Aras PLM Community

Communicating for User Adoption in 2 Minutes

Jennifer — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:31:00 GMT

Getting users to adapt to change is difficult, no matter what the change may be. In this 2 minute video Doug Draughan at Basic Research discusses his approach to PLM that brought users on board from day one. Basic communicated the flexibility and ease of use of the Aras Innovator architecture, without turning it into a tech heavy discussion. The result? Users throughout the company were as excited about their Aras implementation as the PLM selection and tech teams.

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What is PLM Data “Obfuscation” and I Why Should I Care?!?

MarcL — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:50:00 GMT

“Obfuscation” is the term for scrambling of the data and/or table names, property names within the PLM database. This is the way the other major PLM / PDM systems were / are designed. The database table for the Part Master is not called / labelled “Part” – it’s labelled “0034543908543TG324” or something else confusing like that... the data are sometime split into different tables so that access is non-intuitive. This is “obfuscation” and...(read more)

PLM Strategy and Planning for an Uncertain Future

MarcL — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:25:00 GMT

On one hand, we're getting promising news about the growth in manufacturing in the US and Asia (but with Europe a little less confident). On the other hand, the words "double-dip recession" are in the business press every day. Gartner is recommending that CIOs prepare for a potential round two of the global recession : "In 2008, most CIOs were forgiven for being unprepared to deal with the global recession, but if another recession unfolds in the next 12 to 18 months, no CIO will...(read more)

When Bigger PLM Isn't Better PLM

Jennifer — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:31:00 GMT

The excitement our Community is displaying is infectious! Everyday I’m approached by new companies, universities and partners that are fascinated by what they are reading and hearing about Aras. Here's an example... Below is a short highlight video of a user presentation at ACE2010. In it Basic Reserach offers some advice on net getting lured in by the sexy pre-sales promises made by big, legacy PLM vendors. Like what you see? Check back soon for more from Basic Research on implementing Aras PLM software for Enterprise PLM including recipe and packaging management at a consumer goods company.

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Why Do Enterprise Organizations Let CAD Vendors Drive Their PLM Selection Process?

Peter Schroer — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:31:00 GMT

In a typical 10,000 person company there are probably 50-100 full-time 3D CAD engineers. So how come these few CAD users and their CAD software vendors so often drive the selection of an enterprise PLM system that will likely touch thousands of users around the world? Why do the needs of these few weigh so heavily in the decisions that affect so many? This is a new trend I’ve observed over the last 5+ years, and it concerns me. What has evolved in so many companies is the perception that the...(read more)

How the Aras Approach to Open Source Ensures Quality, Confidence and Corporate Security

Peter Schroer — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:13:00 GMT

Every once in a while, I get a call from a CIO who says “my team is looking at your software. We like it and it works well, but I’m a little concerned about going with open source.” The first thing I tell them is that open source approaches to software development and distribution can take many forms. At Aras, we draw on what we think are the best elements of traditional open source development and adapt them to work for commercial enterprises. We call it enterprise open source...(read more)

What the World’s Leading Companies Know that You Don’t?

MarcL — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:17:00 GMT

Recently, there was a good article on the CAD community web sites titled “Textron and Other Fortune 500 Companies Move to Aras Enterprise Open Source PLM Software” that outlined how major global companies are switching to Aras. It includes some of their reasons for picking Aras over other major PLM systems and how they have achieved results in cross-functional, worldwide enterprise PLM deployments.

Here’s a repost of the article with links to the original articles CAD community web sites (i.e. CATIA, PRO/E, Siemens PLM Software, SolidWorks, Inventor)...

Textron and Other Fortune 500 Companies Move to Aras Enterprise Open Source PLM Software
June 21, 2010 by Tom Gill is the founder of TAG Consulting

What do the world’s leading companies know that you don’t?

Last week it was announced that leading aerospace and defense contractor Textron has selected Aras for enterprise product lifecycle management. Textron’s move follows that of other global businesses such as Lear Corporation and Xerox. What do these market-leading companies, all members of the Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 2000, know that you don’t? Open source PLM software isn’t just for small companies.

