Siemens helps Brazilian aircraft manufacturer enhance product development process

Summary

June 19, 2019 – The goals of having more security, reliability and availability of its products have led Octans Aircraft, a Brazilian manufacturer of small aircraft, to adopt solutions from Siemens Digital Industries Software throughout its product development process. The company is producing its first aircraft model that will undergo the certification process, the 300A, with capacity for five seats. The company plans to achieve positive results by reducing the time and cost of its processes through the implentation of key technology from Siemens.

In 2013, Milton Roberto Pereira, an aviation enthusiast and entreprenuer from the financial market, acquired control of Inpaer, an experimental aircraft manufacturer, to give a new direction to the business. "We decided to move to small approved aviation. For this, we had to invest heavily in the professionalization and in the processes of governance of the company,“ says the engineer. That was how Octans Aircraft was born.

The investments of US$ 20 million were used to modernize the company's plant, located a few hours from São Paulo, to acquire new technological resources, and to professionalize the team. Among these changes included adding solutions from Siemens Digital Industries Software.

"In 2017, with the evolution of the 300A project to the detailing phase, the company needed tools to support the evolution, in addition to the development and validation of complex products, version management, revisions and also to link the product and documentation that supports your certification. We saw in Teamcenter the ideal platform to support the process of development and also certification of the products of Octans Aircraft," explains Leonardo de Pádua Andrade Filho, engineering manager.

In addition to the Teamcenter portfolio, Octans Aircraft also implemented NX software for computer-aided design and manufacturing, and solutions from the Simcenter portfolio including Femap software and Simcenter Testlab Structures Testing software. The investment in using Teamcenter was made with the objective of facilitating the control and traceability processes of the project.

"Certified products require strict configuration and traceability control, and Siemens‘ technology is crucial for these controls to be effective throughout the product lifecycle, helping enable customers and Octans more security, reliability and availability of their products," said Allan Peluzzi, business manager. "In line with Octans' global strategy, Siemens‘ tools help enable the organization to establish branch offices and partnerships around the world, reducing the time and cost of new developments, validations and improvements to our products. Through agile development methodologies and using simultaneous engineering, in addition to the digital twin, we can reduce design and manufacturing time with simulations and studies still in the development phase."

As a result of their digitalization, Octans Aircraft has seen a 40% reduction in time in the new product development cycle and 100% integration and transparency between the Development and Process teams through the application of Simultaneous Engineering, which previously was not possible in the conventional method of work, due to network limitations and permissions. Octans has also seen more clarity and agility in the distribution of tasks with use of workflows, standardization and process standardization based on good practices already experienced in the Aerospace segment; absolute control of versions and revisions, improvement in the interactions between CAD and Simulation teams; the construction of a digital twin capable of fully integrating system, structural, process and manufacturing developments, reducing assembly time, product improvements, and overhauls by up to 45%.

"With this system we have been able to go through the entire product development and manufacturing cycle,with greater control of versions, in line with established market practices widely used by other aviation players, improving engineering interactions in the development phase, streamlining our project releases andenabling traceability at each stage of the process," says Andrade Filho.

For Filho, Octans chose Siemens because it is the a high end tool in complex engineering projects delivering performance and large amount of resources available in developments involving complex systems. In addition, the support aspects of Siemens which, through a good relationship and appropriate post-sales actions, supported the search for suitable solutions for the business, with a short implementation time, with a simplistic and objective approach. The integration of development and manufacturing into a single tool was decisive in the selection of Siemens' solutions to Octans.