DriveWorks combines powerful SOLIDWORKS® part, assembly, and drawing automation with engaging 3D CPQ sales configurator features to enable manufacturers to implement a successful digital selling strategy, work smarter, reduce errors, and exceed customer expectations.

Use DriveWorks to configure, price and quote configurable products faster and with greater accuracy.

In this Introduction to Creating a CPQ Solution Using DriveWorks Webinar

In this webinar, the DriveWorks product experts will share their knowledge:

• Learn how to build a CPQ solution with DriveWorks to stay ahead of your competition, reduce costs, and win more business.
• Respond to customer enquiries faster, improve customer experience with guided selling and 3D visualisation, and automatically generate all of the documents and data to sell and manufacture custom products.

Join our experts as they take you through the steps involved in creating a CPQ Solution using DriveWorks.

Alternative dates for this session

If this date and time doesn’t work for you, there are additional sessions over the next few months »

DriveWorks combines powerful SOLIDWORKS® part, assembly, and drawing automation with engaging 3D CPQ sales configurator features to enable manufacturers to implement a successful digital selling strategy, work smarter, reduce errors, and exceed customer expectations.

In this Introduction to Using DriveWorks as a 3D Sales Configurator Webinar

In this webinar, the DriveWorks product experts will share their knowledge:

• Learn how creating an online sales configurator with DriveWorks can help you to stay ahead of your competition, reduce costs, and win more business.
• Respond to customer enquiries faster, improve customer experience with guided selling and 3D visualisation.
• Help customers visualise configurable product options with images and interactive 3D previews. Communicate design details easily and spend more time solving customer challenges.

Join the DriveWorks team to learn more and ask any questions you have about Using DriveWorks as a 3D Sales Configurator.

Alternative dates for this session

If this date and time doesn’t work for you, there are additional sessions over the next few months »

DriveWorks combines powerful SOLIDWORKS® part, assembly, and drawing automation with engaging 3D CPQ sales configurator features to enable manufacturers to implement a successful digital selling strategy, work smarter, reduce errors, and exceed customer expectations.

In this Automating Your SOLIDWORKS Designs Webinar

In this webinar, the DriveWorks product experts will share their knowledge:

• Provide you with an introduction to using DriveWorks for automating SOLIDWORKS.
• Show you how to capture and reuse design, manufacturing, and cost estimation knowledge to deliver custom products faster and with greater accuracy, without using complex macros, design tables or configurations.

Join the DriveWorks team to learn more and ask any questions you have about Using DriveWorks for Automating Your SOLIDWORKS Designs.

Alternative dates for this session

If this date and time doesn’t work for you, there are additional sessions over the next few months »

Devin Martin, a TriMech Design Automation Solutions Architect, explores using the 3D preview Document to build out and manipulate a 3D preview through rules! This webinar dives into adding a model to the 3D document, adding primitives, manipulating the 3D preview to suppress and unsuppressed features, as well as adding textures and changing the surrounding scenery. See how easy it can be to add a preview to your DriveWorks project using the 3D Preview Document!

During this Driveworks On-Demand Webinar, you will learn:

• What is DriveWorks 3D Preview
• The 3D Preview Document
• Adding a .Drive3D file to DriveWorks
• 3D preview properties and rules
• Editing the 3D preview scene

Running your business on Spreadsheets?

Spreadsheets became popular in the 80s with the advent of personal computers and they were a great way to assemble and present data needed to plan next steps or to make a decision. Solid and valid information is critical in making the right decision. Unfortunately, developing spreadsheets:

• Take time to create
• Can involve inputs from multiple people and sources
• Need to be controlled if they are shared
• Become out-of-date the moment they are published or distributed.

Leverage real-time data using DELMIAWorks

Fast forward 40 years, many businesses are still using spreadsheets despite vast improvements in hardware and software. Although there are many options, we will show you how DELMIAWorks will:

• present the key data needed to make decisions within your business
• without any effort to create reports
• and showing real-time data.

Uncover how their transition from their home-grown system to IQMS (now DELMIAWorks) EnterpriseIQ providing real-time data accuracy to everyone in the company, from the shop floor to the top floor, in a single reliable database.