Superior Technology

For more than 50 years Textron has been creating state-of-the-art weaponry, surveillance and protection systems for defense, aerospace and homeland security communities. While CIO Tony DeGregario appreciates the value of Aras’s open source model, he knew there was more to Aras than free software. “The enterprise open source approach and elimination of PLM license fees initially got our attention, however, what really drove our selection of Aras was the comprehensive PLM functionality and advanced technology,” said DeGregario.

Aras is a modern PLM solution suite engineered like no other. The Aras enterprise application framework is an advanced model-based service-oriented architecture (model-based SOA) delivering highly scalable, flexible and secure applications that deploy quickly and adapt easily to evolving business needs without complex programming. Aras addresses the entire product lifecycle with out-of-the-box solutions for a wide range of strategic business initiatives, including global product development, new product introduction, configuration & change management, design anywhere/build anywhere, advanced product quality planning, regulatory compliance and others. All the Aras solutions are Web-based and inherently integrated for a simple, consistent user experience.

Textron selected Aras PLM suite to help master their biggest product development challenges. The A&D giant is integrating Aras with SAP to drive strategic cross functional processes such as its stage-gate program, project management and risk mitigation, as well as other traditional PLM functions including CAD file management, and configuration and change management.

As DeGregario explains, “Textron Defense Systems is committed to developing winning solutions to the most complicated engineering challenges and we believe Aras’s approach to enterprise-wide PLM will help us deliver on that commitment.”

Global Reach

More than 80% of automobiles worldwide built today contain one or more components from Lear Corporation. As a leading automotive supplier with 90 years of experience and expertise behind it, Lear is all about automation, integration and continuous improvement. Two years ago, when Lear began evaluating PLM solutions, they were put off by the significant initial PLM license expenses and the cost to expand the system over time to reach all of their users around the world. Then they discovered Aras.

Aras helps control costs with freedom from PLM licensing. Unlike PLM vendors who use named license scheme and charge additional fees for each person to access each module, Aras provides complete access for unlimited users with no PLM license costs. Aras eliminates big up-front PLM license expenses, as well as concerns about licensing for the thousands of people that only log on periodically. This was a huge benefit for Lear, who has employees based in 35 countries.

“Our scope is not small,” explained Reynaldo Reyes, Director of Engineering Tools and Processes for Lear’s Electrical Power Management Systems. “We’ll have more than 1,000 users on the system globally and we wanted to make sure everyone could work in our environment without constraints. If there’s a guy in Argentina who only does one thing, I want him to have access. If you break a workflow by taking it offline, that’s it – it’s broken. Other PLM systems never seem to reach everyone in the workflow because sooner or later the license costs become prohibitive. We knew we wouldn’t have that problem with Aras.”

Immediate Value

Xerox is a $22 billion company synonymous with innovation. The company’s 130,000 employees serve a diverse client-base in more than 160 countries. In 2007 Xerox Office Products implemented the Aras PLM software solution and never looked back. Xerox chose Aras for its modern cloud architecture, no-cost-of-entry and ability to show ROI right away. “Aras is different than other PLM products,” said Jared Sund, Manager of Engineering Support, who uses a Big Bang Theory analogy to describe typical PLM products. “Under the PLM Big Bang Theory, you remove everything and then you start building a foundation. 12 or 36 months later you start moving forward. With Aras we started adding value to the business right away.”

Aras’s unique combination of proven Internet technologies, common platforms and open industry standards enable global enterprises to drive continuous improvement and achieve previously unattainable levels of business process innovation. With Aras, businesses can significantly reduce the time, cost and effort necessary to customize and deploy enterprise PLM applications; adapt them to changing business conditions; and easily integrate them with existing legacy systems resulting in dramatic reductions in cycle times, considerable improvements in agility and significantly lower total cost of ownership.

