Automotive companies standardize on software

Single sourcing of software tools is becoming more common across industries as inter- and intra-company supply chains become increasingly integrated in conjunction with various continuous process improvement programs. This move is particularly noticeable in the automotive industry as two recent announcements indicate:

Opel selects Tecnomatix eMPower Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd . announced that German-based Opel will standardize on eMPower software to manage body-in-white (auto body test design and production) processes at its Rüsselsheim International Technical Development Center (ITDC).

Opel, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors, is adopting GM’s North American planning methodologies across its European operations and selected Tecnomatix because of its work in support of GM’s process planning and operations.

Opel will use the eMPower Body-In-White (BIW) software Tecnomatix developed for GM, which includes the eM-Planner product. The move will bring GM closer to deploying a common BIW process globally, and will enable the ITDC to process any GM vehicle program supported by eMPower BIW.

Automotive supplier standardizes on Autodesk Trostel Ltd ., a global automotive supplier, has standardized its U.S. manufacturing operations on Autodesk ’s 3D design and data management solutions, including Inventor Professional, Vault, and Productstream software products.

Trostel produces custom seals, precision rubber molded products, and mixed compounds for automotive customers around the world. The company implemented Autodesk’s manufacturing software in its three U.S. manufacturing facilities, using it to create virtual 3D designs and test them with finite element analysis (FEA) tools. With Autodesk’s products, Trostel decreased design iterations from five to four, improving engineering productivity 15 to 20%. Trostel plans to use Autodesk to share design information securely with internal and external team members to speed the revision process.

—David Greenfield, editorial director, Control Engineering, dgreenfield@reedbusiness.com

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