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A leader in the aviation industry

MTU Aero Engines is Germany’s leading engine manufacturer and an expert in the development, production, and maintenance of civil and military engines. Its innovative engine solutions have been shaping the aviation industry for more than 85 years.

A model-based way of working will be crucial for MTU’s entire value chain in the long term. Starting from their own development and production, it is expected to be the standard for collaboration with partners and suppliers in future aerospace programs.

Shifting to a model-based value chain

Like most of today’s manufacturers, MTU was facing major challenges regarding rising product and program complexity, shorter development times and costs, and increasing collaboration with partners and suppliers. At the same time, the rising number of IT enterprise systems on the one hand and manual processes on the other hand caused a high amount of system and media breaks as well as data redundancies, which affect overall efficiency and costs.

To reduce this complexity and accelerate product development, it was crucial for MTU to build up a unique, authoritative, and consistent stream of information running across their product life cycle – a model-based value chain.

From use case selection to implementation

Together with ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Invent, MTU identified the model-based value chain as the first step towards a digital twin. As part of this approach, the company implemented a 3D digital master, also known as model-based definition (MBD), as a single source of truth with digitally connectable data throughout the entire value chain.

The project started by selecting a reference product for which to develop the first MBD. The analysis of legacy, end-to-end processes of the reference product involved internal stakeholders and experts who identified media breaks in the value chain. With support from Siemens Digital Industries Software and BCT Technology as software providers, multiple model-based use cases were verified for technical feasibility. In parallel, business cases were calculated in close cooperation with management.

After a successful validation with both internal stakeholders as well as partners and suppliers, the productive implementation is currently ongoing within MTU’s PLM transformation program INTEGRATE. Using a scaled agile framework, the prioritized use cases are translated into features and functionalities that are continuously delivered in 3-month cycles.

The new way of working is a comprehensive paradigm shift for MTU. To guarantee its acceptance, a fundamental change management concept has also been elaborated. In combination with regular reviews from end users and management, a core team of experts has been selected to function as multipliers of the technology in the organization.

Optimized communication and high-quality data

MTU has already achieved major milestones to enable a model-based value chain. The company expects its overall process chain to become more efficient as it implements validated and prioritized use cases. Once created in the design phase, data and specifications defining the MBD can be reused downstream in all processes without requiring duplicates. This has already enabled MTU to improve internal and external collaboration and communication, avoid data transfer errors, and introduce automation to process machine-readable information.

The partners created MBD within MTU’s established CAD system NX from Siemens. Together with product and manufacturing information (PMI), the MBD is directly synchronized with Teamcenter, the PLM backbone system. Within Teamcenter, PMIs are directly linked to and visible in the MBD. At the same time, this information is assigned an independent lifecycle and can be consumed in downstream processes and workflows to ensure information consistency and avoid data redundancy.

Driving aerospace innovation together

The cooperation between MTU, ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Invent, Siemens, and BCT Technology will continue as a part of the INTEGRATE program. Next, the partners will focus on identifying uses cases that will achieve the greatest positive impact, which will require the companies to leverage the closed loop manufacturing process and validate results with partners and suppliers.