CONTACT Elements module enables early production planning

CONTACT Software is adding a new PLM application to its portfolio. With CONTACT Elements Work Plan, product development provides the work preparation at an early stage with data on how and with what a product is to be manufactured. This enables companies to plan the production process in advance, set up their equipment, and react fast even to last-minute changes.

Both series and contract manufacturers are under more enormous time and cost pressure than ever. Everything has to run smoothly in the globally distributed production plants in order to meet the shorter delivery deadlines and avoid expensive conversions during ongoing operations. Many companies thus rely on the strategy of “frontloading” in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).  CONTACT Elements Work Plan is a solution that supports this.

“A large part of the costs are determined in the R&D department,” explains Dr. Jérémy Bonvoisin, Product Manager PLM at CONTACT Software. “Therefore, it is of great benefit to the manufacturing industry if as much knowledge as possible about the product is collected here and made available for downstream processes at an early stage.” With CONTACT Elements Work Plan, companies get an application that smooths the transition from design to manufacturing, directly impacting on-time production starts.

In the PLM system, the work plans are linked to the relevant data (© CONTACT Software)

CONTACT’s new solution enables product development to create work plans in the PLM system that describe step by step the sequential, parallel and alternative manufacturing processes for an assembly or product. A major advantage of the Work Plan application is that the plans are directly linked to the relevant mBOMs, drawings, 3D models, specifications, guidelines and other documents.

The CONTACT Elements platform automatically transfers work plans, assembly instructions, and tooling information to ERP and MES systems, where they are fed with other manufacturing-related data. This ensures that procurement processes are triggered in time, work preparation can adapt the production environment to specific plants, and that a detailed sequence plan is available at each workplace.

The integration of production planning into product development also pays off when new customer requirements must be met shortly before start of production. CONTACT Elements Work Plan, in interaction with the CIM Database PLM xBOM Manager, supports the secure transport of constructive BOM changes and coordinated work plans to the ERP and MES instances. In this way, companies are able to quickly reschedule their production processes and execute the production orders on time.

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. Our 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. Our open technology and Elements platform are ideal for integrating additional IT systems and the Internet of Things to create end-to-end business processes.