Danfoss Accelerates Digital Transformation with MathWorks and Model-Based Design
Wladimir Schamai, Danfoss
Michael Laursen, Danfoss
Danfoss partnered with MathWorks to invest in and scale Model-Based Design to streamline software development. Hear about the successful outcome of this investment from Danfoss executives Michael Laursen, director of digital products, and Wladimir Schamai, head of digital engineering enablers.
“Our mission is to step up the way we use modeling and simulation for digital engineering—it enables us to develop faster and add value to our customers.”
—Wladimir Schamai, head of digital engineering enablers, Danfoss
This user story discusses:
- How and why Danfoss reduced the need for physical prototypes by maintaining a single codebase for both product deployment and simulation
- How Danfoss worked closely with MathWorks for training and support, adopting a community-based approach to share best practices and to learn from each other
- Why Danfoss executives believe the company holds a competitive advantage and is now better equipped to collaborate and engage with customers
- The managerial and leadership issues Danfoss had to overcome when deploying a new technology into its development process
Published: 21 Feb 2024
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MathWorks has been a great partner to make sure that we get up to speed and are able to deploy model-based design at scale. My name is Wladimir Schamai and I'm the head of digital engineering enablers at Danfoss. Our mission is really to step up in the way we use modeling and simulation, 3D printing, machine learning, all we call digital engineering enablers, to develop faster, to add value to our customers.
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I'm Michael Laursen. I'm heading virtual design test and optimization in Danfoss power electronics and drives. We were investing into a new generation of frequency converters. And there we saw an opportunity to change our way of working. We want to really automate the way we are developing our software. And only having one code base that can be used for our physical product but also for our simulations.
Well the benefits of model-based design are clearly faster development of control software. So we're able, basically, to design test and release software way faster. And another one is we just see more and more potential of expanding the scope of modeling and simulation, and model based design using MathWorks tools.
Modeling and simulation is a key lever for us to develop faster and do it in a sustainable way. It creates new opportunities for new ways of working, new ways of collaborating with our customers.
We see our customers requesting more simulations because our products is getting more and more complex. And if we can provide them with virtual representation, simulation models of our products that they can then use to simulate their applications into it, then we help them also on their digital journey.
Model-based design is part of our bigger initiative. It really puts us into a position where we can contribute and add value to customers even better, using, for example, digital models, and simulation services, and co-development. So I think it is a strategic priority that we have because it gives us a competitive advantage.
Model-based design reduced our time to market. But it also increased our risk mitigation. The future is very much about system simulation, and democratization of simulation, and sharing simulation models to customers. That's areas that is very, very important.
Well a big challenge of transforming an organization, introducing a new ways of working, was not really the technology piece of it. It was about people and how to engage with people, how to enable sharing of best practice, how to enable inspiring and learning from each other as we go. So it was more about transforming and change management, and less about the technology that was mature and ready to be used.
It's really important to start with a pilot project to integrate the technology into the company, and then showing the benefits, and then build from there. And there you really can use MathWorks with their support and their training.
We established a company-wide community to help facilitate sharing best practice, and inspiring and learning from each other. And then we entered a closer collaboration with MathWorks to be able to onboard more users and to benefit from more tools from the MathWorks portfolio. Over the last few years the hundreds of our engineers participated to either self-paced or classroom trainings that MathWorks offered.
So it's a partnership rather than a supplier relationship that we are really after. One way of tackling bigger problems is to join forces. And I think that applies to the way we work with customers. And that applies to the way we work with partners like MathWorks.
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