PROJECTS

BRANDED GOODS MANUFACTURERS

The constantly growing range of products, the ever more extensive project processing and coordination, e.g. between marketing/sales, product and resources design and external partners plus the issue of “supplying external locations”, calls for suitable resources and tools that guarantee both efficient management of product data and smooth handling of projects.

Client: Established brand-name manufacturer of baby, home, healthcare and industrial products  > 500 employees

Branch: Branded goods manufacturers

Topic: PDM system roll-out, document management, ROI/costs/benefits study, DMS and/or PDM selection, PDM selection/benchmark

Situation: The company was planning an upstream specification and selection phase and the actual introduction of a central MultiCAD-compatible DMS, PDM and project management (PM) system that included the following objectives:

• Support for development and design of product/sales items and resources design/technology
• Support for MultiCAD integration (SIEMENS NX or I-DEAS, SolidWorks, SolidCAM) plus smooth SAP integration (approx. 250 users)
• Replacement of a partly risky, error-prone and redundant working method based on project files
• Replacement of a non-integrated e-mail system in the medium-term
• Flexible integration of and supplies to various locations plus controlled integration of the respective local engineering offices and partners
• Grouping of all product- and project-related data in a central system, including consistent release and change management

Brief:

• Conducting interviews to ascertain the PDM requirements together with the individual specialist departments
• Definition, formulation, additions to and coordination of a DMS/PDM/PM specification
• Compilation of a rough ROI study to provide a basis for decisions by senior management
• Support for the team within the scope of selecting and assessing the actual system
• Agreeing on the roll-out procedure and project planning together with the partner finally selected
• Providing support within the scope of DMS/PDM/PM roll-out/integration

Result:

• DMS, PDM and PM requirements ascertained and presented together with the individual specialist departments
• Joint compilation of a robust DMS/PDM/PM specification as the basis for selecting software
• Successful exploratory meetings with selected suppliers, including assessment, preliminary selection, recommendation
• Project planning with the partner finally selected with respect to concept, prototyping, pilot runs, etc.
• Successful implementation together with the chosen supplier