Aras User Blog

Aras Community Network - Winter 2008 Asia

2008-12-30T22:42:00Z

In December the Aras Community Network had two events in Taiwan organized by Broadway Consulting Services and sponsored by National Formosa University, Cardinal Tien College, and Microsoft. The sessions were conducted in Taipei and Taichung.

Over 80 people came to each session to learn about the enterprise open source solutions for PLM and how Aras is being applied to different business processes such as PLM in High Tech Electronics for global new product development and introduction (NPDI). A particularly interesting session covered the custom application of Aras as a comprehensive Food Traceability System that tracks ingredients at every step in the supply chain for quality and integrity.

Company presentations also covered training and implementation approaches to ensure roll-out success and how to break a project into phases. There were several partner presentations as well covering collaborative development initiatives. PLM-ERP integration was particularly well attended.

Overall, the sessions were a great success and participants learned a lot and made new connections. If you're interested in learning more about these ACN sessions check out the post on the BCS site

http://210.192.34.27/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=120&Itemid=2

How ARAS works?

2008-11-19T09:55:00Z

Hi,

I am new to ARAS and trying to understand the functionalities which ARAS provides.Is there any document which tell in detail how the product can be used.As I am undergoing hit n trial; that takes a lot of time and at EOD you are not sure whether you will get the result what is expected.For example:I dont understand what is the role of form?How and where they are being used?

If anyone has an idea, Please help me out.

Thanks

Aras Community Network - Fall 2008 Europe

2008-10-31T01:15:00Z

Download >>> PLM SLIDES

The Aras community has really grown internationally over the past year and on October 17th we held the first European community event to get people together, collaborate, and share. Once again Microsoft stepped up and provided us with a great venue in Munich Germany for the sessions.

Compelling Vision

Martin Allemann, Aras VP for EMEA, provided everyone with an overview of how the open model delivers both business benefits (Freedom from Licensing, No Capital Necessary) and innovation advantages for companies of all sizes. He explained how the internationalization in Aras Innovator Version 9 gives companies that operate in many different countries and regions multi-language collaboration for more effective new product development.

He also provided a compelling explanation of the advanced SOA for PLM and how companies across industries can leverage the flexibility to satisfy specific competitive business practices; global workflows, compliance rules, and much more. He really set a progressive tone for how businesses throughout Europe and around the world have a proven way to advance business objectives using the enterprise open approach with Aras.

Freudenberg Provides Validation of Success

Freudenberg Group, the largest private manufacturer in Germany with over €5 billion Euro in annual revenues, shared with the community their experience rolling out Aras Innovator to over 26 sites across Europe. Freudenberg has been synonymous with innovation and quality excellence for over a century, and the company strives to achieve a zero error philosophy at all levels of the supply chain. Freudenberg is using Aras as the basis for their strategic new product development quality process they call APQP2. Today, Freudenberg is continuing to expand the Aras deployment worldwide and they explained their strategy for the future.

Prof. Dr. Martin Eigner Explains the Future of PLM

Keynote speaker Prof. Dr. Martin Eigner, the renowned strategic PLM thought leader, Professor at the Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, and founder of Eigner+Partner [acquired by Agile / Oracle] covered his perspective and research on the future of PLM. He makes a strong, data driven case that the days of “do it all at once” PLM initiatives are gone, and that future projects will be incrementally oriented. Deployments will target strategic processes one-by-one, so that PLM business value can be achieve more quickly. The Aras open model and SOA approach embody this new reality providing an ideal means of attaining a real Return On Investment [ROI] much more quickly than previously possible.

Prof. Dr. Eigner also explained how meaningful product development management metrics like time to market and new product profitability measurements will increasingly be important. The ability to deploy actionable PLM dashboards and scorecards is a new requirement that must be satisfied to demonstrate product innovation success and justify new product development investments.

There was significant depth to Prof. Dr. Eigner's findings and conclusions, and I am surely not doing his research justice... its just that my German is not really that good (that's being generous :-) We will have to get him to post a guest blog that provides additional insight at some point in the future.

