Democratization of engineering analytics using Aqira

Introduction

Significant trends in industry such as electrification, automation, and digital transformation are providing unprecedented engineering challenges and opportunities. Simulation, artificial intelligence and better utilisation of data are becoming essential. Companies want to enable their engineers to be able to perform a large quantity of sophisticated simulations or quickly analyze huge amounts of data in order to generate valuable insights and make engineering decisions. This is particularly true in the area of product validation where, for example, automotive OEMs aim to use more simulation to reduce physical testing and also need to analyze increasing volumes of connected vehicle data to understand product usage.

In addition to changing business priorities, demographic changes are also contributing to the loss of corporate expertise. These shifts are driving a vision of a more ‘democratized‘ way of engineering that reduces the reliance on a smaller number of experts and puts more power into the hands of a larger number of engineers. Greater democratization of simulation and analysis offers the promise of faster development cycles and better value from software usage, assuming that the quality of analysis can be assured

This white paper describes capabilities required to make democratization of engineering analysis a reality.

DEMOCRATIZATION IN PRACTICE

The current reality of engineering analysis in most companies is that a significant amount of expertise is locked up in a few key individuals. With an aging workforce and the refocusing of resources on emerging trends and technologies, it is a high risk that valuable corporate knowledge may soon be lost.

CAE simulation, for example, requires highly trained or experienced engineers who are usually proficient in a subset of the many different and specialized CAE tools that are employed. For example, simulation for CAE durability analysis can include finite element analysis, fatigue analysis, multi-body dynamics, and stochastic analysis which may all be performed by different individual experts using specialized tools that are not easily used by an entry level engineer. This results in experts spending a large proportion of their time performing routine analysis rather than using their abilities to solve new and innovative challenges.

The sharing of processes for more engineers to successfully and reliably perform a correct analysis has been termed ‘democratization‘. Out of the hands of a few experts, and into the hands of broader ‘masses‘ of engineers.

Democratization is envisaged to enable:

• Experts to focus on more value-added engineering
• More engineers to perform routine analysis tasks
• Capture and re-use of corporate knowledge
• The automation of more analysis tasks and multiple analysis steps
• Analysis techniques to be shared across different departments

Knowledge capture, usability and accessibility

The democratization of engineering software has been widely discussed in the last few years. It formed part of the NAFEMS Simulation 20/20 Vision [1] with categories of benefit including: expert knowledge capture and re-use, usability, and accessibility.

As summarized in this vision, “What if a way existed to embed such tangible knowledge and intangible judgement into reusable templates, extending this simulation capability throughout the product development team?”

In other words, companies want to enable more engineers to be able to perform sophisticated simulations and analytics. This requires the development of easy to use engineering apps that help engineers solve a specific problem. The use of apps captures and transfers corporate knowledge, reduces the reliance on key individuals, increases the productivity of more engineers, improves quality and reduces errors.

By using apps that encapsulate expert-defined processes, it increases the ability for novice users to perform analysis tasks that only experts were able to do before. In the case of product validation, democratization drives greater value from the investment in software by increasing the number of engineers who are able to get reliable results. It also gives the opportunity to move simulation earlier in the design phase, where it can have increased value. Care must however be taken that sufficient logical steps and quality checks can be inserted into the process to ensure the right results as far as possible. This means that the initial focus of apps will be on simpler, well-defined problems that can be automated.

Experts, in turn, are freed up to spend more time on innovative and higher-level projects like developing new methods for simulating fatigue in lightweight materials or the vibration testing of electric vehicle systems.

Taking apps beyond simulation

This vision can be extended further beyond CAE to also include the integration of analysis of physical test and real-world sensor data. It also provides a valuable common platform for correlation between simulation and physical measurements. So in general, these are more than just ‘simulation apps‘ and should be viewed as ‘engineering apps‘.

Additionally, if these apps are available through a web interface, then no local software even needs to be installed. This thin-client approach extends the accessibility of analysis tools to web browsers and mobile devices. It also enables the possibility of cloud-hosted solutions.

PRACTICAL CHALLENGES IN THE CREATION AND ONGOING USE OF ENGINEERING APPS

Democratization into the hands of engineers

Democratization can become a reality when engineers are equipped with the ease of creating engineering apps rather than requiring specialists with software development skills or custom IT projects. If each app requires special IT resources then the cost and time involved required for creating and maintaining each app will become prohibitive.

