With the introduction of PRO.FILE 8.6, PROCAD introduces PLM best practice application package under the product name PRO.CEED, tailored to the needs of middle and upper middle segment companies. As an extension of PRO.FILE, PRO.CEED gives users the ability to automate and control PLM processes and projects using these pre-configured best practice processes. This allows customers to implement PLM processes in a quick and easy way.
With PRO.CEED it is clear that PROCAD continues to focus on a software and implementation approach that suits SMEs. PRO.FILE customers thus gain access to extensive IT options to implement process optimization within their own organization. Till Pleyer, Head of Marketing at PROCAD: “With PRO.CEED, all our customers are able to start rolling out pre-configured best practice processes. These PRO.CEED Application Packages are built on the basis of the acquired experience during the realization of more than 1,000 successful PRO.FILE projects. "
In medium-sized manufacturing and plant engineering companies’ automation of PLM processes should not be an aim itself. An important question that companies should ask themselves is; “At what point does the automation of PLM processes make sense - from both an organizational and a business perspective?” Once the company has identified the PLM processes with the greatest potential, they can rely on the preconfigured and IT prepared best practice processes. This is the approach that PROCAD follows with the preconfigured PLM application packages in PRO.CEED. The consulting part is limited to supporting customers in matching business processes to existing best practice processes and adjusting the configuration.
With the launch of PRO.CEED, the first two application packages "Change Management" and "Controlling Engineering Projects and Documents" are provided.
The key to improving change management in product development and order fulfillment is a change process in the PLM system that integrates product data, documents and task management. The PRO.CEED "Change Order Management" Application Package standardizes this process, automates documentation creation, formalizes the decision-making process, and enables companies to fully understand planning, progress and costs. PRO.CEED acts as an unambiguous mechanism for monitoring and control over the management of all product data, documents and process management information. A built-in escalation model is provided to respond to deviations in the planning. The status of a change is immediately available in the PRO.FILE dashboard. Documentation and the impact matrix generation (to determine the effect of the change) are partially automated, making the traceability of the adjustment and determining the true cost of a change easy to visualize. The processes can easily be put together in MS-Visio and then applied in PRO.FILE using PRO.CEED.
Project planning and the management of all related documents can be coordinated most efficiently from one system in order to realize projects on time and within budget. The PRO.CEED "Controlling Engineering projects and documents" Application Package ensures that data is centrally stored and enables companies to coordinate project, product data and documents. It integrates project planning (whereby integration with MS-Projects is possible) and the management of document control processes. This reduces processing times and eliminates errors in projects that must be processed simultaneously. A dashboard allows users to view and monitor the project status with the click of a button.