Dassault Systèmes Joins MPD Q&A&I Podcast

In this insightful episode of the MPD Q&A&I podcast, Sales Executive Juha Burtsoff and Director of Technical Sales and Business Consulting Pekka Lähteinen from Dassault Systèmes explore how model-based thinking and AI are transforming manufacturing, especially product development and lifecycle management.

While manufacturing technologies have advanced rapidly, the Dassault Systèmes team points out that companies often struggle with cultural change and still operate with processes inherited from the past.

“The technology is available, the methodologies are available, and they have been used in some industries already for years, even decades. But companies are not bold enough to make big decisions for real cultural change in their operations,” says Pekka Lähteinen.

Product Development Needs to Evolve Alongside Service Models

A key part of the discussion revolves around the shift from product-centric thinking to service-centric business models. Companies have traditionally designed products without thinking about their entire lifecycle, or how products support after-sales services and sustainable business models.

“Today, products are still often developed only for the product itself, without the features and functions that support service later on. That’s a major challenge,” Lähteinen notes.

Connecting real-world field data back to the virtual models of products remains a bottleneck, limiting predictive maintenance and lifecycle optimization opportunities. Closing this gap is essential to make both product and service businesses more sustainable.

Lessons from the Aerospace Industry

The speakers highlight the aerospace and defense industries as pioneers in model-based system engineering. These industries have invested heavily over the decades in developing performance-based businesses, moving from traditional hardware manufacturing to offering outcome-based services.

“The aerospace and defence industries have been ahead for some time, because succeeding in those fields requires understanding the behaviour of complex, multi-product systems. You have to ensure that the entire system works correctly in real operations, and with so many connected products, you can’t rely on physical testing alone anymore. You need to simulate everything in a virtual environment before releasing it to the field,” explains Lähteinen.

They stress that traditional manufacturing sectors, such as those dominant in Finland, are facing increasing complexity with products combining hardware, software, and services. Managing this complexity demands new capabilities beyond document-based and department-siloed operations.

AI in Product Development: From Hype to Real Transformation

The conversation culminates around the vital role of AI in model-based product development. AI’s power is not simply in analyzing big datasets, but in linking operational data with detailed functional models of products.

“With AI, you might have huge amounts of data and apply algorithms on top of that. But if you don’t understand the context, you won’t get real value from the data, and you won’t deliver the right information to the right places in your organization at the right time. The context is the model, and it doesn’t have to be a detailed 3D model; it can also be a logical or functional model. The important thing is how you connect the data to the right models and then build the right intelligence on top of that,” Burtsoff emphasizes.

Instead of just reactive maintenance based on raw measurements, companies can now simulate different scenarios virtually, predict potential failures, optimize operations, and make precise interventions, saving costs and extending product life.

This new way of working, merging real-time operational data with system models, enables not just better products, but new business models where companies can confidently sell performance or services instead of just hardware.

Yet the speakers caution that many manufacturing companies still hesitate to move beyond small improvements. To truly transform, they must be willing to adopt new methodologies and invest in building model-based capabilities, much like the aerospace sector did decades ago.

Dassault Systèmes invites you to continue the discussion at their side event, "Empowering AI: How Virtual Twins Can Transform the Manufacturing Industry", during Manufacturing Performance Days on June 4th, from 9:30 to 13:00.

About the Podcast

The MPD Q, A & I podcast series, part of the Manufacturing Performance Days, dives deep into the role of AI in creating new digital business models, advancing technologies, and leading sustainable transformation. Through candid conversations with leading professionals at the forefront of AI transformation, the series offers listeners first-hand insights into the future of AI-powered manufacturing.

Listen to the full episode here:

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Q9VtQb9BjJ7CmGzpDrH2m?si=a2c06aa10cf441c9

Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mpd-q-a-i-model-based-approach-by-dassault-syst%C3%A8mes/id1810859680?i=1000705173310