Top Die Casting Company is a “one-stop-shop” for aluminum die castings and plastic-injected moldings. Top Die is ISO certified and a preferred supplier for a wide base of customers, including markets such as consumer products; industrial; filtration; heavy vehicles; hydraulics; electronics; appliances; and more.

Single-Source ERP System Best Fit for Quality Driven Die Casting Company

Top Die Casting Company understands the value of quality delivered at a competitive price, on time, every time. As a leading domestic, full-service provider of aluminum die castings and plastic-injected moldings, Top Die Casting serves an array of high-profile customers in both consumer and industrial markets. Founded in 1977, Top Die Casting has a long history of providing unequalled product quality and customer service, and is driven to “be the best in the business by doing things right the first time.”

Over the years, Top Die Casting has grown sales from $1.5 million to over $40 million by offering consistent quality and a “one-stop-shop” from design to packaged part. But while company growth has been steady, and quality output a mainstay, Top Die Casting was hindered in the past by an outdated, home-grown enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and needed to update their internal IT system.

“Our old system had limitations that wasted a lot of valuable time,” explained Jeff Colson, application engineer at Top Die Casting. “People spent more time trying to figure out how to make things happen in spite of the system than they did focusing on the actual process of making quality parts.”

Housed in an older-style database that used index sequential files, the company’s previous system was inherently slow, especially when 20 or more people were using it. What’s more, the system had evolved through several different in-house programmers and stages of company growth that involved the transfer of system files from a DOS format to Windows. But with each system iteration, critical information such as production history and employee data was lost.

“We got to a certain point where sticking with the old system was no longer a viable option,” said Colson. “The information was in one database, but extracting it was difficult unless you were a programmer. We had to manually sketch out data just to see where we stood on things, and even then the data could be outdated or simply incorrect.”

To solve this issue, Top Die Casting sought a single-source, centralized ERP system that could provide real-time data accuracy to everyone in the company, from the shop floor to the top floor. The company established a team of key people who had the most detailed knowledge of the old system and fully understood what was necessary for its replacement. The team considered carefully what the company needed, from accounting and customer service to quality management and real-time production control. After reviewing a number of ERP systems, they found the best match in EnterpriseIQ by IQMS.

“We got to a certain point where sticking with the old system was no longer a viable option”

— Jeff COLSON, Application Engineer

Time Savings a Clear Benefit with Centralized ERP Solution

“EnterpriseIQ won out over the other systems because it keeps everything central in a single, reliable database,” said Colson. “Some of the other systems we considered used more than one database for functions such as scanning, which seemed clunky. With EnterpriseIQ we did not have to cross over several systems to put things together. Now that the system is up and running, it’s clear that the centralized format also delivers advantages in eliminating non-value added activities in all departments.”

Like many other companies its size, Top Die Casting operates lean without the benefit of large numbers of employees to track and analyze data. According to Colson the biggest asset of having EnterpriseIQ in place is the time it affords key employees, like Nancy Hyser, the company’s quality manager.

Along with two other employees, Hyser was responsible within the old system for tracking inventory, which Top Die Casting holds for its customers. Additionally, Hyser was tasked with manually inputting time card data from jobs run the previous day. This meant the company was always operating a day behind, and Hyser spent most of her time trying to keep pace with data entry.

“EnterpriseIQ lets people focus on their jobs rather than the mundane tasks that can drag down quality operations,” said Hyser. “We used to have only one or two people who knew where inventory was. This often delayed deliveries and increased our holding costs. Now EnterpriseIQ keeps track of our inventory to the very last detail, so we aren’t hassled by trying to chase down a customer’s supply or rectify our counts against data that isn’t in the system yet.”

Top Die Casting relies on EnterpriseIQ’s ease of use and access to information to make it is easy for anyone in the company to call up data anytime, anywhere, whether they are working on the shop floor or in an executive meeting. With direct access to all ERP related information, Top Die Casting has eliminated redundant data entry, costly errors, and time lags in shipping.

