Can they swap out 30-year-old proprietary defense systems for Siemens Teamcenter?
Purchasing military equipment for the Swedish Armed Forces—everything from advanced aircrafts to radar systems and firearms—requires the management of high-level, structured and interconnected systems. This is exactly what the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) excels at.
Until a couple of years ago, FMV worked with poorly connected systems that in many cases were 30-years old and approaching their end-of-life. This changed in 2019, when FMV made the formal decision to invest in a new modern PLM solution. The battle was won by Siemens Digital Industries Software’s Teamcenter platform in a deal that is big not only in technological terms, but also in monetary terms—with an investment of around $50 million.
This project, called NORMA, has developed into one of the largest and most extensive PLM projects in Northern Europe and Sweden in recent years. The final decision on the investment was made in the second half of 2019 and includes building new standardized solutions for both the PLM and ERP areas, of which the initial PLM portion is estimated to be between 25 and 30 percent of the investment.
Engineering.com has met with key members from FMV and Siemens who were responsible for the roll-out of the system. In this article, I dig into the current events of the project. I will then follow up with another story about the challenges faced when implementing the system, and what’s to come for the NORMA project.
A Surprisingly Smooth Project—So Far
So, how has the rollout of FMV’s product data management system, powered-by Teamcenter, progressed?
“Excellently,” says Konrad Lindblad, PLM system architect at FMV. “We rolled out the first version of Teamcenter last spring. This system initially [replaced] the product data registration, but [it is now also] handling technical orders… Overall, there are a number of gains to be made with a system of this stature, but a clear difference from before is that all the information is in one place. No one has to jump between different applications—which makes things much easier… to follow product updates, changed status modes and other events, depending on individually relevant self-selected subscriptions. Given the complexity, the implementation has, so far, been surprisingly smooth and has meant a boost for product data management.”
A lot of the success can be attributed to FMV’s PLM “dream team,” which includes Lindblad, Jan Eriksson and Sofia Söderström, project managers at FMV, and FMV change manager Peter Gabrielsson, as well as Tommy Pulkkinen, Siemens Services Director.
Each of these experts hold different responsibilities in their quest to launch Teamcenter and make it available to 5,000 users within FMV and the armed forces, of which approximately 500 are creators of information. Around 40 companies on the industrial side and three government organizations are also involved.
An Extremely Important Piece of the Puzzle
Today, the world changes rapidly, both in terms of technology and security. This is highlighted by the recent dramatic events in the Northern European region. For Sweden, this has also highlighted the need for an effective defense organization, of which FMV is considered a vital piece of the puzzle. The handling of military equipment is important in all respects, but especially in light of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and Sweden’s recent moves to join NATO.
“Just an event like the NATO accession and the subsequent almost doubling of the defense appropriations and budget poses great challenges in terms of FMV’s role,” says Lindblad “It is a role that is primarily about supporting the armed forces and making sure that we can, from a number of different perspectives, ensure that all the material for a strong defense is in place. In this, the PLM system is one of the most important enablers.”
Systems Up To 30 Years Old Are Becoming Outdated
In a world where IT and cyber technology have become decisive factors, platforms must meet key requirements: they must be fast, right, traceable, seamlessly connected and competent. When it comes to meeting these requirements, the PLM and ERP systems used by FMV are extremely important.
“With NORMA PLM, we are replacing our old proprietary system, which in terms of several functionalities has reached end-of-life. For example, we had no system support in several areas; Business Intelligence and requirements management are some examples. The latter part is a particular shortcoming, as it is a core function for us at FMV. In short, the goal is to build a standard PLM platform,” comments Söderström.
“Exactly,” says Lindblad. “We want a coherent system which covers the value chain from grain to loaf and which can be scaled up from a ‘bottom plate’—characteristics that Teamcenter lives up to. It must be robust, cohesive and characterized by increased information accuracy.”
As the educator and change leader at FMV, Gabrielsson adds that an overall aim is to remove as much paper-based information as possible.
“This is generally also a digitization journey alongside things such as the PLM functionalities. Digital information sharing has been an important point. We have several perspectives to consider in this context. One of these is that FMV must be a modern workplace with an attractive IT environment that can attract the next generation of employees,” he says.
On the FMV side, the team tackling this challenge consisted of a core squad of 15 people, and also involved 30 others from within the companies who were connected through workshops, testing and similar aspects. From Siemens’ side, so far about 30 people have been involved in the project.
From Fighter Jets to Radar Installations and Air Defense Systems
Before we move on, let’s examine FMV’s role in the defense organization. In general, FMV supplies the Swedish defense force with a range of products, including advanced solutions for everything from fighter aircraft and radar installations to tanks, cannons and air defense systems.
The products are complex and are based on order profiles from FMV for requirement specifications. These must be communicated to the client, the Swedish Armed Forces and the company or industry that will develop, build and deliver the solution. Of course, this also includes operational and maintenance data, material publications and several other administrative pieces regarding procurement, costs, spare parts management and more. Bottom line, there is a lot of diversified data that must be able to flow back and forth between the stakeholders and therefore must also be traceable.
“For this type of solution with a single source of truth, open yet secure platforms are required. On the PLM side, for example, this is a hallmark of the Siemens Teamcenter suite in particular,” states Eriksson.
“This solution meets the main goals for FMV, which include, among other things, reducing the time it takes to produce and deliver information, as well as increasing the quality and traceability of the information. FMV also sees the PLM project as an opportunity to consolidate and develop already established working methods within requirements management, product data and configuration management.”
NORMA PLM Enters the Action
As NORMA comes into play, this is what the environment looks like. For the last five years, FMV has worked on developing structurally coherent business and product data platforms. According to engineering.com’s previous interview with FMV’s former CIO Rebecca Ihrfors, out of the estimated cost of around $50 million for a total of four new systems, a total of about $10 to 15 million is spent on the internal development work, while the remaining parts of the investment are spent on license costs and related implementation costs.
All in all, it is an extremely comprehensive implementation, which involves having a deep grasp of the business. The result is a gradual introduction.
“That’s how it is,” confirms Lindblad. “In the past, product data was handled by several older systems. These are now beginning to become obsolete, and we are replacing these step by step with Teamcenter, which has exactly the architecture required for consistency and offers modularized, seamlessly integrated process tools. It basically becomes a single source of truth with everything collected and in relevant parts available to those who need the information. The implementation work has also gone very well. We have kept within both timeframes and budgets, and even managed to finish some pieces earlier than planned.”
The First Teamcenter Steps
FMV’s first Teamcenter implementation was a limited version that went live for a select group of users in January 2021. The purpose of this pilot was to test functionalities and learn lessons before the big rollout.
“We rolled out this second version in May 2022, and this then replaced the systems for supply data management,” says Lindblad.
This includes tools for:
- Product data registration (PDR).
- Reference data.
- Basic and administrative data.
- Technical orders management by DITO admin
“During the rollout in May, it was also intended that FMV would replace the Maintenance Plan Production System (PSUHP) tool, but the technical solution here proved not to be mature enough. This is why it was temporarily parked and will now be rolled out in 2023 instead, then equipped with a more useful interface,” says Lindblad.
In a follow up article, we will dig into these future implementations as well as other challenges faced by FMV’s PLM Dream Team.
