Automotive Equipment Manufacturer Projects Million-Dollar Savings with SmarTeam PDM
18 December 2000
Automotive Equipment Manufacturer Projects Million-Dollar Savings with SmarTeam PDM
BEVERLY, Mass., Dec. 18 DCT Inc., a worldwide provider of
welding and assembly equipment for automotive OEMs and first-tier suppliers,
is forecasting savings of more than one million dollars during the first year
of implementing a collaborative product data management (PDM) system from
SmarTeam Inc. to handle the company's 100,000-item bill-of-material (BOM)
information base and related engineering change orders.
DCT is using the SmarTeam system to streamline former procedures in which
change orders were tracked manually on spreadsheets and BOMs were recreated at
least eight times during their journey through the enterprise.
"Redundancy, duplication of effort and re-keying errors were a way of
life, with numerous opportunities for mistakes and miscommunication. So many
change orders came in so fast that we didn't always do a great job of tracking
time and materials. Things just fell through the cracks," explains DCT Vice
President Mark Yadach. "These issues were impacting the quality of our
products, consuming unnecessary resources, affecting our speed-to-market, and
costing DCT money."
Brought into the firm to find ways to optimize DCT's internal processes,
Yadach immediately recognized the impact of improving this process with PDM
and selected SmarTeam as DCT's technology partner. "We wanted a company that
would be flexible, responsible and responsive -- an organization that mirrors
our own and believes in customers as partners," he says. We looked at a
number of tools, but only SmarTeam had the product as well as the attitude and
philosophy we needed. They're exceptionally customer-oriented."
According to Yadach, PDM is having a significant impact on the way DCT
operates and is projecting sizable savings as a result of improved speed and
efficiency. "We can finally document and manage the engineering change
control process itself," reports Yadach. "We can now accurately capture
information and make it accessible in real time."
When fully implemented, the PDM system will support the efforts of 500 DCT
professionals in engineering, manufacturing, procurement, and finance.
Moreover, the same information will soon be available to customers, providing
an electronic history to refer to when questions arise about specific change
orders. Future plans call for implementing systems and processes for more
closely collaborating with DCT's partners and suppliers using web-based
technology from SmarTeam.
"We are pleased to be working with forward-looking and progressive
companies such as DTC who use SmarTeam technology not only for internal
processes but also in solutions for the supply chain and extended enterprise,"
says SmarTeam Executive Vice President Andrew Rodger. "We look forward to
working with DCT as they continue to find innovative ways of applying SmarTeam
collaboration and data management technologies."
DCT also is developing a vortal (vertical portal) to serve the $30 billion
North American automotive capital tooling and equipment industry, with
potential savings Yadach estimates at $20 to $40 per vehicle. "The vortal
will be particularly useful for collaboration between automotive OEMs and
suppliers, especially with the recent trend toward automakers delegating
increasing levels of design responsibility to subcontractors who once provided
only manufacturing services," explains Yadach.
The planned vortal will be based on mySmarTeam.com e-collaboration
technology that provides tools for browsing, viewing, extracting, and
manipulating project data by remote users via the Internet.
About DCT Inc.
DCT is an ISO9001-certified, full-service integrator of welding, assembly,
automation and laser systems for automakers and tier one suppliers. The
company was founded in 1966 as Detroit Center Tool providing quality machine-
tool components and later diversified its product and service mix to include
sophisticated automated welding and assembly machines and systems. In-house
capabilities for fabrication, piping, wiring, and mechanical design also were
developed. Today, DCT is one of the Detroit area's largest automotive
manufacturing equipment suppliers. For further information about DCT, call
the company's headquarters in Sterling Heights, Mich. at 810/323-8300 or visit
the website http://www.dct-inc.com.
About Smart Solutions Ltd.
Smart Solutions Ltd., a Dassault Systemes S.A. company,
develops and markets team-oriented, rapidly implemented, yet totally
customizable, Windows and Web-centric business collaboration and change
management solutions. Smart Solutions was founded in 1995 and is one of the
fastest-growing companies in the data management market with over 1,200
customers worldwide. The company's SmarTeam family of software is licensed
through a worldwide network of more than 150 value added resellers and
supported by international subsidiaries and offices. Best-in-class products
combined with an efficient, trained, indirect sales and support channel enable
customers to rapidly deploy SmarTeam solutions through easy customization and
a bottom-up scalable approach.
For more information, contact: SmarTeam Inc., Smart Solutions' American
subsidiary. SmarTeam Inc., 900 Cummings Center, Suite 307T, Beverly, Mass.
01915 tel: (978) 524-1950. E-mail: info@smarteam.com, or visit the company's
website at http://www.smarteam.com.