“EnterpriseIQ delivers incredible time savings by putting the same real-time information at the fingertips of all our employees,” said Hyser.

“The system increases our visibility and improves our reaction time by pushing data to those who need it. This has gone a long way in improving internal communications and has allowed us to turn our focus back to the things that matter, like delivering quality parts to our customers on time.”

— Nancy Hyser, Quality Manager

RealTime Accountability, Real-Time Results

After running EnterpriseIQ alongside the old system for a brief period of time, the company went live with immediate results.

“EnterpriseIQ is user-friendly and easy to navigate, so the switch over was simple and everyone adapted quickly,” said Colson. “We shipped and invoiced parts the same day we went live with no problems. It was like the IQMS system had always been in place.”

Because EnterpriseIQ is a single database solution, written, developed and supported only by IQMS, Top Die Casting has found the system to be cohesive across its multiple facilities and entire supply chain.

Top Die Casting uses core ERP functionality such as AR, AP, Inventory Management, and Customer Service modules as well as enhanced functionality such as Quality, Wireless Warehouse Management, eCommerce, and RealTime Production Monitoring. By supporting machine management in real-time, EnterpriseIQ allows the company to track all aspects of production immediately as parts are being made. The system automatically applies real-time data to the shop orders, and updates the ERP modules with the schedule and finished product counts, giving Top Die Casting a truer picture of what they can deliver to their customers and detailed costs of those deliveries.

“We like that EnterpriseIQ lets us see in real-time what is happening at all of our plants,” said Hyser. “This level of accountability is a big thing for our customers. With RealTime Production Monitoring we’ve improved efficiency and productivity and are more responsive to customer needs.”

In fact, according to Hyser, RealTime Production Monitoring has been instrumental in Top Die Casting’s ability to win new customer accounts: “RealTime Production Monitoring is the wow factor that impresses potential customers,” she said. “When they see that EnterpriseIQ lets us take the pulse of the shop floor in the instant their parts are being made, it’s a big selling point. They typically don’t see that capability with our competitors or even within their own plants.”

Empowers Culture of Continuous Improvement

EnterpriseIQ and RealTime Production Monitoring have also helped Top Die Casting drive a cultural shift at every level of the company. In the past, two or three people acted as key business drivers whom others looked to for direction, now everyone – across multiple departments – can pitch in and do their part because they have the information to produce quality work.

With the historical and real-time data EnterpriseIQ provides, Top Die Casting operates a bonus system that empowers the company’s shop floor operators to work more efficiently. This allows the company to develop a culture of continuous improvement that could not have been considered using the previous system.

“It’s the shop floor aspect, combined with the core ERP, and the fact that EnterpriseIQ is made for manufacturers that gives IQMS an edge over other ERP systems,” said Hyser. “EnterpriseIQ with RealTimeProduction Monitoring lets our operators see in easy-to-understand color coding whether their machine is running lean. Whereas before they might not have known there was a problem until it was too late, now they can stop problems before they occur. With EnterpriseIQ everyone is accountable, and the effort they put forth reflects that.”

Focused on Future Manufacturing Success

Top Die Casting consistently wins business over its competition by adhering to strict quality standards and exceeding expectations every time. EnterpriseIQ by IQMS has been instrumental in that effort by giving the company business and plant management software designed specifically to help manufacturers run more effectively and more profitably. Yet for all the many benefits Top Die Casting has obtained since implementing the system, Colson noted there is more to come.

“We are always expanding on what we have because there is so much available in EnterpriseIQ,” he said. “Our customers constantly make new demands of us, and with EnterpriseIQ we can meet those requests without hesitation. With EnterpriseIQ we can focus on the future and our ambition to succeed instead of spending time trying to force our ERP system to comply.”

Running DELMIAWORKS manufacturing ERP system delivered via Hosted Managed Services (HMS) provides Ventura Manufacturing the most economical system architecture for greater scalability and efficiency as well as to attain disaster recovery goals.

Ventura is an award-winning semi-automated assembly and production company that serves the automotive, office furniture, education seating, and molding and assembly of optical silicone industries globally. Headquartered in Zeeland, Michigan, the company has multiple plants in Zeeland in addition to plants in Budaörs, Hungary, Saltillo, Mexico and Shanghai, China.

