Customer case studies and comments
On this page, case studies and comments from:
- Rolls-Royce
- ASCO Industries
- NASA
- Fortune Brands Home & Healthcare
- Westinghouse Electric Company
- Anonymous—materials strategy case study
- Renault F1
- Foster & Partners
- Williams International
- German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing
- US Navy
- Aluminum Consultants Group
- Dow
See also, the list of Granta customers »
Rolls-Royce
Dr Malcolm Thomas of Rolls-Royce gave a detailed presentation at a Granta seminar describing a project to implement enterpise-wide management of materials data using Granta technology. A full report of this presentation is available, including discussion of the motivation for creating such a system:
"The requirements for managing materials data are ... very demanding. Not only is accurate, consistent, reliable data a pre-requisite for design, but any data management system must guarantee security and control over the data."
Jeff Sickmeier of Rolls Royce Corporation commented on Rolls-Royce's involvement in the Materials Data Management Consortium.
"Such an enormous efficiency gain is more important to our site and our industry in these times of reduced resources than it has ever been. Well done!"
ASCO Industries
ASCO Industries is a leader in high-precision, safety-critical products including high lift wing components, landing gear parts and sub-assemblies, and engine mounts. With revenues around 180m€ ($280m) in 2006, ASCO provides a case study at the opposite end of the aerospace spectrum from Rolls-Royce in terms of organizational size. ASCO has implemented the GRANTA MI system to manage data on metals, polymers, and composites, and to store data on standard parts for aerospace components.
Mr Stein Janssens of ASCO described this implementation at a Granta seminar in Paris. The report of this presentation explains the project:
"ASCO was similar to many engineering organizations in having excellent tools for engineering design (e.g., CATIA) and finite element modeling (e.g., Nastran, Patran) but no single, integrated system to manage the materials data that supports design and generates 'allowable' property values for FEM.... ASCO's goal was to enable full traceability for all data, revision control, easy searching, and quick comparisons."
NASA
NASA Glenn Research Center has used GRANTA MI to create a central engineering information database that not only contains typical material property information but also entire response histories (e.g., tensile, creep, relaxation, cyclic curves), all associated pedigree information, as well as related applications, failures and reference documents.
Dr Steven Arnold, Chief of the Mechanics and Life Prediction Branch, and chair of the Material Data Management Consortium, described this system and its application at a seminar in Pittsburgh, PA. The report of this presentation explains how NASA uses the Granta system:
"NASA Glenn has implemented GRANTA MI to capture, analyze, and share both test data and external reference data. The database contains thousands of records and continues to grow."
Fortune Brands Home & Hardware (Moen)
Moen Incorporated, part of Fortune Brands Home & Hardware, has embedded Granta’s software in its product design approach. New or redesigned products and components are examined to evaluate material and manufacturing alternatives.
Dr Tim O'Brien, Vice President for Technical Innovation at Fortune Brands Home & Hardware described the use of Granta software at a seminar in Milwaukee, WI. The report from this presentation explains:
"Whenever [Dr O'Brien] approaches a materials problem, he always has a few materials options in mind, but CES Selector usually suggests additional options. Past applications have included a component redesign that cut production costs in half and doubled performance on an important product line. "
Westinghouse Electric Company
Westinghouse Electric Company provides a compelling example of the importance of materials information management in the nuclear industry, where preserving materials knowledge and leveraging expensive materials tests are important problems. Westinghouse is adopting GRANTA MI to approach these problems.
Paula Freyer of Westinghouse Electric outlined this project at a seminar in Pittsburgh, PA. The report of this presentation explains the motivation for better materials data management in the nuclear industry:
"The risk of losing data or duplicating tests that have already been done represents a major cost in the nuclear industry... The goal is to create a server-based system, accessible only on the company's intranet, which becomes the single, central place to store materials data."
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CASE STUDY »
Materials strategy case study—saving $50m
The white paper Optimizing Materials Strategy—can you afford not to? contains a case study based on Granta's experience of working with large, multi-business manufacturing organizations. Financial and other details have been altered to protect commercial confidentiality, but the case study remains representative of real projects and is published with the consent of the organizations concerned. The case study illustrates how use of Granta materials strategy software can be part of a cost reduction and materials rationalization program that aims to cut 5-10% from materials costs, in organizations where a 1% saving equates to $50m per annum.
Renault F1
Renault F1 use Granta's materials information system:
"Granta’s software is an integral part of our design process. Working with Granta’s consultants, we’ve created a consolidated source of materials information available company-wide, streamlining our design operation."
Graham Heard, Renault Formula 1
Foster & Partners
Internationally-renowned architectural practice Foster & Partners use Granta's software to aid materials selection:
"In our industry we are too used to selecting from only a very limited pallette of materials. CES Selector is allowing us to ask 'what if?' questions upfront in a comprehensive manner. Access to data is one thing; analytical tools for filtering that data are another: CES Selector is a potent mix of the two that can only increase the likelihood of us being able to innovate."
Dr Salmaan Craig, Foster & Partners
Williams International
Gas turbine manufacturers Williams International are members of the Material Data Management Consortium:
"The number of users accessing our internal database has increased significantly. We have stress analysis, design, and materials engineers accessing the software."
"Maintaining the database has been relatively effortless using the test modules within the software to enter data."
Ray Simpkins, Williams International
BAM, Germany
Granta’s software provides " …versatile and valuable instruments for the creation, maintenance and publication of our knowledge base."
Dr Stefan Seeger, German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung—BAM).
US Navy
GRANTA MI was chosen as the best material data management system to serve the design, construction, and maintenance of the US naval fleet under the management of the Survivability, Structures, and Materials Directorate of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD), the Naval Sea Systems Command, and Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC).
"The software system GRANTA MI was determined to be the most appropriate given factors such as functionality, cost, and release timeline."
Matthew Hayden, US Naval Surface Warfare Center
Aluminum Consultants Group
"An extremely powerful tool that is very simple to operate. A computer science background is not required to construct the forms used to create and structure an in-depth database... It amazes me that I have the power to create and manage such an intimidating database."
Brad Matanin, Aluminum Consultants Group Inc.
Dow
"We use the graphical capability of Granta’s system and the Performance Index methodology to prove, in a quantifiable fashion, the benefits of polymers over traditional material choices."
Ludo Aerts, Dow Benelux N.V