“In the past technology was a hurdle,” said Sund. “The tool couldn’t do it, you were bound by Finance, there weren’t enough resources or you had to wait 6 months to get started. It shouldn’t be that way. Technology should not be hindrance; it should help us move forward. Aras been has been a whole difference experience. Aras gives us the flexibility to keep up with the business and put everyone on the same playing field without trying to fence them in.”

Proven Results

Multinational enterprises compete by striving for excellence in everything they do and aligning their businesses with partners who do the same. These global leaders recognize the full value of Aras LM solution suite – from business model to software architecture, Aras is the world’s most advanced PLM solution.

Aras provides comprehensive PLM functionality that exceeds that of the legacy PLM providers and its innovative architecture makes it far more scalable and extensible than other PLM systems. What does that mean for global businesses? A PLM solution that works from day one, integrates with existing technology investments, and provides a secure, flexible platform for future growth. Factor in a cost savings that averages 68% or more when compared to conventional PLM licensing schemes and productivity gains realized when companies with 10,000+ users make PLM accessible to everyone in the product lifecycle, no matter how remote or infrequent, and one can quickly see that Aras is more than great technology, it’s also good business.

Tom Gill is the founder of TAG Consulting. Contact Tom at http://www.tagconsultingllc.com

What's your take? Will your company be forever stuck looking in the rear view mirror at “PLM from the Past”? Or will your CIO wake up, look ahead and realize the benefits of PLM’s Future? (i.e. Open Source PLM and Aras)

CMII Europe 2010, Notes from Amsterdam

MarcL — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:27:00 GMT

This month we went to Amsterdam for CMII Europe. Well… I didn’t go but Rolf and Antoine from our partner Minerva went and said there were some really excellent presentations and great insights shared. Here are some of their notes from the conference.

CMII Europe brings companies from across Europe and around the world to discuss how CMII configuration & change management is applied in global companies from across a variety of industries. Speakers this year included Boeing, Delphi, Eurocopter, Fokker Aerostructures, Marenco Swisshelicopter, US Navy SPAWAR and numerous others.

Have a link to the CMII Europe presentations (keep in mind the ZIP is pretty big – 57Meg)

There was a lot of interest in our advanced CMII configuration management capabilities and the CMII Enterprise solution (see pics below of Rolf busy doing demos and showing people how Aras PLM software solution addresses complex config mgt and enterprise-wide change processes).

For those of you that don’t already know, Aras is 4 Star CMII Certified by ICM… and of course that’s a higher rating than Siemens PLM Teamcenter Enterprise (keep in mind that Tc Unified / V8 is “not CMII-compliant” as noted on ICM web site) and Dassault MatrixOne and V6; which have never achieved any CMII Stars… and of course PTC Windchill; which was de-certified years ago (here’s the old PTC press release from when they originally achieved 1 star CMII cert and the link to today’s CMII Certified Tools with Windchill not on list anymore).

It’s no mystery why the companies that require the most comprehensive Configuration and Change Management capabilities, choose Aras.

Here are some pics from the conference... nice venue... ah Amsterdam, maybe next time :-)

Upcoming Webcast: Enterprise Open Source PLM and Global Product Development at XEROX

MarcL — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:43:00 GMT

Next Wednesday (June 30th) at 2pm ET there’s going to be a free live webcast on how XEROX has transformed their worldwide product development process for office products using enterprise open source PLM. It’s part of the PLM Innovation 2010 online series by MarketKey. For those of you who could not make it to last month’s international ACE 2010 , this will be an opportunity to hear the Xerox story. There’s going to be a lot of info on how they’ve enabled multi-site processes...(read more)

AutoCAD integration for Aras by Prodeos

MarcL — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:50:00 GMT

Yoann Maingon at Prodeos strikes again with another practical (and very cool) add-on. This time it’s a preview of the new AutoCAD integration for Aras Innovator that Prodeos has done.