As demand for Ventura’s services grew and the company began attracting customers worldwide, it was apparent the dependency on a single ERP system on-premise in Zeeland, Michigan was becoming an impediment to faster growth. “Relying on a single system to manage our global plants was proving to be a huge scale challenge,” said Joel Boyles, IT Team Lead at Ventura Manufacturing. Ventura’s customer base is globally-based and to serve them as responsively and effectively as possible, Ventura made the decision to open new production plants in Hungary and Shanghai, China.

Overcoming the Challenges of Improving Speed and Scale

With eight plants globally running from a single ERP instance on a server in Zeeland, Michigan, the IT team faced the challenges of scaling their systems to support the global growth fueling their company’s expansion. The IT Teams at Ventura prides itself on offering live support to any plant, anywhere in the world that needs help, anytime.

“When we just had the plants in Mexico and Hungary, our existing staff could scale to support the calls coming from plants for help with their IT systems and take care of ERP related tasks,” Joel said. When the Shanghai, China facility went online, Ventura was reaching the limits of scale and speed with their IT teams and the system running on-premise in Zeeland.

As demands increased on the system, so did concerns over Availability and Disaster Recovery Objectives the IT Team had defined. Two metrics that are of specific interest to Ventura’s IT team are the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO). IT defined the RTO goal as 8 hours and the RPO as 15 minutes, achievable on a 24/7 basis.

To accomplish these goals, Ventura would need to create an entirely new system platform that could scale more efficiently with their growing business. The new platform would also need to increase the speed of system updates, which had been a problematic area in the past for the single system to complete.

Joel Boyles, IT Team Lead, says the challenges of scalability and disaster recovery are what drove the urgency for Ventura to decide that Hosted Managed Services (HMS) from DELMIAWORKS was the best possible solution. “Plant system updates including MRP were taking at least 2 hours per plant, which translated into our IT teams having 24/7 shifts in our Zeeland-based IT offices,” Joel said. “Clearly we had to redefine our system architecture for greater scalability and speed.”

Ventura chose DELMIAWORKS’ EnterpriseIQ delivered via Hosted Managed Services (HMS) because it was the most economical and fastest option for solving the system performance challenges and attaining the disaster recovery goals the company has. Under the DELMIAWORKS HMS purchase option, software licenses are owned in perpetuity by Ventura and hardware and platform software is provided by the DELMIAWORKS data center. DELMIAWORKS is managing the Ventura systems today in a secure data center environment. Ventura’s IT team can gain access to key system metrics and key performance indicators anytime via any browser-enabled laptop, tablet or smartphone.

“Clearly, we had to redefine our system architecture for greater scalability and speed.”
— Joel BOYLES, IT Team Lead

How Ventura Defined A Global Roadmap To Greater Speed And Reliability with Hosted Managed Services

Like many manufacturers, Ventura initially ran their operations using QuickBooks and Microsoft Excel, then transitioned to a single enterprise system to operate all production plants. That’s often the first phase of many manufacturer’s IT roadmap as the demands to scale to support greater production capacity in multiple locations forces the need for a new system architecture. Ventura’s infrastructure had reached the end of its life.

Supporting the Shanghai, China facility was just one of the new functional requirements, as are the RPO and RTO goals. “The combination of the staffing requirements and time it took to run reports supporting production operations showed our process and systems would have to change for us to keep up with the growth,” Joel said. The next stage in the Ventura IT roadmap was the adoption of Hosted Managed Services.

“By choosing the HMS option we were able to accomplish a lifecycle upgrade to newer, more powerful servers that took corporate-wide MRP runs down from 2 hours to 8 minutes”

In running a consolidated MRP company wide to support all facilities Ventura had to find a 2-hour quiet time to do the MRP run. They had originally done this at night, but once the brought the Shanghai plant online, they no longer had a 2-hour quiet time. With several plants and the need to run MRP daily once at the corporate level, transitioning to the Cloud-based Hosted Managed Services also reduced the time it took to run reports, in some circumstances by 50%” The graphic below shows the locations of Ventura’s plant locations globally.

