Category Archives: PLM

EIZO Selects Aras Innovator to Create Digital Thread

between Development, Manufacturing

ANDOVER, MA, Feb 28, 2024 – Aras, a leader in product lifecycle management and digital thread solutions, today announced that EIZO, a visual technology company that develops and manufactures high-end visual solutions, is using Aras Innovator to successfully create a digital thread between development and manufacturing – enabling more streamlined, cost-effective, and adaptable processes. As a result, EIZO will be able to track products and their digital assets across the entire product lifecycle.

EIZO’s integrated approach to planning, development, production, and quality control is the foundation for its success. To achieve an integrated in-house system, end-to-end management of information from product development through to manufacturing is crucial. However, existing product data management (PDM) functions left the company unable to develop add-ons for use with Engineering Change Requests and Change Orders (ECR/ECO) and enterprise resource planning (ERP).

EIZO selected Aras Innovator as its new product lifecycle management (PLM) solution, in large part because it offered:

  • Open and Adaptable: Aras Innovator offers an open platform, which enables users to expand functionality themselves. Users can easily adapt as needed and evolve over time.
  • Seamless implementation: EIZO was able to transition from its old system to Aras smoothly, without impacting business operations or causing friction for employees.
  • Consolidated and streamlined workflows: EIZO can now fully track products and their digital assets from concept stage through design, manufacturing, proof-of-concept and service, providing visibility across the entire product lifecycle.
  • A clearly defined subscription model: Aras Innovator subscriptions are based on the actual number of users. Having a defined structure makes it easier for EIZO to project costs.

To learn more about how Aras Innovator is helping EIZO bridge product development and manufacturing with the digital thread, read the full case study.

Ryosuke Koizumi, IT platform development section manager, EIZO, said: “Aras Innovator is working exactly as we originally envisioned, right down to the ease of linking data together and referencing links. The way it enables data connectivity directly to machines to reflect product specs and requirements at the push of a button represents the ultimate digital thread, the ultimate mass customization. Aras Innovator has provided the foundations for us to realize that new world.”

Masahiko Hisatsugo, president of Aras Japan, Aras, said: “Companies like EIZO must have complete visibility across the entire product lifecycle. One of the main reasons EIZO chose Aras Innovator was because of the overriding goal of creating a foundation for data exchange. They now have a complete flow of information from upstream and downstream in one place.”

About Aras

Aras is a leading provider of product lifecycle management and digital thread solutions. Its technology enables the rapid delivery of flexible solutions built on a powerful digital thread backbone and a low-code development platform. Aras’ platform and product lifecycle management applications connect users in all disciplines and functions to critical product data and processes across the lifecycle and throughout the extended supply chain.

Visit www.aras.com to learn more.

SteepGraph Appoints Rade Zrilic as Chief Executive Officer

SteepGraph, a leading provider of system integration services specializing in product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions, has announced the appointment of Rade Zrilic as its new chief executive officer, effective March 1, 2024.

With an impressive background in PLM, Rade brings nearly 30 years of experience in driving technological innovation and strategic growth. Prior to joining SteepGraph, Rade held several key leadership positions at TECHNIA and Dassault Systemes, where he successfully led large-scale digital transformation projects and fostered strong partnerships within the industry.

“Rade’s track record of visionary leadership and profound expertise in PLM and system integration makes him the ideal leader to propel SteepGraph into its next chapter. We are confident that Rade will not only enhance our capabilities but also drive significant growth, innovation, and value for our clients and stakeholders.” says Himanshu Zalavadiya,
chairperson of the Board at SteepGraph,

Rade’s appointment comes at a pivotal time for SteepGraph as it seeks to expand its market presence and enhance its service offerings in the rapidly evolving PLM space. He will focus on leveraging cutting-edge technologies, enhancing operational efficiencies, and building a customer-centric culture to meet the growing demands of the industry.

“I am thrilled to join the talented team at SteepGraph and to have the opportunity to lead this exceptional organization. The potential for growth and innovation in the PLM sector is immense, and I look forward to working closely with our clients, partners, and employees to drive transformative solutions that deliver real value.” says Rade Zrilic, CEO of SteepGraph.

Under Rade’s leadership, SteepGraph is poised to strengthen its position as a leader in PLM system integration, delivering comprehensive and innovative solutions that enable businesses to optimize their product lifecycle processes and achieve sustainable growth.

