Accelerated CAD Design

T-Systems implements NIS-CAD tool at Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, helping Sikorsky to reduce design time and save $1.1 million per year for the CATIA design environment alone.

The customer

Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, is a world leader in the design and manufacture of commercial, industrial and military helicopters. Based in Stratford, Connecticut, USA, the company owes its existence to the Russian-born scientist, engineer, pilot and entrepreneur Igor Ivanovitch Sikorsky (inventor of the helicopter), who emigrated to the United States in 1919.

Today, Sikorsky helicopters are used by all five branches of the United States armed forces, as well as military services and commercial operators in more than 40 countries.

The challenge

Aerospace manufacturing is a highly competitive industry, with companies constantly looking for ways to streamline the design process. At Sikorsky a study revealed that too much design time was spent drawing the same standards parts repeatedly. In addition, a multitude of personal, non-standard graphics libraries existed, giving rise to inconsistencies and duplications. Also, as libraries were often shared among coworkers, any errors they contained could propagate. It was estimated that within Sikorsky's CATIA system alone, drawing standard parts cost the company over $1.5 million a year. Assuming it could be done at a reasonable price, implementing an electronic standard graphics library would lead to substantial cost savings.

The T-Systems solution

As Sikorsky lacked the necessary software skills to develop its own graphics library tool, it had to find a suitable existing product. It was found that NIS-CAD and a contract with T-Systems to create approximately 400 part families, was significantly more cost-effective than any other alternative. This would save Sikorsky the laborious task of populating the library, a task which would entail sifting through hundreds of existing graphics and creating many additional geometries.

The T-Systems NIS-CAD tool was found to fulfill all requirements. It has a built-in data management system and provides easy access to geometries. It is user-friendly and requires very little user training. It is also customizable, can be implemented fast, and is compatible with diverse CAD products. It permits easy integration with other systems. And moreover, it is a proven system already successfully implemented at a variety of companies.

Sikorsky estimated that the payback period for the procurement of NISCAD would be under six months, and expected substantial savings of $1.1 million per year for the CATIA design environment alone. NIS-CAD was purchased and implemented and now contains 400 part families and 300 graphics generated in-house.

Customer benefits

As a result of implementing NIS-CAD, design times are considerably shorter whenever standard graphics from the electronic library can be utilized. The cost reductions are expected to keep growing as more and more standard graphics are created for the library. Users at Sikorsky have responded very positively to the new system. It is easy to use, and search and retrieval are much faster. Sikorsky now plans to migrate the library to other CAD systems and also to incorporate it with other software in the design environment. This will likely to lead to additional time and cost savings.