Collaborate, Connect, Learn

Throughout the community event there was a lot of interaction between the participants and Rolf Laudenbach from Aras provided an overview of the latest solution capabilities and community contributions. It was a great opportunity for everyone to make new connections, share, and learn. All in all it was an outstanding event and an excellent way to kick-off the Aras Community Network in Europe! ... If you couldn't make this one, we look forward to seeing you next time!

Pictures from the throughout the day

Networking Over Breakfast

Enterprise Open Source PLM

Prof. Dr. Eigner Explains the Future of PLM

Download >>> PLM SLIDES

Aras Community Network - Spring 2008 Highlights

2008-05-13T21:19:00Z

Download >>> ALL SLIDES

On Wednesday, May 7th, we had our most recent Aras Community Network event in the Chicago-land area. This time around we've out grown last year's site, and had trouble getting a venue large enough to fit everyone. Luckily Microsoft stepped up and was generous enough host the event so there was plenty of room. Good thing too, because we had people from all over the world come!

Peter Get's Things Rolling!

We kicked off the day with Peter providing an update and talking about collaborative innovation. It's impossible not to get charged up when you start the morning with this much passion and intensity!

Over 10,000 enterprise system downloads, more than 30 corporate community projects, new product enhancements, and really exciting contributions from companies like Motorola, Lockheed Martin, Freudenberg, and numerous others.

The idea multiplier effect of having lots of companies participate on solutions to complex business process issues they are all facing is surfacing innovative approaches that are unlikely to come from a single company. This is the power of the open approach. This is what provides an order of magnitude greater innovation over other enterprise software packages companies have been using in the past. This is why "open" is better, period.

ACCO Brands Explains How Innovation & Time to Market Drive Global Growth

With over $2 billion in global sales from products like Swingline, Kensington, Wilson Jones, Quartet, and Rexel, ACCO Brands is focused on increasing global market share with innovative new products that they bring to market much more quickly. A key component of their business strategy relies on Aras Innovator to provide better access to the information people need in Europe, Asia or the US, whether in their office or on the road, including suppliers overseas.

Then, by combining collaboration with online workflow processes like their product change process and the Supplier Corrective Action Request (SCAR) process they are able to manage new product development and introduction more effectively around the world and throughout their global supply chain.

ACCO outlined how Aras gives them the ability to capture new ideas and concepts for the next big thing and provides the structure to get the job done quickly without miscommunications or mistakes.

Download >>> ACCO Brands Slides

XEROX Outlines Business Confidence Through Advanced SOA Approach with Aras

A broad vision for end-to-end enterprise PLM across the lifecycle combined with complex process and integration requirements is driving the Xerox strategy while the practical realities of today's economy are shaping their approach. Today, Xerox is the $17 billion leader in document management with products that span from color and black-and-white printing systems, laser and solid ink network printers, copiers, fax machines, and multifunction devices to "book factories" and digital publishing presses.

The company has a series of large systems already in place that the business relies on such as Teamcenter, PTC Windchill, and Oracle for ERP. Instead of trying to replace existing applications, Xerox is taking a different approach. They explained how they're using the Aras Innovator for business process management workflows and taking advantage of the advanced service-oriented architecture (SOA) to integrate with and wrap around other systems. That way Xerox is able to use the flexibility of the Aras workflows to automate their complex processes, starting with global change management, and tie in information from the other systems as needed without a lot of complicated programming.

Xerox describes this as a "connected" vs. "holistic" approach where they leverage the strengths of each system together to provide user friendly processes that are also easily maintained. They also provided an excellent example of how they have approached the enterprise evaluation, pilot proof of concept, and rollout for Aras Innovator.

Download >>> XEROX Slides

Esterline Aerospace & Defense Describes Corporate Transformation using Aras

Esterline is a global aerospace and defense company with $1.2 billion in annual revenues and over 10,000 employees around the world. Their strategy focuses on high-end industrial markets with growth driven through the acquisition of niche technology leaders. One of those businesses is BVR Technologies Company which is an emerging leader in advanced motion control and avionics products for aerospace, medical, and industrial automation applications. BVR has been operating with paper-based processes and email for years, and needed to automate their product information and processes to support their high growth and scale the business effectively.

BVR showed how they implemented their BOMs, parts with classification for electrical, mechanical, software, and firmware, as well as specifications, procedures, and other documents along with CAD integration for SolidWorks with no central IT support and a busy schedule. "We just laid out a plan, started, and kept going." They attribute the progress and results over the past year to a 'can do' attitude which was evident.

