Aras, a leading provider of digital thread solutions for product lifecycle management (PLM) and engineering AI, announced that IWT, a global specialist in the design, manufacture and installation of washing systems for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries, is expanding its use of Aras Innovator®. Since its launch in 2018, this long-term collaboration demonstrates how continuously evolving product data management can drive industrial performance.
From CAD-centric PLM to an enterprise-wide product platform
Prior to Aras Innovator, IWT relied on a legacy, CAD-centric PLM system supported by semi-manual processes to synchronize data across engineering, ERP, and manufacturing. Engineering change management lacked formal workflows, part classification was limited, and document management was fragmented. These challenges became more pronounced as IWT expanded rapidly in a highly regulated pharmaceutical market.
To address these issues, IWT initiated a transformation program with the goal of establishing Aras Innovator as the authoritative platform for managing and governing product data, while providing engineers with structured yet flexible processes.
Gradual and controlled implementation
Aras Innovator went live in 2019, with design teams returning to normal operations within two weeks, followed shortly by industrial engineering. Within the first year, 25,000 parts were released with enriched product data, greater flexibility in BOM management, and no additional workload for engineering teams.
Since then, IWT has progressively extended its use of Aras Innovator in line with business priorities:
- 2019: Engineering workflows and ECO management
- 2021: Project data management to support compliance requirements driven by growth in the pharmaceutical sector
- 2022: Spare parts management and maintenance kits for highly customized equipment
- 2025: Quotation management, from customer request to pricing
Next steps currently under evaluation include implementing a digital twin to support post-production equipment monitoring. Aras Variant Management has already been successfully tested and is planned for rollout in 2026.Today, 80% of IWT’s employees use Aras Innovator as their primary access point to product information, with 150 direct contributors. This level of adoption has transformed the platform from an engineering solution into an enterprise-wide product management backbone.
“After eight years of successive projects with Aras, we at IWT are now much more aware of the strategic importance of having centralized, interlinked product data without duplication. We strongly believe that the digital thread improves the quality of our data and supports our overall performance,” said Maurizio Cosolo, Operations Director, IWT.
Tangible and long-term business benefits
With Aras Innovator at the center of its product data ecosystem, IWT has significantly improved data quality, consistency, and accessibility across the organization. Rework caused by data discrepancies has nearly disappeared, ECO priorities now are managed in real time based on business needs, and internal information requests have declined as users gain direct access to reliable product data. Aras’ low-code flexibility has enabled IWT to tailor approximately 20% of its functionality to address specific business requirements, while keeping overall complexity low and continuing to benefit from the core platform capabilities.
