# Presentation: 851681

## STEP from a Life Cycle Point of View  - The PLCS Initiative

*Position: **	**Chairman of the Board, PLCS Inc.*
*	**	**Chairman, ISO TC184 SC4*

**STEP from a Life Cycle ****Point of View  ****- The PLCS Initiative**

***NASA STEP for Aerospace Workshop***
***JPL Pasadena, 17 January 2001***

## Agenda

***Key Business Drivers***
***Impact of the Internet - B2B exchanges***
***Overview of Current Standards***
***About the PLCS initiative***
***The PLCS Technical Approach***
***Questions***

## Key Business Drivers

***International Collaboration demands product data exchange and sharing across many organisations***
***Defence and Airline customers and major aerospace companies want a single way to exchange digital product data***
***Suppliers want a unified approach from prime contractors***
***Worldwide operation demands a worldwide standard***

## Key Business Drivers

***Shared or Integrated Digital Environments demand accurate information on product configuration, which is:***
***Achieved on delivery***
***Maintained through the lifecycle***
***Communicated between customer and supplier***
***Communicated along the supply chain***
***Integrated software needs configuration management ***
***Product software is a key element of the platform***
***Need closer control of product structure than ever before***
***Need to integrate and maintain information from multiple sources and systems***

## The Internet changes everything...

***“******The emergence of the internet and the associated opportunities has sounded ******a wake-up call to all product development organisations****** across the world to change and adapt the way they do business or risk being run over”****** ***
***GartnerGroup, Strategic Analysis Report***
- “***How you gather, manage and use information will determine whether you ******win or lose******”***
***Bill Gates, Microsoft Corporation***
***“******The internet is driving business change and technology change and it lets you use the ******open standards****** to run your business”***
***Oracle Corporation***

## Which industries are likely to embrace B2B solutions?

***“ ******We conclude that industries that are B2B inclined exhibit certain key characteristics.  ***
***Some of these characteristics include the following:***
***The supply chain is highly diffuse***
***Techno-innovators dominate the culture***
***Process represents more than 20% of total costs***
***Products exhibit complex configurations***
***Expense pressure is intense” ***
_***	***__***	***__***	***__***	***__***	***_
_***www.goldmansachs.com/hightech/research/b2b***_

## “Opportunity of a lifetime” or “Business as usual” ?

**“****Opportunity of a lifetime” or**** “Business as usual” ?**

***“******by 2004 the aerospace sector will have the largest proportion of internet-based Business to Business (B2B) sales,****** ******35%******...” ******	******	****** ******	******	******       ******B2B: 2b or not 2B?, Goldman Sachs, 11/99***
***but today...***
***“******only 3%****** ******of all transactions involving sales of aviation parts are conducted on line” ***
***	******	******	******Shop Talk: Parts. Planes and B2B exchanges, Red Herring, 24 Feb 2000***

## Different types of B2B Exchanges

***Capitalize on Supplier Competency and Capacity***
***Sub-contractors,***
***contract manufacturers, ******and strategic ******suppliers***
** **

***Few large******strategic customers***
***Capture Customer Requirements and Develop Winning Products***

***Many customers***
***(potentially unknown)***
** *****Attract New Customers******through Personalized Products***

***Dynamically Identify Sources and Reduce Transaction Costs***
**  *****Direct Materials***
*** ******Indirect Materials***
*** ******New suppliers***

## Overview of current standardsfor the Aerospace Industry

***Transaction oriented***
***Defence: AECMA 2000M***
***Commercial: ATA Spec 2000, EDIFACT, ANSI X.12***
***Content oriented***
***Manufacturing and process centric:***
- ISO 9000, STEP
***Operations and maintenance centric:***
- Defence: MIL-STD-1388, Def-Stan 00-60, AECMA 1000D
- Commercial: ATA Spec 100, 200, 2100
***Summary***
***Current standards are very specialized and focus on either:***
- a piece of a business transaction, I.e. Order, Part or Invoice
- presentation of specific content, I.e. Aircraft maintenance manual

