Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

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Systemwalker supports stable operation of new "LINKS" system constructed to reform manufacturing.

Feature Story of Middleware Products for the Broadband Internet Age

The effective use of advanced IT is a providing lifeline to manufacturing industries involved in an international race for survival. At the very least it is necessary to provide an ultramodern IT environment that involves the global procurement of raw materials and concurrent engineering, which shortens the development period by sharing information from the design stages. To accomplish this, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. constructed a new data management system, dubbed "LINKS" an acronym of "Latest Information NetworK System". Because it affects the very core of manufacturing, an advanced level of reliability and stability is demanded of LINKS. Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. therefore installed Fujitsu's operation management tool "Systemwalker", and has been achieving stable system operations ever since.

"For Nissan, which stands at the front line of a global corporate competition, improving information flow is an essential factor in the reduction of development times and product costs, which is necessary for success. Nissan constructed the LINKS system to meet these needs," relates Mr. Takashi Kawakami, Section Chief of the EMS (see note below) Development Group in the Technical Center's Technology Systems Department.

Digital engineering using 3D CAD software and analytical and PDM (see note below) tools, etc., is becoming indispensable in the automobile and aviation industries. The use of digital data in various stages of the design and manufacturing processes creates a consistent and coherent structure, improves manufacturing efficiency and shortens development times, which contributes greatly to enhancing corporate competitiveness.

Digital-based manufacturing still has a number of issues that need resolving, however. One of the most important of these is how to manage and share data. If required data cannot be retrieved immediately, the effectiveness of digitizing the design process is halved.

This is why Nissan decided to convert the existing host-based system to an open system when constructing LINKS. LINKS refers to a state-of-the-art information system environment utilizing IT. When the need for cross-platform data utilization and support for global expansion were taken into account, the transition from a host-based system to an open system became inevitable.

Fujitsu's "S Series" (UNIX servers like PRIMEPOWER) was adopted as the UNIX servers forming the nucleus of the system. This established a foundation that could support worldwide expansion. Fujitsu were involved in the development of the LINKS system as well. Joint design and construction work by the two corporations resulted in LINKS beginning full-time operations in December 1998.

Note:
EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Service)
PDM (Product Data Management)

A number of design advantages accrued from the transition to an open system, but new problems were also encountered. Mr. Ryuta Shimomatsu, EMS Development Group Engineer in the Technology Systems Department explains: "The key point in operating an open system efficiently is server management. At present LINKS consists of several dozen servers, and some of these are in remote locations. Efficient operation would be impossible if we were to manage all of them by human effort alone."

Because the LINKS system lies at the heart of operations, system failure cannot be permitted. To ensure the stable operation of LINKS, Nissan installed Fujitsu's "Systemwalker CentricMGR" operation management tool.

Among the many functions of Systemwalker CentricMGR, Nissan relies most heavily on the performance monitoring and resource monitoring capabilities to monitor the LINKS servers. If any indication of an abnormality is discovered, the operator is notified immediately and the abnormality can be corrected before problems occur. Referring to the benefits from installing Systemwalker CentricMGR, Mr. Kawakami offers high praise. "Without fail Systemwalker CentricMGR notifies us of errors that would normally be overlooked. Moreover, because the system can be managed from a single location, sound operation management can be performed with just a few staff." Mr. Kawakami reports that system failure was actually prevented by the early detection of a disk device error.

Mr. Shimomatsu is also enthusiastic about Systemwalker CentricMGR. "The fact that it uses a GUI (graphical user interface) is a big advantage because it makes it easy for support staff to use. The staff perform other tasks such as CAD and PDM support, so ease of use is an important factor."

Mr. Kawakami went on to mention that Systemwalker CentricMGR was not installed until six months after LINKS because priority was given to getting LINKS up and running, and that during those six months a number of operational difficulties were experienced which highlight the need to have Systemwalker CentricMGR installed.

The functions of Systemwalker CentricMGR are being used extensively in the future development of LINKS. "It is very difficult to evaluate the performance of a system that is actually running. Data is normally sampled during test periods, but this does not reveal the true picture. By using Systemwalker CentricMGR, it has become possible to accurately gauge the system performance while running jobs," explains Mr. Shimomatsu.

Resource status information regularly saved as data can be used as a guide when expanding the system. Moreover, it only takes one day to prepare the necessary data. According to Mr. Shimomatsu, the same type of task took about ten days under the previous system. In addition to simply monitoring the current status of the system, Systemwalker CentricMGR is also helping to collect information used to determine future developments.

The future use of Systemwalker is also being examined. "With several dozen servers, installing applications is a major task. We are therefore thinking of using Systemwalker's program distribution function," elaborated Mr. Kawakami.

At present LINKS mainly handles solid model data used in design, but in future management of all types of data including documents and diagrams will be integrated. In addition to design applications, it will become possible to use LINKS data for tasks such as creating catalogs and maintenance manuals.

"Engineering efficiency is important, of course," says Mr. Kawakami, "but that alone is far from enough. IT should be employed to provide customers with worthwhile services. That's the most important thing. Our ambition is to develop LINKS as a foundation that will allow us to do this." Proposals from Fujitsu are eagerly awaited.

Manufacturers are being forced to adjust to a rapidly changing marketplace, and Systemwalker is providing key support for systems at the leading edge.

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User Profile

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
Headquarters: 6-17-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Capital: 496.6 billion yen (as of the end of March 2001)
Number of employees: Approx. 30000 (as of the end of March 2001)
Sales: 2980 billion yen (fiscal year 2000 results)
Business overview: One of Japan's representative automobile manufacturers. While developing cutting-edge automotive technology, it is also committed to safety and environmental protection. In October 1999, collaboration with the French automobile manufacturer Renault formed the axis to its "Nissan Revival Plan". This plan has successfully completed in March 2002, and from April 2002 it implements a new 3-year business plan "Nissan 180" heading toward its continuous growth.
Website: http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/HOME/