GRIA meets the Audi challenge
Major automotive companies and IT suppliers meet to discuss challenges for data integration and collaborative product design
Audi Workshop
At a recent workshop hosted by Audi in Ingostadt, Germany, IT Innovation demonstrated to major automotive companies and technology suppliers how GRIA can help support collaborative product design. Audi challenged different IT vendors to develop and demonstrate solutions to a complex engineering design scenario including CAE (Computer Aided Engineering), CAD (Computer Aided Design) and external consultant engineering teams. Significant business and technical challenges had to be tackled including:
The infrastructure used semantic technologies to provide integration between the different data models and product configurations required by each team. Semantic representations of CAD and CAE data were developed by Ontoprise and used with OntoBroker to exchange data between domains. Data transfer was achieved using GRIA's OGSA-DAI service integrated with different data management systems. The service uses key Web Service and Grid standards supporting interoperability requirements for inter-enterprise integration. Using standard data transfer services, external suppliers could deliver their results directly to the MSC SimManager simulation management system.
A key aspect of the scenario was outsourcing CAD meshing tasks to 3rd party engineering consultancy companies. The benefits of outsourcing specialist capabilities are well known (improved innovation, reduced costs, increased flexibility) and automotive companies increasingly looking to exploit the Internet and Web Services when outsourcing in collaborative design processes.
The infrastructure was deployed at sites throughout Europe and demonstrated successfully live at the workshop. The demonstration showed how GRIA can accelerate supplier integration by coupling B2B procurement processes with automated service level agreements and dynamic trust and security.
- management and process coordination between distributed teams;
- loose data integration between product (PDM) and simulation data management (SDM) systems;
- integration of 3rd party suppliers; and
- sharing data securely with partners using the Internet and considering operational security and data risk assessments.
The infrastructure used semantic technologies to provide integration between the different data models and product configurations required by each team. Semantic representations of CAD and CAE data were developed by Ontoprise and used with OntoBroker to exchange data between domains. Data transfer was achieved using GRIA's OGSA-DAI service integrated with different data management systems. The service uses key Web Service and Grid standards supporting interoperability requirements for inter-enterprise integration. Using standard data transfer services, external suppliers could deliver their results directly to the MSC SimManager simulation management system.
A key aspect of the scenario was outsourcing CAD meshing tasks to 3rd party engineering consultancy companies. The benefits of outsourcing specialist capabilities are well known (improved innovation, reduced costs, increased flexibility) and automotive companies increasingly looking to exploit the Internet and Web Services when outsourcing in collaborative design processes.
The infrastructure was deployed at sites throughout Europe and demonstrated successfully live at the workshop. The demonstration showed how GRIA can accelerate supplier integration by coupling B2B procurement processes with automated service level agreements and dynamic trust and security.