Dassault Systemes has used its 3D simulation software to create fighter carriers for the US armed forces and aeroplanes for Boeing. Now CEO Bernard Charles is helping Tata Motors create a virtual plant for the Nano.
When Bernard Charles signed up with Dassault Systemes at the age of 26, he was married to science. After graduating with honours as a mechanical engineer from Ecole Normale Superieure in Cachan, France, Charles immersed himself in research. Even in his first year at Dassault, he contemplated quitting so as to boost his career in research. At that time, Dassault Systemes had just 30 employees. Today, with a workforce of 15,000, Charles sits at the helm of affairs at Dassault as its president and CEO.
Much has changed for the former professor at Superieure. Though he continues to lecture engineering students with the same passion he had 25 years ago, a strong element of business has seeped into his method. Charles, 51, clearly sees an end to the means. “We want the practical experience to come to theory, virtually,” says the Frenchman, who is in India to attend the company’s annual PLM (product lifecycle management) forum at Mumbai.
It is this practicality in the virtual space that has propelled Dassault Systemes from nowhere to a $2 billion workhorse in flat 25 years. A world leader in PLM software solutions, Dassault designs and develops industrial products by offering a 3D vision of the entire product lifecycle, from initial design to maintenance. And that has given the company a leverage across 11 sectors, including automotive, aerospace, fabrication and assembly, consumer goods, electrical and electronics, ship building, with over 100,000 clients.
“Next time, I’ll show you something new,” is his oft-repeated phrase, peppered liberally through the conversation, as he uses his iPhone to effect by demonstrating a retail experience in 3D and various other nuggets from core verticals. That’s something he also tells Ratan Tata each time they meet. “For the first 15 minutes, Ratan tells me about his new projects knowing fully well that I will reveal some new secrets. The last time we met, I showed him our 3DVIA and how one could do city-planning,” says Charles.
The Tata-Dassault equation doesn’t just pop up in isolation. Tata Motors is a major client and work on the ‘Nano’ has gathered steam. “The whole plant has been designed and simulated in advance so that there’s no wastage. Also, with franchisees, they can replicate the same plant across the country,” says Charles. “The heart of our platform is to use the virtual or digital definition so that you can verify things yourself before actually physically rolling them out. Never underestimate the huge savings you can have if waste is removed.”
Having said that, he feels the ongoing global recession will have a strong bearing on human behaviour. “The buying experience will change and probably people will be more comfortable in buying a product that offers value, and value will become the reason for the emotion.” Retailers, like GAP, Gucci, LVMH, Quicksilver and Under Armour, too, are thronging to Dassault to realise their moment of truth. “We put laser beams on store shelves to read where consumers’ eyes are going and why they choose one product over another, with our 3DVIA Virtools,” says Charles. Indian retailers are also queuing up at Dassault.
Dassault emerged as a major player in the technology space in the 80s by “telling companies not to think flat, but in 3D”. That made Dassault gain heavyweights, like Mercedes Benz, BMW and Northrop Grumman. “In 1994, when the Boeing company demonstrated to the world that an aeroplane of the size and complexity of 777 could be produced digitally without physical prototype, that was our first achievement,” says Charles, Boeing saved itself hundreds of millions of dollars as it delivered to customers without a physical prototype. In 1996 Dassault started training the staff at Toyota virtually on the shopfloor. That also was Dassault’s first brush with the Nonaka Model of manufacturing, when Toyota decided to manufacture straight after design, not from the front but the backend.
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