Our customer develops, constructs, and delivers applications for their customers. The customer was assigned to replace their old product data system to create a common PLM envirionment for all sites within the company. The IT manager realized that it is not enough to replace the software in order to ensure an effective way-of-working; processes and information flows need to be described when information shall be moved from one system to another. Our customer turned to Syntell, who are experts within the area of Product Lifecycle Management.
What did Syntell do?
Syntell defined the architecture of the PLM environment and managed the different experts that were responsible for the different parts of the architecture, tools, organization, processes, information, and concepts. The customer illustrates these different parts as an information pyramid. The pyramid has different layers; the concepts are the base and the tools the top. The idea is that the further down in the pyramid you get the more stable it has to be and the harder to change. If you have not worked bottom-up, you get an unstable system. Syntell primarily works with concepts, information, and processes. For IT-tools we defined requirements on IT-architecture and integration.
Syntell helped create the product language of the customer. 100 concepts were defined and translated to the information standard PLCS. To have a common language improves communication internally in the company, but also between the IT systems. It is of crucial importance that the employees understand the terminology to avoid misinterpretation of information.
Our customer had to make extensive changes in the way-of-working in order to create an IT architecture based on the pyramid. Syntell defined the operational requirements for the information that was to be migrated. A lot of the data lacked open and standardized information models which complicated the transfer. The objective was to make the information system independent in order ensure an easy transfer in case the company changes system again. An important benefit of the open and standardized IT environment that Syntell helped create is that product data can be exchanged electronically between subcontractors as well as between customers.
What added value did Syntell deliver?
The largest gain for our customer is the improved integration between the different IT systems that are used during the lifecycle of the product. By transitioning to a backbone architecture with a central system that complies with the Information Management standard PLCS, the opportunities for Change Management has also improved dramatically. The backbone architecture also makes combining old and new IT systems and migration easier. When systems comply with international standards, information exchange is also facilitated. Syntell’s competence within PLM and the different layers of the information pyramid was a key factor for the success of the project.
Competences we used in this case:
