Rockwell, Dassault Join Hands to Target Digital Factory
January 22, 2008
Rockwell, Dassault Join Hands to Target Digital Factory
An integrated, joint solution will redefine how mechanical engineers and control engineers collaborate to reduce time to market and drive down costs, the companies say.
Watch for activity to heat up in the product lifecycle management (PLM) space next year.
One recent sign of newly forming battle lines came with this week’s announcement of a planned link between Rockwell Automation Inc., the Milwaukee-based automation controls heavyweight, and Paris-based Dassault Systèmes, a leading PLM supplier. The two vendors say they have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on a joint solution to create a virtual design and production environment for manufacturers. It’s one of the latest salvos aimed at the emerging “digital manufacturing,” or “digital factory,” marketplace.
According to the Dec. 11 announcement from Rockwell and Dassault, the joint solution will link manufacturing design to factory-floor control by integrating Rockwell’s RSLogix 5000 control programming and configuration software together with Dassault’s Delmia Automation PLM software. As a result, the companies said, manufacturers can expect to reduce the cost of engineering and ramp-up time, and to continually optimize their manufacturing operations with an accurate, real-time, simulation model.
Earlier acquisitions
The Rockwell/Dassault announcement comes less than a year after Siemens AG, the German industrial powerhouse and automation supplier, announced a $3.5 billion acquisition of UGS Corp., another big PLM provider based in Plano, Texas. Word of that deal came last January. Additional action in the PLM space followed last May, when Oracle Corp., the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based enterprise software vendor, announced its $495 million acquisition of Agile Software Corp., a San Jose, Calif., PLM supplier. For manufacturing customers, these developments could make for an increasingly lively PLM product space in 2008 and beyond, as the various players roll out their competing solutions. The joint Rockwell Automation/Dassault Systèmes solution contemplates a virtual design and production environment that more closely links product design to manufacturing. The solution will help enable collaborative mechanical and control design with bidirectional synchronization, the companies said. As a result, immediate feedback will be available on design changes, thus enabling the testing of various “what if” scenarios in order to continuously optimize manufacturing operations. Customers will benefit, said Rockwell and Dassault, because manufacturing operations will be commissioned faster, with optimal production performance.
During a recent visit to Automation World offices to discuss the announcement, executives from both companies said that the ability to exchange information bidirectionally between the two companies’ software on the mechanical and control sides will be a key advantage. “There is no other solution on the market today that can deliver this,” claimed Patrick Michel, Dassault’s vice president for Delmia solutions.
Rockwell and Dassault have worked together informally for about 10 years, executives said, and have created complementary manufacturing engineering technologies built around strong, object-oriented data models for representing devices and operations. This will enable the rapid development of the links needed to create the bidirectional synchronization capability, they said.
Months, not years
While this capability is “not yet commercially launched, it will be available soon,” said Martin Canell, manager, strategic alliances, global business development, for Rockwell Automation. The timing is yet to be determined, he said, “but we’re talking months, not years,” until the solution is available. While the joint technology will prove valuable in a number of industry segments, Rockwell and Dassault said they will initially target the automotive market, where they both have common customers.
The press release announcing the agreement quoted Rockwell and Dassault executives, as well as various industry analysts, regarding the virtues of the deal. “Manufacturers are anxiously awaiting a solution that can turn the idea of a virtual design and production environment into reality,” said Kevin Roach, Rockwell’s vice president of software. “We see this relationship as a way to make our customers’ visions come true in the very near term by capitalizing on the strengths of both the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture and Dassault Systèmes’ PLM solutions.”
“This relationship is a natural fit for both Dassault Systèmes and Rockwell Automation,” said Philippe Charles, chief executive officer, Dassault Systèmes Delmia Corp. “The years of development that we have put into our Delmia Automation solution and that Rockwell Automation has put into its Integrated Architecture make it possible for our two companies to integrate these technologies and provide a joint solution to customers in the very near future.”
Analysts speak
“We are one step closer to realizing the dream of a virtual design and production environment with the relationship between Rockwell Automation and Dassault Systèmes,” said Jim Caie, vice president, consulting, ARC Advisory Group Inc., in Dedham, Mass. “Virtual commissioning is a key ...
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