Safran Electronics & Defense simplifies the BOM management thanks to Aletiq

In summary

By using Aletiq, Safran Electronics & Defense was able to:

✓ Save time in the management of bills of materials: CADBOM, EBOM, MBOM

✓ Ensure compliance with regulatory standards: EN 9100, ISO 9001...

✓ Automate the management of technical changes (impact analysis, processing, distribution...)

✓ Ensure digital continuity between teams (design office, methods, quality, purchasing, trade...)

✓ Accelerate cycle times

Safran Electronics & Defense designs high-tech solutions in the fields of aeronautics, defense and space. The company develops products and services to help civilian and military actors observe, decide, and guide on land, at sea, in the sky, and in space.

In particular, the company is the world leader in resilient PNT systems (positioning, navigation and synchronization) as well as in the development of emergency locator transmitters (ELTs - Emergency locator transmitters).

An international company of more than 12,000 people, Safran Electronics & Defense positions innovation, quality and operational excellence at the center of its culture.

Operational challenges

Safran Electronics & Defense designs PNT systems (GNSS simulators, atomic clocks and oscillators...) and ELT systems (search and rescue beacons, etc.). These complex products, whose bills of materials include more than 10,000 components, integrate mechanics, electronics, and software.

Before implementing Aletiq, teams faced several difficulties in managing their data:

The bills of materials were managed in multiple tools that did not communicate with each other: SolidWorks for CADBOM, PADS for electronic nomenclature, Infor for for MBOM as well as various Excel consolidation files. Mechanical, electronic and methodological design offices had difficulty sharing the right level of visibility on nomenclature.

Managing technical changes was very complex and entailed risks of error. In the event of change, the lack of link between the BOMs did not make it possible to simply identify the cases in which components were used to carry out impact analyses. Data was fragmented across different tools and it was difficult to track the progress of changes. The dissemination of the changes was also at risk because it was necessary to manually re-enter the data into different tools.

Setting up Aletiq

The deployment at Safran Electronics & Defense was carried out in an agile manner to gradually migrate all data and operating modes to Aletiq. The tailor-made support made it possible to quickly create value for all operational teams: Design Office, Methods, Quality, Purchasing, Commerce...

The Aletiq Customer Success teams travelled to the Safran Electronics & Defense sites (Sèvres, Guidel) to ensure the success of the project:

→ Understand operating methods and associated operational challenges

→ Building a target vision integrating PLM and ERP

→ Set up the software and set up the interface with the ERP

→ Migrate all historical company data

→ Train teams in the various use cases put in place

The adoption of teams

Safran Electronics & Defense has established a single source of truth for data thanks to Aletiq:

The management of bills of materials is much more fluid than before. The mechanical design office automatically synchronizes the CADBOMs in Aletiq using the Solidworks plugin and then the electronic BE enriches it by importing the electronic BOM from PADS. Teams have access to the complete EBOM engineering nomenclature which is then reworked by MBOM methods according to industrial needs. Finally, the MBOM is automatically integrated into the SAP ERP to ensure digital continuity.

The implementation of Aletiq has also made it possible to considerably optimize the management of technical changes. Centralizing all data and technical processes in a single source of truth has allowed teams to gain visibility. With Aletiq, it is now possible to simply carry out impact analyses by identifying the use cases of modified components. The processing of changes and their validation are done directly in the platform thanks to workflows. Validated changes can then be automatically distributed throughout the perimeter. The design office and the methods have saved a lot of time and are now sure to handle each modification rigorously.