Medical Speedier ECO approval process


With a paper-based system, ECOs were rarely reviewed and signed off in one working day, and it typically took days tomore than one week to go through the approval process, said Perino.


"If you were an ECO originator you


would put all of the documentation in a folder and literally have to route it around to all the different signers," said Perino. "If you had all your ducks in a row and all your documentation was good, you could literally walk an ECO around and get it done in a day but it would take somebody to walk it around or call ameeting with everybody, which is sometimes difficult in a start-up environment when a lot of people are wearing different hats."


With the Empower PLMsystem,


it takes one day to approve a simple ECO and rarelymore than two days for amore complicated one, Perino added. "There was a definite time savings."


In addition to automating the


The core building block of the Omnify PLMsystemis the ItemMaster, which can represent a variety of product objects including parts/components, documents, bill ofmaterials, and software components


implementation," Perino said. "We now have streamlined our entire


engineering change process, employed better security with document vaulting, improved bill ofmaterial (BOM) management, and can nowmake product information such as drawings, blueprints, revisions, and supportingmaterials, easily yet securely accessible to appropriate team members with Omnify Empower," said Perino.


Empower PLMalso has helped Pathway simplify its audit process. "Managing


compliance data with Empower PLMhas simplified our audit process,making itmuch easier to show auditors how product information is accessed and tracked online and prove the audit trail of activity for documentation as well as get requested documentsmuch faster than through our previous paper-based vault system," said Perino.


Early visibility for buyers


ECO process, PathwayMedical also wanted to "bring in security and electronic document vaulting of all of our documentation. We basically had a roomfilled with file cabinets, which had space requirements as well as access and security challenges," Perino added.


The PLMsystemallows PathwayMedical to


bettermanage its product documents including compliance documents, product revisions, and drawings, with vaulting and revision control, eliminating the need for additional storage rooms and file cabinets.


The automated document control and


Omnify Empower helpsmanufacturers manage the product development process tomeet regulations


As you capturemore sourcing data, and because it's alignedmore closely with engineering, purchasing gets involvedmuch earlier in the design process, said Chuck Cimalore, president and chief technology officer for Omnify Software, Andover,Mass.


Now procurement and the


purchasing groups get visibility into projects much earlier in the development cycle even before prototype builds, Cimalore said. So they don't have to scramble to find suppliers and distributors and determine costs and availabilities, which will ultimately impact the delivery of product to market, he added.


All revisions are handled in the Omnify Item Master, which provides a complete audit trail


managementmodule also reduces potential errors associatedwith sending drawings to suppliers. With a PLMsystem, there is no chance of a purchasing agent sending the incorrect drawing revision to the supplier, said Perino.


All of the data fromOmnify flows directly into Pathway


Medical'smaterial requirements planning (MRP) system. "When a part gets reviewed and approved in Omnify, the systemwill send the part info to theMRP system, which gets populated with the part number and description, quantity, etc., which was previously amanual process," said Perino.


As an adjunct to any ECO process there are always tasks or


action items that have to get done in order for the ECO to be implemented and completed, said Perino.With Empower, PathwayMedical can attach the task to the ECOs so those product development teammembers who need to complete a "task" automatically receive an e-mail with the action items.


For purchasing agents, for example, the action item would


require them to send the drawing to a supplier. "That has made a big difference in the business process for the ECO


32 |March 2011 The procurement groups are


finding suppliers, getting pricing and bids, and they are capturing that data, which is now available in the PLMsystemso "engineering can go


back at any point in time and say 'what are we looking at for a cost analysis,'" said Cimalore.


By starting the procurement process earlier andmaking that


costing and availability information available at the engineering management desktop, it allows themto do that early availability and cost analysis to ultimately determine if the product gets scrapped ormoves on to production, he added.


"In the past when they didn't have a PLMsystem, it wasn't until


the designs were done and people wanted to start building prototypes or even full production runs that purchasing got involved," Cimalore said. "The earlier the visibility, the shorter the procurement cycle is going to be," he added.


In general, PLMcompanies like Omnify are starting to get


involved deeper into the supply chain and the sourcing management aspects of the supply chain, said Cimalore. "They are recognizing the need to capture that data early on in the development cycle."


www.electronics-sourcing.com


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