About SteepGraph

SteepGraph is a leading system integration company specializing in providing end-to-end PLM solutions to businesses across various industries. With a focus on innovation, excellence, and customer satisfaction, SteepGraph delivers cutting-edge technology solutions that empower organizations to streamline their operations, enhance product development, and maximize efficiency throughout the product lifecycle.

For more information about SteepGraph and its services, please visit www.steepgraph.com.

Gordini Selects Centric PLM

CAMPBELL, CA, Feb 22, 2024 – Centric Software, the product lifecycle management (PLM) market leader, is pleased to announce that Gordini, the glove and goggle company, has selected Centric PLM to drive efficiency and growth. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products such as fashion, outdoor, luxury, multi-category retail, grocery, food & beverage, cosmetics & personal care and consumer electronics to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Founded in 1956 and based in Vermont, Gordini’s mission is to keep hands warm and dry so people can stay outside longer. Gordini and its family of brands specialize in outdoor gear including gloves, socks, face protection, base layers and goggles. The products are sold through a variety of retail outlets as well as via online retailers and through their own website.

Gordini invested in the Centric PLM platform to strategically build out the systems, policies, and tools to capture and analyze sourcing and product information in order to make more informed decisions in the quest to build the most responsible product.

Eric Gaisser joined Gordini less than a year ago in Glove Development. He shares his thoughts upon starting at Gordini. “For me, coming in from a company that had a PLM, I was very eager to help implement this software so we could level up our specification detail and development process.”

The company looked at a few PLM vendors but ultimately chose Centric PLM. The Adobe Connect functionality which enables designers to work without leaving their preferred environment while still being connected to Centric PLM, impressed the selection team. Says Gaisser, “That definitely won over the team; once they saw the connector in action, it brought them into the fold.”  Another factor was Gaisser’s previous positive experience with Centric while at a different organization. He also mentions the breadth of brands that have enlisted Centric Software, as social proof. In checking references, Gaisser spoke with a company that uses the same ERP as Gordini, “It was interesting to talk to them about integration. They only had good things to say about Centric Software.”

Implementation went well overall. Advantages are centralized product data like merchandising information, specifications that are sent to factories, BOMs, tech packs, design drawings, all in one accessible location. Gaisser runs down some of the other expected benefits, “We’re still in the early stages, but it’s going to get everyone speaking the same language and be more unified. For example, when you’re selecting materials out of a material library, you get consistency and efficiency. It allows us to free up the time that we used to spend making sure every data entry is accurate. Now we know the version in the libraries is the right one.”

Regarding the improvement in efficiency, Gaisser draws an analogy, gleaned from his previous experience with using Centric PLM. “Think of yourself as a carpenter and you’re used to using a hammer. And now someone hands you a nail gun— it’s a faster tool.”

Chris Groves, CEO of Centric Software says, “We are pleased that Gordini has selected Centric PLM to streamline their business processes and centralize data for one actionable source of the truth. We are thrilled to partner with them on the improvements they seek and we’ll be here to support them every step of the way on their journey.”

About Gordini

Based in Vermont and independently owned, Gordini has focused on the same mission since its founding over 65 years ago: to keep hands warm and dry so you can stay outside longer. They believe that handwear, face protection, and goggles are not merely accessories—they are equipment and should be built with intentional materials and attention to detail, where their design, test, tweak, and solve for the most demanding of conditions that their hands brave season after season. Gordini honors theirr commitment to people and the planet by focusing on innovations that solve for the challenges faced by its users and the planet.

For more information, visit www.gordini.com.

About Centric Software

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides a concept to customer solution experience for consumer goods such as fashion, outdoor, luxury, multi-category retail, grocery, food & beverage, cosmetics & personal care and consumer electronics to plan, design, develop, source, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products.

Centric Software’s flagship solution Centric PLM brings cost savings and efficiency by optimizing product execution from ideation to development, sourcing and manufacture. Centric Planning™ is an innovative, cloud-native, augmented-intelligence solution delivering end-to-end planning capabilities to maximize retail and wholesale business performance. Centric Pricing & Inventory leverages AI to drive margin and revenue improvement by influencing demand via price and inventory optimization from pre-season to in-season to season completion. Centric Market Intelligence is an AI-driven, market insight platform for data-informed decision-making on competitor offers and pricing as well as consumer trends and buying behavior. Centric Visual Boards pivot actionable data in a visual-first orientation to ensure robust, consumer-right assortments and product offers.

