Taming overruns with simulation

For aerospace projects, cost overruns and program delays start in the concept and proposal stage. How could using today's advanced CAE simulations earlier reduce that risk?

What goes into a proposal, that initial promise to a customer, is the key to success in an aerospace program, according to Mich Tellier, Vice President for Aerospace for Dassault Systèmes. If it reflects an immature design, it drives up cost and increases cycle time. Yet there remain increasing pressures to shorten development lead times. Also, today's common use of concurrent engineering increases the sensitivity of production ramp-up to immature designs, magnifying the problem.

“At the end of the day, we've all been focusing so much on [improving] the detail design, production, and maintenance and support phases, because that's where massive resources are committed,” commented Tellier. “Improving the detail design per individual by five percent creates a huge cascading benefit in the cost and the time required to do the program.”