## What is the adoption rate of these standards?

***ATA Spec 2000***
***342 Spec2000 participants***
- 84 airlines out of 750+
- 78 ‘non-airlines’ out of thousands
- 180 suppliers out of tens of thousands
***AECMA 2000M***
***many of the recent large defence programs, i.e. Tornado, Eurofighter...***
- only the largest EU A&D manufacturers
- some of the larger EU defence ministries
***Conclusion***
***modest penetration, mainly with the largest Tier 1 operators/suppliers***
***barrier to entry ( $, expertise...) is too high for the majority***

## So what is missing?

***support the forecasted growth in e-business ***

**So what is missing?**

***Available standards do not address product support requirements***
***Major problems keeping technical information in line with the changing physical product through life***
***Major problems linking support information to relevant product information***
***Software applications use proprietary data standards and are often difficult to integrate***
***Inconsistent data definitions***

## Business Problem...

**Business Problem...**

***How to keep the data needed to operate and maintain a product in line with the changing product over its life cycle?***

***Product***
***in Focus***

## The Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) initiative

***About PLCS***
***A joint industry and government initiative to accelerate development of new standards for product support information***
***An international project, managed within the ISO framework, to produce draft standard(s) within 3 years.***
*** ******PLCS utilizes ISO 10303 STEP - the ******ST******andard for ******E******xchange of ******P******roduct model data ***
***PLCS Inc. established in 1999 by 14 leading private and public sector organisations***

## PLCS Launch Members

**PLCS Launch Members**

**Notes:**
Very A&D and Mil
1) want to correct inbalance and add 2-3 air carriers ASAP
2) expand beyond A&D/Avtn and pick-up ind. Equip, maritime, rail, auto...

## Goals of PLCS

**Goals of PLCS**

***Improve product availability***
***Reduce operating,support and maintenance costs***
***Improve quality and accessibility of Product Life Cycle Support information***
***Accelerate technical development of the ISO standards***
***Encourage early implementation commercial software vendors***
***Encourage early industry participation in the development and testing of the standard***

## The Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) Initiative

- today

- Shared
- Data

- Life
- Cycle
- Data

**The Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) Initiative**

## Key Deliverables

***New capability for support******, based on simplified and integrated process components***
***Interface ******standards defined****** to support enterprise integration ***
***Integrated data models using ******common terminology***
***Cost drivers and performance ******metrics identified****** - generic and industry specific***
***Information available for ******education and awareness****** programmes***
***ISO standard****** for the exchange of product life cycle support data***

## The PLCS Technical Approach

***Organisation ***
***Links to ISO ***
***Activity Modelling***
***Data Modelling***
***Testing ***

## PLCS Organisation

**Contract**
**Service Provider**

**PLCS**
**Board**

**Project**
**Management**

**Academic**
**Experts**

**Vendor**
**Experts**

**Domain**
**Experts**

**STEP**
**Experts**

## Links to ISO

**Links to ISO**

- ISO  Ballots and Publication

- Outline
- PLCS Scope,
- Activity Model,
- Module
- Structure

- Define
- Activity Model,
- Data Planning
- Model,
- APs &AMs

- AM
- development

- AP
- development

- NWI

- CD

- Draft for
- ballot

- AM Comment
- Resolution

- AP Comment
- Resolution

- DIS

- TS

- Vendor testing

- Q

- Q

- Q

- Q

## PLCS helps facilitate business improvement  As-Is/To-Be process

**PLCS helps facilitate business improvement  As-Is/To-Be process**

## Top Level Model

**Provide Life**
**Cycle Support**

## Level 1 Model: Major Work Areas

***Configuration Management***
***and Change Control***

***Support***
***Engineering***

***Resource***
***Management***

***Maintenance and ***
***Feedback  ***

## Areas of Development 

**Areas of Development **

***Support Engineering***
***Provide and sustain the support infrastructure***
***Resource Management***
***Buy, store, pack, move, issue and dispose of the physical product***
***CM/Change Control***
***Manage change to a configured item throughout the life cycle including tracking of serial number where applicable***
***Maintenance and Feedback***
***Maintain, test, diagnose, calibrate, repair and modify physical product, including schedules, resources and feedback***

