Linde lifts output with global engineering system

£6bn materials handling, gas engineering and refrigeration giant Linde is going for collaboration company-wide to “optimise its product data management and innovation cycles” through a substantial investment in PLM (product lifecycle management) software. The firm has selected MatrixOne’s Matrix10 system specifically for its global materials handling business, which majors on forklift trucks and warehouse equipment. That news broke shortly after Sony Ericcson Mobil Communications announced that it too has gone the MatrixOne PLM route. Linde expects the implementation, which will cover some 1,200 desktops, to improve product quality while also reducing production costs and cutting its time to market with new products by standardising business processes. For the first time, Linde says it will integrate its internal operating units and external partners, as well as all product data and project management information. Hence the standardised and more efficient development processes and structures. “As economic pressures continue to impact our product costs, Linde will need to continually look for an advantage to reduce product development costs while increasing product quality and time to market,” says Andre Schlotz, PLM project manager at Linde. “MatrixOne was chosen … because of the high flexibility inherent in the system. It enables us to connect all suppliers of our business segment to our engineering team.”