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Managing Mission-Critical Materials Data

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• Comprehensive, integrated tools for the whole 'materials data lifecycle' - capture, analyze, maintain, deploy
  
  
• Specified, tested, and applied by the MDMC to meet the stringent requirements of aerospace
  
  
• Traceability - ensure that any information or decision can be traced back to original data sources
  
  
• Control - guarantee data security, ensure the right data is delivered to the right people, and manage changing data effectively with version control

The problem

Aerospace, medical devices, the nuclear industries, motorsports - such sectors have two things in common. First, they are highly regulated and safety-conscious. Second, materials (metals, plastics, composites, ceramics) are central to what they do, and those materials must often fulfill stringent requirements - for example, for mechanical properties under high stress and temperature in aerospace, or for biocompatibility in medical devices.

Ensuring that materials meet these requirements requires data - from testing, QA, legacy sources, and external references. And this materials data must be consolidated, analyzed (for example to create statistically-derived design 'allowable' data), and delivered to the people that need it (designers, engineers, managers, and others) - for example, for use in computer-aided engineering. Challenges include:

• Dispersed, diverse data - in many organizations materials data is scattered across the enterprise in diverse spreadsheets, databases, documents, and even in hard copy. Engineers waste a lot of time simply finding the right information - or, often, it is lost.
  
  
• Highly specialist data and analysis - for example, a mechanical property may vary with temperature or time, requiring a system that handles multi-dimensional data and understands its inter-relationships. Examples of specialist analysis include processing lab data and using it to determine properties for design.
  
  
• Traceability - it must be easy to establish the pedigree of any data, and to trace any decision or piece of information back to the data and analyses from which it came.
  
  
• Control - where appropriate, data must be approved by relevant materials authorities before use. Data must be visible only to authorized users. And changes must be tracked, while ensuring that the most up-to-date information is provided to users.
  
  
• Deployment - the danger is that any system meeting all of the requirements above will be too complex to be usable by designers and engineers with an occasional need for materials property data.

Granta's solution

Granta has worked with customers facing such challenges to develop GRANTA MI, the leading system for materials information management. These customers include the Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC), a collaboration of leading aerospace, engineering, and defense companies. Central to the solution is the concept of a complete, integrated software system - providing a single, central, authorized, controlled source of materials data, to support critical data throughout its 'lifecycle'. The MDMC has defined four steps in this lifecyle:

• CAPTURE - GRANTA MI provides numerous tools to import data from text files, Excel spreadsheets, and directly from test instruments. GRANTA MI can store all relevant objects (numbers, graphs, functions, images, documents, video...) and can capture and preserve the vital relationships between them.
  
  
• ANALYZE - GRANTA MI offers a range of specialist tools to analyze test data and derive properties such as tensile behavior, compression, fatigue, creep, and fracture. Materials experts can create approved materials information and determine the users that are authorized to view this information.
  
  
• DEPLOY - GRANTA MI makes it easy for any user to find, search, browse, and view the data that they need via a simple web browser interface. GRANTA MI can also integrate with third party software, enabling direct access to approved materials data from within CAE, FEA, and other applications.
  
  
• MAINTAIN - The system offers a sophisticated range of features (access control, version control, smart linking...) to ensure that data is traceable, secure, and controlled.
  

GRANTA MI, supported by Granta services, provides a unique solution that meets all of the needs of quality-conscious engineering enterprises for managing mission-critical materials data.

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Further information

Product information on GRANTA MI, the leading system for materials information management in engineering enterprises

Information on Granta services to help you specify, implement, and apply best practice materials data management

More on the Material Data Management Consortium (including further background information on materials data management)

Download white paper - "The Business Case for Materials Information Management"

Download technical paper - "Meeting the Materials Data Management Needs of Engineering Enterprises"