In today’s marketplace, it’s not enough to create an innovative product; companies must have innovative processes and methods. You have to adapt to changing market expectations and customer demands while also taking advantage of new manufacturing technology.
Adaptive systems are required to survive and grow.
CAD, CAE, CAM and ERP systems require routine upgrades, yet the communication between these systems—and between the operators of these systems—remains manual and archaic.
Data is continually managed in spreadsheets and shared on paper or servers. Some critical information never gets documented—such as the engrained knowledge of experienced team members, or the discovery of a new process.
This slows down every stage of the process, from product review to shuttling components to engineers in other disciplines. Not to mention when someone fails to document critical information and processes, which in turn complicates the creation of new and similar products. And in manufacturing, time-to-delivery can be as critical as an innovative product.
This is where the importance of a product management platform (like Teamcenter) comes into play. Integrating systems saves time, creates a seamless thread between stages of the design and manufacturing process, and eliminates some of the potential for lost processes and costly redesigns.
Gone are the days of redesign, rework and redundancy of effort. With a centralized source of data, products take less time to develop and prototype, and you know you’re working on the latest part version! This allows business to stay ahead of competitors. Speaking of…
You’re to the point where redesign and rework is no longer something that occurs with every project because teams are working together and sharing information. What does that mean? You can begin working with your team to innovate new products and new features. Now you can meet the ever-changing needs of your consumer.
An improved system at the product concept stage can supply all engineers, designers, and relevant personnel with a strong vision for how a product will be built. This can help avoid any potential pitfalls at a later stage. With each production cycle, users have more and more data as a starting point for future products.
Take, for example, the benefits of a machine shop implementing an end-to-end integrated system. Owners hate waste and machine downtime. But too many machine shops use time-wasting workarounds to solve problems. These owners face the same problem as those companies that require routine system upgrades—each step in their process is optimized, but the hand-off between processes isn’t efficient.
Because a product data management platform captures and stores data between stages of development and production, every piece of design information is available at all times, for every member of the process. Eliminating the need for data flow between individual job functions and shop floor equipment also means an increase in accuracy and efficiency.
Now, say a customer calls the machine shop requesting a design change. With all data stored and integrated, changes can be entered easily and then seamlessly propagated throughout the entire process. This saves time and money.
But solving problems is just the beginning. With an integrated product-lifecycle management platform, machine shop owners—or any business owner—can improve performance and grow business.