Lessons Learned

The greater scalability and speed Ventura has today is enabling the company to expand into entirely new areas of business on a global scale. “Our new system enables us to define custom Bills of Materials and schedule production in the plant that is the closest to the customer,” Joel said.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is also a core aspect of their system requirements. On average, Ventura receives 1,000 EDI transactions a day. A key aspect of the new systems’ scalability is the need to provide greater expansion for EDI transaction support. Joel says that this is already beginning to scale up.

Joel says that Ventura considered several different options and stayed with DELMIAWORKS. “We wanted to know best practices in our area of manufacturing, and the DELMIAWORKS team was supportive and responsive to my requests for assistance as we completed the implementation,” Joel commented. DELMIAWORKS provides a 24-hour hotline during the implementation, an Atlassian instance including planning tools, and a global team available to answer questions at any time.

“It was the DELMIAWORKS expertise on the topic that drove the value. That, and the manufacturing knowledgeable engineers I worked with at DELMIAWORKS”

Global Interconnect (GII) is a worldwide provider of custom engineered cable assemblies, connectors and components. Used for medical applications, such as electrosurgical tools and critical patient monitoring devices, their products have zero failure requirements.

Under pressure to deliver fail safe products while managing a complex global supply chain, their antiquated MRP system had finally reached its limits.

Complex Global Supply Chain Demands a Modern ERP Solution

While outsourcing lowers their manufacturing costs, it adds complexity and presents the need for tight oversight and controls in their day to day operations. Due to the limitations of their old MRP system, much of their work still had to be done manually which became increasingly more difficult to manage as business continued to grow and their supplier base expanded.

For example, to prevent counterfeit items from entering the supply chain, GII bought a significant number of parts domestically and consigned them to their factories in China. Such a practice required the need to perform a manual calculation of needed components based on finished assembly usage and inventory levels at the factory. In addition, GII team members had to calculate the necessary excess to purchase based on historic scrap levels.

Furthermore, communicating with their Hong Kong and China operations required them to share and access data around the clock which proved challenging given the time differences. About their numerous challenges, COO, Todd Squire said “Once we received in the finished good, we literally had people performing intensive manual calculations that were not only time consuming, but prone to errors.

In addition, we were operating in two completely separate software systems to run our business – one for accounting and one to manage our inventory, purchase orders and sales orders. Individuals were forced to navigate in and out of both systems to be able to see the complete picture of our operations and business.” In addition, GII had to account for inventory with a manual backflush process. Not only did this take someone upwards of three hours at the end of each month, it had to be crosschecked by several other people. To further complicate matters, their accounting application didn’t interface with purchasing, so invoices ready to be paid would require manual approval as well.

Incoming receipt of materials with their old system also proved to be burdensome. First, they’d bring in the packing slip, match it with the purchase order, approve it and give it to accounting. But such a practice required someone to manually enter the invoice into their accounting system, run it, and then perform their check run.

Troy Mauk, Director of Global Procurement for GII was one of the users of their old system. As their business continued to grow, he recalled the moment he realized they needed a better system.

“There was one day that I put my pencil down and went into my boss and said – We can’t continue to operate this way if we want to continue to grow.”

Solutions to Manage Global Supply Chain

Accounting, Purchasing, Sales Orders and Inventory Now Under One Roof with Multi-Currency Capability

When they first decided to replace their outdated system, the GII management team set out to find their best three options. DELMIAWorks (formerly IQMS) came out the clear winner. Among the reasons he was first attracted to DELMIAWorks, Squire said, “It was the intuitive nature of it, and the user-friendliness of the system overall.” Further, from a training perspective, Todd felt the simple navigation would make it easier to get the whole organization on board during the transition. And another attraction was the standard reporting capabilities, which gave them powerful new reports.

“The biggest benefit was bringing everything together under one roof, the accounting, purchasing, and sales orders in conjunction with inventory. And rolling this all up into a set of financials while managing multi-currency.”

