Can product life-cycle management boast direct tie to lean?
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 10/1/2004 12:00:00 AM
Product life-cycle management (PLM) vendors such as Aras Corp. don't just want to be known for helping enterprises manage what they make, but also how those products get made. Evidence of this, says Paul Gilmartin, an Aras VP, is found in the vendor's packaged solution for lean manufacturing.
"Our view is that the need for product information and related processes doesn't stop at the design phase, or even at the release-to-manufacturing step, but rather flow right into production and on into customer support," says Gilmartin. "We see lean and Six Sigma concepts as key to these downstream areas."
Aras's lean module boasts a dashboard and metrics for improving cycle times, as well as functions for managing method sheets (lean's equivalent of work instructions) and other execution tasks. Release to manufacturing also is a function of the suite, and can define process flows through work cells, and manage a manufacturing bill of material. Concerning design-for-quality issues in the automotive sector, Aras also offers an Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) package.
Ken Amann, research director with analyst firm CIMDATA, Ann Arbor, Mich., concurs that Aras has built up more modules for production management than most PLM vendors. But in addition to APQP, several larger vendors including Agile Software and MatrixOne also offer packaged solutions. Says Amann, "Most PLM vendors have that functionality at some level, but now more of them are formalizing those capabilities into modules."
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