CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
23 March 2011
Implementation Investments
More Businesses Run on SolidWorks and Enterprise PDM
Focus on time-to-market, profitability, and quality improvement is pressuring product design teams to work more collaboratively around the world. That’s why SolidWorks® software customers consistently choose SolidWorks Enterprise PDM software to manage the vast amount of electronic data typical of their engineering projects.
“Product development is not a solo enterprise,” said Markus Neff, vice president supply chain management of SWAROVSKI OPTIK, which recently purchased SolidWorks Enterprise PDM. “We need to coordinate design activities among internal staff, global partners, and vendors. We need to drive product standardization and reuse of approved designs whenever possible. And even as we share our data, we need to keep it secure. We’re already seeing quicker time to market, higher productivity, and improved quality with SolidWorks Enterprise PDM.”
Based in Absam, Tirol, Austria, SWAROVSKI OPTIK is a maker of high-performance binoculars, telescopes, rifle scopes, camera adapters, tripods, and more. The company says it helps customers “see the unseen.”
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM is a design and engineering collaboration solution consisting of a central, indexed repository of design data plus tools for secure information sharing. Many prominent organizations have invested in SolidWorks Enterprise PDM to support:
Cost-efficient reuse of designs through powerful search across hundreds of file types, including major CAD, Microsoft, and image formats;
Oceaneering International, Inc.’s Deepwater Technical Solutions division has cut time to market by 50 percent through greater design reuse, tighter revision control, automated workflows, and dramatically improved design search capabilities.
Automation and customization of processes, workflows, and electronic bills of material (BOMs);
Tigercat Industries has significantly increased productivity by providing personnel in departments such as manufacturing planning, assembly, purchasing, sales, and technical publications with access to its product data vault, which integrates data with facilities in Canada and Sweden.
Larger-scale productivity for large design projects;
F.L. Smidth & Co. A/S, a leading builder of cement plants and equipment, installed 400 seats of SolidWorks EPDM software to support its SolidWorks users worldwide. It experienced a reduction in its equipment engineering effort of as much as 30 percent.
Improved collaboration with global offices through fast, secure remote access for external partners;
Inertia Engineering + Design Inc. implemented a Web-enabled version of SolidWorks Enterprise PDM software to unite six entities working on a zero-emissions courier truck, helping reduce delivery time by 30 to 40 percent.
Compliance controls through automatic workflow and audit trail and integration with popular reporting tools;
Taylor-Deal Aviation (TDA), LLC, has streamlined design approvals by using automatically generated emails and electronic signatures that link approvals directly to the actual population of title blocks in design drawings. Approved signatures are added to title blocks and updated at each revision.
Rapid deployment, in less than five days, with Quick Start program.
TDA had SolidWorks Enterprise PDM software installed and connected to its Microsoft® SQL Server® platform in a couple of hours, significantly faster than other systems company personnel had experienced. Ease of implementation and administration are critically important to the success of a small, growing company. TDA cites the software’s unique Windows® Explorer interface as pivotal to reducing training demands and driving user acceptance.
For more information, see these product data management white papers.
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