Cadalyst - September 2008 - (Page 39)

plmstrategies As they sat in their offices and watched Omnify’s demonstration, Kruitbosch and his colleagues were impressed by how Omnify managed the hierarchy of changes. “As Omnify took a certain change order through the process, we saw the part statuses and check-in logs updating,” he recalled. “It just seemed much more full-featured, intuitive, and comprehensive than the others.” To convince Edge that the software was a worthwhile investment, Omnify imported a chunk of Edge’s database into Omnify Empower, the fourth incarnation of Omnify’s flagship PLM system, to show how it would look. Soon afterward, Empower became Edge’s PLM system. According to Omnify’s product sheet, Empower is “based on the Microsoft .NET Framework. [It] leverages Web services, enhancing Omnify Software’s existing open platform for third-party integrations and enabling easy customization of user interfaces and reports. New functionality such as project management, quality management, and training-records management extends the capability of the PLM system to capture additional data such as manufacturing, quality, and customer information and tie it back to the product record, improving visibility to all aspects of product development.” also sourcing, manufacturing, and quality control. In addition, when Edge sends instructions to its contract manufacturers, it’s now able to send a digital package with all relevant part attributes and requirements. Previously, whenever Kruitbosch needed a schematic, he’d have to personally track down the person responsible for the part to request the document. The turnaround time for retrieval was usually a few hours to a day. “Now, anyone can go find it in Empower,” he reflected. “We put all the data sheets for the parts in the system, so anyone can pull those up too.” Better Customer Support A former Navy officer, Kruitbosch recalled the story he’d heard about an incident where, because the officer responsible for ordering a replacement valve accidentally transposed a digit in data entry, the staff received an aircraft carrier propeller instead. For all Kruitbosch knew, it could just be an apocryphal story, growing more outrageous each time it was retold. Nevertheless, he’s glad Edge’s automatic data transfer from PLM to ERP is set up to prevent such costly errors. With each product release, Empower executes an automatic script to automatically populate Edge’s ERP system with the new part numbers and BOMs. Because of Omnify Empower’s Web service interface, Edge is able to populate its Web-based customer support application with BOMs directly from the Omnify database. Therefore, customer service representatives are able to keep a record of the specific materials or parts they’re authorizing the customers to return. “These BOMs get updated whenever we change a product,” Kruitbosch said, “so our customer support system automatically receives these updates and is able to display the correct BOM revision.” Setup Options With the emergence of PLM providers who offer products under the software-as-a-service (SaaS) licensing model (see Arena Solutions, for example), buyers have the option to have the database hosted and maintained off-site by the PLM provider for a fee or have it installed on their premises. Edge chose the latter. “The installation and integration process was roughly three months, relatively painless,” said Kruitbosch. “Mostly, it involved importing the existing data into the new system. We used an automated process for importing our parts and a manual process for the BOMs.” The company manually imported the BOMs to get the cleaner, customized look it wanted, he explained. Edge no longer has individual employees devoted solely to change-order management. “Now, everybody contributes to it. And everybody can see the changes taking place,” Kruitbosch observed. “Engineers initiate a change, then other responsible parties pick it up and enter their information. We even route it to tech support and validation to make sure their documentations are up to date and the products are retested.” A Closer Look at Omnify Omnify markets its PLM products to the electronics, mechanical, medical, and defense industries. Sold either as a term or perpetual license, Empower is priced beginning at $10,000. The underlying technology in Empower came from a universal BOM system, OmniBOM, developed by Omnify’s founders in 1998. The technology eventually evolved into a PLM system (with OmniBOM remaining as a key module). The company began selling it publicly in January 2002. At the moment, Omnify seems to operate under the radar, escaping the notice of industry watchers and analysts. The company’s name and products have yet to be mentioned in the frequently cited annual PLM market reports. But this anonymity may change soon. Ken Amann, CIMdata’s director of research, said, “We are tracking them and have talked with them. We estimated their PLM revenues to be approximately $34 million in 2007. Omnify is providing good foundational PLM functionality for small and mid-size enterprises and is expanding to provide focused solutions for specific business problems. They continue to grow their customer base and expand their product solution offerings.” Kenneth Wong is Cadalyst’s executive editor. 39 Launching Empower Edge uses an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that is, in Kruitbosch’s observation, an accounting system, and therefore not ideal for tracking the attributes associated with electronics parts. With Empower, Edge can associate each part with relevant parameters, such as tolerance, temperature rating, and package size. “Temperature rating is extremely important to our products,” Kruitbosch pointed out. The Juice product line, for example, is installed in the engine compartment and is subject to extreme environmental requirements. Now that the parts database is remotely accessible, Edge’s approval process includes not only engineering but September 2008 cadalyst www.cadalyst.com http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - September 2008

Cadalyst - September 2008 Contents Editor's Window Cad Central Tech Trends: Genie Out of the Bottle Cadalyst Labs Reviews: Big Tools for Big Jobs — Wide-Format Scanners and Printers Make Small Work of Large Projects Cadalyst Labs Reviews: AutoCAD 2009 — General-Purpose CAD Software Cadalyst Labs Reviews: AecBatchStylesEditor 2009 — CAD Standards Management Software for AEC Cad manager: Synchronize CAD Files over a Wide Area MCAD Modeling: Is 2D Drawing Doomed? Plm Strategies: More Bang for Your Truck Aec Insight: Works and Plays Well with Others Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes Hot Tip Harry: VBA Hints for Customizing AutoCAD

Cadalyst - September 2008

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