On July 29, Dassault Systèmes hosted a digital event called 3DExperience: A Virtual Journey. Its aim was to highlight the parameters of the company’s 3DExperience collaborative platform, what it means to have sustainable operations and how to make this a reality. This was the first of four monthly virtual events Dassault will host until October.
Erik Swedberg, managing director of North America, Dassault Systèmes acted as moderator for the event. Attendees were guided through the plenary sessions, which included presentations from Skunk Works Lockheed Martin and Parker Hannifin. Those session discussed how those companies leverage 3DExperience for their applications.
Swedberg contended that no matter the reason—whether companies are moving to a more digital design and manufacturing approach for or because of the COVID-19 pandemic—companies can leverage software and claim their spot among those reaching into Industry 4.0. While there are risks for pandemic companies because they are being driven to digital transformation faster, there are also opportunities for market entry expansion.
“Don’t try to digitize the past or the present,” he warned. “We need to invent the industry of tomorrow.”
Bernard Charlès, vice chairman & CEO, Dassault Systèmes, discussed how cloud collaboration and keeping human interaction at Dassault’s core ideology was planned before the pandemic hit and how it is now more important than ever. “The pandemic has revealed that we can invent new measures to collaborate and invent solutions to improve the lives of people,” he said.
Keeping the human experience in mind when innovating products and services, according to Charlès, will accelerate innovation for a sustainable world. “Moving from a product economy to an experience economy is changing the center of gravity of value from ownership to experience,” he explained.
Florence Verzelen, executive vice president of Industry, Marketing, Global Affairs and Workforce of the Future at Dassault Systèmes closed out the day with a presentation on how companies can become more resilient and sustainable to mitigate fallout of future crises.
In order to ensure the survival of a company during a crisis, there are five considerations:
- Protecting employees
- Maintaining financial health
- Adapting marketing and sales
- Safeguarding the supply chain
- Helping the ecosystem
Verzelen said in order to improve sustainability, the world needs to “build back better” post-COVID. She said after quarantines are a thing of the past, we will face a new phase: Becoming accustomed to the new normal—which begins with restarting businesses.
“Returning to business means we probably have to rethink our supply chain,” she said. “We have to rebuild it in order to make it resilient.”
Most supply chains are based on very small inventory, a system bug that COVID-19 has highlighted. Using multiple suppliers and utilizing additive manufacturing are solutions to fill the gap in the supply chain during a crisis.
“We have no reason to think that the COVID crisis is the last crisis we’ll ever have—we have to learn to be resilient,” Verzelen said. “And the good thing about resilience is there is not only one way to be resilient, and all of those ways are linked to innovation and sustainability.”
The next presentations from Dassault Systèmes are:
- Aug. 26: Fueling Innovation in the New Agile Enterprise
- Sept. 23: Modeling & Simulation in the Age of Experience
- Oct. 14: Enabling Business Continuity Using the Cloud
You can register for these events here.