Centric Software has the highest user adoption rate, customer satisfaction rate and fastest time to value in the industry. Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition appears regularly in world-leading analyst reports and research.

Centric Software is a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, the world leader in 3D design software, 3D digital mock-up and PLM solutions.

For more information, visit www.centricsoftware.com. 

Johnson Matthey Selects Aras Innovator

ANDOVER, MA, Feb 20, 2024 – Aras, a leader in product lifecycle management (PLM) and digital thread solutions, announced today that Johnson Matthey (JM) has selected Aras Innovator to modernize its global PLM infrastructure and support its digital transformation strategy. Aras Innovator SaaS will be deployed as part of a multi-stage rollout beginning in the first quarter of 2024.

JM is a global leader in sustainable technologies with customers across the energy, chemicals, and automotive industries. Its customers rely on JM’s technology and expertise to decarbonize, remove harmful emissions, and improve their sustainability. Digital transformation plays a critical role in its strategy to manage the breadth and complexity of its business. Aras Innovator will be deployed as a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to replace legacy systems and integrate with the company’s existing IT infrastructure.

Aras Innovator SaaS is an open and adaptable platform for deploying PLM and digital thread solutions. Aras’ configurable application approach and low-code development tools provide the flexibility that allows organizations like JM to adapt their PLM solution to meet the specific needs of their unique business processes. Aras establishes a data backbone that integrates with the broader enterprise application ecosystem to form a digital thread facilitating collaboration and data sharing.

Roque Martin, CEO of Aras, said: “We are proud to be supporting Johnson Matthey on the company’s vision to catalyze the net-zero transition. Shifting from being document-centric to data-centric is fundamental to gaining benefit from the adoption of digital technologies across engineering and manufacturing. We look forward to helping Johnson Matthey gain better leverage from data and the benefits of digital transformation.”

Isabel Tingay, transformation program leader at JM said: “The key factors in our decision to go with Aras were the adaptability of its platform, the maturity of the SaaS solution, and the company’s understanding of our specific business challenges. Combining our data sets into a single source, from chemical formulation to build of materials, will enable improved collaboration and efficiency as we develop sustainable solutions for our customers.”

About Johnson Matthey

Johnson Matthey is a global leader in sustainable technologies. For over 200 years we’ve used advanced metals chemistry to tackle the world’s biggest challenges. Many of the world’s leading energy, chemicals and automotive companies depend on our technology and expertise to decarbonize, reduce harmful emissions, and improve their sustainability. And now, as the world faces the challenges of climate change, energy supply and resource scarcity, they’re actively providing solutions for our customers. Through inspiring science and continued innovation, they’re catalyzing the net zero transition for millions of people every day.

For more information, visit www.matthey.com.

About Aras

Aras is a leading provider of product lifecycle management and digital thread solutions. Its technology enables the rapid delivery of flexible solutions built on a powerful digital thread backbone and a low-code development platform. Aras’ platform and product lifecycle management applications connect users in all disciplines and functions to critical product data and processes across the lifecycle and throughout the extended supply chain.

Visit www.aras.com to learn more.

OpenBOM Ranked #15 by G2’s 2024 Best Software Awards

NEWTON, MA, Feb 14, 2024 – OpenBOM, a leading provider of cloud-based PDM and PLM software helping manufacturing companies to manage their digital product information organizing bill of materials and parts, inventories and managing digital thread of information across value chain connecting OEMs, contractors and suppliers, today announced it has been named to G2’s 2024 Best Software Awards, placing [#15] on the CAD and PLM top 50 list. As the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace, G2 is visited by 90 million software buyers each year. Its annual Best Software Awards rank the world’s best software companies and products based on authentic, timely reviews from real users.

OpenBOM G2 Top 50 award 2024

This is OpenBOM’s 2nd time in a row receiving a G2’s Best Software Award recognition, earning its place this year thanks to its mission to streamline product data and lifecycle management processes and enhance collaboration across global supply chains.

Oleg Shilovitsky, CEO and co-founder of OpenBOM, noted, “our goal is to help our customers quick organize their data, seamlessly integrate with engineering software and to pivot from design to production in a unique agile NPD process” Shilovitsky continued “as a result, OpenBOM connects the engineering process to the broad business process to have visibility into our sourcing demands and efforts, both short and long term.”