## PLCS - main activity areas

**PLCS - main activity areas**

***Usage Guides***

***“******To be” Scenarios***

***Automate  Current Processes***

***New Integrated Processes***

***NATO CALS PP1 and TLBM***

***ISO Prelim Work Item***

***PLCS Launch***

***Better , Cheaper Information***

## PLCS: Inputs to project

**PLCS: Inputs to project**

- ISO
- 15288

- OMG

- STEP

- Mil Spec
- 2549

- ATA
- Effectivity

- AP208

- POSC/
- Caesar

- FMV
- CTG2

- AP203

- TC184/SC4
- WG3/T8
- PWI

- PDM
- Schema

- Def Stan
- 00-60

- AECMA
- 1000D
- 2000M

- Mil Spec
- 1388

- AP 233

- AP214

- NCDM

## Proposed PLCS Data Modules (20 off)

**Proposed PLCS Data Modules (20 off)**

***SE***

***MF***

***IM***

***CM***

***Core***

***Work***
***Areas***

***Key***
-           Requirements Analysis
-           Data Modelling
-           Established Standards

***Time***

## Implementation Plan Summary

***Year 1 - Nov 99 to October 2000***
***Develop and document process models, and associated process definitions, for the top level support processes***
- Support Engineering
- Configuration Management
- Maintenance and Feedback
- Inventory Management
***Develop scenarios for testing***
***Year 2 - Nov 2000 to October 2001***
***Develop data exchange modules***
***Develop pilot implementation scenarios***
***Year 3 - Nov 2001 to October 2002***
***Trial data exchanges using draft ISO standard***
***Progress standard through stages of ISO approval***

## Current status

***Progressive release of Activity models and scenarios for industry review - from end 2000***
***Launch development of data modules***
***PLCS Core - PDM schema plus extensions from AP 214 for “tail-number” tracking***
***Resources and Task Planning***
***Feedback from Operations and Maintenance***
***Initial data modules available April-June 2001***
***Trial implementation by October 2001***
***Key customers looking a the process changes to take full advantage of PLCS approach***

## Business benefits of PLCS ...

**Business benefits of PLCS ...**

***Improved quality****** and access to support information, throughout the product life cycle and across the supply chain***
***Reduced costs****** of acquiring, maintaining and delivering Product Support information***
***Improved asset availability***
***Provides ******ability to communicate****** consistently across COTS software***
***Makes product ******change easier to manage***
***Protects investment****** in product data  ***

## In addition- the benefits of joining PLCS as a member...

***Membership of PLCS during the development of the standard provides the following additional benefits...***
***Forum for exchange of views, experience and discussion of critical issues***
***Develop new relationships, business contacts and sales opportunities******	***
***Ability to influence the direction and scope of PLCS to ensure it meets your business needs******	***
***Opportunity to learn about STEP and its benefits***
***Early visibility of requirements to allow effective planning for implementation***
***Access to existing data, business models and improvement initiatives from world leading organisations***

## Summary

***B2B e-commerce is set to grow****** significantly in the next 5 years***
***There is a growing ******trend towards leveraging the information asset****** to win new business in the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) market***
***After-market service****** is forecast to be a significant element of the B2B market***
***Existing ******standards****** do not fully address the product support requirement***
***PLCS standards will allow ******support information ******to be****** aligned with the changing product****** over its entire life cycle***
***Adoption of PLCS standard will lead to ******reduced operating costs****** and ******increased product availability***

## Visit the PLCS web site:

or contact any of the PLCS core team members: 
John Dunford <john.dunford@eurostep.com>
Nigel Shaw <nigel.shaw@eurostep.com>
Chuck Stark <stark@aticorp.org>

***or contact any of the PLCS core team members: ***
***John Dunford <john.dunford@eurostep.com>***
***Nigel Shaw <nigel.shaw@eurostep.com>***
***Chuck Stark <stark@aticorp.org>***

**www.plcsinc.org**

**For more information ...**

## Any Questions?