I'm Toriya from Lattice Technology (Lattice). Thank you for your time today. First of all, please introduce yourself.

Thank you, Toriya-san. I'm Stephane Declee, CEO of the Dassault Systèmes (Dassault) ENOVIA brand.
I am very happy and honored to be able to talk with Kawazoe-san and Mr. Toriya-san in this way.

My name is Hiroshi Kawazoe. I am in charge of the engineering field of Toyota Systems.
I've been in this job for over 30 years and have been involved in almost all engineering tools such as Toyota's CAD / CAM / CAE / PDM. In particular, I have been working with Dassault Group for the past 25 years. I am very happy to have a conversation with Stephane-san and Toriya-san today, and I hope that it will be a fruitful discussion.

Since 2020, the world has changed completely due to COVID-19. First of all, I would like to ask Stephane-san about the situation of COVID-19 in France. It seems that vaccination is progressing and the number of infected people is decreasing. Do you think life and society are returning to normal?

Yes. Certainly, COVID-19 has changed the way of life in France and our society has been greatly influenced for the past year and a half. Also, that’s a fact that vaccination is a big hope and has good results. I hope that not only the business side but also the private side, like life with friends and family will be restored soon.

However, I still think that the society after Corona is not the same as before Corona. It is necessary to take lessons from change and promote new ways of working. Today, I would like to suggest and support a new way of working through this interview.

How do you think the manufacturing industry, which is the target of the PLM solution where Dassault takes the leadership, will change after COVID-19?

That's a very important question. The keywords of “agility” and “resiliency” will become even more important in the future. Many manufacturing companies are considering how they can change the way of work according to these keywords. The way of work in design and production will surely change.

It is necessary to reform the way of working so that we can provide appropriate information to people and collaborate with each other wherever they are. This also leads to remote work and to work anywhere. This is true not only for Dassault and its customers, but also for partners. In addition, “Cloud” will become a keyword in new measures for the design and production fields.

It means that the technology of “Cloud” will be a platform for promoting remote collaboration in the manufacturing industry. This is also the theme that Dassault and Lattice are working on.

Exactly. Global collaboration is also very important for the themes we are working on with Toyota Motor Corporation. Not only online but also offline collaboration is essential. That means delivering correct information based on 3D data. With 3D, various members can have a common understanding intuitively and without misunderstandings. Such aspects of 3D data will become so important as to be called indispensable.

Lattice and Stephane-san’s collaboration started three years ago, and I understand the need for global collaboration aimed in this project has just been accelerated by COVID-19.

When the 3D data of 3DEXPERIENCE online can be used with XVL offline, users are able to collaborate globally for design, production, and promotion using correct 3D data.

I totally agree.

What's happening is the once-in-a-century revolutionary period of the automotive industry?

Then Kawazoe-san, what kind of influence did COVID-19 have on the automotive industry?

From the perspective of the automobile industry, of course, COVID-19 is a big story. However, Toyota recognizes today as the once-in-a-century revolutionary period from four years ago. With the advent of CASE, automotive industry itself is undergoing major changes.

We are facing various changes such as the shortage of semiconductors affecting the supply chain of automobiles, and I consider COVID-19 to be one of such changes. In particular, COVID-19 is changing the way we work, and I recognize that many companies, not just Toyota, are working on Work Style Innovation.

In Toyota Motor, how was the Work Style Innovation carried out during COVID-19?

For example, in the world of engineer, it was the way of working before COVID-19 that various tasks were executed in the real world. Design at one’s desk, talk in a conference room, go to a lab for simulations and evaluations, then visit a factory to see actual product. Nowadays, I understand that the engineers themselves are wondering how to proceed with engineering by trial and error in the situation where they work from home and cannot meet other members in person. The environment for remote work has been improved by Cloud or VDI.

However in real manufacturing, it is still hard to imagine proceeding without seeing the actual product and going to the site. It is a very challenging task, but we must continue to think about how engineers can feel, think, and share their work while keeping these activities to the minimum.

Another big item is carbon neutrality. Automobile itself must make a major shift from the engine to electrification. And from the perspective of the ecosystem, we must consider reducing CO2 emissions. I recognize that the automotive industry is in a tough situation where each player should keep fighting for survival under various restrictions.

