Download Pilatus Aircraft Ltd case study -- Highly successful plane reached the

Aerospace and defense
Pilatus
Highly successful plane reached the market in only 3½ years
Products
NX, Teamcenter
Business challenges
Continuously refine existing
aircraft
Develop and bring new
aircraft to market faster
Ensure transfer of knowledge
both internally and externally
Keys to success
Concurrent engineering and a
master model approach
Digital mock-ups
Integrated design and information management solutions
Results
Development time for the
PC-21 was reduced from six
years to 2½ years
Return on investment of 15
to 20 percent on the new
work processes
Concurrent
engineering
shaved 2½ years
off development
of the PC-21
training aircraft
Passion for flying
Founded on
December, 16, 1939
in a meeting room
of the Nidwaldner
Kantonalbank, Pilatus
Aircraft Ltd began as
a small supplier to
the Swiss Air Force.
Since then, the niche
supplier has become
a global leader for the The most modern training aircraft for military pilots worldwide.
supply of single-engine
training aircraft for the air force as well as
The PC-21 not only performs better than
for business and work aircraft. The comother turboprop aircraft, it is also more
pany employs more than 1,300 employees economical and quieter. With a top speed
in the Pilatus region of Switzerland and
of 325 knots/hour for horizontal flying and
around the globe.
load limits of -4 G to +8 G, it is very suitThe company’s newest product is the
Pilatus PC-21, a training aircraft for a new
generation of military pilots. It follows the
company’s highly successful PC-12, which
is currently the biggest selling singleengine commercial aircraft in the world.
There are currently more than 130 on
order. This success is no coincidence. It is
based on a passion for flying, an obsession
for perfection and a willingness to meet
customers’ expectations.
able for basic and advanced fighter pilot
training. Its avionic system is based on an
open architecture, with all display systems
controlled by software and adaptable to
the cockpit environment of each fighter
jet. The PC-21, together with instrument
and flight simulators, forms an integral
part of air force training systems.
Producing with NX
Pilatus developed the PC-21 using NX™
software and Teamcenter® software, both
www.siemens.com/plm
Solutions/Services
NX
www.siemens.com/nx
Teamcenter
www.siemens.com/teamcenter
Customer’s primary business
Pilatus Aircraft Ltd is the
world market leader in the
manufacture of single-engine
turboprop aircraft and the
only Swiss company to develop, produce and sell aircraft
and training systems all over
the world.
www.pilatus-aircraft.com
Customer location
Stans
Switzerland
from product lifecycle management (PLM) specialist
Siemens PLM Software.
When Pilatus had to decide
between NX and CATIA®
software, the company
chose NX because its computer-aided design (CAM)
functionality was more
powerful. “The decisive
question was, ‘Do we want
to draw or do we want to
produce?’” says John
Senior, vice president of Pilatus’ research
and development department. “The
answer was clear: ‘Produce, with NX.’”
Pilatus carried out the design, development and manufacturing of the PC-21 in
parallel, because time to market was critical to the plane’s economic success. “We
performed all processes in parallel, and
carried out the digital modeling according
to the master model concept using only a
single model,” says Bruno Cervia, project
manager at Pilatus, summarizing one of
the most important factors for success.
“We never worked on different versions of
the model.” Concurrent engineering only
works when, as with NX and Teamcenter,
design and data management systems are
tightly integrated.
The combination of NX and Teamcenter
offered other great benefits as well –
saving time and making release changes
easier – according to Hännes Keller, technical IT manager at Pilatus.
Keller points out that the cooperation
between Pilatus and Siemens was and is
very intensive, noting, “We value this collaboration highly.”
“The decisive question was, ‘Do we want to
draw or do we want to produce?’ The answer
was clear: ‘Produce, with NX.’”
John Senior
Vice President, Research and Development
Pilatus
Siemens Industry Software
Americas
+1 314 264 8499
Europe
+44 (0) 1276 413200
Asia-Pacific +852 2230 3308
www.siemens.com/plm
© 2014 Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. Siemens and the Siemens logo are registered trademarks of
Siemens AG. D-Cubed, Femap, Geolus, GO PLM, I-deas, JT, NX, Parasolid, Solid Edge, Teamcenter and Tecnomatix are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. or its subsidiaries in the
United States and in other countries. CATIA is a registered trademark of Dassault Systèmes Corporation. All other logos,
trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks used herein are the property of their respective holders.
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