Here in Poland we are currently undergoing a major investment in our own defense capabilities. This may not come as a surprise to people outside of our country, given our geographical position in eastern Europe; not to mention the vast amount of military kit still in use that goes back to the old Soviet days. Our government wants to not only tech up and tool up, but to be sustainable too. This means building a strong defense supply industry that is not reliant upon companies beyond the borders. When it comes to the design challenges, there are some very specific issues that the product development department of these companies face.
Product design challenges for the defense industry
- Firstly, there is no typical design flow or way things are done. Each organization largely has its own unique approach.
- Secondly, data management is big. Managing long lifecycles, managing user access to parts of the design and managing the data within these designs – in many instances there are vast amounts of supporting documentation.
- Design reliability.
- Mixtures of old and new technologies.
Electrical design challenges specific for the defense industry
Many of these issues are relevant to other industries, but the ones below are a particular issue to companies in defense.
- Integration with mechanical and PLM design tools such as Siemens Teamcenter, Solid Edge, CATIA etc.
- Integration with PDM and ERP environments.
- Designing with multiple users.
- Generation of final design documents such as formboard, bills of materials and cable lengths.
- Designing for harsh environments (extreme temperatures and vibration).
A few weeks ago we hosted a technology day that looked specifically at the electrical design challenges for the defense industry and how companies can overcome them. Here’s a bit of insight into what we looked at:
This blog post was brought to you by Arkadiusz Bury, Zuken Sales Manager for Poland.
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