Main features:

DWG transfer from AutoCAD to Aras Innovator
DWF or PDF creation for visualization
Thumbnail creation
Local file comparison to make sure large files aren’t downloaded if they are already on the person’s local computer

Check out the video demo below and you can learn more about the integration at Prodeos blog Open Source PLM @ Prodeos… that is, if you can read French :-)

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Open Source vs Proprietary Software Co? Large Software Vendor vs. Small Software Vendor? Does It Matter?

Peter Schroer — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:31:00 GMT

In a recent post his blog, PLM Think Tank , Oleg Shilovitsky wrote about the PLM Open Source Tradeoff . I shared my thoughts on the piece and I am wondering what you think. Here’s what I think… “I’m old enough to remember when the safest decision in computing was IBM, and it truly was the best decision. They had great technology, very loyal employees who provided excellent customer service, and IBM made long-term commitments to their customers that spanned decades. I can...(read more)

ACE 2010 PLM Software Community Solution Showcase

MarcL — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:26:00 GMT

Feedback we’ve gotten ‘loud & clear’ at previous community events was that people want a way to see the Community Solutions in action. So, this year at ACE 2010 we tried something new. Peter got the idea from this year’s COFES (aka Congress On the Future of Engineering Software). We called it the “ Community Solution Showcase ”. People each got 10 minutes to show off their Community Solution. Can do a Live Demo, a Video, Screenshots, some Slides, or just Talk…...(read more)

ACE2010 Lear Global PLM - Aras Implementation Highlights

Jennifer — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:51:00 GMT

As you all well know by now, the Aras Community event was recently held at the Motorola facility in Schamburg, IL. The event boasted a number of presentations from the entire Community including users, subscribers, partners and a few direct from Aras. Lear in Southfield, MI presented on their Global PLM Implementation process including why they chose Aras and what they look to for the future. While Lear's original presentation was over 30 minutes long - we've scaled it down to give you a few highlights in under 10 minutes. For a copy of the full slide deck please visit the Aras Community Event 2010 International Highlights post by Marc Lind on the main corporate blog.

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State of the Community Highlights

Jennifer — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:33:00 GMT

At the Aras Community Event, Peter Schroer opened the day with a full State of the Community Address. (Full slides are available for download through the ACE International blog post by Marc Lind) As the Community Director I often have people asking about how sustainable open source is, what the Community really looks like, how many countries we are installed in, do we have a substantial partner network and so on. The following clip us centered around this very topic. Enjoy, leave feedback, and let...(read more)

Is PLM software OOTB Functionality a Red Herring?

MarcL — Thu, 20 May 2010 17:51:00 GMT

Saw a Discussion on LinkedIn "PLM" group titled " Disconnect between OOTB PLM Functionalities and Customer requirements ". The post said: Many of the PLM solutions have came up from big customers who had developed the sysytem for their own usage - These systems were no doubts serve very well at that point of time and had huge set of functionalities As time passed many of the PLM vendors brought the same solutions to market by packaging the same in different way - Result of which...(read more)

Aras Community Event 2010 International - Highlights

MarcL — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:02:00 GMT

Download >>> ZIP of ALL SLIDES This year's international Aras Community Event (ACE) took place on May 10-11, 2010 and was hosted by Motorola at their worldwide headquarters in Schaumburg, IL. We really appreciate Motorola's generosity and hospitality, thanks to everyone behind the scenes that made it possible. Thanks and kudos also to all the presenters: Lear, Basic Research, MiTek, XEROX, Carestream Health, Don at Crucis and Maureen McAllister, all the Aras people and everyone that...(read more)

ACE 2010 On Site Comments!

