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SPOTLIGHT
PLM pioneer
Having made its mark in the Indian PLM space, CADD Solutions
has set its sights on the international market, says Abhinav Singh
CADD Solutions boasts of an impressive customer list that
includes the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (ISRO Thiruvanantha-puram), BHEL,
L&T, ToyoDenki (Power Systems) and Sundaram Fastners. All are using its
flagship product, Wrench PLM (Product Lifecycle Management); CADD has over 60
installations of Wrench across the country. The company recently closed deals
with Tata Power, Sanmar Engineering and Bajaj Auto; the latter is expected to
go live next month.
The company, whose end-user has always been a designer in manufacturing, is
eyeing markets in the Asia-Pacific and Middle-East, and it gradually plans to
tap the US market. It expects to grow by 50 percent to garner revenues of Rs
4 crore in 2004-05. It offers vertical-specific versions of Wrench to let customers
leverage the product‘s capabilities fully.
The right tool
Wrench, the flagship product from CADD, has kept its flag flying high. The product
has evolved over the years and its popularity has soared. Ever since the first
deal
was struck in 1997 with Kennametal Widia India (formerly Widia India), there
have been a rush of orders. Mico Bosch started using Wrench in 1998, and this
was followed by deals with BHEL in Bhopal, Bangalore, Haridwar and Ranipet.
There was also a deal with BEL in 2001. Meanwhile, the product evolved from
a product data management tool (handling design and engineering information)
to a PLM tool (handling everything from the conception of the product through
its design, manufacturing, supply, feedback from customers and scrapping).
Verticalised approach
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Our product offering on the .NET platform is bound
to make it more popular in the market
Dileep K N
Business development manager
CADD Solutions |
The verticalised approach has helped us close deals faster, and also
led to faster implementation cycles Varghese Daniel
Director
CADD Solutions
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Initially, customer references did wonders for CADD, but post-2000
the company verticalised Wrench PLM in order to meet the specific requirements
of its customers realising that convincing customers in the manufacturing space
would be impossible if Wrench remained a generic PLM offering. Explains Varghese
Daniel, director, CADD Solutions, “Manufacturing people don’t easily
close a deal until and unless they physically use the product on a pilot basis,
and are fully convinced that the product will blend with their existing manufacturing
process. The verticalised approach has helped us close deals faster, and also
led to faster implementation cycles.” (Daniel explains that manufacturing
processes are different even within the same vertical, as the manufacturing
process of a glass bottle is different from that of a plastic bottle.)
Implementing PLM
The sale is only the beginning. Typically, implementation cycles are prolonged,
and pose a challenge to CADD given the complexities involved in change management.
These implementation cycles run for months, and sometimes more than a year.
The bottlenecks arises because the purchasing company swears by its own processes
which have matured over the years, and Wrench has to blend with these processes
to achieve the maximum possible output. Daniel explains, “During one implementation
exercise at BEL, we encountered the challenge of feeding legacy data manually
into the system. BEL is into defence R&D, and there were ten lakh drawings
which had to be fed into the system. We had to ensure that not even a single
drawing was left out as each and every one is required for reference and production,
time and again by BEL.”
Moving on with .NET
CADD has moved its product to the .NET platform lock, stock and barrel with
the aim of keeping cost of ownership low. Says Dileep K N, the company’s
business development manager, “.NET is a very sturdy platform, and every
component of it is cheaper than other platforms such as Java. Our product offering
on the .NET platform is bound to make it more popular in the market.”
CADD is now in the process of identifying resellers in the Asia-Pacific and
Middle-East to sell its product. It is also planning to use customer references
to sell its product in other countries, and is hoping that once its relationships
with resellers cement, it will be able to avail the services of specialised
system integrators to implement its solutions abroad. Based on its performance
in these two regions, the company might then test the waters in the US.
Now looking to add many more customers in the coming year, CADD Solutions is
planning a set of road shows to create greater awareness in India. The company
feels that the PLM market in India is yet to mature although awareness has increased.
| Wrench CPD
Customised for heavy engineering and machinery companies
this product data management system handles programme management, change
and configuration management, and lifecycle collaboration with CAD (Computer
Aided Design), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and project management
software. It also manages product structure, part specifications, and
related technical documentation from the time of the initial idea. It
provides a common environment for design engineers and project engineers
to work simultaneously on the Bill of Material (BOM), to add routing and
resource data, and to pass this information to manufacturing and supply
chain management systems. Its configuration management capability support
all central logistics processes from the design of a product to its maintenance.
Wrench EPC
Targeted at infrastructure-related companies that
are into construction work this variant is used to manage all the phases
of a project lifecycle. From the initial concept, till the project is
completed, Wrench EPC helps in controlling drawings, documents, technical
specifications, bills of quantity, project activities, schedules, asset
structures and related technical documentation. It is also used in accelerating
collaborative processes for engineering, project management, the project
site, subcontractors, consultants and customers by allowing all parties,
both inside and outside the enterprise, to share information.
Wrench NPD
Wrench NPD is targeted at R&D and product development
companies. It is an integrated system for managing all phases of a new
product development from concept to complete product. Wrench NPD also
enables the acceleration of collaborative processes for product engineering,
and allows all concerned parties inside and outside the organisation to
share information quickly and easily. It provides capabilities to plan,
manage and control the entire product development process.
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abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com
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