What does the open architecture of 3DEXPERIENCE bring to the manufacturing industry?

Up until now, I believe that the culture of adjustment like Genchi-Genbutsu (on-site and actual product) or face-to-face meetings has been a strong point of the Japanese manufacturing industry, especially Toyota. In the once-in-a-century revolutionary period, how to replace the culture as much as possible with digital will become an important theme in the future.

To achieve this, Lattice has developed XVL on 3DEXPERIENCE with Dassault. Stephane-san, could you please tell us what kind of problems the 3DEXPERIENCE platform can solve?

Let me answer in the context of COVID-19.

First of all, 3DEXPERIENCE makes it possible to virtually represent complex models. Users can model and simulate a complex automobile and electric vehicles. In addition, you can connect what you create in a virtual model with real data. Then, for example, users are able to know what is actually happening in the factory by connecting with data from IoT. We can support user in daily work to strengthen collaboration among members of various departments in the organization and members of partner companies.

Let me give you two examples of how 3DEXPERIENCE is used in the field where new challenges arise every day. One is virtual modeling of the factory / production system. Assuming that employees will return to the factory after COVID-19, a user simulates how to maintain an appropriate distance between people without reducing production efficiency. The other is to simulate the function of the air conditioner of a car so that you can stay in the car at ease in an environment where the air constantly circulates.

Lattice has also continued to develop 3D Digital Twin, which digitally replaces real products with lightweight 3D data called XVL. I feel that 3DEXPERIENCE has a very high affinity as a platform for the 3D Digital Twin. In particular, 3DEXPERIENCE has a very open architecture, and we have been promoting the integration of XVL on that architecture. Could you please tell us the objective and background of why you chose such an open architecture?

Simply put, our customers are using a large number of application systems. With the openness of 3DEXPERIENCE, Dassault tries to create a seamless flow of information as well as process coordination. This architecture is used to form a very close alliance with Lattice for a smooth and powerful solution.

Lattice also integrated with 3DEXPERIENCE and was very surprised that the data of XVL and CATIA V5 can be handled almost the same. This time, XVL on 3DEXPERIENCE was developed on the basis of an open mechanism, and as a result, we have realized the status that XVL data corresponding to the latest CATIA data always exists on 3DEXPERIENCE in almost real time. As a result, many members involved in product development are now able to take advantage of the light-weight XVL.

How is Toyota going to change with this open mechanism?

Kawazoe-san, Toyota is the first in the world to introduce XVL on 3DEXPERIENCE and started operation. Can you tell us the objective and background?

Toyota is the first to use XVL on 3DX.

Toyota makes products for customers with the motto "providing good products quickly and at an appropriate price." From the current situation, we need to accelerate development further.

In order to realize this, it is very important to have a system that allows user to treat the same object as if it were next to him, not only for individual designers, but also among members of the same department, members of the pre / post-process divisions, or suppliers and other OEMs, who are physically in different locations. 3DEXPERIENCE is an important option for Toyota to realize this system.

It means that 3DEXPERIENCE has become the basis for connecting Toyota Motor Corporation and suppliers. Could you tell me specific examples?

In the past, when sending and receiving CAD data, a designer took approval of one’s boss and sent it to a supplier via the network, and the supplier confirmed the received data.

This process took one or two days at the shortest, and a week at the longest. With 3DEXPERIENCE, the work style of engineers in Toyota and suppliers changed as if they were working in the same place. Once a Toyota engineer puts new geometry data onto 3DEXPERIENCE, engineers of the supplier can see the same data immediately.

A new world unimaginable before has been realized using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, and many engineers from Toyota suppliers appreciate the benefit.

The status of the implementation varies depending on each supplier, but I heard that utilizing 3DEXPERIENCE platform has produced a greater effect compared to processes in the past.

At the beginning of this interview, Stephane-san mentioned the keywords, agility and resiliency. According to Kawazoe-san’s comment,3DEXPERIENCE in Toyota Group has made it possible to achieve these points.

I am impressed with Kawazoe-san’s very powerful comments. One of Toyota’s goals of this project is to realize simultaneous development, and I strongly feel that we are moving in this direction.

XVL – authorized by Dassault as an official format on 3DEXPERIENCE.

