In the dynamic realm of the defence sector, the criticality of collaboration and information exchange throughout a product’s lifecycle is evident. Effective cooperation is required between varied teams, customers, partners, and external suppliers during all stages – design, procurement, manufacturing, or the in-service phase. At Eurostep, we believe robust data and information exchange is a cornerstone of this cooperation.
Today, we are eager to share how our advanced platform, ShareAspace, is designed to address these collaboration and information management needs, playing a transformative role in Defence Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).
Over the past year, we have achieved significant milestones with ShareAspace. We’ve integrated the platform as a core component in a new Integrated Data Environment for a Navy customer, deployed it to aid collaboration with equipment suppliers at a naval shipbuilder, and implemented it for configuration management and individual tracking of both sea- and land-based defence systems. Additionally, we’ve taken strides in research, using ShareAspace to contribute to projects investigating future PLM architectures and cross-discipline integration of model verification/validation (V&V) approaches in the aerospace domain.
Guided by the insights from the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD)’s publications, we understand the key focus areas in future defence solutions. The Defence Command Plan, The Strategic Command Support Strategy Overview, and Strategy 2025 from MOD’s procurement agency, Defence Equipment & Support, collectively emphasise interconnected, data-driven capabilities, sustainability, stronger industry relationships, and information-centric strategies.
Yet, these ambitious objectives come with their own challenges. The Strategic Command Support Strategy Overview points to issues such as incomplete or incorrectly formatted data, poorly articulated customer requirements, and late changes. It also notes a crucial opportunity area – the potential of leveraging support data as a competitive advantage.
This is where ShareAspace comes into play.
Our platform is equipped with a comprehensive information model that manages information about the product and its support system across its entire lifecycle. ShareAspace’s consolidation capabilities allow data ingestion from multiple sources, ensuring updates are managed over time while respecting master data. With our unique access engine, we ensure a controlled sharing mechanism that only provides access to the necessary information. This leads to the effective management of through-life configuration and controlled data sharing.
One of the key values ShareAspace provides is facilitating a transition from a document-centric approach to a fully digital one, echoing the vision outlined in the UK MOD’s Digital Engineering Strategy. Document-centric strategies, although traditional, are inefficient and prone to error. A digitally enabled strategy provides underlying structured data that is secure and available for multiple purposes, improving traceability. A digitally enhanced strategy employs multiple tools to support business output and enhance process efficiency. A digitally-centric approach assures that all necessary data is available, secure, structured, and configuration-controlled, allowing for process automation. Finally, a fully digital approach represents a digitally managed organisation with highly automated processes as part of data management.
By adopting ShareAspace, organisations can navigate through their digital transformation journey, achieving structured, secure, and manageable data, and enabling automated processes for improved operational efficiency.
In conclusion, at Eurostep, we’ve designed ShareAspace to be a powerful facilitator in Defence PLM. Our platform transforms traditional data management and collaboration approaches, aiding organisations to overcome traditional challenges and unlock new levels of operational efficiency and effectiveness. The future of Defence PLM isn’t just digital, it’s powered by ShareAspace.
As the wave of digital transformation reshapes the business landscape, it’s crucial for organizations to evolve and innovate to stay competitive. Learn how to take advantage of digital transformation in the Aerospace & Defence industry.
Watch our latest ShareAspace Forum 2023 where we delve into the different defence use cases and demonstrations of ShareAspace Export Control & ShareAspace Design to Manufacturing.
