If there?s an obvious reason that Dale Earnhardt Jr. jumpedship to join Hendrick Motorsports, it?s that success breeds success. AsEarnhardt Jr. has said, he wanted to be with a winner.
Today, as the days count down to the start of the NASCARSprint Cup series season start Feb. 9 at the Daytona International Speedway,there?s no doubt that Earnhardt Jr., generally viewed as NASCAR?s most popular driver, has signed withthe best: Team Hendrick. With super-drivers Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordonleading the pack, last year this team racked up 19 NASCAR victories, and over 40 finishesin the top 5, more than any other team.
But besides great drivers, what Earnhardt Jr.?s new team hasis an owner who promotes a winning esprit in Rick Hendrick, and a productlifecycle management (PLM) system that helps make the goals of consistency andreliability a reality.
Read Baseline’s in-depth look at PLM-software adoption in NASCAR: Hendrick Gets Up to Speed.
?We try to make every engine on our weekly build cycle the same to reducevariability, so that each engine performs the same,? says Jim Wall, Hendrickengineering director. ”
In 2007, Hendrick star Johnson and his team depended onSiemens? Teamcenter PLM to help drive the mechanical dependability needed tofinish nearly every race and rack up the most points of any driver to win hissecond consecutive Nextel Cup Championship.
In the first weeks of Earnhardt Jr.?s transition toHendrick, he spent much of his time getting used to his new team and testinghis new car at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Certainly if his No. 88 Mountain Dew AMP/NationalGuard Chevrolet at Las Vegas Motor Speedway lives up to the reliability anddurability standards set by Hendrick and enabled by its Siemens PLM (formerlyUGS) system, Earnhardt Jr. has a successful racing season ahead.
Being able to rely on a car?s performance being exactly thesame week in and week out is critical to any race car driver?s success, andpossibly more so to Earnhardt Jr., whose car suffered from mechanical faultsthat kept him out of contention in several races last season.
?There is a levelof technical frustration that some of the other teams were going through, withengine failures and other problems,? says Jim Osborne, director of industrymarketing for the
With NASCAR?s shift to the Car of Tomorrow starting lastyear and continuing this season, Hendrick got a jump on the other teams byfully embracing the new automotive platform and using its PLM system to do so.The racing organization had the new car?s engine and chassis nailed from theopening gun. Hendrick cars blasted off the starting line, winning the firstfive Car of Tomorrow events, and eight of the first 15, while other teamsstruggled to get with the new program.
The PLM system was key to Hendrick getting of the line sofast with the Car of Tomorrow shift. Hendrick staff entered all its data oneach car, engine, component, and part into the new system.
?Being able to takethe information as it came in and put it into the system from the start was abig benefit to us,? says Wall.
By contrast, a lot of data based on the earlierautomotive platform had to be imported into the PLM from various other sourceson the Hendrick campus. ?It was nice to only have to file information one timeand have it in the database ready to be shared and leveraged by the mechanicsand the race teams,?
Hendrick?s engineering department uses the PLM system totrack the entire bill of materials?essentially all parts and components?sued inits three families of engines used for race, test, and mock-up. What?s more,the new Car of Tomorrow engine, the R07, became the new power plant for allteams using Chevrolet engines. IT replaced the old standard SB2, thesmall-block Chevrolet motor that NASCAR has used since the mid-1950s.
PLM software is particularly useful for manufacturerslaunching a new product, such as a new engine and chassis for an automobile.For instance, the electric car startup Tesla Motors is using Dassault Systemes?CATIA PLM Express system for product development. Manufacturers use PLM forproduct design, engineering changes, bill of materials management, and overalltracking of product from conception to recycling.
A key benefit of the PLM for Hendrick was the ability toguarantee its drivers that every engine its mechanics rebuilt each week wasalmost identical in output. Says Wall, ?We have about a 1 percent performancevariation, and our goal, which I think we are getting pretty close to, is toget it down to half a percent variation, which is about plus or minus 4horsepower.?
That sounds like the kind of performance Dale Jr. candepend on.
