THE SOLUTION
AMP needed a solution to not only bridge the gap between their CAD software and ERP system but also needed to establish control over processes for managing bills of materials (BOMs), engineering changes, and documentation to ensure accurate information is released to the ERP. They worked with a third-party consultant to find the right product lifecycle management (PLM) solution that provided integration with their existing systems, flexibility, and scalability to grow with the company. Also high on their must-have list was a cloud solution to avoid maintenance and additional IT overhead.
The Cloud PLM solution from Arena met all their requirements for integrations, scalability, and process control. To address their key challenge of bridging the gap between design and manufacturing, AMP integrated Arena with their mechanical design software, SOLIDWORKS, and their ERP system, NetSuite. The SOLIDWORKS integration allows all released mechanical and hardware designs to be managed under engineering change control within Arena PLM and accessible by all necessary team members. And with the integration to NetSuite, manufacturing is assured they receive approved and accurate product information such as BOMs, parts, and standard operating procedures (SOPs), avoiding late-stage production errors. AMP now has a completely streamlined design for their manufacturing process. “We didn’t have processes behind any of the things that we were doing,” said Krueger. “Having Arena be a central repository allows us to have the right documentation to execute and know the right expectations on how to manage change.”