Mining Equipment

Product Development

The problem

The company was being hampered by managing all product development data created across the enterprise. Some of the knock-on effects were:

Difficulty in establishing a BOM-centric approach to product development
Finding duplicates and re-using existing designs
Finding product configurations and change information
Quickly identify and deliver appropriate parts for faster service and support.
Centrally manage and access all product data and after-market support information.

Our solution

The solution we implemented was centred on our powerful and comprehensive Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. This solution includes easy access to product information and data management. It also provides excellent capabilities for identifying previous designs and elimination of duplicates. In addition the solution provides consistent standardized process for Change Management, Quality Management, Manufacturing Planning and service delivery

The result

After deployment, the company reduced the time-to-design variants when reusing existing data by 55%. They improved product development productivity, collaboration and efficiency allowing users to better manage and understand all changes to product configurations, information, workflows, 3D models and 2D drawings.

“If we are afraid of making changes,” explains the engineering manager, “we will risk being left behind. It was important for us to start centrally managing engineering changes, in addition to product information, in order to enable our team to continue addressing market needs and requirements. A product information management solution, such as PTC Windchill, enables us to manage and understand all the changes we make to product configurations. This way, we’re not afraid of making changes“ he says