Our Senior Industry Analyst Arvind Krishnan recently attended Dassault Systemes Analyst Days. Here’s his key insights from the event. 

How can Dassault Systèmes Virtual Twin help the transportation and mobility sector become more sustainable?

At the Dassault Systemes Analyst Days, Philippine de T’Serclaes, Chief Sustainability Officer, discussed several use cases where the virtual twin could make a positive sustainability impact on our economy. One of these use cases is in the transportation and mobility sector.

What did we hear? 

The transportation sector is responsible for more than a quarter of the CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the rate of emissions growth is the highest among all sectors of the economy. The industry has responded by multiplying the development and production of electric vehicles(EVs). Philippine stressed the virtual twin’s importance in helping companies bring the next generation of transportation and mobility solutions to the market.

What’s my Take?

Getting good technology products to market quickly is the key for EV players. But EVs must still pass quality, safety, and crashworthiness tests. Not to mention, they must be affordable too. Virtual twins can help. Using simulation, companies can accurately predict several performance parameters without needing expensive physical testing. They can also study the thermal performance of battery packs. Finally, engineers can reduce the weight (light-weighting) and cost of critical components used in manufacturing by using optimization and generative design techniques. These opportunities allow engineers to improve the designs early in the development cycle. The result is saving money by reducing the costs associated with prototyping and testing and quickening the time to market by avoiding many repetitions of physical tests. 

The virtual twin has an integrated modeling and simulation experience as a crucial enabler for EV manufacturers to introduce high-quality, safe, sustainable products. That’s not all. Virtual twins have a significant role in manufacturing these vehicles.

How can digital solutions from Dassault Systèmes BIOVIA aid in building better battery technologies?

BIOVIA is not all about biomolecules, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare. Disclaimer – I thought so before I met Reza Sadeghi, Managing Director, at the Dassault Systemes Analyst Days.

BIOVIA’s solutions also help material scientists develop new battery materials. The modeling and simulation tools help scientists and engineers to simulate the behavior and properties of battery materials at the molecular and atomic levels. Using simulation, scientists can identify promising materials with desired characteristics, predict their performance, and optimize their properties before embarking on actual prototyping and experiments, thus saving time and resources. They can identify potential candidates that exhibit high energy density, improved stability, enhanced conductivity, and other desired attributes. The story doesn’t end here. 

Process engineers can simulate and optimize the manufacturing processes of producing battery materials at a larger scale. This virtual simulation helps engineers understand the impact of various process parameters on the final material properties, identify bottlenecks, and optimize production methods for cost-effective synthesis.

Battery manufacturers and countries setting up the next-generation EV ecosystem want to produce better batteries that give superior performance, can be easily recycled/reused, and employ more abundantly available materials (like Sodium, etc.) Li-ion batteries, today’s workhorse, are not the most sustainable option from an ecology and geopolitical perspective.

What’s my take?

Dassault Systemes has the technologies to support the entire battery value chain with its virtual twin solution. BIOVIA’s solution helps in cell chemistry and material selection. CATIA allows engineers to design battery packs, and SIMULIA helps them virtually test the battery pack designs for safety, thermal performance, impact analysis, etc. DELMIA enables companies to build the virtual twin of their Giga factories. ENOVIA helps the diverse battery development team to collaboratively innovate, design, and produce the next generation of batteries using a digital thread. With this impressive portfolio of connected solutions (using the 3dexperience platform), Dassault Systemes will play a significant role in battery development.

Where can we see future growth for Dassault Systèmes? 

Florence Verzelen, Executive Vice President Industry, Marketing & Sustainability, talked about the future industries where the growth prospects for Dassault Systemes look high. She termed it as technologies for a sustainable future. There are three main sectors:

• Manufacturing 
• Life Sciences/healthcare
• Infrastructure/Cities

With digital solutions to manage various stages ranging from drug development, clinical trial management, drug production, and bio-medical design/simulation, Dassault Systemes’ virtual twin strategy for this sector will propel them to become a market leader. The life sciences/healthcare industry is already the largest revenue generator for the company.

In the Infrastructure/Cities sector, Dassault Systemes is a challenger. Dassault’s leaders see much potential for growth with their virtual twin technology extended to cities. This highly competitive industry has strong incumbents, and I am very interested in how the company performs. But they have the right cloud technology and passionate leaders to disrupt this sector.

I am jumping to manufacturing as that is the sector I follow keenly. Florence mentioned that there would be exciting developments in quantum computing, new space, and green battery, which will revolutionize the manufacturing sector.They truly have the vision and the technology to be a leading digital solutions provider in this space.

Let us take quantum computing. Today’s computing technology has its limits regarding real-time solving of complex manufacturing problems – optimization of supply chain networks, production processes, new material discovery, and so on. Many futurists believe quantum computing could solve these problems and impact sustainable manufacturing positively (and exponentially).

The newspace industry is fascinating, and Dassault Systemes has all the technology to dominate this space. Its 3DEXPERIENCE platform is an excellent choice for upcoming companies to bring their ideas to market quickly. Successful companies must innovate quickly and get things right the very first time. Robust modeling, simulation, data, and manufacturing solutions are the key, and Dassault Systemes has them all.

Technology companies like Dassault Systèmes must do more than deliver what customers need today. They must look deep into the future and deploy resources today to tackle the problems and opportunities of tomorrow. Otherwise, they will be added to the ever-growing list of companies that have been disrupted out of existence. It is refreshing to see the leadership of Dassault Systemes take this seriously.