Honda of Canada Selects Dassault Systèmes DELMIA and 3DVIA Solutions for Alliston Plants

Simulation of Processes and Human Tasks Will Identify Most Efficient Assembly Processes for 2011 Civic

AUBURN HILLS, Mich : Dassault Systèmes (Paris:DSY) (NASDAQ:DASTY), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that Honda of Canada Manufacturing, a division of Honda Canada, Inc., has selected DELMIA 3D digital manufacturing solutions to optimize layout and throughput of the Alliston, Ontario plants in preparation for production of the 2011 Honda Civic. Honda will be implementing the DELMIA Process Engineer, DPM Assembly, DELMIA Human, 3DVIA Composer and the add-on Kineo Path Planner solution from Kineo CAM.

To gain process efficiencies, Honda’s overall production targets, including cost and scheduling data, as well as physical production system constraints, are defined and then stored within DELMIA’s single data repository. All product, process and resource data is in one location for easy accessibility and sharing by any party involved in the process. In digital manufacturing studies, it has been shown that this single repository can reduce data search time by as much as 80 percent.

Once the information is stored, planning analyses and 3D simulations can be run in the virtual world to ensure optimal production load and line balancing prior to plant floor build. Assembly sequences and paths can be verified in conjunction with human studies to ensure that all tasks are within ergonomic feasibility. Additionally, cost and efficiency analysis can be conducted by leveraging the solution software for cohesive management of cost throughout the product, process, and resource dataset. Lessons learned from the various simulations can then be incorporated into a set of best practice processes for reuse in similar situations, helping to further reduce time on future projects.

Additionally, with 3DVIA Composer, the entire digital product definition is fully reused so that assembly process documentation can be easily generated and provided to anyone that needs it, from management to workers on the plant floor. Using 3DVIA Composer to finalize the assembly documentation and offer a 3D interactive environment for the review and presentation of assembly instructions offers greatly improved communication that will shorten approval cycles, help verify the processes more efficiently, improve training of the actual assembly procedures, and reduce assembly errors on the shop floor.

“DELMIA is not new to Honda,” said Mark Vargo, director of automotive sales, DELMIA, Dassault Systèmes. “Every plant in North America has been benefiting from our robotics solution for years, and Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA is Honda’s global design standard. Implementation of this comprehensive set of DELMIA solutions in conjunction 3DVIA Composer will take the Alliston facilities to a whole new level of collaboration and efficiency. We are honored to be their partner on this venture.”

As the digital manufacturing brand of Dassault Systèmes' PLM portfolio, DELMIA delivers a digital manufacturing process environment to optimize production systems prior to physical implementation, at the convenience of a desktop.

Honda Canada Inc. began operations in 1969, establishing its first manufacturing facility in 1986, which was followed by a second plant in 1998. Honda Canada, Inc. employs approximately 5,100 associates at its two facilities in Alliston, Ontario. Honda of Canada Manufacturing annually manufactures 390,000 vehicles and purchases two billion dollars of goods from Canadian-based suppliers.