NX • Teamcenter Hendrick Motorsports

Hendrick Motorsports speeds the pace of PLM

Industry Five month time-to-production Chief engineer, Engine Operations, Jim Automotive sets a new record for the Wall, credits some of that success to the industry adoption of I-deas™ software in the mid- 1990s. This technology enabled Hendrick Business challenges Motorsports to reduce engine machining Looking for a new advantage time and achieve an unprecedented level Design the fastest cars and Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) isn’t your of machining consistency. Production engines on the NASCAR circuit typical racing organization. Founded in costs dropped as well. These improve­ Adopt new software to pre- 1984, Hendrick Motorsports fields four ments correlated with success on the serve a technology advantage NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams. It also track. The first engines produced using the builds 600 engines a year, some for use by new technology finished first, second and its own teams and some that are leased to third at the Purolator 500. Since then, Keys to success others. But the scope of its operation isn’t Hendrick Motorsports has expanded its use Implement Teamcenter to all that sets Hendrick Motorsports apart. of NX™ software to all parts of the car. manage entire spectrum of The organization has gone to Victory Lane Over time, however, more and more engine and vehicle more than 200 times and is the only one NASCAR teams have also adopted information to win a Sprint Cup championship in five computer-aided design/computer-aided straight seasons.

Results Better-informed engineering decisions at the race track Optimized engine configurations Faster reactions to rule changes Ability to drill into vehicle data and find information immedi- ately online

www.siemens.com/plm “Racing 36 weeks a year and successfully managing the growth of this company requires every advantage. The investment we’ve made in Siemens PLM Software tools and services is helping us meet our goals in both respects.” Rick Hendrick Owner Hendrick Motorsports

manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and Hendrick Jim McKenzie, Hendrick Motorsports’ Motorsports has sought other ways to applications manager. “If we have a preserve its technology advantage using problem at the race track, we have three Siemens PLM Software. days at most to fix it. If you spend a few hours of that time searching for data, it Information management needed can really handicap you.” One way Hendrick Motorsports plans to lead the technology race involves Broad PLM implementation at a improving access to vehicle information record-setting pace across its large corporate headquarters, as In an industry where speed is of the well as when the teams are away at races. essence, it is only natural to pursue a Hendrick Motorsports employs more than solution for an information management 500 people and at least three-quarters of problem at a record-breaking pace. them need access to vehicle information. Hendrick Motorsports selected These people include crew chiefs and Teamcenter® software as its product engineers on the various teams, people lifecycle management (PLM) digital involved in marketing and licensing, enterprise backbone, and with the help of members of the chassis department, the Siemens PLM Software’s consulting engine department and so on. Yet, there is organization, the time from project kickoff so much information, spread out on 25 to full production was five months. physical servers and over 100 virtual servers in nine buildings across the team’s This five-month implementation sets a 70-acre campus, that it can take people new record for the PLM industry, and it’s a hours to find what they are looking for. milestone for the racing industry as well. The enormous data stockpile includes CAD Hendrick Motorsports is the first NASCAR models, CAM programs, digital simulation organization, to Wall’s knowledge, to results, engine dynamometer data, chassis implement this technology. With the dynamometer data, wind-tunnel data, imple­mentation complete and all of the track test results and marketing and product-related data contained within licensing materials – everything that goes Teamcenter, finding the right piece of data into developing winning engines and cars. “is immediate and as easy as entering a few words into a search menu,” says Wall. “Without some way to manage all this “Instant access to information lets us information, we waste time and some­ make better decisions in the field, and times people aren’t looking at the latest that results in faster cars on the race version of what they need,” explains track,” he adds. “We’re now able to leverage a constantly increasing amount of information and apply it toward our main objective of building the fastest race cars and the highest performing engines.” Rick Hendrick Owner Hendrick Motorsports