Having everything in one system and under one roof not only introduced tremendous efficiencies to their operations, but it ultimately benefited their expansive and growing customer base as well.

Now that there is complete integration and critical data being shared across functional areas of their business, users can now get a complete and comprehensive financial picture of the company. Inventory interfaces with accounting, bill of materials can be created that drive demand of consigned material that is based on inventory levels across their four factories in China. In addition, their new Quality Module is helping them through DHR compliance, with capabilities like traceability and lot coding features.

Results

Return-on-investment within Year One and 50% Sales Growth by Year Four

While Squire believes a 3 to 4-year return-on investment is typical for ERP purchases, he says “We achieved tremendous returns within the first quarter of implementation and to this day, we are still continuing to add further efficiencies and return on investment with the roll out of new features, reports and other modules.”

Outsourcing is now a seamless operation for GII with DELMIAWorks. They can effortlessly consign material, send it out, have something of value added to it, and then bring it back into their system at a standard rolled up cost that shows them their true cost.

Having real-time information lets GII run a much leaner global operation too. For example, their carrying costs are lower because they can now bring inventory in on a just-in-time basis. At any point in time they know exactly what’s “in WIP” (industry term indicating there’s a part that in the process of being formed) and completed in the way of finished assemblies at their four factories in China.

Return on Investment

• Grew sales grew by 50% within 4 years
• Increased total productivity by 25%
• Reduced time spent on Accounting and Receiving by 50%
• Achieved anywhere, anytime visibility
• Able to grow without adding headcount
• Improved employee morale
• Better handling of medical compliance
• Reduced inventory carrying costs
• Automatic generation of shipping docs
• Manage global supply chain for their operations

Automate Process

GII’s automated back flushing process now takes seconds instead of hours. This frees up a quarter of a day for the people who once did it manually, adding a half-day of capacity to the resources they already had in place. And with far more capacity for those individuals, they’ve been able grow while maintaining the same headcount. This has resulted in a 25% increase in productivity. Mauk, says “I used to spend 80% of my time buying. Now, this is down to 25%. And time spent on accounting and receiving has been reduced by at least 50%.” And for Mauk, there are personal benefits too.

When selecting their new ERP system “my personal goal was to sit on a beach in Greece and do my job,” said Mauk. And now this dream has come true. For the past six years he’s able to take a month off for his annual vacation to Greece where he manages DELMIAWorks from his vacation spot on the beach. Meanwhile it’s business as usual 4,600 miles away at GII’s head office.

Summarizing what they’ve gained with DELMIAWorks, Squire says, “through the power of IQ we’re able to maintain and keep a smooth and seamless running operation between all of our global locations. It has allowed us to dramatically improve our operations and efficiencies and give our Team powerful and accurate data under one roof that ultimately benefits our customers.”

When asked about bottom line results, Squire says “in the past five years we’ve been able to grow close to 50% from a sales perspective.”

Customization usually means longer lead times, but landscape architects and site contractors can rarely afford to wait. Implementing DriveWorks, with the support of TriMech, has helped Maglin move to manufacturing – and to market – faster.

Maglin uses a DriveWorks-powered configure-price-quote (CPQ) system for three of its furniture lines – Lexicon, Ogden, and Pixel. Each line is built to order and available in different sizes, colours, materials, and layouts – there are thousands of possible configurations. In the past, getting from desired specs to approved drawings took at least two weeks; today, the entire process can be done in one online configuration session.

Maglin Product Builder

Customer approval on the spot

Aaron Dawson is Director of Manufacturing for Maglin. To demonstrate the impact of changing from a manual process to using DriveWorks, he points to the Ogden modular product line.

“We offer thousands of various bench radii, making it a custom product always built to order. To avoid costly errors and wasted time and materials, customer approval of the layout drawings is paramount.”

Before implementing DriveWorks, a sales rep would talk to the customer and record the specs required, then request the drawing. An engineer would create the drawing and send it to the customer for approval. Once approved, production would begin.

Even if there were no changes, working through a drawing approval process would take about two weeks. If the customer wanted changes, that timeline could double.