Therefore, the method for creating and maintaining apps must be intuitive and graphical and require as little actual ’coding’ as possible.

But creating the app is just the start. To make apps truly usable for the long-term, they need to have the ability to account for ongoing requirements that often occur such as new versions of simulation tools, reported bugs and the need for new functionality

For engineering apps to be viable, they must be easily created to target a specific type of task, leading users through the process in an easy to use interface that hides the complexity of general purpose analysis tools. Engineers with sufficient engineering expertise but little programming experience should be able to build these apps using an intuitive interface such as by using simple drag-and-drop building blocks. This means the logical steps of the app and the layout of its graphical interface can be defined by the engineer without any coding. This enables expert knowledge to be captured within apps and published by the expert then made accessible via the web to other less experienced engineers. More advanced customization and logic may require Python scripting that could be added to the app only if needed.

Engineers must be able to both create apps and manage the process of updates, fixing bugs, and version control without requiring in-depth IT knowledge and without taking significant valuable time away from engineering itself. In this way, the complete lifecycle of an app can be efficiently managed and democratization can truly be ‘by the people, for the people‘

Democratization using a platform for engineering apps

A platform is required to create, access, share and manage these easy to use engineering apps. The finished app should provide a visually appealing dashboard interface including data displays and charts that is widely accessible via web browsers and mobile devices. Aqira is a commercial product, now available to address this growing need.

Aqira is a web-based product that is installed ‘on-premise‘ or customer’s cloud IT infrastructure. This keeps the data and processes within the IT department’s control. Users can access apps and analysis results simply through a web browser. Apps are created using an intuitive drag and drop approach and similarly, user-defined front-end pages are graphically and interactively defined.

While Aqira promotes ‘analysis for all‘, the platform provides a highly configurable user experience on top of a disciplined infrastructure that serves to provide a more controlled overall process. The owner of an app can determine which individuals or groups of users have access to the app, while still providing the flexibility to enable global collaboration. Version control on apps ensures engineers across the organization, whether in test laboratories, validation groups or design departments can always access the latest and correct version. App authors are able to prototype (‘sand-box‘) changes to the app before rolling out to other users.

Standardize global engineering processes

Seamless integration with nCode® software products such as GlyphWorks and DesignLife enables analysis to be performed directly in the browser or via engineering apps that provide a simplified interface. It is also possible to drive other external applications or pull data from other databases using web-services even if these other interfaces require more of a complicated setup, for example, using Python scripting.

Results from apps can be shared with users in a secure manner improving the traceability and efficiency of communicating key information. The results from these analyses can be stored together with all the inputs and settings so that previously calculated results can be quickly and directly accessed. This has benefits over analysis result files being distributed over many users’ personal PCs that are typically inaccessible to other users.

Aqira uses a containerized architecture (using Kubernetes) that can be easily scaled up to enable a greater number of users or a greater volume of simultaneous analyses. In this manner, Aqira provides a democratization platform that can scale from a single department to a global enterprise deployment.

AQIRA FEATURES THE ABILITY TO:

• Manage and share analytical processes
• Access nCode software and flows using a web browser
• Create and use engineering apps licensing
• Perform scalable, server-based analysis
• Benefit from cost-effective deployment and licensing
• Control and track license token usage

SUMMARY

Democratization promises to deliver real benefits for durability analysis by capturing corporate knowledge and making targeted, well-defined simulations easier for more engineers to perform. But to do so, it must overcome some real practical challenges in order to become a broadly adopted reality.

To achieve these aims, democratization through the use of engineering apps must be in the hands of engineers themselves so that the whole lifecycle of apps can be efficiently and cost effectively managed.

Aqira provides an intuitive, web-based platform for engineers to create and share easy-to-use engineering apps. Aqira delivers on the promise of democratization of engineering analytics for all.

Learn more at www.hbkworld.com/aqira

ABOUT US

We help engineers deliver durable and reliable products and avoid the cost of unexpected failures. Our software brands for durability and reliability, nCode and ReliaSoft, empower data-driven confidence through accurate analysis and simulation, enabling customers to achieve success through failure prediction.

For more information, please visit: www.hbkworld.com