Andrew Pisula, Director of Implementation

Engineering and manufacturing teams face challenges with data silos. The modern work environment means they typically work in alternative office locations and use different tools to manage product data. As a result, sharing product data can be time-consuming and inefficient. They require a closed loop system to enhance communication and automatically transfer data to ensure they hit their production schedule. Duro built an integration into the First Resonance Factory Operating System (OS), ION to do just that. The partnership gives engineers a simpler way to share data with their manufacturing teams. Data can be transferred between platforms, reducing manual data input and ensuring a quick transition from engineering to manufacturing. Here’s what that means for your team.

Design engineers and manufacturers don’t have an easy way to share product data

In today’s remote and distributed work environment, engineers don’t usually have the luxury of walking over to the manufacturing team’s desk to review a design together. Teams are often siloed, making it much harder to share ideas on the spot and brainstorm about production limitations. Even if they were in the same location, there’s still the challenge of transferring designs, with their respective eBOMs and mBOMs, into the manufacturing platform to create work orders and track materials. Designs are built in CAD and product data managed in PLM, whereas manufacturers rely on manufacturing specific software and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). In the traditional way of working, manufacturers need to wait until entire drawing packages are released before they receive a notification via email that they can begin production. This takes time, and there’s a risk of errors when copying eBOMs and mBOMs manually into the manufacturing system. This time-consuming process can cause delays in production and hinder the ability for an organization to get to market quickly.

Manufacturing teams need the ability to close the loop with engineers

Manufacturing and engineering teams need a better way to collaborate. Engineers require more comprehensive processes for sharing designs, eBOMs and mBOMs. Ideally, they can share product details without giving manufacturers more work to do by manually inputting data into separate systems. Similarly, this flow of information should be mirrored back from manufacturing teams to engineers. It is vital for engineers to have visibility into aBOMs, redlined drawings and production limitations that could impact their design. Instead of spreadsheets, emails and paper-based systems, a centralized data store that everyone can access and update is the solution.

Connecting PLM directly to your manufacturing tools enables faster collaboration

Imagine that you could transfer design specifications straight into the manufacturing workflow. You wouldn’t need to manually upload the different parts from your eBOM to create the aBOM. Manufacturers could quickly review the design and check for part availability and time to production.

Synching your PLM directly with a factory OS allows you to do exactly that.

Duro PLM product view

With integrated platforms, it’s easy to transfer your BOM to manufacturing upon an approved change order (CO). The manufacturing plan and work orders are built from those design specifications and none of the parts go missing or get lost. In addition, manufacturers can immediately see if there are challenges with the design and report straight back to the design team.

Designer engineers benefit from:

    • Being able to track file transfers upon approved COs to ensure they’re received quickly
    • Faster feedback from manufacturers
    • The ability to trace components from design to built and shipped goods

Manufacturers benefit from:

    • Automatic transfer of part details, reducing manual data entry.
    • Reduction in error cycle time as data is accurate
    • Smoother mechanisms to communicate challenges back to engineers
    • Less back and forth conversation ensuring production deadlines are met

Duro integrates with ION Factory OS to ensure seamless data flow

Duro is the only PLM with an integration to ION. The platform enables manufacturers to track as-built BOM (aBOM), create manufacturing workflows, work instructions, and materials requirement planning. Like Duro, ION is cloud-based, quick to install and easy to manage. Together the tools provide a powerful integration that allows manufacturers and engineers to get on the same page. Learn more about the integration here.

Gilmour Space, integrated Duro with ION. The company duplicates parts from Duro automatically into ION and validates the data. The manufacturing team can start their planning and define their work schedule quickly without waiting to manually input data. This enables the team to reliably predict and track production timelines.

First Resonance Ion

If you’re interested in seeing a demo of the engineering and manufacturing workflow integration, we’d be happy to show you. Schedule that here.