Using DriveWorks, this process has been eliminated. A sales rep can automatically create the drawings based on the chosen configuration or Maglin can give the landscape architect access to the system to create his or her own design and drawings.

Maglin Product Builder – Configure Lexicon

One session provides pricing and drawings

At the beginning of a CPQ session, the sales rep or customer chooses the specs for each element – shape, dimensions, colour etc. The system continually updates in real time, including pricing, as they try different options. When the design session is over, they have drawings, a model to insert into their site drawings, and a quotation. DriveWorks is linked to Maglin’s freight partner’s database, so even the shipping cost is generated automatically – the system knows the size, weight, and number of packages.

“The engineering team is not involved in this process at all,” Aaron says. “They are entirely dedicated to the production process and new product development.”

Automation means more time to focus on new projects

Sometimes, when there is talk of automation, people fear the change or worry about the impact on their role. Aaron says DriveWorks has removed the backlog of projects in the sales process and has freed up designers to use their creativity to design new products.

“Automation tools remove day-to-day repetitive tasks. Our designers no longer have to spend time tweaking the furniture configuration because the software does that. Our designers were on board from the start. They have totally embraced it.”

Aaron also points out that because the sales process moves faster, overall business revenue is increasing. He can add more designers to the team. The sales team has been freed from their backlog as well, and can focus on creating and strengthening relationships with customers, which is critically important to Maglin.

“There is no lack of opportunity out there,” Aaron says. “And our sales people now have more time to maximize the use of our CRM. They can see who has been working on layouts online and give people a call to talk about their needs. We want new clients and new projects – that’s the most valuable use of their time.”

Skate Park Configuration – Maglin Ogden

DriveWorks representatives listen to feedback

Maglin’s original reason for implementing the DriveWorks CPQ system was to get to manufacturing quicker to reduce the cash conversion cycle. As they gained experience, they started wondering, “Can the software do this?” and “What if we could make the system work like that?”

“We’ve been pushing the envelope,” Aaron says. “We continually challenge the people at TriMech and at DriveWorks. Nobody at TriMech ever says ‘no, that can’t be done’ – they are always open to trying new things. And DriveWorks representatives have listened to my feedback and have addressed my concerns. We are working directly with the developer to influence their product. That’s a win-win for us and for DriveWorks.”

TriMech is part of the team

TriMech helped Maglin design their initial online system and provided guidance on everything from hardware selection to testing, troubleshooting, and optimizing performance.

“If another company is finding DriveWorks challenging, it’s because they don’t have a technical partner like TriMech,” Aaron says. “We couldn’t have gone as far as we have on our own. Lee from TriMech is part of our team and walks freely around our plant.”

Maglin will continue to work closely with TriMech and DriveWorks to make further progress. Aaron says it’s a continual learning process for everyone and has appreciated that TriMech has pointed him to funding opportunities for resources and training; Maglin has been able to secure grants to support their investment in DriveWorks.

“TriMech helps us understand what’s coming, including the new technology that will make a difference for us and how they can help. Our CEO Ian McAskile said that DriveWorks, with Javelin’s mentoring, has been a game changer for us as we continue to be a leader in our industry.”

DriveWorks Benefits for Maglin:

• DriveWorks gives sales reps and landscape architects an easy-to-use online system for configuring modular site furniture, generating pricing, and creating drawings, continually updating in real time
• Maglin’s typical two-week sales process, including customer approval of drawings, has been eliminated
• Engineers are free to develop new products; they are no longer tied up making and tracking small tweaks to designs
• Using CPQ automation, Maglin can meet customer demand for speed while continuing to provide customization and quality; they are also winning more projects by delivering quotations and drawings quickly
• Effects are company-wide: overall revenue has increased; sales reps have more time to spend on relationship building with new and existing customers; the marketing team is able to promote the benefits of the DriveWorks system
• Working directly with both TriMech and DriveWorks, Maglin has been mentored and supported and is contributing to future releases of the software that will benefit everyone

“Automation tools remove day-to-day repetitive tasks. Our designers no longer have to spend time tweaking the furniture configuration because the software does that. Our designers were on board from the start. They have totally embraced it.”

