Technology services provider EDS and the PLM business unit of Siemens' Industry Automation group have entered into a partnership that provides a foundation for delivering turnkey performance-based logistic services (PBL) to the aerospace & defense (A&D) industry.
Focusing on maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), the agreement will serve military defense operations that manage a fleet of complex long lifecycle assets, such as aircraft, weapon systems, ships, or any key capital equipment. Using Siemens PLM Software's Teamcenter software portfolio for PLM, which includes MRO, the duo will enable OEMs to track, measure, and manage the metrics around service contracts while easing administration of the IT infrastructure and security requirements.
Many aerospace OEMs, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, are being pulled into new kinds of government contracts that require them to service their fleets from cradle to grave. In the past, defense organizations maintained the equipment themselves, so this change means OEMs must revamp the way they do business.
"We are seeing OEMs going from basic spare [parts] with some support to having to take a performance- based logistics approach, which is like a service-level agreement," said Joan Davies, EDS' aerospace & defense segment leader, in an interview with Managing Automation.
"The second thing is, there are more international sales from OEMs," Davies said. "And to do it effectively, it is not just about selling, but about service, protecting intellectual property, and meeting the international traffic in arms regulations for export control. Also, we want to manage equipment differently, tying it back to configurations to get fleet and trend data. Our solution looks as well at how to do maintenance and how to handle contracts and logistics."
The EDS approach to the problem has three main pillars: PLM, financial/contract management, and supply chain management. Siemens PLM Software fulfills the first aspect of the structure. EDS is lining up partners to fill the other areas that will create a truly turnkey solution.
The Siemens announcement came first because the two already have several mutual clients working on PBL services. In addition, the fact that UGS — which Siemens acquired last year to form the Siemens PLM Software group — used to be a part of EDS made it easy for the two to partner.
"The marriage occurred simply because we were in the same fraternity together," said Tim Nichols, managing director of aerospace & defense global marketing at Siemens PLM, in an interview. "We knew the strengths on each side of the equation, and they have an appreciation of the power of our technology."
"We still think [Teamcenter] is very vital," Davies said. "If you look at what we are doing with overall configuration management, the product data management pieces will be critical."
A&D OEMs will be able to tap into Teamcenter's collaborative service data management repository that captures all of the information and knowledge about the state of an airplane or engine, for example. EDS offers the expertise to link to maintenance so that data is seamlessly integrated to the master storage network managed by Teamcenter, Nichols said.