The design and the industrialization of an aircraft, a major component, or
an aerostructure is a complex process. An aircraft like the Airbus A400M is composed
of about 700,000 parts (excluding standard parts). The parts are assembled
into aerostructures and major components, which are designed and manufactured in
several countries all over the world. The introduction of new Product Lifecycle
Management (PLM) methodologies, procedures and tools, and the need to reduce
time-to-market, led Airbus Military to pursue new working methods to deal with
complexity. Collaborative Engineering promotes teamwork to develop product, processes
and resources from the conceptual phase to the start of the serial production.
This paper introduces the main concepts of Collaborative Engineering as a new
methodology, procedures and tools to design and develop an aircraft, as Airbus
Military is implementing. To make a Proof of Concept (PoC), a pilot project,
CALIPSOneo, was launched to support the functional and industrial design process
of a medium size aerostructure. The aim is to implement the industrial Digital
Mock-Up (iDMU) concept and its exploitation to create shop fl oor documentation