In 1994, BASF Polyurethanes put their faith in a relatively unknown software company: The start of a shared success story. CONTACT´s CIM DATABASE, originally used for CAD data management, is now established globally as corporate-wide PLM solution. And it is all based on the same technology platform that first went live 20 years ago.
BASF Polyurethanes GmbH and CONTACT Software look back at a special landmark in their longstanding business relationship: It was on 1 April 1994 that CIM DATABASE was first installed for CAD data management at the leading manufacturer of raw materials, systems and special elastomers made from polyurethane. Over the years that followed, the BASF subsidiary expanded the system so that it has now become a comprehensive, global platform for product lifecycle management (PLM).
Today, CIM DATABASE controls the management of data, processes and projects in many of the company's core operations. For almost 600 users in development, tool design, quality assurance, production preparation, production, sales, marketing, costing, coordination, procurement and, not least of all, IT engineering, CIM DATABASE has become a routine tool for the everyday work of staff across the company, and that pretty well round the clock in Brazil, China, Germany, Japan and the USA. At these various locations, BASF Polyurethanes develops and manufactures semi-finished products and ready-to-fit components that are perfectly matched to customer and product.
Peter M. Sorgatz, Head of Special Engineering Services at BASF Polyurethanes, sums up his experience of using CIM DATABASE over 20 years: "No serious downtime, no dramatic loss of data; just compatibility, consistency and protection of our investment as a result of systematic innovations in technology and applications." The conclusions drawn by the manager, who has been at the forefront of setting up the PLM platform from the very start, underscore the characteristics needed by future-proof corporate software: Open standard software which is constantly being developed over the long term and which opens the way for highly scalable, flexible and interoperable applications in the realm of distributed product development.
