Altair > Case Studies > PBS Professional at TRW Automotive: A Standard Solution for European Design Centers

PBS Professional at TRW Automotive: A Standard Solution for European Design Centers

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Sensors - Temperature Sensors

Applicable Industries

Automotive
Electrical Grids

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Construction Management
Vehicle-to-Infrastructure

Services

Hardware Design & Engineering Services
System Integration

About The Customer

TRW Automotive is a global technology company that specializes in automotive safety systems. The company's products, which include brakes, airbags, seat belts, and steering systems, are used by almost every car and truck maker worldwide. In Europe, TRW Automotive's safety systems are designed at several engineering centers. The company's Chassis group, which was the focus of this case study, is one of these engineering centers. The group was looking to increase compute power and improve workflow, and turned to GNS Systems for a solution.

The Challenge

TRW Automotive, a global technology company and a Tier One automotive industry supplier, was facing a challenge in its European engineering centers. The company's Chassis group, responsible for designing safety systems, was operating exclusively on desktop workstations and was seeking to increase compute power and streamline workflow. The group was also keen on not committing its limited internal IT resources to the development of a new CAE computing infrastructure. The challenge was to find a solution that could provide more compute power, improve workflow, and be implemented without straining the company's IT resources.

The Solution

The Chassis group turned to GNS Systems, a systems integrator recommended by Altair Engineering, to develop a standard CAE solution for the four engineering sites. GNS Systems was tasked with providing the complete solution, including design, purchasing, installation, implementation, and ongoing post-installation support. The group considered three workload management systems for potential use on its new HPC clusters: LSF, Sun GridEngine, and PBS Professional. By the end of 2005, GNS Systems had installed Linux-based, Intel-driven PC clusters within several engineering sites and configured PBS Professional on all systems. The same technology is set to be installed in one Eastern European Site. This standardization is expected to save TRW administration costs and simplify purchases, changes, upgrades, and collaboration between engineering sites.

Operational Impact

The implementation of PBS Professional has brought about significant operational improvements for TRW Automotive. The leap in processing power from a desktop workstation to an HPC cluster has resulted in a huge improvement in CAE turnaround time. The engineers now simply go to a web interface, bring up their inputs, select the code they want, and click to submit the job to PBS Professional. This has decoupled them from all the old administration stuff, the shell script work in UNIX, and additional file handling, making the process much more efficient. The success of PBS Professional in the Chassis group’s new CAE infrastructure has also attracted the attention of other groups within TRW Automotive, leading to potential wider adoption of the solution.

Quantitative Benefit

Increased processing power from a desktop workstation to an HPC cluster, resulting in improved CAE turnaround time.
Standardization across several engineering sites, leading to savings in administration costs.
Simplified processes for purchases, changes, and upgrades.