Australian owned Birdon Group (Birdon), headquartered in Port Macquarie in New South Wales, has selected industry-leading software from the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio to support its ongoing strategy to develop a digital shipyard to service both Australian and international shipbuilding customers. The software will be used for advanced engineering design and project data management across Australia, the United States and other global operations as the company continues to grow.
Birdon will use Siemens’ Teamcenter® software for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), integrated with NX™ software for Computer-Aided Design (CAD) to streamline product design data development by creating a digital thread – a single source of truth, throughout the design process.
Providing solutions to the maritime, defence and resource sectors, Birdon is one of a handful of Australian defence contractors to contract directly to the US Army. In choosing Teamcenter, Birdon joins other leading global shipbuilders using Siemens’ software in the US, UK, Europe and Asia.
Speaking on the announcement, Sarah Yuen, Birdon’s General Manager Maritime says that the software is a key step towards a fully digital shipyard which will enhance Birdon’s approach to integrated working and sharing secure data across the business.
"As Birdon’s portfolio of commercial and defence shipbuilding contracts grow within Australia and the US, leveraging hi-tech design and product lifecycle management methodologies such as those provided by Siemens is critical to providing complete product traceability, oversight and data-trust for high-security industries such as Government and Defence."
"Our ability to integrate our product modelling using digital twins and 3D technologies with robust PLM systems will help to ensure the performance of our products and their ongoing supportability and capability. Simply put, Teamcenter enables Birdon to focus on building a digital shipyard capability by making design information easier to share within a robust configuration management system, standardising the design process. This, in turn, leads to better management of design changes and reduced ongoing costs related to expensive design iterations.”
Sarah Yuen - Birdon's General Manager Maritime
Teamcenter integrates PLM, digital twins, 3D modelling, material and asset management practices from conceptual design, to production and through-life support.
Samantha Murray, Vice President and Managing Director Australia and New Zealand, Siemens Digital Industries Software, said that she is pleased that Siemens’ software will be an important part of Birdon’s digitalisation journey and support their business growth and competitiveness into the future.
“It is great to work with Australian companies such as Birdon, who are revolutionising the global maritime landscape. In the maritime industry, hi-tech software is the key to increasing productivity through sustainable design and manufacturing processes and maintaining agility. We are excited to see our technology being used to help shape not just design and product workflow processes, but also play a key role in Birdon’s journey towards a digital shipyard capability," said Murray.
Both Teamcenter and NX are part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio which brings together and integrates the entire Siemens Digital Industries Software portfolio with technologies, solutions and services that connect to existing Information Technology, Operational Technology and Engineering Technology environments. It covers and integrates mechanical, embedded software, electronics, simulation, manufacturing, operations, app development and IoT.
