Software expected to generate time savings, improve OEM/supplier collaboration for Tier 1 automotive supplier
Marlborough, MA — April 26, 2005 — Enterprise interoperability software provider Proficiency said today that Pollak, a Stoneridge Inc. company and independent designer and manufacturer of electrical and electronic components, modules and systems for automotive markets, has selected and implemented the Proficiency Collaboration Gateway to automate the interoperability of native models between various design systems for Pollak.
The manufacturer said its goal is to eliminate inefficiencies in the design and re-mastering process, enabling it to better serve current and prospective original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) customers, and participate in collaborative design with its internal divisions.
The company anticipates saving hundreds of engineering person-hours annually. On one example program, a 60-hour remodeling effort was reduced to just four hours. Pollak began rolling out the Collaboration Gateway in its Pollak-SPD division, located in Canton, Mass., in March.
"I liken the Collaboration Gateway to a huge Tylenol for a mega headache," said Peter Roy, senior CATIA designer and lead implementer of the Collaboration Gateway at Pollak. "As a supplier, we face fierce competition to be accurate and timely with our design deliverables. Proficiency's solution stood out immediately as one that truly addresses the design delivery challenge of suppliers, and we have been impressed with Proficiency's personalized customer service and support."
Pollak designs and manufactures integrated electronic and electromechanical switch products, instrument clusters and gauges, and intricate actuation products for the automotive market. Bringing these products to market requires experienced engineers with varying disciplines to collaboratively design between these internal groups and with its OEMs.
Today, Pollak designs its products utilizing many of the industry's leading design systems. However, as a Tier 1 supplier, the company needs to deliver its designs to its manufacturing customers, such as DaimlerChrysler and The Ford Motor Co., in the design system they prefer.
To date, this process for Pollak has involved designing the individual part or complex assembly and then "re-mastering" it manually, using IGES or STEP data, concluding with a painstaking search for incompatibilities within each translation.
According to Pollak, after conducting a vendor analysis, Proficiency emerged as the most time-efficient and cost-effective option for transforming this process. Using the Collaboration Gateway, Pollak will be able to translate legacy models, facilitate design reuse and support its ability to take on new projects by delivering native data in whatever format is needed, regardless of the design's original system.
"Pollak is committed to engineering excellence and is dedicated to customer satisfaction in development and delivery of its products and services. As such, we are honored that Pollak selected the Collaboration Gateway as the solution that met its high criteria," commented Trenton Brown, Proficiency's president and CEO. By working with Proficiency, Pollak will be able to improve enterprise communication and reduce costs of new product development between its internal groups that use disparate tools and when iterating on new designs with OEMs."
To learn how the manufacturer Freudenberg-NOK tackled its design collaboration dilemma, read "Collaboration by Design" from the June/July 2002 issue of iSource Business magazine (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine).
