PDM/PLM system in water management

Karlsruhe, July 8, 2019. Given the increasing global shortage of water, water management companies won’t be running out of work anytime soon. If, like the Dutch company Nijhuis Water Technology, they have a large portion of their 250 experts working abroad, integrated project management is the way to go. They need a structured approach to managing their project data that allows them to deliver custom plants that incorporate as many standardized products as possible. Using a PDM/PLM software and combining it with a project-centric ERP system makes things much easier. At Nijhuis, they decided to integrate PRO.FILE, PROCAD’s PDM/PLM system, with the Trimergo ERP solution.

Companies that want to ensure the reusability of their standardized modules need to carefully structure the way they store and secure the corresponding data. It’s not uncommon for engineers to maintain their own data space on their company’s servers, sometimes documents even contradict each other. Whenever there is uncertainty as to which document is the most recent and who approved what, everyone has to start from scratch for every new project.

PRO.FILE makes it easy to specify which products meet basic requirements. It integrates employee knowledge along with knowledge gained from calculation tools, effectively turning the PDM/PLM solution into the company’s Product Data Backbone. Users get an exact representation of how products are composed and can leverage options and add-ons to build custom solutions from standardized modules. This also benefits the service division. Knowing exactly what was delivered for every single project significantly accelerates customer service.

PLM as the gateway to “guided selling”

At Nijhuis, PRO.FILE is integrated with the enterprise portal, enabling users to use a PDF viewer to access specifications, drawings, and BOMs and to configure projects with basic modules, options, and add-ons. They can instantly retrieve information on logistics, pricing and time-to-delivery, making “guided selling” a reality and shortening the time-to-market for new projects. At the same time, the PDM/PLM software serves as a technical document management system (DMS^tec system), providing an easy way to track status, revisions, and approvals for all project-related documents.

Image: The PRO.FILE PDM/PLM solution as the company’s Product Data Backbone