Webinar

Is digital thread doomed without open architecture?

The secret sauce of open source — right-sized for now, scalable for the future. A look at Lightyear's product development journey and the enterprise architecture and data culture underpinning it.

As solar-electric vehicle manufacturer Lightyear approaches series production, digital plumber Rob Ferrone compères a session reflecting on Lightyear's product development journey and the enterprise architecture and data culture underpinning it.

Willem van den Corput reflects on Lightyear's product development journey so far, and Bas van Goch on the enterprise architecture and data culture underpinning it. Focusing on the challenge of ensuring systems are both right-sized for now and scalable for the future, Samuel Fletcher explores how the integration of rapidly deployable and comparably inexpensive open-source tools to an off-the-shelf backbone can prove attractive. Both Lightyear's QRonos BTRS integration and the creation and deployment of an MRP tool for a medical device consortium are referenced. Originally broadcast at PI DX Spotlight, May 2021.

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Chapters

0:00Introductions
0:35Lightyear's solar origins and the energy proposition
3:42Engineering for efficiency and the Lightyear One
5:48From start-up to mature automotive company
7:48PLM challenges and the lightweight tool strategy
10:58Plan-for-every-part with QRonos
12:50Samuel on the Gaia platform and BTRS
15:13The case for open source
17:50QR MRP: open source in the real world
18:48Closing: open source as a force of nature
Key takeaways

What this session covers

Lightyear's journey to series production

A reflection on the product development journey of a solar-electric vehicle manufacturer approaching its first series production run.

Right-sized, future-scalable

The architectural challenge of building enterprise systems that are fit for today's programme while scalable for what comes next.

Open-source on an off-the-shelf backbone

How rapidly deployable, inexpensive open-source tools can sit alongside an off-the-shelf enterprise backbone to extend capability without replacing it.

Practical cases referenced

Lightyear's QRonos BTRS integration and the creation and deployment of an MRP tool for a medical device consortium.

Robert Ferrone

Robert Ferrone

Founding Director, Quick Release_ (Compère)

Rob has worked in automotive product development and manufacturing since 2000, supporting Tier 1s and OEMs across Europe. Recognising that effective Product Data Management was an industry-wide problem, he founded Quick Release in 2003. Rather than treating broken digital plumbing as a purely systems topic, Rob approached it in a people-centric way — removing the burden on talent, getting businesses working more productively, and paving the way for digital transformation and Industry 4.0.

Willem van den Corput

Willem van den Corput

Lightyear

Willem reflects on Lightyear's product development journey so far, as the solar-electric vehicle manufacturer approaches series production.

Bas van Goch

Bas van Goch

Lightyear

Bas explores the enterprise architecture and data culture underpinning Lightyear's development programme — and how that architecture has been designed to be right-sized for today while remaining scalable for the future.

Samuel Fletcher

Samuel Fletcher

Formerly of Quick Release_

Sam explores how the integration of rapidly deployable and comparably inexpensive open-source tools to an off-the-shelf backbone can prove attractive — referencing both Lightyear's QRonos BTRS integration and the creation and deployment of an MRP tool for a medical device consortium.

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