MSC.Software Lands Role In EADS PHEINX Project

The European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co.’s (EADS) has lined up another partner for PHEINX, its global initiative to bring efficiencies and standardization to its increasingly complex product development processes.

As part of the PLM Harmonization Enhanced Integration and Excellence (PHENIX) project, MSC.Software will serve as the major partner for building up its multidisciplinary simulation backbone strategy. Officials said MSC.Software’s SimEnterprise product suite, which includes MD Nastran, SimXpert and SimManager are now candidates for EADS’ common solution for future product development.

PHENIX is a groupwide strategic initiative launched in 2007 to achieve harmonization of enterprise PLM methods, processes, tools and data between EADS business units, which include Airbus, Eurocopter and EADS Astrium. The harmonization effort is designed to improve communications between the various EADS divisions, helping to reduce time to market and increase product quality. The other major goal of the initiative is to facilitate design collaboration across an extended supply chain, where different partners located around the globe are responsible for the design and production of various components on an aircraft.

In addition to the MSC.Software simulation products, other tools selected for the PHENIX project include Dassault’s CATIA, ENOVIA and DELMIA PLM suite, which serve as “Backbone B,” or the CAD/CAM-related building blocks; and PTC’s Windchill, which functions as the Enterprise PLM backbone for the project. This “Backbone A” functions as the master product definition, supporting such tasks as configuration management, data management and lifecycle management, while the “Backbone B” piece is more about 3-D Master Reference activities related to digital mockup.