CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
26 March 2013
Implementation Investments
Robatech AG Rolls out CIM DATABASE PDM/PLM on Time and in Budget
Switzerland-based Robatech AG, one of the world's leading manufacturers of adhesive application systems, has gone live with CIM DATABASE on schedule and with a wider range of functions than originally planned. The family-owned company from Muri intends to use the PLM/PDM solution from CONTACT Software to allow its foreign subsidiaries and some of its external development partners secure access to product data and to simplify reuse of 3D CAD models in new projects. The group has a global presence with 16 subsidiaries worldwide, and its PLM strategy is aimed at meeting the needs of its customers even more rapidly and efficiently in the future.
Robatech develops a wide range of tailored adhesive application systems for hot melt and cold glue applications. Innovations play a crucial role for the company in the face of global competition. But the speed with which such innovations can flow into customer-specific systems is, of course, of equal importance. The file-based CAD data management had, however, previously made it difficult to reuse the 3D models and to utilize the product structures from the design phase downstream in the ERP system.
Thanks to the excellent preparatory work done by the project team, migration of all the CAD data resources, which encompassed a total of 90,000 Solid Edge models and drawings, 62,000 master item records and 230,000 parts list items, took a mere two weeks. All the assemblies can now be opened with the Workspace Manager without any difficulty. Following a training course by CONTACT on the web services and the development environment for CIM DATABASE, the specialists at Robatech have also created their own XML-based interface. This is a component within a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and permits external access to CIM DATABASE. It is already online in conjunction with the ERP system APplus. In future, it is intended that the interface also be used in Robatech's customer portal to provide PLM data and documents such as operating instructions, product catalogs and spare parts catalogs.
Thomas Hilfiker, who is responsible for the PLM project at Robatech, is extremely pleased with the rollout of CIM DATABASE: "Not only were we on time and in budget, but we have also already been able to deploy some of the functions of Project Office and the portfolio management system that were actually only planned for the second phase of implementation."
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