Automotive Parts Manufacturer Makes It All Better with Nutanix 

INDUSTRY

Manufacturing

BENEFITS

• More efficient and reliable engineering processes through elimination of data timeouts
• Enhanced agility to meet just-in-time manufacturing targets due to on-demand scalability
• Reduced management overheads thanks to significant reduction in infrastructure complexity and no need for specialist IT skills
  
• Fast cloning for testing upgrades and patches with the bulk of required patching handled automatically
  
• Greater access to CAD design tools through virtual workstations and shared GPU accelerators
  

SOLUTION

• Nutanix Cloud Platform
• Prism management plane
• Nutanix AHV hypervisor
• Shared GPU processors for high performance virtual CAD/CAM workstations

Applications

• Computer-aided Design and Engineering tools
• Project Lifecycle Management (PLM)
• Computer-aided Quality Assurance (CAQ)
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ER)
• SQL databases
• Virtual CAD/CAM workstations

Needing to eliminate database latency issues impacting the just-in-time delivery capabilities of its automotive parts division, Unipart Powertrain Applications chose the Nutanix Cloud Platform and AHV hypervisor. A combination able to provide, not only the necessary performance uplift but, at the same time, reducing complexity, simplifying management and making the business as whole more agile and flexible.

CHALLENGES

Coventry-based Unipart Powertrain Applications (UPA) is part of the wider Unipart Manufacturing Group (UMG), a leading supplier of components to the global automotive industry. A position achieved by employing the latest computer-aided design and manufacturing technologies backed by the UK’s brightest and best trained engineers. Resources shared with Hyperbat a JV supplier to the burgeoning automotive battery market and other UMG divisions.

With just four hours of finished stock held on-site and delivered on a Just In Time basis, even minor service interruptions can have huge knock-on effects across the entire Unipart supply chain. Database latency, in particular, was becoming a big issue, something which Gerrard Pierce, IT Manager of the Unipart Manufacturing Group had initially addressed by upgrading the network linking production lines to supporting control systems.

By itself, however, a faster network, was not enough, so his attention turned next to the group’s end of life IT infrastructure. This not only came up short in terms of performance, but was proving increasingly difficult to manage and scale in order to keep pace with manufacturing demands.

“Some companies would turn to the cloud to fix problems like ours, but the need to minimise latency and minimise points of failure means that our IT absolutely has to be on-premise,” explains Pierce. “That said, simply upgrading like for like would have provided only a partial solution as, with a small support team facing an ever growing backlog of tasks, we needed a solution that was also less complex and easier to manage. A solution that wouldn’t require specialist expertise to run and which would be easy to scale to cope with both long term growth and short term fluctuations in demand.”

SOLUTION

Enhanced availability was another key requirement, with the need for faster backup and recovery adding further to the shopping list. Expert help was clearly needed, for which Pierce and the Unipart team turned to independent infrastructure specialist and Nutanix partner Softcat which recommended migration to a Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI).

“It sounded like exactly what we needed,” said Pierce, “but we didn’t have a huge budget and at first we thought that a market leader like Nutanix would be too expensive, so started looking at alternatives. On closer inspection, however, that proved far from the case. Especially if we were to switch from VMware to the Nutanix AHV hypervisor which would not only save on licensing costs but make it possible for any member of the team to provision, clone and manage VMs as well as manage the infrastructure itself from one interface.”

Pierce also needed to convince stakeholders within the wider Unipart business. A task which became a lot easier on discovering that joint venture partner, Williams Advanced Engineering (then a sister company to the Williams F1 team), was a long time customer and enthusiastic Nutanix advocate.

With backing like that it wasn’t long before a Nutanix Cloud was up and running in the UMG datacentre. Two clusters were installed, the first to support day to day production workloads followed later by a second for data replication, load balancing and disaster recovery along with backup to NAS and long term archiving offsite for belt and braces protection.

CAD/CAM for the masses

Beyond support for core manufacturing, ERP and database workloads, the ability to install graphics accelerator (GPU) cards in the Nutanix cluster and share them using the AHV hypervisor was seen as another major plus compared to other HCI platforms.

“We had three specialist CAD workstations that needed upgrading, commented Pierce, “but that would have been a costly exercise for the benefit of just thee users. By installing GPUs in the Nutanix cluster instead we have been able to configure multiple virtual CAD desktops hosted by AHV, thereby spreading the cost across twelve users, most of whom wouldn’t have been funded for a workstation of their own.”     

CUSTOMER OUTCOMES

With AHV handling virtualisation some 80+ VMs needed to be migrated, a process made straightforward using Nutanix Move, the IT team completing the project on schedule and with no major issues or downtime. Moreover, according to Pierce, performance has been noticeably improved across the board while the database latency issues have disappeared entirely with measurable effects in terms of productivity.

“The improvements maybe small in real terms, perhaps a few milliseconds or so for each database access. But with multiple lookups for each of a dozen processes and thousands of parts produced a day they soon add up to make a real difference.”

There have been big gains too when it comes to backup. Previously backups only just completed in 24 hours whereas now a full backup takes only 90 minutes as do subsequent archiving jobs for offsite storage.

Management made simple

Whilst hugely pleased with these performance gains, and the ability to support more CAD users, Pierce is keen also to emphasis the impact of the Nutanix infrastructure when it comes to management and support.

“Nutanix, and AHV in particular, have taken away most of the complexity when it comes to managing both physical and virtual resources. In effect we’re all multi-skilled experts now and can even delegate tasks, such as creating and cloning VMs to end users. Upgrades and patches are much easier to handle too and as a business all this makes us much more agile, better able to react to market change and cope quickly with any operational issues that might arise.”

NEXT STEPS

In the short term, Pierce and his team are concentrating on ramping up manufacturing workloads as the business looks to recover post-COVID. Emphasis, too, is being put on automating day to day management tasks and supporting teams responsible for product development.

Looking beyond that recovery, the group’s Nutanix investment is expected to play a significant role in enabling rapid diversification away from automotive engineering into other areas. Such as battery manufacture and other low-carbon technologies requiring flexible production facilities backed up by an agile and easy to manage IT infrastructure, like that provided by the Nutanix Cloud and AHV hypervisor.

PARTNER

Softcat

Established in 1993 and based in Marlow, Softcat is a leading independent IT specialist and Nutanix partner with staff and offices across the UK and Ireland. The company is particularly proud of its award-winning customer service, with over 12,300 customers to date and an impressive 97% satisfaction rating.