UEC-Aviadvigatel (a part of Rostec United Engine Corporation) won a contract in a tendering process from the Russian Information Technology Development Foundation to implement the project on import substitution of an engineering software. The grant funding is 1.174 bln ruble. The funds will be used to implement domestic PLM and CAD software capable to design polymer composite products.
The project has been initiated to support consistency of the process and engineering activities throughout all stages of the product life cycle, and to avoid line misbalances under sanctions.
In this project, the Design Bureau acts as a center of competence to produce uniform requirements for UEC developers of innovative products, as well as a pilot site for implementation of the Russian heavy-duty software.
Aviadvigatel’s Project is aimed at achieving technology independence in the industrial software. The project is on the list of high-priority projects and is included into the New Industrial Software road map.
“We have started to prepare for the heavy-duty software import substitution over 7 years ago, since a risk change in the development of information processes within the software used. Presently we are implementing a comprehensive program of the import software and IT-hardware substitution,” - says Kirill Pimenov, IT Director at UEC-Aviadvigatel. “The challenges we face are not limited to a simple reinstallation of the software on the employee’s work stations. Off-the-shelf domestic solutions meet our needs by no more than 70%. In some cases, such as composite components designing, there are no any similar Russian versions.”
It is impossible to address the challenge by efforts of the specialists only, as well as to encourage the domestic developer to “copy” features of the currently available software. A straightforward strategy of copying is contrary to the level of Perm Design Bureau as a cutting-edge high-technology company, which has its own engineering school, and which has been building up its own engineering and production processes for decades. Therefore, a team of designers, process engineers, structural analysts, and production men will be involved in the process of the software import substitution. It is up to the team to define the requirements for the developer to create an advanced product.
According to Mr. Pimenov, the only problem of such ambitious projects is a lack of funding. But, thanks to the government support and industrial centers of competence it became possible to meet the strategic challenges of the import substitution in the entire sectors of industry. We are in for a heavy workload that we have to do together with the software developer, in order to get a competitive domestic product.
