Delivering complex machinery for global transportation demands sophisticated software. Rolls Royce, a renowned power system provider, is on a mission to upgrade their software development ecosystem to ensure they bring advanced products to their customers efficiently and safely.

At the Mendix UK Manufacturing Forum, David Yazdani, Head of Engineering Methods at Rolls Royce, shared the IT challenges that prompted his team to embrace low-code development.

Embracing Next-Generation Tools

Like many in the manufacturing sector, Rolls Royce is adopting next-generation tools to enhance product development, manufacturing, and in-service support across the supply chain. These tools include 3D and 4D visualization, integrated CAD (computer-aided design) and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) practices, and unified user interfaces.

Building a Digital Thread

Delivering a power system, such as a gas turbine, involves more than just the physical product. An extensive amount of data follows the machinery from its creation through its operational lifecycle.

“We have a comprehensive end-to-end process and toolset,” said Yazdani. “We start by understanding customer needs, which are captured in requirements documents. These are modeled in CAD, and product structures are controlled in a PLM system. We write machining programs, manage how foundries operate, and oversee the hot forming of parts like fan blades.”

Yazdani emphasized that the company’s responsibility for their products extends long after delivery. “We are responsible for the product for 50 years. We understand how our customers use our products through edge computing, with sensors on every engine streaming data back to us. This data helps us optimize asset usage and provide valuable insights to our customers.”

However, maintaining an integrated environment is challenging due to the rapid transformation of the underlying technology. Rolls Royce’s IT group faces several common issues:

• Legacy Systems: Developed over 30 years, these systems were coded by engineers from various departments, resulting in inconsistent documentation and release processes.
• Shadow IT Solutions: Engineers often rely on Excel and Visual Basic to automate spreadsheets and transactions due to the complexity of connecting SAP or ERP tools.
• Complex Infrastructure: Managing the vast manufacturing data pools requires varied approaches based on the customer or part.

Overcoming Integration Challenges

“From a high-level perspective, it’s straightforward: we put everything in a PLM, feed it into MES, send it to SAP, and execute the order. But at ground level, it’s a complex web of software and bespoke code,” explained Yazdani. “It’s filled with various factors and people bridging gaps, hoping they’re doing it right.”

To address these challenges and deliver connected, modern systems at a pace that meets business and customer demands, Yazdani’s team adopted low-code development, integrating the Mendix platform in 2021.

The Shift to Low-Code

Rolls Royce is in the early stages of their low-code journey but is already targeting high-impact projects. “We are using Mendix for projects like managing datasets with safety and security. We’re also automating system design for jet engines, which significantly improves product development timelines, performance, and productivity,” Yazdani noted.

Collaboration, both internally and externally, is crucial for achieving speed and scale, but it also requires stringent governance. “We need to enable more of our employees and colleagues in IT to safely construct toolkits without extensive oversight,” said Yazdani.

Within the framework of governed low-code development, Yazdani envisions mobilizing technically-inclined employees outside IT to become developers. “We want our engineers to be comfortable as coders. We’ve always embraced this idea but haven’t fully let go to allow them the freedom to work independently.”

Yazdani also sees potential for collaboration beyond Rolls Royce. For instance, they often work with smaller suppliers but must limit information sharing to protect intellectual property. “Imagine an app store where businesses can enter a marketplace to create parts, share data captured in their factories, and collaborate without exposing proprietary information.”

The Future of Low-Code at Rolls Royce

Yazdani summarized his vision for the future: “We need to equip our employees with the ability to write compliant software. It’s challenging without enough developers and a suitable environment. If our systems are tangled and our team doesn’t understand why they are developing certain features, we need to untangle this complexity.”

“We can’t develop software quickly enough to keep up with our vision and customer expectations,” he continued. “We need to break the current paradigm in IT project delivery. Low-code, particularly Mendix, seems to be a significant part of the solution.”

Yazdani concluded by emphasizing the importance of modernizing their software development approach: “Mendix helps us deliver faster, reducing integration headaches and allowing us to focus on providing solutions.”

Photo by Philippe Oursel (unsplash.com)