SMEs can get the knowledge

Collaborative design that extends digital data to ‘knowledge workers’ outside the engineering department and its supply chain, is now running at Tier One and Two automotive suppliers such as Coventry Prototype Panels. It’s all about streamlining the processes from design to manufacturing of the final product. Once the preserve of big boys like Daimler Chrysler, BMW, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, systems have hugely reduced in price, driven by IT companies like Acitify. Lynne Saunders, Actify’s world wide vice president of marketing, says the company is spanning the gap between commoditised visualisation and mark-up software and more expensive PLM (product lifecycle management) systems. “We’re finding that information and knowledge workers outside the engineering dept need to access design data fast, and they need to be online, current and synchronised,” says Saunders. “So we facilitate access to 2D and 3D design data for SMEs – and provide a set of applications to allow them to be flexible in how they do it,” she adds. Just as important, because of the data synchronisation, ‘single version of the truth’ and the fact that such systems are rules-based, compliance and auditing issues are also being handled.