ERA - PLM deployment case study

ERA as is a modern, respected, inspiring and technologically innovative company.

ERA as is at the head of the peloton in the development of multi-lateration systems and technologies for tracking and recognizing targets, based on the multi-static principle. It follows on from the best of the heritage of the Pardubice company Tesla, its systems take advantage of half a century of development of original Czech technology in the field of passive radar.

The company develops, manufactures, implements and maintains nowadays key systems ensuring the safety of civil and military air traffic as well as reconnaissance means for military purposes.

ERA as is not a classic engineering and production company, it is a technological company. Development and mainly cooperative production concerns electromechanical and mechanical components of all product levels.

At the same time, ERA as is not a link in the subcontracting chain, but a producer of the final product with high added value.

The company is also an important employer in the region.

For product design, ERA has been using CAD / CAE / CAM solutions from Autodesk throughout its existence.

Timeline of PDM / PLM in ERA

Default state of PDM / PLM (in operation from 1995 to 31.12.2018) – own, proprietary custom-developed and maintained PDM system on the MS Foxpro platform.

•  2014 – consideration of the need for a successor solution → Tender process – participation of renowned suppliers of internationally established solutions
•  2016 Decision for Vault Professional by Autodesk → Vault Pro implementation analysis with negative conclusion → Decision to develop own system in-house
• 2017 – Successful presentation of EasyPLM by TD-IS → Implementation analysis of deployment in ERA as (solution proposal and business proposal) with a positive conclusion → Approval of investment, start of implementation
•  2018 pilot operation started, handover of work, user training, data migration
• 1.1.2019 sharp operation started → In the course of 2019, the expansion of functionalities in the 2nd implementation wave

History and progress of PDM / PLM deployment in ERA

ERA as is to some extent the successor organization of Tesla Padubice, which for decades was a specialist in the field of research, development and production of active and passive radar technology.
In ERA, at the time of its creation (1994), a proven procedural practice regarding the management of production documentation was introduced in Tesla by developing its own application on the MS FoxPro database platform. It was a system unique for its time, created within the company to suit its needs based on many years of experience with management of industry-specific design and production data.
After about 10 years of use, MS FoxPro support ended and the PDM system in ERA went into pure maintenance mode. It was obvious that a new, successor solution would have to be sought.

In 2014, negotiations began on a new PDM system for the management and control of design data and production documentation for the needs of Konstrukce ERA as
A tender was held with the participation of renowned suppliers - Dassault Systèmes with the ENOVIA system, Siemens PLM with the Teamcenter system, Autodesk with the Vault Professional system.
The PDM / PLM system must address the complete management of the product life cycle in the area of ​​engineering design and creation and management of production documentation. That is, full management of items and related documents, change and exception management, management of functional models and prototypes and a number of special functions, in connection with the CAD system and MS Office.

After evaluating the technical and price offers and taking into account the fact that ERA as has been using 3D and 2D CAD SW from Autodesk in conjunction with Vault Basic from the beginning, the decision was made for the Vault Professional PDM system from Autodesk.
This was followed by a detailed implementation analysis, a proper familiarization with the system, an assessment of the positives and negatives, and the output was the fact that this system is unsatisfactory for the company because it does not meet the basic criterion for large-scale customization. Even the solution supplier recognized that Vault Pro was not a suitable solution for ERA's needs, it proved to be rigid.

Based on this result, an internal decision was made that the company will port the existing PDM system to the new platform and will further develop it in-house. This path enables fully targeted development of the system with implementations under own control, but it requires investments especially in human resources, both for the development and implementation of the system, as well as for its support and ongoing development.

Subsequently, TD-IS s.r.o. approached the company and presented EasyPLM on a non-binding basis^®.
The presentation fell on fertile ground because, unlike "ready-made" systems from multinational companies, it showed the ability to build a system tailored to the needs of the company on the basic core.

In this respect, it is a unique solution, proven by more than twenty years of existence.

In addition, TD-IS came up with a unique and attractive proposal for an implementation analysis, which ERA will pay for only if it decides to implement the solution after its completion, otherwise free of charge. It shows the confidence of TD-IS, which compensates for the ceded risk, but also the effort to find a business win-win strategy. Based on this offer, an implementation analysis was launched with the aim of mapping the path from the initial state to the target state in detail.

The analysis lasted about a month and a half. There were many personal visits and meetings of TD-IS analysts with the implementation team of Konstrukce ERA as. The processes of creating and managing production documentation in Konstrukce and its use by consumer departments in the subsequent implementation chain were mapped and incorporated in detail. It was not an easy matter, they proceeded according to the motto "Hard on the training ground, easy on the battlefield". This was beneficial, avoiding a number of potential problems. The output report was consistently opposed.

The conclusion was: "Yes, this is a suitable and viable solution for ERA and what will the price be?". After the business negotiations, we managed to find an agreement on the financial side as well.

Around the middle of 2017, licenses were acquired EasyPLM^® and proceeded to the actual implementation.

After overcoming the first labor pains, the implementation basically proceeded according to plan. Complications were successfully overcome and the symbiosis of ERA and TD-IS helped a lot. On a designated day of the week, on a regular weekly basis, the Construction ERA implementation team met with the TD-IS development team either in person or via video conference. The communication channel, which is one of the most important things in the project, was always properly opened. We proceeded according to the outline in the analysis, however, changes and modifications were frequent, which is natural in the implementation of such projects. The new EasyPLM system^® it did not just replace the original, but significantly expanded it. The most important project agendas were the implementation of established workflows and functions, their expansion, integration with 3D and 2D CAD SW, MS Office and ERP system K2, error-free transfer of existing data (approx. 80 files of production documentation) to the new system and user comfort. All topics were successfully completed.

In the fall of 2018, a year after the work began, the "Beta" version of the system was tested by the Konstrukce implementation team and the IT administrator of ERA a.s. After solving the findings, comments and wishes of the users, the system was approved for deployment. At the same time, there were no critical findings that would require restarting the application.

Subsequently, both user and administrator training took place.

The "D" day came on 17.12.2018/XNUMX/XNUMX, when, after the successful migration of sharp data, the "old" system was shut down (the original Technical Archive was preserved for reading) and the new one was deployed smoothly without any interruption or restriction of operation, there was no blackout.
In the first days of the sharp start of the system, the TD-IS implementer was present directly at the company ERA as.

At the beginning of 2019, a ten-day system training for users took place, for which the subsidy project was used CONNECTION II. This training was detailed, directly at the workplaces of Konstrukce users, and was very positively evaluated by the participants. The system brought the expected benefits and during the first year of use gained respect across the entire spectrum of user departments.

From the very deployment of EasyPLM^® its further customer development was assumed, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2019, with the collection of specific stimuli and information, the next wave of expansion began. Based on these inputs, an analysis was prepared and approved in June, and then the implementation of the 2nd wave of EasyPLM development was started^®, which was continuously tested and put into full operation in December 2019.

The cooperation between ERA and TD-IS does not end. First and second stage of EasyPLM deployment^® was successfully completed, however, it is currently the next phase of EasyPLM development^® on the introduction of processes, also concerning agendas outside of the design and production documentation report. Each stage begins, as usual, with an implementation analysis.

Author: Ing. Daniel Mudruňka – construction manager of ERA as

Image Source: ERA as

You could find the article in the magazine Techmagazín 2/2020.