Abstract

1 in 3 vehicles in the world is equipped by Faurecia, a top-ten global automotive technology supplier. While this is a proud statement to make, it also introduces worry and stress on the engineering management team, since the engineering development of all the various products that Faurecia delivers happens at multiple locations around the world ? specifically, at 39 separate Research & Development centers located in 35 different countries. If this is not complicated enough, there are four (4) unique business groups ? Clean Mobility, Seating, Interiors, and Clarion Electronics ? which all have different product development cycles, different CAE tools, and customized CAE methods that enable each team to produce their products efficiently, consistently, and at a high level of quality. Use of SPDM is critical to allowing all the engineering teams to collaborate on one platform, making sure the CAE process is managed correctly. SPDM also allows for a standardized data management system to be followed, allowing for management teams to be constantly updated on project maturity and levels of completeness. At Faurecia, a clear focus was put on the need for a collaborative platform that managed all the specific CAE work tasks, including CAE simulation modeling, job submission, and results reporting. Use of SPDM allowed for standardization of these engineering deliverables, but also allowed for work request & delivery management, resulting in a ?Kanban Board? so that managers and engineers alike all knew what was completed, in-work, and still to-be-completed. This Kanban Board could be seen by engineering teams at multiple R&D sites, resulting in a clear understanding and ?visual snapshot? of what the status was of engineering development of each product at each location. This summer, Faurecia started ?phase one? of their SPDM implementation, which included two R&D groups ? Faurecia Clean Mobility and Faurecia Interiors ? who worked with their engineering IT teams to test the benefits of SPDM on their workflows. The biggest success factor was the overall user experience, which allowed for increased understanding of the overall engineering workflows, and also led to increased adoption of the software across the multiple sites. This ?phase one? implementation of SPDM at Faurecia also allowed for quicker end-to-end engineering workflows, and the global CAE management team is now evaluating the feasibility of a ?phase two? implementation, which includes collecting end-user feedback, managing (and standardizing) the simulation process, and finally implementing a layer of automation to speed up the workflow time it takes to bring new products to the market.