“B2B software buyers, just like consumers, start their purchasing journey with research,” said Sara Rossio, chief product officer at G2. “As the world’s largest software marketplace, G2 attracts more than 90 million buyers to our site each year – more than any other B2B marketplace – reaching those from companies of all sizes, in all industries. Based on their authentic feedback, we’re proud to announce the 2024 Best Software Award winners. Congratulations to the less than 1% of vendors listed on G2 who made one of our 30+ lists this year, achieving recognition driven by verified data rooted in the source that truly matters — authentic customer voice.”

OpenBOM helps agile and modern hardware manufacturing companies to set more efficient processes helping them to compete in a modern manufacturing environment. Learn more about How Bridge Appliances is Automating the Perfect Egg with OpenBOM.

“OpenBOM has helped us position the company to make the leap from R&D to production. We now have a single source of truth to keep track of supplier quotes, lead times, and other pieces of data that help us stay informed on our product costs and when we can deliver to our customers, which was a pain point while we were in development without OpenBOM. Before we had to ask for files from our engineering team, taking valuable development time away from them to dig up a drawing or supplier quote.”

“OpenBOM has delivered a worthy PLM solution which continues to innovate. I found It to be uncommonly easy to pinpoint the exact information I needed to learn, without all the fluff or related wasting any time in their training section. OpenBOM has made a new user experience undeniably comprehensive.” (Jared P – Small Business)

OpenBOM’s recognition as the top CAD and PLM provider by G2 is a testament to its commitment to providing a best-in-class product and outstanding customer service.

About OpenBOM

OpenBOM is a cloud-native digital thread platform providing PDM, PLM, and ERP capabilities that manages product data and connects manufacturers and their supply chain networks. OpenBOM streamlines product development processes for teams and supply chains. Its platform provides a centralized location for managing product data, including BOMs, engineering change orders, and supplier information. OpenBOM’s intuitive interface and powerful integrations with popular design tools such as Dassault Systemes Solidworks, Autodesk Fusion360, PTC Onshape and others, have earned it high marks from customers across a range of industries. OpenBOM’s headquartered is in the Boston, MA area. OpenBOM is a wholly-owned and branded product of Newman Cloud, Inc.

For more information, visit www.openbom.com.

BEKO TECHNOLOGIES Selects CIM Database PLM

BREMEN, Germany, Feb 14, 2024 – BEKO TECHNOLOGIES is implementing a globally consistent project management system with CIM Database PLM. The company utilizes standardized end-to-end processes to manage the development of its products for compressed air treatment in a quick, efficient, and traceable manner.

Heavy machinery: Assembly of a CLEARPOINT compressed air filter. (© BEKO TECHNOLOGIES)

Compressed air is essential in many industries, including mechanical engineering, medical technology, or the food industry. The quality requirements vary significantly depending on the application. BEKO TECHNOLOGIES offers customized solutions for compressed air treatment. To map processes amid increasing levels of customization  and complexity, the company is introducing CONTACT Software’s CIM Database.

Using CONTACT’s low-code platform, BEKO TECHNOLOGIES significantly reduces administrative efforts in cross-location projects. Workflows and templates guide employees through processes, decreasing their workload and accelerating projects. At the same time, optimized resource planning increases employee satisfaction. The project status can be easily tracked at any time, while high data quality reduces errors and provides a solid basis for decision-making. In addition to the unified data pool, CONTACT’s solution stands out with its multi-CAD interface, ensuring consistent data across various applications. The integrated SAP interface enables BEKO TECHNOLOGIES to implement seamless business processes at all locations worldwide, streamlining collaboration across different departments. The adoption of uniform standards also allows for continuous process improvement.

“With CIM Database PLM, we achieve a high level of standardization while benefiting from maximum flexibility,” says Stefan Kampfer, Technical Project Manager Product Development at BEKO TECHNOLOGIES. Looking ahead, the company is considering expanding its business model with smart services based on CONTACT Elements for IoT and connecting additional locations outside of Europe.

With six production sites and 15 sales units in Europe, Asia, and North America, BEKO TECHNOLOGIES is one of the world’s leading companies in compressed air and gas technology. With more than 600 employees, the group generated a revenue of 140 million euros in 2023.

About CONTACT Software

CONTACT is the leading vendor of open standard software and open source pioneer for the product engineering process and the digital transformation. Their products make it easier to organize projects, execute processes reliably and collaborate with others around the world on the basis of virtual product models and their digital twins. Their open technology and Elements platform are ideal for integrating additional IT systems and the Internet of Things to create end-to-end business processes.

For more information, visit website.