Jennifer — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:23:00 GMT

I’ve spent the last two days completely immersed in the Aras Community. Of course, I work for Aras so one might think this isn’t much of a deviation from the norm – but it is. As the Director of the Aras Community I do spend the bulk of my time talking with and working for partners, open users, subscribers, and curious onlookers. ACE brought all of those people together in a unified location. The first few hours were filled with putting faces together with names and company logos...(read more)

PLM Customization and the Upgrade Monster

MarcL — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:29:00 GMT

A few days back, Oleg over at Daily PLM Think Tank did another good post titled PLM, Cloud, SaaS and Software Upgrades . It looks at several different software delivery trends (i.e. on-premise vs in-cloud) to really get at what I consider a major issue… enterprise PLM upgrades of highly customized environments. Here are some paraphrased thoughts I left as a comment on his post with additional comments for context. Everyone knows, upgrades can take 6-9+ months for major global PLM installations...(read more)

Carestream Health Goes with Aras for Global PLM

MarcL — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:44:00 GMT

You might have seen the PLM press today about a pretty significant win for Aras. Carestream Health, which is an international provider of medical and dental imaging systems and other complex healthcare equipment (a multi-billion dollar private equity spinout and formerly Kodak Healthcare Imaging), is replacing their outdated and highly customized global implementation of Dassault's ENOVIA MatrixOne and a whole collection of other legacy systems with Aras.

The CIO at Carestream Health, Bruce Leidal, says, "We're a progressive company and we want to work with other forward-thinking companies who can help us eliminate organizational silos and increase collaborative development to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace." He goes on to say, "In switching to Aras we now have a highly capable, global PLM platform that will allow us to consolidate other systems at will, increasing reuse and improving collaboration without continual capital investment in PLM licenses."

David Sherburne, Leader of Global R&D Effectiveness added, "We wanted a single enterprise PLM backbone for engineering, quality and regulatory compliance, tightly integrated with SAP. When compared to other PLM suppliers, Aras offered a solution unique to the industry. Our legacy platform (i.e. ENOVIA MatrixOne) was built a long time ago and we knew we didn’t have the functionality required for the future."

The deployment will be rolled out in phases to support the full product commercialization processes including global product development and supplier collaboration. More than 3,000 users worldwide will use Aras, as well as, suppliers around the world.

This is yet another example of a company that understands the benefits of a more modern and advanced solution combined with the cost advantages achieved at scale with the elimination of PLM license expenses.

The guys at Develop 3D added their own perspective (and a funny title) in Carestream Health dumps highly customised MatrixOne in favour of Aras’ Open Source PLM

What's your take? Is it time to rethink the 'blindly buy whatever the big guys sell' mentality or are only "progressive companies" like Carestream Health going to break free?

How PLM Licensing from the Major Providers "Really Works"

MarcL — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:13:00 GMT

Wanted to share this article from Fortune Magazine / CNN Money website called 'Big Software has duped us for decades'. Roger Burkhardt does a pretty good job of describing how enterprise software licensing actually works... I've included some excerpts and added a few reader comments as well. The article starts off by telling us something few know, but that everyone should: "Here's how the software business really works... "Big Software Goliaths (think PTC, Siemens, et al...(read more)

Should We Spend Millions on PLM Software?

MarcL — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:21:00 GMT

Was reading Managing Automation’s blog The Edge by Jeff Moad and he poses the question, “ Where Did All the Big Software Deals Go? ” Jeff says: …lingering reluctance on the part of manufacturers to commit to significant technology purchases contradicts a core argument made over and over again by vendors of enterprise software: That, by enabling automation and other process improvements, purchasing and successfully implementing enterprise software saves manufacturers money...(read more)

Should I use Aras Innovator for Source Code Control?

Peter Schroer — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:43:00 GMT

I am frequently asked whether PLM or specifically Aras Innovator, can be or should be used for software development. Here's an answer I emailed in response to this morning's inquiry. Aras Corp uses Innovator internally for nearly everything except the basic accounting functions of payroll, accounts payable and accounts receivables, and we do not use Innovator for the daily check-in, check-out and build of the software development process. At Aras Corp, we use CVS as our software repository...(read more)

PLM Summit Highlights Best Practice Strategies

MarcL — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:56:00 GMT

So, last week Aras was at the PLM Summit 2009 in Miami Fla. This conference appears to be emerging as the thought leadership event for global enterprise PLM strategies. I was impressed (again) by the cross-industry line-up of speakers and the breadth of topics.

Here’s a sampling of some of the sessions I thought were particularly informative:
Knowledge-based Lean Product Development – by Ron Marsiglio, former President of Teledyne Benthos
PLM Roadmaps for Sustainable Implementations – by Abram Walton, Ph.D.(c), M.S. Purdue University, PLM Center of Excellence
Strategies to Move from an Engineering-centric PDM system to an Enterprise PLM Solution – by Andreas Lindenthal, President of Metafore
New Thinking: Conquering Tough Economic Times with PLM – by Dr. Michael W. Grieves
What’s Next for PLM? Crystal Ball Perspectives from the Innovators and Visionaries of the PLM Industry – Panel Discussion (I wasn’t on the panel, but you probably already know what my prediction is… open source PLM)

And there were many other interesting topics as well… as a PLM junky, I found it difficult to pick which sessions to attend when the conference split into two tracks… especially since Aras was a sponsor and I also needed to be available to provide demos and talk with people about how the advanced Aras PLM software solutions can help their business.

It’s clear that even in these difficult times, companies large and small are pressing ahead with their PLM initiatives. Problem for many is that their budgets have been cut and the big PLM license expenses required by the major PLM vendors is a significant obstacle. Am guessing that’s why we were so busy at the conference. People want a more modern and cost effective approach to rolling out PLM enterprise-wide: Skip the PLM license costs, go straight to solving business problems with Aras.

I have to admit that my favorite presentation was Ron Marsiglio’s overview of how his team at Teledyne implemented Lean Product Development. This is of course a topic that is particularly near and dear to my heart and one which I feel is not well understood, particularly how PLM supports these types of efforts. Also, thought that Fred Bellio from Mercury Marine has some particularly insightful comments as well.

Was disappointed though that I wasn’t able to make it down in time for the Sikorsky plant tour. John Carty from Aras partner CMC Systems went and told me that the tour was really informative. I always like a good plant tour… but then who doesn’t.

If you missed part of the conference or weren’t able to make it at all, then here’s some good news… the PLM Summit people do something called a Virtual Conference interactive CD-ROM which includes all the presentation slides and audio recordings of speakers and Q&A sessions. It’s almost like you were there.

They’ve even offered to give people from the Aras community a discount on the CD.

PLM Summit
Virtual Conference interactive CD-ROM
http://www.plmnorthamerica.com/virtualconference.asp

Special Aras Community Discount: $500 (Normally $750)
Just Use this Booking Code: ARA-MKT

I understand that they’re going to do another PLM Summit conference next year in the fall. Will have to stay tuned to the PLM Summit web site for more details. I know I’ll be there.

What’s your take? Were the conference sessions informative? Did you pick up some useful tips for your PLM strategy? Or were you too busy shooting a round of golf on the famous Doral course? (if so, don't worry, we won't say a word :-)

PLM Licensing Must Change

MarcL — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:30:00 GMT

This month’s Desktop Engineering has an editorial by Peter Schroer, Aras President and Founder, about the impact of the recession on product development and engineering at global corporations. The implications range from the need for new products that will fuel the recovery and strengthen competitiveness to the requirements for greater collaboration and control across the enterprise. At the heart of both issues lies the problem with PLM software solution licensing. Peter describes the situation...(read more)

DEMO Recording of Latest Aras PLM Release

MarcL — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:03:00 GMT

Our new open download of the Aras enterprise PLM software suite is the latest in the series of feature-packed releases (some openly available while others are subscriber-only like Service Packs, Security Updates, Hot Fixes, etc) has been up on the site for a bit. This one is a major release that incorporates dozens of corporate community contributions constituting hundreds of innovative features and enhancements which I thought would be good to show off. So, did a DEMO recording with a full overview...(read more)