They are taking advantage of the open approach with future initiatives that involve community solutions for quality management and during the presentation one of the audience members offered to share and post their new additions to the meeting manager solution which BVR is planning to use!

Download >>> Esterline Slides

Second Annual Collaborate & Contribute Awards Presentation

We were proud to present the annual Collaborate & Contribute award to three corporate community members for their significant contributions over the past year.

Hayes Lemmerz International received the award for the modular process planner improvement to the quality planning solution which makes it easy to reuse common operations across PPAP documentation structures.

Broadway Consulting Services got the award for translating Aras Innovator into Traditional Chinese (Mandarin) and Simplified Chinese.

Freudenberg in Germany received the award for their work on the Meeting Manager solution, one of the most popular community solutions.

In the afternoon we had an overview of the Aras Innovator solution direction and discussed a variety of collaborative community projects, partner add-on solutions, and new improvements!

Of course there is no requirement to contribute back to the community, however, it's clear that everyone recognizes the benefits and that more collaboration and resulting contributions provide advantages for the entire corporate community. People discussed their company's business initiatives and where and how they plan to collaborate, there are many options for participation:

Ideas, Concepts, Innovations
Specifications, Documentation, and Use Cases
Development, Testing & Verification
Sharing Your Story, Blog Posts, Contribute to Forums

During the breakout sessions a wide range of topics was covered including integration connectors for ERP and CAD systems. Partners were the most active corporate community members in the integration area providing commercial solution add-ons to Aras Innovator.

xPLM discussed ERP integration strategies for SAP, Oracle, and Infor systems and touched on their CAD adaptors for CATIA, NX, and PRO/E. Several different approaches were discussed for CAD integration ranging from Design2Enterprise's 'publish upon release' format to ICP's managing 'work in process' with deep CAD data extraction capabilities.

Download >>> xPLM ERP & CAD Integration Slides

Download >>> ICP CAD Integration Slides

Download >>> Design2Enterprise CAD Integration Slides

Other breakouts included the collaborative project for managing Bill of Materials complexity with Variants & Options presented by The GSI Group, and an overview of the open model approach. On the technical track Bill provided insights into optimizing for global deployments and the internationalization capabilities in Version 9.

Download >>> GSI Slides on BOM Variants & Options

Download >>> Open Model Advantages Slides

Download >>> Version 9 Internationalization Capabilities

Download >>> Technical Considerations for Global Deployment Optimization

With the day behind us we all went over to the reception at the Westin! This year's Aras Community Network turned out to be a great opportunity for members to meet in person, discuss collaboration, and learn about the latest innovations.

Thanks to everyone for coming! ...and if you couldn't make it this time we hope you can join us for the next one!

Delphi Makes Change Management Solution Contribution

2007-08-30T01:28:00Z

Recently notable enterprise community member Delphi made a significant solution project contribution for everyone interested in CMII configuration & change management.

Like many other organizations, Delphi recognizes that it is quite difficult to get a complete & accurate impact analysis on proposed engineering changes.

What Delphi has done is develop a method for ensuring a thorough change review that includes both a process & algorithm for Affected Items analysis. The method identifies parts, assemblies, documents, tools, and other important items that require review for design change impact.

Delphi was going to patent the method, however, after further consideration they have opted to donate it to the community in the true spirit of openness so that all companies can benefit.

Delphi implemented the method in Aras Innovator as Microsoft enterprise open source making it a valuable free add-on. An additional benefit is that by using Aras the Affected Items Wizard can be used to complement and extend a company’s existing PDM, PLM or ERP system.

Any company that is looking for a better way to manage the change process will recognize how the Delphi contribution results in:

· A step-by-step way to perform comprehensive change analysis

· Logs audit trail of decisions made, who made, and when

Check out the Affected Items Wizard and help your company manage changes more effectively.

Affected Items Wizard >> Download Here

http://aras.com/Community/files/folders/solution_add-ons/entry25.aspx

FMEA Risk Management Short Demo

2007-07-25T15:25:00Z

People regularly ask about the benefits of using a database-driven software solution (as opposed to a desktop system like FMEA-Pro) for Failure Mode & Effects Analysis [FMEA] risk management, and about the powerful features in the Aras Quality Planning solution for FMEAs that are not available in any other package.

