“More and more of our customers have been implementing and adapting our Centro product to address collaboration and integration needs in program management,” said David Opsahl, CEO of Actify. “We realized they need a purpose-built suite of applications covering the entire program lifecycle from pre-award, to launch, and throughout the lifetime of their programs.”
Automotive OEMs operate programs to manage their supply chains. Their Tier 1 suppliers submit competitive quotes in response to RFQs, and if they win the award, they design and produce the necessary parts to satisfy the initial and often changing needs of their OEM partners. The OEMs demand adherence to their supplier instructions, which vary in terminology and conform to regional communication and quality standards around the globe. More than 5,000 Tier 1 plants supply their OEM partners in North America alone.
The supplier community is under ever-increasing pressure to speed their responses, produce more advanced parts, and reduce cost, while delivering near-perfect quality. Despite investment in line-of-business applications like CAD, ERP and PLM, suppliers lack purpose-built software to satisfy the cross-functional project management, collaboration, and data access needs of their program managers.
“Our 80-strong program management team members are the conductors who orchestrate programs across our eight plants and virtually every department,” said Greg Vreeland, Director of Manufacturing Engineering at Midway Products. “Whether it’s pulling together our bid on time, or ensuring on-time delivery to our customers, our team needs immediate visibility of project tasks and gates, as well as seamless access to part design and engineering information, without logging into multiple software systems and without resorting to email and spreadsheets.”
The Actify APM Suite, to be released in phases starting Q1 2021, will provide applications addressing Program Development, Program Management and Program Analysis, as well as Actify Centro at its foundation. Actify APM Suite will be available first in North America, with global roll-out to follow. More details will be available at time of release.
