High Tech – DiagnosticsCase Study
1.866.937.1438 | arenasolutions.com
CompanySinton Instruments
LocationBoulder, Colorado
IndustryHigh-Tech (Diagnostics)
Business Challenges• Manage mounting version control issues
• Overcome IP-theft concerns of sharing
bill of material (BOM) data
• Reduce inefficient processes between
silo’d systems
Arena Solutions
Arena PLM BOMControl
Arena SolidWorks Integration
Business Benefits
• Successfully ensured team members
were working on correct BOM versions
• Streamlined internal processes by
integrating Arena PLM BOMControl with
SolidWorks
• BOMControl’s security controls
eliminated fear of sharing sensitive
product data
ROI Results • Projected to deliver significant cost
savings with reduced scrap/errors/time
to market
• Calculated to accelerate product design
time by 20%
• Forecasted to reduce version control
issues accounting for 10% of product
errors
Arena PLM Case Study | Manufacturing Success Stories
Arena PLM Case Study
Business Challenges
Originally established in 1992 by Stanford-educated scientist Ron Sinton, Sinton Instruments designs cost-effective state-of-the-art device physics and measurement tools to determine the quality of silicon in solar cells and integrated circuits.
Sinton’s customers are R&D facilities, universities and manufacturers scattered around the globe. The company’s measurement instruments have become the de-facto calibrated lifetime-measurement standard in laboratories worldwide.
“Our instruments and analysis techniques are based on a firm device-physics foundation,” said Cherie McCandless, Sinton Instruments’ Procurement Director.
As Sinton ramped its operation, McCandless struggled to ensure the team’s engineers were working from the same drawings and model documents she distributed to machine subcontractors, machinists and sheet metal workers. Revision control had quickly become one of Sinton’s major concerns.
“I would send out a purchase order for a huge job and discover that some of the drawings were below revision,” said McCandless. “So, we would either get back parts that were built incorrectly or I would spend a lot of time going back and forth on the phone and interfacing with the engineers to find out which version I was supposed to be getting.“
Another challenge McCandless faced was Sinton’s mechanical engineer designed completely in SolidWorks; because it was a silo’d system, McCandless did not have a seamless process to share BOM data updates. “I used to walk over and leave a sticky note and hope it did not get lost,” she added.
Arena Solutions
McCandless quickly realized the company’s proliferation of specialty products required a document control solution to formalize processes to ensure her team worked from the correct and most up-to-date version of the BOM. For the savvy procurement manager, Arena PLM BOMControl was the obvious solution to her troubles.
BOMControl’s cloud-based centralized solution was important to McCandless. “With Arena, everybody can access the BOM I’m uploading and all the files that go with it – data sheets and drawings and models and specs,” she said. “The benefit is we don’t have to physically recreate them every time we want them.”
How Sinton Reduced Shipping Delays & Product Errors Resulting in Cost Savings
The whole design process has been impacted in a positive way by switching to Arena.
— Cherie McCandless, Procurement Director, Sinton Instruments“
BUSINESS CHALLENGES
ARENA SOLUTIONS
1.866.937.1438 | arenasolutions.comArena PLM Case Study | Manufacturing Success Stories
Arena PLM Case Study
BOMControl’s security controls were another selling point to McCandless. In addition to BOMControl, McCandless uses Arena PLM’s SolidWorks Integration, which allowed team members to quickly establish a link between the associated BOMControl item and SolidWorks part or assembly. By having a revised drawing’s properties automatically pushed to BOMControl every time a file is checked in, Sinton engineers could search for existing part numbers or generate new intelligent part numbers directly in Arena BOMControl—without ever leaving SolidWorks.
McCandless believes Arena will resolve the issues with outdated paper processes, which have resulted in product introduction delays and product errors at Sinton. She is convinced Arena has resulted in an immediate ROI with reduced shipping delays, decreased product errors, and – most importantly — measured cost savings.
“I personally think that we’re going to have a significant cost savings just in ordering and purchasing alone,” she said. “I think once the engineers start using the engineering change order (ECO) process, it’s going to make a big difference; in fact, the whole process of creating an instrument has been impacted in a positive way by switching to Arena.”
In an effort to reduce time-to-market even more, McCandless plans to implement the Supplier Sharing feature of BOMControl. Providing specified access directly to drawings and BOMs will significantly diminish
the likelihood of propagating down-revved items by guaranteeing suppliers up-to-the-minute information.
Arena is calculated to accelerate product design time by 20% and reduce version control issues that account for 10% of our product errors.
— Cherie McCandless, Procurement Director, Sinton Instruments“
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With Arena, everybody can access the BOM I’m uploading and all the files that go with it – data sheets and drawings and models and specs. The benefit is we don’t have to physically recreate them every time we want them. I personally think that we’re going to have a significant cost savings just in ordering and purchasing alone. — Cherie McCandless, Sinton Instruments’ Procurement Director
Find out how Arena can help you achieve success and take your company from chaos to calm. Sign up for a demo at www.arenasolutions.com/plm-demo or give us a call at 1-866-341-4424
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