The Aras Quality Planning solution with FMEAs is the direct result of collaborative development with Delphi. Delphi’s progressive approach to risk management is an extension of the basic FMEA methodology to include these key features:

FMEA Libraries – Online libraries provide a knowledge base of previous findings and lessons learned from field failures, previous designs, reliability testing results, and customer complaints. Failure modes, effects, causes, and preventative measures, as well as, standard criteria descriptions for Severity, Occurrence, and Probability to Detect are all collected in a single location and organized by product family. When a FMEA is being done for a new product or a redesign, previous related items are preloaded for faster more comprehensive completion and consistent categories enable better analysis.

FMEA, Process Flow Diagram, Control Plan Association – Unlike desktop applications and spreadsheets all three quality planning documents are inherently associated in the Aras solution. So, when a line item is added to one of the documents it is automatically added to the others as well ensuring that these important documents always remain synchronized. The business benefits include more consist compliance and better risk mitigation.

FMEA Action Items – As opposed to a system that one person uses alone, the Aras FMEAs are based on an enterprise system that enables team collaboration and visibility, and includes Action Items for closed-loop risk management. As priority areas of Risk are identified [high RPN] actions with deadline dates are assigned to specific people. An email alert notifies the responsible person and the related activities are recorded in the Aras solution to ensure that the risk has been mitigated.

Ease of Use – Intuitive screens and superior usability make the Aras FMEAs easier to use than any other system on the market.

These key features along with many more provide a robust risk management approach unlike any other system available, and of course the same Aras solutions developed with Delphi are available for download and use at no charge.

To see the Aras FMEAs and other quality-related PLM capabilities attend one of our live webcasts

Webcast: FMEA Risk Management

2007-07-18T22:47:00Z

On Tuesday July 17th we held another webcast with Angelo Scangas, President of QSG, covering the important aspects of Failure Mode & Effects Analysis [FMEAs] for effective risk management to reduce liability and achieve compliance.

Pre-recorded On Demand Webcast: FMEA Risk Management for Today’s Business Environment

Download Slides: http://www.aras.com/blogs/DocumentView.aspx?file=FMEA-Risk-Management-QSG-Aras-070717.pdf

Topics Covered in Webcast:

Learn about the principles of risk management planning in developing procedures and practices to analyze, evaluate and control risks
Understand the application of the risk analysis to mitigate product risks and reduce product warranty recalls and liability
Learn to apply the FMEA risk analysis methodology for your business
Develop the principles of risk management planning and create procedures and practices to analyze, evaluate and control risks
Understand the different industry expectations such as reporting requirements for automotive customers and regulatory requirements for medical devices as covered by EN ISO 14971 “Medical devices - application of risk management to medical devices”
Hands-on approach to FMEAs and a case study on implementation
Risk priority metrics for risk identification

Speaker Bio:

Angelo Scangas

President, QSG

Angelo@QualitySupportGroup.com

Angelo Scangas, specializes in quality process improvement, Lean Six Sigma, and ISO certification consulting. Angelo's extensive consulting and training experience include advanced product quality planning, FMEA, problem solving, internal auditing, project management, and SPC.

Angelo is a member of the ASQ Quality Management and Automotive Divisions, as well as AIAG, serving as a Certified AIAG, IAOB and RAB-Lead Auditor.

http://www.qualitysupportgroup.com/

Structural Concepts Workflow Demo Recording

2007-06-15T18:33:00Z

Structural Concepts Corporation has grown by more than 30% over the past 2 years and has used the Aras solutions to scale the business by extending their existing Aras implementation for PLM to include sales order configuration and manufacturing process planning.

Structural is a midsized US-based business with over 30 years of expertise designing and building innovative temperature controlled display cases. The company is a leader in providing foodservice, supermarket and convenience store operators such as Starbucks, Wal*Mart, Hilton Hotels, and Safeway with specialized products designed to merchandise grab 'n go products, bakery, deli, floral, produce and other specialty foods and perishables. Structural's products are engineer to order [ETO] and configure to order [CTO] based on a series of standard platforms.

Structural has used Aras to grow their business significantly by cutting order to delivery time by 50% and increasing productivity and new product engineering throughput for improved customer responsiveness to win new business. In addition, they have incorporated Lean into product development to streamline preparation for manufacturing and ensure operations readiness.

Structural also recently won the Progressive Manufacturer of the Year Award by Managing Automation for their use of Aras and the business results achieved.

Demo recording by Viktor Anderson, Director of Engineering for Structural Concepts, has been moved. To see the Aras workflows for PLM attend one of our live webcasts.

Webcast: APQP Secrets to Success

2007-06-14T20:45:00Z

On Wednesday June 13th we held a webcast with Angelo Scangas, President of QSG, covering key considerations to implement APQP effectively that will determine process success and product launch performance.

Pre-recorded On Demand Webcast: APQP Secrets to Success

Download Slides: http://www.aras.com/blogs/DocumentView.aspx?file=APQP-Secrets-to-Success-QSG-Aras-070613.pdf

Topics Covered in Webcast:

· How to align APQP phases with company specific development practices

· Developing APQP project templates for different new product processes

· Identifying important product development deliverables

· Integrating compliance requirements with customer specific activities

· Achieving standardization and improvements with FMEAs, Control Plans, and Process Flow Diagrams

· Hands-on approach to APQP program management and status reporting

· Measuring Key Performance Indicator (KPI) metrics for launch performance

Speaker Bio:

Angelo Scangas

President, QSG

Angelo@QualitySupportGroup.com

Angelo is a member of the ASQ Quality Management and Automotive Divisions, as well as AIAG, serving as a Certified AIAG, IAOB and RAB-Lead Auditor.

www.QualitySupportGroup.com

Aras Highlights Workflow at Software 2007

2007-05-17T01:31:00Z

At the recent Software 2007 conference, an International event showcasing the latest proven software solutions for the enterprise, the Aras online Workflow (view demo recording) was a major attraction as we performed demonstrations of the Microsoft enterprise open source solutions.

The conference had nearly 2,000 attendees and featured keynote speakers including Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft; Hasso Plattner, Chairman of SAP; Mark Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com; and Ed Zander, CEO of Motorola. Aras was part of the Microsoft pavilion and conducted live demos of the system generating quite a buzz. Groups of people were coming over saying, “I hear your solution has really great advanced online workflow functionality for business process management.”

I suppose we take easy-to-use, flexible workflow for granted because its part of our system. It was refreshing to receive so much positive feedback and interest. Here’s a summary of the things in the Aras online workflow that got people energized at the conference:

· Robust Functionality – Both simple and complicated workflow capability for branching, looping, parallel flows, sub-flows, relationships, and integration with other systems

· Intuitive Screens – Simple for end users with email notifications and hyperlinks to relevant information

· Attachments – Ability to route forms, files, and business items through business processes online such as review & approval, customer / supplier input, and regulatory compliance

· Graphical Workflow – Process diagram maps for overall visibility and status

· Audit Trail – Actions conducted during the process are recorded and easily accessible

· Security – Need-to-know style permissions that can be set to restrict access enabling customer, supplier, and partner participation with visibility limited to only relevant information

· Flexibility – Real-time, drag & drop graphical customization of the actual workflow without complex programming

The Aras Innovator open source download includes out-of-the-box workflows, as well as, the ability to easily edit existing workflows, extending processes, or create entirely new workflows without programming.

Of course aside from the extensive functionality, people at the conference really got exciting about the Aras solution’s online workflows when they heard that Aras is delivered as Microsoft enterprise open source making the software freely available with complete access for unlimited users all at no charge.

We hope you get excited as well and of course you can download now for your company!

Also, as a promotion at the conference Aras held a drawing for a premium bottle of wine from Rubicon Estates. The 2002 Rubicon Rutherford is an excellent vintage and is considered a landmark release for the winery. It received a Wine Enthusiast rating of 98! The lucky winner was Clive Boulton from Exact Software.

Giving away the Rubicon was significant to Aras because of the underlying association – Crossing the Rubicon means one has ‘passed the point of no return’ and for Aras this equates directly to moving from a proprietary software model to a free open source model delivering unmatched benefits to enterprise customers through our innovative software and the open source format.