– Aaron Dawson, Director of Manufacturing

Maglin’s finished projects

VELIZY-VILLACOUBLAY, France — January 8, 2019 — Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) today announced the completion of the acquisition of IQMS, a leading manufacturing ERP software company, for $425 million.  With the acquisition of the California-based IQMS, Dassault Systèmes extends the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to small and mid-sized manufacturing companies seeking to digitally transform their business operations.

IQMS’s software – on premise EnterpriseIQ and software as a service WebIQ – deliver an all-in-one solution to mid-market manufacturers for managing engineering, manufacturing and business ecosystems by digitally connecting order processing, scheduling, production and shipping processes in real time.

IQMS’s solutions are used by 1,000 customers based primarily in the U.S. whose 2,000 manufacturing facilities in 20 countries produce for the automotive, industrial equipment, medical device, consumer goods, and consumer packaged goods industries. Customers include Westfall Technik, KKSP Precision Machining, AMA Plastics, Donnelly Custom Manufacturing, FlowBelow Aero Inc., Global Interconnect, Inc., Jabil Packaging Solutions, Schnipke Precision Molding, Steinwall Inc., Scientific, Inc., Sturgis Molded Products, Tribar, and Ventura Manufacturing Inc. IQMS’s 2017 revenue was around $56 million.

In the context of the Industry Renaissance – the convergence of a diverse and powerful collection of digital technologies that is transforming every aspect of industrial business – the world’s 250,000 small and mid-sized manufacturers must adopt and optimize new ways of producing and doing business through digital transformation in order to innovate and accelerate their growth in an increasingly competitive, global marketplace.

“We must no longer think of industry as a set of means of production, but as a process of value creation. This applies not only to disruptive startups and established corporations, but also to the hundreds of thousands of mainstream manufacturers that produce parts integral to the development of new consumer experiences. In that context, we are creating ‘3DEXPERIENCE Works’: a new family of business applications based on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for the mainstream market. The IQMS Manufacturing ERP portfolio rebranded as DELMIAWorks is part of this new business applications family to serve the mainstream manufacturers,” said Bernard Charlès, Vice Chairman and CEO, Dassault Systèmes.

By integrating IQMS’s solutions into the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud, Dassault Systèmes will provide these manufacturers with an affordable system for operations that improves the collaboration, manufacturing efficiency and business agility needed to serve their customers successfully.  The manufacturers – many of them SOLIDWORKS users – also gain the flexibility to rapidly scale-up as a business grows. In parallel, these manufacturers can engage in new business opportunities and create value by supplying their manufacturing know-how and services to a large community of designers and engineers in Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Marketplace – the world’s largest virtual factory.

“Given my experience with manufacturing, finance and industry investments, I’m very excited about the future for IQMS and our relationship. This merger represents a turning point in technology for IQMS; the opportunity is immense. Companies like KKSP and all of IQMS’ manufacturing customers will reap tremendous benefit from the enterprise perspective of an international technology partner such as Dassault Systèmes. Dassault Systèmes is a leader in innovation and inspires confidence that we will have the best resources available for future growth,” said Mark Murray, CFO, KKSP Precision Machining.

Dassault Systèmes will help IQMS expand its customer base by leveraging the presence in the mid-market space achieved with Dassault Systèmes’ SOLIDWORKS applications, which are delivered and supported by the company’s Professional Solutions global partner channel.

About Dassault Systèmes

Dassault Systèmes, the 3DEXPERIENCE Company, provides business and people with virtual universes to imagine sustainable innovations. Its world-leading solutions transform the way products are designed, produced, and supported. Dassault Systèmes’ collaborative solutions foster social innovation, expanding possibilities for the virtual world to improve the real world. The group brings value to over 250, 000 customers of all sizes, in all industries, in more than 140 countries. For more information, visit www.3ds.com

3DEXPERIENCE, the Compass logo and the 3DS logo, CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, ENOVIA, DELMIA, SIMULIA, GEOVIA, EXALEAD, 3D VIA, BIOVIA, NETVIBES and 3DEXCITE are registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries.