CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
20 February 2007
Implementation Investments
Elysium software Adds Speed to the Champion ING Renault F1 Team
The ING Renault F1 Team design office in Viry-Châtillon, 30 kilometers south of Paris, from 1992 through 1997 captured six consecutive manufacturer's titles as a supplier of racing engines to the Williams and Benetton Formula 1 racing teams. In 2001, Renault acquired the Benetton chassis unit in Enstone, England, and combined both organizations into a single racing team. The integrated Renault F1 Team went on to win the Formula 1 Constructors' Championship titles in 2005 and 2006.
The winning speed of Renault's F1 team greatly depends on the speed and quality of the team's engineering and design process. An automated delivery system for engineering files, developed by software maker Elysium has increased the cost and time efficiency of producing new engines for the racing team.
Building Formula 1 engines is a demanding test of engineering expertise. The 250 employees at Renault's engine plant design, assemble, test, and race some of the most complex internal combustion engines in the world. A network of 50 independent suppliers produces the 5,000 parts that make up a modern Formula 1 engine. Reducing the time for information to flow from Renault's design office to its suppliers so that parts can be made quickly is a critical stage in the winning process.
Elysium's precision CAD data translation tools enable designers to migrate from one CAD system to another, regardless from which format the OEM parts originate. Elysium's 3D data translation performance is used worldwide by manufacturers of every size and type. The company has extensive industry partnerships with other PLM companies, such as Autodesk, CoCreate, Dassault Systèmes, IBM, PTC, SolidWorks, and UGS. The ING Renault F1 Team relies on part files that are translated and delivered automatically to the desktops of its engineers.
The savings achieved by the ING Renault F1 Team's engine department are significant thanks to the Elysium system. The biggest economic benefit comes from the savings of two to three days per part that are normally required for the physical delivery of CDs and documents. This fast response may make the difference between solving a reliability problem in time for the next race, or not. Any delay can cost championship points that, come season's end, may be worth millions of euros.
Additional labor savings of 30 minutes per part plus messenger services can reduce the cost of delivering information by ?20 to ?25 per part or ?3,000 to ?3,750 per month. In addition to cost reduction, automating the CAD-model delivery process gives project managers and purchasing agents a record of when engineering data was transmitted and which versions were sent. The physical transmission methods lacked this element of control.
The economic benefits of faster and more accurate translation are sufficient to generate a large return on an investment in Elysium's software and server hardware. Moreover, ING Renault F1 Team's supplier hub improves the quality of work life for the designers and engineers. It eliminates boring clerical tasks, freeing designers to spend more time doing what they do best: producing title-winning engineering.
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