ESI receives recognition from Qualis Corporation
Following his keynote address at ESI Global Forum 2010, Roger Herdy, Program Manager for Qualis Corporation supporting the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, presented a commemorative plaque of the International Space Station to Alain de Rouvray, ESI Group’s Chairman and CEO, recognizing the importance of ESI software to the success of the Space Station Program. Making the presentation, Roger Herdy commented that the Space Station would be visible that night as it passed directly over Munich, the site of the Forum.
Alain de Rouvray (on the left) and Roger Herdy (on the right)
Qualis develops systems specifically designed to control the working environment biosphere for spacecraft and astronauts. This capability includes life support for operations requiring man-in-the-loop test and evaluation of pre-flight and flight hardware. For instance, Qualis supports the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) science and chemistry laboratory that provides data at the MSFC Environmental Control Life Support Systems (ECLSS) Test Facility and supports also a key component of the ECLSS program for the International Space Station (ISS); the water processor that provides clean water to astronauts by reusing all available moisture.
Qualis was motivated to present recognition due to their appreciation of the ESI simulation tools used in developing the space stations and in recognition of the broad coverage of important physics in ESI’s software arsenal.
In fact, the complexity and diversity of NASA’s advanced technologies revealed the need not only to get individual simulation answers right, but also to efficiently execute NASA best practices across distributed teams. Documentation and right data were difficult to find even within the content management system and knowing the projects’ status was always a challenge for management.
What was evidently needed was to tie together CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) tools from several vendors such as ESI, NASA’s in-house CAE platforms and content management systems, and the many other tools and utilities in use (asset management, requirement management, etc…). Qualis Corporation found the answer while attending a Vdot™ seminar in Huntsville, USA.
Vdot™, ESI’s Integrated Platform for Project Planning, Execution and Management, follows Lean Six Sigma principles and offers an intuitive user interface turning static, paper-based processes into active, electronic processes that can be deployed, executed, managed, verified and continuously improved across the enterprise. Process complexity is automatically handled by the web portal which prioritizes team members’ work, bringing real-time visibility to management.
“Vdot™ was invaluable in managing a development project with a very distributed engineering team, spread across several disciplines and tools,” declared Roger Herdy, Program Manager for Qualis Corporation, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. “We have indeed been able to quickly define a great variety of processes at NASA, which now is evaluating Vdot™ as the tool for the future.”
“I am honoured and would like to thank you, Qualis Corporation, for attributing to ESI this valuable recognition for the successful contribution of Vdot™ in your advanced NASA projects,” said Alain de Rouvray, ESI Group’s Chairman and CEO. “It clearly demonstrates how a world leading organization can achieve a quantum leap in productivity from better compliance to best practices in flexible workflow and process management. I am impressed and convinced by how you proved the efficiency of Vdot™ in innovative and challenging projects to support the discovery and honing of the acceptable to best practice. Vdot™ is the right tool to use to foster innovative projects in any industrial sectors, not only in aerospace. ESI’s own use of Vdot™ is growing substantially to support its Virtual Prototyping solutions, most especially for R&D and Engineering Services projects.”
For more information, please visit: http://www.esi-group.com/products/simulation-systems-integration/vdot
Qualis Corporation is a high technology business in the areas of engineering analysis, design, testing, and support services to both commercial and Government customers. Qualis is a woman-owned small business headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama near Redstone Arsenal and the Marshall Space Flight Center. Qualis’s core competencies are Acquisition and Program Management, Test and Evaluation, Logistics and Test and Evaluation. The company has employees in 16 states. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center has named Qualis as the recipient of their Contractor Excellence Award for Small Business Services for 2009, and was recently named the 2nd of the “Top Small Businesses in Alabama” and 153rd of the “Top Women-Owned Businesses in the United States. For further information, visit www.qualis-corp.com.