xLM Solutions recently completed a successful 3DEXPERIENCE in the cloud implementation for a company that manufactures, tests, installs, and repairs telecommunications equipment, especially for wireless and wireline carriers, cable companies, and telecommunications equipment makers. It also offers warehousing and distribution services.
The team developed and implemented a solution for managing engineering data and processes for a predominantly SOLIDWORKS CAD user-based environment. The experts from xLM delivered significant value to the manufacturer in managing its engineering data and demonstrated the power that 3DEXPERIENCE can provide for managing SOLIDWORKS data.
By the way, we’ll be participating in 3DEXPERIENCE World 2022 February 7-9. Contact us if you’d like to discuss our customer successes and implementation processes.
Facing CAD System Challenges
In the past, the manufacturer had used different CAD systems but recently decided to unify and standardize all of its CAD and engineering processes around SOLIDWORKS as the main product design CAD system for its manufacturing processes’ robotics and tooling.
Because of the disparate CAD systems, the company faced data management issues including duplications, missing references, and lack of change/version control, etc., which reduced productivity. The company mainly stored its CAD files on shared network drives and SharePoint with no change control process. It managed BOM data in Excel files.
Why 3DEXPERIENCE in the Cloud?
The manufacturer chose the 3DEXPERIENCE platform in the cloud for its PLM/PDM system based on its experience using SOLIDWORKS as its CAD system.
Among the many reasons for selecting 3DEXPERIENCE on the public cloud, the manufacturer cited the following. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform in the cloud offers:
- Native, “inside out” integration with SOLIDWORKS
- Standardized engineering and business processes.
- Solutions to centralize and control product data across sites
- Optimized collaboration among engineers
- Easy deployment – no IT involvement or maintenance required because it is a cloud-based platform
“Using 3DEXPERIENCE, we are able to set processes to control and centralize our SOLIDWORKS product data, increase collaboration among the team members and, as a result, increase efficiency. Having no IT involvement (being on cloud) was a big plus,” explained a senior robotics engineer.
The xLM Team Delivered Solutions
With their vast experience in PLM/PDM implementations, especially with 3DEXPERIENCE in the cloud and on-premise and with SOLIDWORKS solutions, the experts from xLM Solutions quickly implemented 3DEXPERIENCE and delivered the following:
- Trained and coached the users on general admin platform activities such as creating and importing and groups, configuring Collaborative Spaces with specific security and setting custom dashboards
- Set up the SOLIDWORKS Integration, including mapping attributes and related configurations
- Created the Change Action with route template to facilitate changes in the origination
- Designed user scenario definitions and trained on how to best search, view and manage the data
- Reviewed key roles to identify apps which could improve productivity
In addition, xLM supported the manufacturer in importing thousands of files, after educating the customer in the proper procedures to clean up the source data first to avoid duplication of files.
xLM became a trusted advisor as the customer dealt with some maturity and product limitations which required process workarounds and occasional communication with Dassault Systèmes support. The customer team was patient and cooperated very well in the process.
xLM continues to work with and support the manufacturer’s team of users. As a next step, the xLM experts are evaluating additional functionality, including the XEN, BOM-related features.
A senior robotics engineer at the company commented: “Working with xLM was a pleasure. They guided us throughout the implementation and were very responsive. Their SOLIDWORKS community and 3DEXPERIENCE familiarity was definitely an advantage.”