Monday, May 1st was the day. The plug has been pulled from the old PDM system and plugged into PRO.FILE. After thorough preparation, the configuration of PRO.FILE was ready, the users were trained, and the existing data was migrated. The engineers start their CAD system with PRO.FILE on Monday morning to get to work. 'Actually, without any problems worth mentioning', says Eelco Zeinstra, Manager Engineering. 'It just takes some getting used to, because PRO.FILE functions sometimes work slightly differently than those in the old PDM system.’
Hytrans Systems has its office with workshop in Lemmer and is active worldwide in the development, production, sale and service of mobile water supply systems for, among others firefighting and traffic signaling systems. The products consist of advanced hydraulic, electrical and mechanical systems.
Hytrans works satisfactorily with Inventor as a 3D CAD system for the development of the systems and products. The data was managed with ProductStream Pro, however this system was no longer maintained and developed by Autodesk. For the replacement, Hytrans went looking for a system that would offer at least the same functionality as the existing PDM system and that offers opportunities to develop Product and Document Lifecycle Management (PLM).
Furthermore, in-depth integration with the Ridder iQ ERP system was required. Until now, Hytrans has managed to manage with manual actions between engineering and logistics, but these manual actions take a lot of time and discipline from the employees. The CAD manufacturer's Vault system could not offer this integration and PLM functionality, whereas PRO.FILE could offer these wishes and requirements as standard and configurable functionality.
The total picture was decisive in 2016 in favor of PRO.FILE.
‘When everyone in engineering is used to the new tool, we will look at which other documents, such as; documentation, email and project documents we will manage centrally in PRO.FILE’, says Eelco Zeinstra. 'As far as I am concerned, searching for documents should become a thing of the past and PRO.FILE offers the possibilities to streamline these document flows in addition to the product data. We expect to achieve a lot of efficiency and quality goals with this step.’