galderson - Wednesday, February 8, 2012 1:13 PM:
Hello Community,
We are currently in the evaluation process with Innovator and would love to hear some feedback from customers using the product. Specifically, I would like to hear any general feedback in regards to the product engineering functionality (part and bom management with associated document management / engineering change process).
Anyone using Innovator with an SAP connector? Any comments regarding Innovator versus SAP or PTC products? What about the comparison of costs and level of effort for implementation and support of Innovator versus other tools you've encountered?
I appreciate any feedback. Thank you!
CharlieR - Thursday, February 9, 2012 10:13 AM:
We have been using the project management section for some time now and are very happy with it. We have created multiple project templates for our most common workflows but have the flexibility to tailor a projecty for any special circumstances. The system makes linking documents, parts, etc, into the project easy also.
Our manufacturing department uses the ECN system for controlling the drawings and BOMs and it works well for them. As with projects, they were able to tailor an ECN flow specific to their process.
Overall I'd say Innovator does a great job of controllin the flow of a process and linking everything together whlle allowing flexibiltiy in defining the process.
I don't have any experienc with SAP or PTC so can't make any comparisons.
itzsteve - Friday, February 24, 2012 1:30 PM:
Hello,
We are from a manufacturing company in the automotive sector and we recently evaluated Aras Innovator as a solution for managing our part structure (BOM) as well as our supplier development processes. Our short POC showed that Aras is very capable of managing our engineering BOM (~50,000 parts with all variations for a model) and offers several out-of-the-box functions, like the ability to compare two design change levels of a part, that were helpful. The muti-level part structure browser is very slick and details the level 1, 2, 3... parts in a way that is easy for anyone to understand. We experimented with transferring some of our development forms into Aras using the form building function and also tested some of Innovator's standard forms with attached engineering documents. Aras Innovator performed well in both of these instances.
We do not use SAP, so I cannot say how Aras Innovator compares to the other products you mentioned. As someone else in the thread mentioned, Aras has a very attractive benefit in that it can be implemented for a lower cost than other PLM solutions. Of course, it's important to consider how you will maintain the system (internal or Aras subscription) when you're looking at total cost to implement, especially when you might have some customization required.
I hope this helps and good luck with your activity!
ckapell - Tuesday, February 14, 2012 4:56 PM:
