Autodesk Revit Integration with Aras Innovator - Japanese Version

This video presentation provides an overview of vdR’s Integration between Autodesk Revit and Aras Innovator. This Revit to Aras integration highlights the various triggers and transaction templates available in the integration and illustrates the powerful business use case for pursuing tighter BIM and PLM integration.

This presentation has Japanese narration over English slides. A full English language version of the presentation will be available soon.

To learn more about Revit and Autodesk’s Suite of Industry solutions visit: https://www.autodesk.com/industry

Case Study - Innovation Through Connectivity in the Energy Industry

Company Background

Caltex Oil Tools is a product and services company with over 30 years of experience in the on-shore and offshore oil and gas industry. Recently, however, the company underwent an ownership and leadership change that led to a strategic shift toward a focus on highly specialized engineering capabilities and solutions—specifically on equipment used between the water line and mud line in the deep-water space. A typical engagement might involve oil well ‘production enhancement,’ where specialized equipment is used to make a well more productive. This involves developing machinery that gives the field team access to the well bore to deliver chemical packages that increase oil production.

Case Study Image (nexus logo too).png

Busting Data Silos for Quote-to-Kickoff Efficiency

The Automotive Insights Series

Join Lloyd Rogers, Automotive Practice Leader at the vdR Group in the Automotive Insights Series as he address many of the challenges facing the automotive and supplier spaces.

Lloyd Rogers - Profile Picture 180510.JPG

Video Transcript

This week, I examine how silos of data are created when transitioning from quote team, to launch team, and how we should be leveraging information from the quote process.

 First, I think we all agree that change management is a vital part of having a successful program launch.  I would also suggest… the initial quote files are not only for reference, but the starting point on a project.  Think about it …  every company discipline was involved in the quote phase… and these same people will potentially be part of the change process post release.  Once the project has been won, the launch team takes over the quote team files, and hopefully, they are not copying data.  You have to understand this point!  Last week I stated… disconnected silos are the bane of business!  You are adding risk to meet delivery schedules, keep timing in check, and achieve margins, let alone the difficulty with data traceability...  These silos are all direct hits to the bottom line.  For those of you running programs … you know exactly what I mean.  Think about this exchange…  if your launch team is setting up folders in SharePoint, copying data onto their hard drives…  this is the beginning of creating silo’s…  you have now broken the digital thread.  This does not resemble a repeatable process, and significantly impairs productive practices and generates poor collaboration within your own team.  Your team is now in search mode during the APQP process, versus having real time visible information for getting work done.

 I’ll give you an example:

The project engineer is working with the customer to change testing criteria on the Test Plan… the Program Manager timeline was created based on the original test plan.  If the engineer has the new approved Plan on his laptop, the PM will not have access to the new requirements. This is just one example of hundreds of conversations that go on by the launch team during the APQP process, and why information should not be kept on a laptop.

 The launch team should instead be verifying the quote versus the contractual agreement, in the same system as the quote team provided.  If the quote does not match the PO, then the change process is initiated.  Does your company have a consistent process to verify the quote matches the PO, and is there any team member accountable to verify what you actually won?  Because, if you miss a scope change or changes from quote to PO, then it is like a waterfall, the change can affect timing, piece cost, capital, and tooling. Your design may already be going in the wrong direction.  I think you get my point.

 It’s not only about information reuse, but also eliminating the creation of these team member generated silos.  Next week…  I will provide examples on how these silo’s cost your company money and potentially damage your brand image.

 Give me a call and we can discuss your challenges and share what we have done to help other suppliers. Contact me at … Lloyd@vdr.com or our website… vdR.com.

Revit Integration Extends Aras Innovator into BIM/AEC Operations

Revit Integration Extends Aras Innovator into BIM/AEC Operations

The building information management (BIM) and architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries have lagged behind the modern change control and data management practices embraced by the manufacturing and engineering community.

Read More

Highlighted Demo - Better Understand your PLM Data with Graph Navigation

Highlighted Demo - Better Understand your PLM Data with Graph Navigation

Graph Navigation is a platform service introduced in Aras Innovator 11.0 SP15 that allows users to quickly visualize and navigate data structures via a node-edge graph. Since Graph Navigation is a service of the Aras Innovator platform and not a feature of a specific application, users can explore data across all applications. Graph views also obey the permissions and access controls defined for your item data.

Read More

Making Sense of Unstructured Data

Making Sense of Unstructured Data

Over the past several years, vdR has sought to represent the Aras Innovator solution to companies in the engineering, construction and manufacturing space.  Along the way, it is becoming clear that relevant data has settled into three categories … unstructured, legacy applications and database-oriented applications such as home-grown Access apps, PDM and even PLM.  Of course, Aras Innovator offers a breath of fresh air to the weary workers trying to corral the data and establish repeatable processes.

Read More

vdR Group Speaking at Aras Community Event (ACE)

vdR Group Speaking at Aras Community Event (ACE)

vdR will demonstrate how Aras’ new “options and variants” capabilities can be used to accelerate pre-award bill-of-material development, establish place-holder parts and/or assemblies, activate workflow routings based on customer and product types, and produce quotes leveraging Aras’ technical documentation module.

Read More

The Business of Engineering and CPQ

The Business of Engineering and CPQ

The spirit of the Business of Engineering is to focus on broader strategic issues.  The steadily increasing complexity of product development fuels the need for coping with products developed across multiple disciplines while driving profitable outcomes.  So when we received the question, “why not run CPQ as a standalone application?” it seemed like an ideal time to integrate CPQ considerations into the Business of Engineering theme.

Read More

Liberate Revit Data through “Intelligent Parts” to Drive Company-Wide Efficiency

Liberate Revit Data through “Intelligent Parts” to Drive Company-Wide Efficiency

You missed the webinar and that's OK.  Watch the recording.  The rigid and siloed structure of Autodesk’s Revit data has been a long-time source of frustration for companies in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) space. Revit projects and family data rarely “play nice” with enterprise-wide solutions such as ERP, product lifecycle management (PLM), or even simple document management. While many AEC companies have invested heavily in enterprise solutions, it has proved difficult to seamlessly harmonize with the Revit environment. 

Read More

Wrangling Engineering Change Orders

Wrangling Engineering Change Orders

Earlier this month, Desktop Engineering published an article by Brian Albright that provides a refreshing perspective on a familiar topic – engineering change.  Albright suggests that many of the strategies and techniques used to manage engineering change (EC) are quickly becoming obsolete due to increasing product complexity and market demands.  While this concept is not new, the article looks at the root causes of this issue and explores actionable solutions.  The urgency of the problem is highlighted by thoughts and comments from industry experts and day-to-day EC practitioners.  These perspectives represent a range of organizations, including Arena, M-Files, Omnify, Oracle, Synergis and others.  It quickly becomes clear that a new approach to information management – whether it be PDM, ECM, or PLM – is key to modernizing EC.  However, Albright is careful to avoid picking sides.  Despite this impartial analysis, PLM seems to break away from the pack.

Read More