Vykor launches Engineered Parts Management solutions to integrate time, cost, supplier information into sourcing process
Farnborough, England — July 20, 2004 — Software provider Vykor today debuted its Engineered Parts Management (EPM) offering, which combines software, subscription-based content and professional services intended to help companies define a manufacturing model, use the model to quantify the impact of design features on cost and delivery time, and qualify supplier capabilities to ensure the part is built in the right manufacturing environment.
As Vykor sees it, while several initiatives exist to address various stages of the life of an engineered part, none have been developed to ensure that every part is sourced in the most effective way. From the first stages in design through prototype and final production, critical decisions can impact the effectiveness of a company's supplier network to deliver the right part at the right time.
The provider said that its new EPM solutions address each stage of the spectrum of an engineered part. The solutions are available in the following offerings:
- Design for Sourcibility — This solution helps create a manufacturing model and corresponding "should cost" for a set of complex part features to ensure the part can be sourced and built at a fair price much earlier in the design stage.
- Target Sourcing — Transparency of the supply chain capabilities and visibility into generic rate structures allow program teams and procurement executives to develop objective sourcing metrics for use in awarding work. Supplier contracts are made by assessing the manufacturing requirements of a given part, quantifying a benchmark cost for those requirements and then mapping them to suppliers that meet the criteria needed to manufacture the given part.
- Engineered Parts Optimization — For parts that are already in production and are up for re-order from the same supplier or a new supplier, EPM solutions can help a company optimize current manufacturing strategies and reducing the costs of current production by working hand-in-hand with the supplier communities to reduce overall costs, rather than simply demanding price reductions.
- Sourcing for Spares — EPM solutions allow companies to establish pre-determined manufacturing plans mapped to suppliers that stand ready to respond to the tight timelines associated with spares requests.
"In working with some of the largest companies in the world, we've developed our EPM Solutions to provide a seamless flow of data with unprecedented visibility into the supply chain of our customers," said Rob Eleveld, CEO of Vykor. "They are able to process much more detailed information far earlier in the stages of their products."
Vykor said its EPM solutions are built on four components, including a manufacturing model that describes the step-by-step fabrication processes required to build a part in the most efficient way. A digital "recipe" is created from a series of re-usable scripts to quickly define the way a part should be built.
A "should-cost" engine processes the step-by-step directions of a manufacturing model to generate the right "should manufacture cost." The solution analyzes each step of a manufacturing strategy with costing algorithms and segments the strategy by cost category, returning an analysis of what a part "should cost" if manufactured in that way.
A profile of a supplier's manufacturing capabilities is the final ingredient needed to qualify a supplier's abilities and bring visibility and transparency to program teams who are dependent upon their supply chain to build engineered parts as intended, according to Vykor.
And finally, an engineered parts management dashboard brings together all of these elements into a single location provides a seamless, integrated view of all relevant part information for all parties involved, Vykor says. Program managers, manufacturing experts, design engineers, supply chain/procurement teams, suppliers and manufactures have a single source of information, although the solution provides for each user to have independent views of the same data, tailored for their specific function.