The enhanced information access made Combined with wireless communications, possible by Teamcenter addresses many this now means that Hendrick Motorsports critical concerns facing Hendrick can optimize vehicle configurations even Motorsports (and all NASCAR racing when the teams are away at the track. organizations) today. One concern Engineers use wireless notepad PCs at the involves managing the vast amounts of track to query the Teamcenter database. test and performance data acquired in the The notepad transmits information to the development of new cars and engines. satellite link the team has set up on site. Test data on its own is useful, and The satellite sends the request to Teamcenter brings the much-needed Teamcenter back at headquarters and the ability to quickly locate specific data. But requested information is returned imme­ test data is most valuable when it can be diately. In this way, Hendrick Motorsports matched up with serialized, as-built and fine-tunes vehicles for specific races to an as-tested product (race car and engine) extent that wasn’t possible previously. configurations. With Teamcenter, Hendrick Motorsports now has this critical link. “By Managing many configurations leveraging Teamcenter’s serialization of Another critical area that Teamcenter as-built product structures, we can addresses is the growing number of correlate test data to specific vehicle and product configurations that Hendrick engine configurations,” says Wall. “That Motorsports must create in response to the associativity between performance and demands of its market – the NASCAR racing configurations, which Teamcenter makes circuit. “As NASCAR adds races at new available immediately, lets us quickly find facilities, that drives us to create new the optimum vehicle configuration for any vehicle configurations so we can be race situation.” competitive at the new tracks,” explains Wall. Teamcenter helps speed the creation of new vehicle configurations by allowing Hendrick Motorsports to work from generic representations of the vehicle and engine, altering them to the specific requirements of a new racing situation. “Teamcenter’s parameterized product structure lets us rapidly generate any possible configuration we might need,” Wall adds. “This ability to make rapid configuration changes matches the pace of how we need to do business.” A third area where Teamcenter is poised to requirements data, such as new rules play a critical role is in the area of problem handed down by NASCAR. Ultimately, this reporting. When a race team experiences may permit a requirements-driven design the failure of a part, a material or a design, process. On the back end of the product it needs a way to capture that information lifecycle, Teamcenter offers the unique and to determine whether it may mean capability of incorporating serialized, that there are other failures waiting to as-built, configuration data. This is vital to happen on other vehicles. “We need to find Hendrick Motorsports, which is as much a trends,” says Wall. “And we need to be able manufacturer as a racing organization. “We to do that quickly and before they become are really an automotive remanufac­turing disasters.” With Teamcenter, Hendrick facility and we have to maintain all of the Motorsports can tie failure information to assemblies we put together,” says Wall. the as-built product structure so it is imme­ “Having the ability to push the product diately evident if there are other places configuration out into as-built as a where these failures might cause serialized entity will give us more control problems. The vendor management capa­ through the entire product lifecycle, both bilities of Teamcenter provide additional for the vehicles we race as well as the ability to mitigate risk by managing vendor engines we lease to other teams.” services and qualifications. Teamcenter also provides Hendrick Strong throughout the lifecycle Motorsports with the necessary level of Historically, product data management access security for this large organization (PDM) systems have limited their scope to that shares data among different race managing data in the design arena. teams and suppliers. As Wall explains, “We Hendrick Motorsports’ PLM solution, have to pay attention to who can see what Teamcenter, goes beyond that, on both information, and Teamcenter’s security the front and back ends of the product model helps us maintain confidentiality lifecycle, to manage a much broader scope from area to area, but also permits of information. At the front end of the collaboration with the appropriate data.” lifecycle, Teamcenter can incorporate Solutions/Services NX www.siemens.com/nx Teamcenter www.siemens.com/teamcenter

Customer’s primary business Hendrick Motorsports fields Not stopping now CAD data through the use of JT™ data four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Future goals involve facilitating format files, making it possible to edit, teams and supplies engines to collaboration to an even greater extent. analyze and validate heterogeneous CAD other NASCAR organizations. One way to do this is to extend the use of design structures. Support for the JT www.hendrickmotorsports.com the NX products to all of Hendrick format will also enhance collaboration by Motorsports. Each team maintains an allowing Hendrick Motorsports to send 3D Customer location engineering team (four Sprint Cup teams), representations to people who are not and the chassis shop and engine shop both CAD users. Charlotte, North Carolina have significant staff. All of these are now United States using a common database for their 3D Hendrick Motorsports will also use design data. One initiative is to extend the Teamcenter to control workflows, which availability to 1) interact with the other should greatly speed the process of imple­ “Everything we do in engi- data types (race data, test data, etc.), 2) menting rule changes. “Sometimes, within neering is about getting a allow for nonengineering groups to a week we have to have a new part competitive advantage. visualize and leverage this data, and 3) designed, built, tested and put in place When we can use enhance the access model to the point before the next race,” says McKenzie. Teamcenter to make a better where the crew chiefs and teams can “Having Teamcenter manage the engi­ decision at the track, that access any data anywhere. neering review cycle could save us half a translates into a competitive day or more in getting that done.” The advantage.” Another way this will happen is by using enhanced information access and collabo­ the visualization capabilities of Teamcenter ration made possible by Teamcenter, Jim Wall to combine data from many different CAD combined with advanced NX design and Engineering Group Manager systems into one model. Currently, when manufacturing solutions, enable Hendrick Hendrick Motorsports Hendrick Motorsports receives CAD data in Motorsports to once again pull ahead of its a different format from its own, from a NASCAR competitors. supplier for example, it is difficult to validate that design in the context of the larger assembly. Teamcenter permits a neutral representation of heterogeneous

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