In Toyota, CATIA is widely used in design area, and XVL is widely used in production engineering and service document area. When these two solutions are closely linked on 3DEXPERIENCE, I think Toyota might have bigger benefit from them, but how do you think, Kawazoe-san?

This applies not only to Toyota but, we need both the technical role of creating content, and a simple mechanism that many people can use for taking advantage of the content.

Toyota uses CATIA for the former and XVL for the latter. It has great meaning that the technical department creates detailed data and people in production site or factory, suppliers can use lightweight 3D and simple tools even from places where IT infrastructure is not sufficient.

Also, such situation greatly expands the range of 3D utilization. In particular, Lattice, a purely Japanese-like company, has been very effective developing applications that meet the specific needs of the Toyota production process.

This time, XVL Studio, application for 3D verification / utilization, is now directly connected to 3DEXPERIENCE, and verification using the latest large-scale 3D data can be performed immediately after designing. Such a great collaborative development was made possible thanks to Stephane-san’s development team. I’m very grateful for the support.

You are welcome! I believe that the most important thing is to make our customers successful and to satisfy them.

XVL and CATIA data exist in a 1 to 1 state on 3DEXPERIENCE, and now XVL Studio can be used almost in the same way as CATIA. Users can get their job done while sharing the correct 3D data globally, both online and offline. In this alliance, XVL has become an official format authorized by Dassault.

Exactly. As a result of strong partnership and great efforts, I believe that the best collaborative solution has been achieved. XVL can be managed as a native format on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and also the user interface has been developed to be user-friendly and easy to use.

I understand we have achieved this close cooperation based on the idea of “Customer First”.

That's a very important point.

And I would like to thank Toyota and Kawazoe-san for their trust in us. Every partnership has a base of trust and we were able to accomplish the project with this strong relationship of trust. I am proud that the solution developed this time can be used not only by Toyota but also by many Japanese manufacturing customers and customers all over the world.

This is a question to Kawazoe-san, but how would you like to use and enhance XVL on 3DEXPERIENCE for further benefit for Toyota.

Within Toyota, a new version of XVL on 3DEXPERIENCE will be released in September 2021.

As of today, I would like to comment on our aim. First and foremost, it's great to work with Stephane-san's Dassault Système and Toriya-san’s Lattice Technology as trusted partners to make this project a reality. I’m grateful that Dassault and Lattice have worked closely with the customer. As for the user's impression during trial use, in the past a user needs to wait for the conversion process before using XVL data.

With the new version, user can instantly and directly access XVL data on 3DEXPERIENCE. The members of design and production engineering feel that they have reached a new level of 3D utilization. The timeliness achieved in this project is very important in terms of accumulating the reduction of one small operation and not disturbing designers’ thinking.

Users can instantly and directly access XVL data on 3DEXPERIENCE.

Toyota engineers will have to think more about how to utilize this system. I’m looking forward to the start of operation in September.

Earlier in this interview, Stephane-san mentioned the keyword “Global Collaboration”. I would like to support the collaboration of the entire Toyota group with XVL on 3DEXPERIENCE.

When sharing data between Toyota and suppliers, the data used to be Dassault's applications such as CATIA and DELMIA. This time, Lattice Technology's XVL is integrated on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Being able to handle XVL as if it were the same positioning as Dassault format is the greatest benefit of this Dassault - Lattice alliance.

Our collaboration supports 3D Digital Transformation that is taking place at Toyota, the Japanese leading automobile company. What do you think about this fact, Stephane-san?

We are definitely in the best situation. Partnership is based on people and trust. Building trust and collaborating towards a common goal are essential factors for success. In addition, it is nothing but the best situation that Toyota, a very demanding customer, drives us.

Toyota Motor may have made various requests which is strict for Stephane-san. Considering Digital Transformation in the engineering field, it is not something that user company can do alone. The key point is, in partnership with system vendors, to understand each other, to come up with ideas, then to create a new process and build a good system that fits the process. From that perspective, I feel that this alliance is a successful case.

I totally agree.

We have the most demanding customer, and the best partnership take on those demands. As a result, the finest system is created.

The competition for survival will continue, and we must further enhance our relationships. I believe that Dassault and Lattice are partners who can enhance each other.