Consumer Goods Industry Customer PLM Success Stories
Specialized Bicycles
Location: Morgan Hill, CA
Website: www.specialized.com
Service: DescriptionState
The Challenge
Specialized Bicycles was looking for a solution that would leverage their business logic to build descriptions for their parts in Agile PLM. They wanted to include information from their Manufacturers and Suppliers tabs on their parts and they needed to run the DescriptionState from change orders on all affected items.
The Solution
Zero Wait-State already had a process extension (PX) that would get Specialized to 90% of what they needed to achieve. Working with the Specialized team, ZWS enhanced DescriptionState to add the additional 10% of features that was needed. Zero Wait-State’s agile software development practices ensured that the finished product was delivered in a timely manner.
The Benefits
Specialized now has a PX that fully meets the requirements of their business outcomes and supports their product development efforts, allowing them to leverage their business logic to build descriptions for their parts in Agile—including information from their Manufacturers and Suppliers tabs.
Sub-Zero Wolf
Location: Madison, WI
Website: www.subzero-wolf.com
Service: Integration
The Challenge
Sub-Zero Wolf had developed a time consuming process for retrieving compliance information from suppliers that relied on spreadsheets, shared drives and non-standardized document formats. The process resulted in information silos and required manual entry of compliance status into their ERP system. They needed a better way to collect supplier information, and a solution that would tie a part’s compliance status and evidence documents together.
The Solution
Since they were in the process of implementing Agile PLM, they decided that the Agile Product Governance & Compliance module would be a good fit for their needs and worked with Zero Wait-State to configure the module. With the help of LoadState, they were able to automate the process of importing, validating and assessing compliance forms and regulatory documents in Agile. In addition, they were able to make their Compliance process less painful and more efficient.
The Benefits
With the increased efficiency in their compliance efforts, Sub-Zero Wolf was able to focus on other initiatives and priorities. The real benefit was that they did not have to completely revolutionize their compliance process, and suppliers were still able to provide information in a familiar fashion.
Broan-NuTone
Location: Hartford, WI
Website: www.broan-nutone.com
Service: PLM Integration and DesignState
The Challenge
Broan NuTone’s existing methods required considerable amounts of manual work and were highly error prone. The company needed a fully automated, bi-directional integration between Windchill/Creo CAD and Agile PLM and wanted all the benefits that integration would deliver.
The Solution
DesignState integration software from ZWS tied AgilePLM to the engineering-centric Windchill PDM, and enabled timely and accurate data sharing between the two systems. The DesignState integration assists Broan NuTone engineers in both managing the flow of design information between Windchill and Agile (to include BOM, attachment, metadata, and change management) as well as allowing Agile Design data to be obsoleted. Metadata moved from EC into Windchill allows Windchill ownership of designs.
The Benefits
Now lifecycle states and parts information are automatically and constantly up-to-date in both systems. Engineers can continue to work in the CAD environment where they are more productive and more comfortable while avoiding the need for manual updates in Agile. By removing manual data entry, costly errors are eliminated, and product costs and delays reduced.
Revlon
Location: New York, NY
Website: www.revlon.com
Service: Support Services
The Challenge
The nature of Revlon’s business means the company uses Agile PLM essentially as a project management tool to track product releases and formulas, but the Revlon team couldn’t keep product configurations up-to-date. The company’s PLM environment was heavily reliant on customizations, yet they had none of the source code for those customizations. They were plagued by system errors.
The Solution
The Zero Wait-State team decompiled all the existing customizations to Revlon’s Agile system and created a comprehensive project and build system. A Java integrated development environment was configured on Revlon’s Agile server to allow maintenance of their customizations. ZWS trained Revlon’s project manager to maintain those customizations and deploy them to Agile to keep them current.
The Benefits
Now the Revlon team can respond much more rapidly to user requests and needs. Also, the company can address and debug issues quickly. Users are more highly engaged with the system because it is more responsive to their needs and less error prone. As a result, productivity has increased.