Oct 7 2008
Omnify Software, a leading provider of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software for electronic, medical, mechanical, and defense manufacturers, today announced that Crystal Technology, a leading manufacturer of oxide single crystals, has experienced a 16% reduction in engineering change cycles since implementing the Omnify PLM solution. In addition, the company has achieved substantial cost savings, running at a return rate of approximately 2.5 times their investment over the first five years, with a projected ROI rate of 6.25 thereafter.
"We are very satisfied with the results of our Omnify implementation," stated Fred Garderes, director of supply chain management for Crystal Technology, Inc. "We have been able to reduce our ECO cycle by 16%, from 12 to 9 days, and this is trending towards even further reduction. We have also estimated significant cost savings of about $250,000 over a 5-year period due to the enhancements made to our product development processes."
Volume manufacturing is Crystal's specialty with a notable annual production of 60 tons of single-crystalline lithium niobate. Crystal's staff of 150 people delivers a number of highly customized product lines involving internal and external development teams. This environment, coupled with increasing pressure from customers for solutions to be delivered in a much faster timeframe, required Crystal to take a look at their existing product development processes and find ways to improve efficiencies.
"First and foremost, we needed to eliminate waste associated with filing and searching for information," said Mr. Garderes. "We could no longer search through file cabinets to find historical and current information where one hour could be spent looking for one piece of information."
Automating their manual processes was essential to streamline communication among the product development teams for faster reviews and evaluation. In addition, automating the sharing of product development and change management information between their Infor ERP Baan system and Cadence® OrCAD® design environment would address data inconsistencies and eliminate re-work.
Crystal needed a PLM system to centralize and manage all of their in-depth product information such as part data, bill of materials, product documentation, supply chain information, and engineering changes, as well as streamline design and manufacturing processes. After assessing PLM vendors, Crystal selected the Omnify PLM solution because of its ability to address all of their requirements at a much more reasonable cost, easily integrate with their existing design and manufacturing systems, and the willingness of the Omnify team to support their needs.
"Omnify Empower is now the master database for all of our parts and products from cradle to grave at Crystal," stated Mr. Garderes. "The system was easy to configure and required little customization to reach our key needs, including the interface to Baan."
Mr. Garderes will be sharing the success of Crystal's PLM implementation in greater detail at the PLM Summit North America 2008, October 14, 2008, in St. Augustine, FL. The Summit is an independent forum focused on innovation in bringing products to market faster by maximizing companies' investments in PLM.