Dassault Systemes and IBM Partner With IHI

Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd (IHI) has signed an agreement with Dassault Systemes and IBM Product Lifecycle Management around 3D PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) for shipbuilding. 3D PLM solutions based on V5 architecture developed by Dassault Systemes and marketed by IBM world wide, are setting future industry standards which help shipbuilding companies reduce the development time as well as further improve their products. As part of the partnership, IBM and Dassault Systemes will integrate their 3D PLM technologies with IHI's specific industry know-how in order to promote the modernization of shipbuilding, one of the core industries in Asia. Services and support will be provided by IBM and IBM's business partners. Dassault Systemes', IBM's and IHI's implementation of the 3D PLM solutions will start in 2002, and the full deployment is expected to be operational in 2004/2005. Now, IHI is using "Ajisai", its own internally developed 3D CAD system, as a product model creation tool from the design to the production stage, and was using CATIA V5 for conceptual ship design. The company highly praised CATIA V5's flexibility and data compatibility and its participation in this project has for perspective data compatibility with this "Ajisai". Dassault Systemes, IBM and IHI will work together to integrate the complete 3D PLM solution set along with IHI's know-how concerning the management of attributes specific to the shipbuilding CAD, which is highly complex. Under this partnership, IHI will create a project team, which will collaborate with Dassault Systemes and specialized IBM shipbuilding teams, as well as with IBM's business partners, in order to establish new methodologies to fully exploit the power of 3D PLM. IHI will also define and evaluate the specific needs of the ship design process. John MacKrell, Shipbuilding analyst, CIMdata, said, "Shipbuilders are turning to IBM solutions because of increasing international competition and the necessity to build more value-added, sophisticated ships. To accomplish this, shipbuilders are, in large numbers, migrating to a 3D conception and design environment, and thus are eager to implement offerings such as the blend of technology and best practices provided by IBM and Dassault Systemes. These two companies working in a long-established partnership have stepped forward to make a real commitment to the shipbuilding industry."