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In-Service Information Management
BAE Systems Hägglunds, based in Sweden, is a manufacturer of light-armoured combat vehicles. The offset deal accompanying the BAE System Hägglunds sale of combat vehicles to the Swiss Army included requirements to cooperate with a number of Swiss manufacturers and suppliers. BAE Systems Hägglunds was also contracted to maintain the vehicles for four years after delivery.

As a result, BAE Systems Hägglunds now has approximately 20 new partners in Switzerland, none of whom were partners beforehand and many of whom will only be a partner to BAE Systems Hägglunds on this specific contract. Each partner has their own business processes and product data management systems.

To manage this complex and changing Extended Enterprise, and still control information safely, BAE Systems Hägglunds had to look for new solutions for the management of infor-mation, since the existing in-house software tools were not suited for external collaboration.

The solution had to be able to support the configuration management of the design data and to manage the collection and subsequent analysis of data from manufacturing and in-service use. The new system would have to provide a cost-effective way of:
• Managing parts and product structures, drawings, and documentation
• Managing maintenance manuals and plans
• Managing individual product configurations, including individual documents
• Tracking changes and restrictions
• Providing accurate information to be used in maintenance follow-up

According to BAE Systems Hägglunds, the cost of post-delivery, customer support operations are typically 6-8 times higher than the product design and manufacturing costs. In addition, 60-80% of post-delivery, customer support operation costs are a direct result of product design decisions.

Solution
BAE Systems Hägglunds chose to use Share-A-space , the PLCS based collaborative software from Eurostep, for its information management. This decision enabled BAE Systems Hägglunds to achieve a comprehensive view of the information, capitalize upon its manufacturing and support partners in Switzerland, and provide product data to them in a timely and accurate manner.

In-Service Information Management at Hägglunds

All partners, and the customer, now have a single point of access to information obtained from multiple sets of sources – including PDM, CAD, ERP, and bespoke solutions. They all retrieve the latest updates, write work requests, and feed the area with maintenance follow-up information. BAE Systems Hägglunds evaluates and distributes the proposed changes to the parties concerned for comments or approvals. When approval has been granted, Share-A-space is updated with the new information.

By providing the consolidated product information in a common shared environment that is protected by comprehensive access and user-rights controls, all partners have access to accurate information. This ensures that all manufacturing and support operations are based on correct data.

Benefits
• The use of Share-A-space to manage information makes it possible to bring the complex set of information flows under control.
• The consolidation of design and in-service information increases the speed at which changes can be managed and implemented throughout the partnership, saving time and increasing quality.
• With the Share-A-space solution implemented, lead time for customer approval of engineering changes has been shortened from weeks to days.

PDF BAE Systems Hägglunds: In-Service Information Management