Steelcase,
Grand Rapids, MI, produces office furniture systems and
related products that allow individuals and organizations to
create work environments that integrate architecture,
furniture, and technology. Their senior business consultant,
Richard Scott, and his team help coordinate and support the
company’s development engineering group in North America
and, in some cases, in international locations as well.
Scott notes the design and development of
office furniture is complex. "Designers have to take into
account not just the design, but also the colors, fabrics,
textures, and wood grains," he says. "There is a
tremendous amount of input associated with just one design.
The data present some interesting challenges."
Today, the company is tying its suppliers
much more tightly to its manufacturing capabilities. To this
end, a supplier now can access a DWG drawing of a new part,
for instance, via the Internet with a user name and password,
and download the file to a client as a .dwg file. "The
beauty of a Web-based system is its immediate enterprise-wide
access for both Steelcase’s organization and its
suppliers," says Scott.
He
notes that a Web-based technology is key for engineers and
designers to be able to access and read product design data.
"The software allows our organization to be much more
flexible and reach out to our enterprise as well as to our
suppliers. When we make changes to an existing product, it is
essential that our suppliers associated with that product have
the ability to access the change information quickly to
eliminate errors and scrap. Having the right, most recent
revisions available to suppliers means that we reduce the risk
of receiving the wrong equipment because the supplier didn’t
have the most updated part or product information for
manufacturing."
Scott says Steelcase’s initial
implementation of collaborative software within the
engineering group has a significant impact on how his team
develops new products and effectively communicates its
information throughout the engineering environment.
"Prior to the software, we didn’t have the capability
to query items online interactively. By the time suppliers got
change order information, the product was already in
production. For many of our product components, it was easier
to retool a new part than to go back and review product design
documents. Steelcase absorbed the costs associated with the
production of a wrong product regardless of how or why it
happened. With the ability to drive product design and
production via the Internet, we will be able to speed
time-to-market and reduce errors."
Nearly
one decade ago, Steelcase partnered with Informative Graphics,
Phoenix, AZ, when it purchased one license of Myriad, which
allows users to safely and securely view and share the content
in all project files. The software is used in engineering,
design, manufacturing and construction environments to enable
team members to view and markup all project files, including
3D and 2D CAD drawings, graphic files and documents, without
requiring access to the native software. Today, the company
retains 85 Myriad 6.0 licenses. Other groups within the
company, such as sales, marketing, purchasing and
documentation, that require new product information are using
Informative Graphics’ Net-It Central (with CAD option), a
Web-based publishing and collaboration software for drawings
and documents. As new products are released from product
development, the Myriad-based data is released out of
engineering into Net-It Central.
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Steelcase,
Grand Rapids, MI, produces office furniture systems and
related products that allow individuals and organizations to
create work environments that integrate architecture,
furniture, and technology. Their senior business consultant,
Richard Scott, and his team help coordinate and support the
company’s development engineering group in North America
and, in some cases, in international locations as well.
He
notes that a Web-based technology is key for engineers and
designers to be able to access and read product design data.
"The software allows our organization to be much more
flexible and reach out to our enterprise as well as to our
suppliers. When we make changes to an existing product, it is
essential that our suppliers associated with that product have
the ability to access the change information quickly to
eliminate errors and scrap. Having the right, most recent
revisions available to suppliers means that we reduce the risk
of receiving the wrong equipment because the supplier didn’t
have the most updated part or product information for
manufacturing."
Nearly
one decade ago, Steelcase partnered with Informative Graphics,
Phoenix, AZ, when it purchased one license of Myriad, which
allows users to safely and securely view and share the content
in all project files. The software is used in engineering,
design, manufacturing and construction environments to enable
team members to view and markup all project files, including
3D and 2D CAD drawings, graphic files and documents, without
requiring access to the native software. Today, the company
retains 85 Myriad 6.0 licenses. Other groups within the
company, such as sales, marketing, purchasing and
documentation, that require new product information are using
Informative Graphics’ Net-It Central (with CAD option), a
Web-based publishing and collaboration software for drawings
and documents. As new products are released from product
development, the Myriad-based data is released out of
engineering into Net-It Central.