TransBus PLM project bringing dividends

Bus and coach chassis, body and vehicle manufacturer TransBus International, which owns Alexander, Dennis and Plaxton, says it is seeing improvements across engineering development and production from the latest phase of its product lifecycle management (PLM) implementation. The firm integrated EDS’ Teamcenter PLM software with its Solid Edge 3D CAD software at its Guildford plant, and now has a web-based collaborative product development and manufacturing planning environment, with links to several of sites and suppliers. It covers more than 150 TransBus employees and 15 suppliers and other TransBus engineering sites around the UK. The result, says the firm, is that, as well as providing design revision and PDM facilities to design engineers, the software provides other personnel with view-only access, via a web browser, to up-to-date design information. It means cost analysis, purchasing and production planning are all kept up to date. Similarly, TransBus’ suppliers and other TransBus sites can view design information in a secure environment and download 3D model data to their own systems – for example, for NC machine tool programming. Admin costs have already been reduced – it’s cut reprographic costs in distributing design information (£10,000 per year for the consumables alone) – and it’s speeded access to design data. Says Dave Harrowell, TransBus CAE manager: “Whereas before it could take anything up to two weeks to locate a drawing among the 100,000 or so on file, print it off and deliver it to the requester, design information is now available to whoever needs it within a couple of minutes.” The company says efficiencies have also come for TransBus’ service depots and suppliers, which can view design information on their browsers, enabling them to work more quickly with engineering changes.