of the product." While moving to a digital design process is a clear objective, it is not a simple task. P&WC (Longueuil, Quebec, Canada), which manufactures turbofans, turboprops and turboshaft engines for regional, business, utility and military aircraft as well as helicopters, needed to migrate 500 engineers and 200 manufacturing staffers to an all-digital process that would, among many other benefits, eliminate the need for costly physical mock-ups. That alone saves P&WC an estimated $500,000 per engine development program. [Click to continue] |