CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
18 March 2013
Events News
CONTACT Announces a New SOA-based PLM/ERP Integration
At the industry fair HANNOVER MESSE (HMI), CONTACT Software will present a generic interface for the reliable coupling of ERP systems and other enterprise applications with its CIM DATABASE 10 PLM platform.
The solution's service-oriented architecture (SOA) permits the cross-system synchronization of product data and business processes. CONTACT developed the new interface as a consortium partner in WInD, a joint project conducted under the leadership of the Institute for Industrial Management (Forschungsinstitut für Rationalisierung (FIR)) at RWTH Aachen University. The new interface will be presented live to the public for the first time within the framework of an integrated production scenario at the HMI stand of PSI AG (hall 7, A18).
WInD's concluding presentation will show visitors to the trade fair how to design production planning and controlling activities in the mechanical engineering and plant construction fields in a way that is adaptable to change. Such an approach demands new standards that simplify enterprise processes and connect different IT systems both internally and at cross-enterprise level. To achieve this, CONTACT, working in collaboration with the ERP vendor Psipenta, has set itself the task of developing a universal PDM/ERP standard interface.
The new SOA interface not only groups together the functional scope of conventional ERP couplings in a uniform, easy-to-extend and re-usable standard. It also offers enhanced functionality, for example for the exchange of variant-related and project information between the PLM and ERP system, as well as improved support during the synchronization of core processes such as engineering change management. The technology used to integrate applications and processes via SOA-based web services forms part of the new component architecture of CIM DATABASE 10.
CONTACT has identified a growing market demand for process-oriented solutions mediating between PLM and ERP as well as with other enterprise applications. "When enterprises are able to control their order processing flexibly on the basis of quality-assured real-time information then it becomes possible, for example, to route large numbers of small-run orders through production very quickly," says Dr. Roland Drewinski, a member of the management board. "Our open solutions permit this type of demanding, end-to-end communication scenario in heterogeneous IT landscapes."
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