Industry - Technology

Chicago-based Company Develops Highly Configurable, Cloud-Agnostic PLM Platform

Client: We developed a cloud-based Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform for a technology start-up focused on creating next-generation enterprise solutions.

Services

Product Engineering

Technologies Used

Angular.js, Node.js, Neo4j, Python, Elastic Search, AWS

Challenges at hand

TechVariable was required to ensure that the client had a highly customizable solution that enabled them to efficiently handle all product-related processes. Ensuring the quality while still maintaining the flexibility of the PLM-solutions was vital.

We also had to ensure a technically-robust response to other challenges and requirements, including:

Developing a highly configurable and customizable solution.
Capabilities to ensure the quality for every release.
Managing the application lifecycle amid short release cycles.
Lack of process documentation.

The TechVariable Solution

TechVariable was brought on board after two other vendors failed to take the project to fruition. We put together a team with a domain expert in PLM to ensure faster delivery of a highly capable solution. We adopted an iterative delivery model over 26 months to accommodate frequent scope changes.

Some of the significant components of the solution development were:

The management of computer-aided design (CAD) files
Optimizing the check-in/check-out process
Managing Bill of Materials (BoM)
Process control
Measurements and knowledge management.

TechVariable created a highly intuitive solution in a data-driven and user-defined environment.

Modules Implemented

Graphical Display of Bill of Materials (BoM)

There is the option of creating a table of the BoM and a graphical representation of various nodes. Users can click on any node to view its properties and perform CRUD operations on it.

Multi-Tenancy

TechVariable developed a system secure enough to enable various tenants to run applications on its platform. The design allowed granular access control and data segregation.

Modeler & Instance Pages

Users can add attributes to products and define relationships between these attributes in the modeler page, which results in schema generation in the graph database. Likewise, they can create types, instances, and attributes on the instance page and define their relationships and properties.

BoM Formulation

Users can customize a structure for its BoM and integrate it with the instance page so that different instances of types get captured in BoM. The solution allows documents with BoM information across stages to be attached for auditing purposes.

BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) Integration

Users can diagram the workflow with TechVariable's workflow orchestration tool. We introduced a cloning feature to compare similar products during product versioning. BPMN's flowable engine that generates a workflow schema was incorporated into the modeler pages. In the instance page, the workflow schema is instantiated and attached to any type of structure. The workflow includes triggers and approval processes.

Elastic Search

The team implemented the elastic search for documents, structures, attributes, relationships, and types. It included fuzzy search and phonetic search. Users can search for shapes in different formats (JPEG, PNG, or CAD) and even draw doodles to search for similar shapes. TechVariable enabled ETL to pull out documents attached to any type or instance from one database to another and experiment with it, such as changes in resolution, color, or design.

Advantages

TechVariable delivered a cloud-ready PLM platform that far exceeded the initial scope of the engagement. The team conducted three demos for prospective clients that demonstrated its functionality, scalability, and search capabilities. It was also a learning experience for the client as TechVariable added new features that enhanced its capabilities. For instance, we added the graphical display’s drill-down feature and a forward and backward trace function of BoM later.

Overall benefits

Cloud-agnostic: Increases flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

Highly customizable platform: Drag-and-drop functionality allows for layouts to be created and product lists to be customized.

Increased flexibility: The BPMN flowable engine provides a cloning feature that enables product versioning and future release testing.

Faster time-to-market: Facilitates collaboration and automates regression testing, thus reducing time-to-market.

Knowledge management: Documentation of process centralized and made easily accessible, thus improving knowledge capture and making auditing easier.

Need a custom software application for your buisness?

We at TechVarible do acknowledge that one size will not fit all. Hence, we work in collaboration with you to identidy, analyze & then develop a solution that fulfils your needs.

Either we will define the functional scope of your project to estimate the timeline and budget or you can create your own agile team from among our recources.

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