Modernized service strategies combine enterprise IT, ‘smart’ technology, and information.

Manufactures are expected to be more demand oriented, data driven, and technologically focused. This means focusing on the customer, using the data collected from many different areas, and digitally executing strategies using platform technologies.

Many companies today are focusing on the current stage of achieving field service excellence. This tends to be an easier, stand-alone area to focus on as it incorporates vast amounts of technology available to help and support them.

The next stage deals with moving towards connected service platforms which oftentimes involve an integration of smart, connected products. This is when companies will start to deal with how to capture data, leverage the insights, and turn it into actionable results for various stakeholders throughout the organization.

The last stage deals with achieving servitization optimization. Servitization is an important concept because it holds the potential to transform how products are delivered and monetized. This is really the movement towards product service systems and products-in-use value.

Ultimately, providing access to product and parts information is a crucial step in on the path to successful profitable growth.

Technology is fueling service transformation for many organizations.

For instance, here’s how ‘service’ has begun to transform with the help of new technologies:

• Cloud technologies have enabled greater access to service parts visibility and information.
• Mobile technology has put information in the hands of service technicians, at the right time.
• Big data analytics now capture asset and product information, enabling enhanced service quality with better first-time fix rates.
• And social technology has allowed engineers, service, and customer support to collaborate.

These cloud, mobile, social, and big data analytics technologies have enabled manufacturers to transition from systems to service, from information to innovation.

Our team is prepared to help you achieve field service excellence. Our Product Development Information Services team is experienced in the architecture, implementation and support of a technology portfolio making service excellence a reality for many of our customers.

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard the buzz about IoT (the Internet of Things).

‘Start improving the way you do business’, ‘connect with technology’, ‘responsive solutions’, ‘amazing results’.

It’s safe to say that the internet of things along with smart connected enterprises have easily become technology’s theme of the year.

Businesses everywhere have started to look at how they can make more money by inserting this “IoT” thing into their business processes.

The truth behind your success and IoT:

No matter where your journey begins with IoT, it’s essential to recognize good business models rely on technological processes, but technology on its own is not enough.

When it comes to IoT and connected business model innovations, if you don’t have a solid business case, you’re not going to have success.

A connected strategy is about business and business transformation. It’s not just about the technology, it’s about using technology as an enabler.

It’s important to realize there is no value in your IoT platform alone. The real value for you, the success of your business case, lies within your application.

The future is smart and connected. 

Whether you choose to build connected solutions into existing products, enter new markets, change your business model, or connect your manufacturing floor; you need to be ready.

Transforming the way you connect with your products, organization, and customers all starts with smart connected design and the right Internet of Things (IoT) platform. The right platform allows you to connect and scale your business.

This is exactly what our company specializes in, in fact we have even created a dedicated connect services team to design and implement custom connected strategies for any organization.

Being able to monitor a product from design into manufacturing, throughout its complete lifecycle makes it possible to improve product quality, increase production, reduce costs, and even predict failures. 

Building a smart connected strategy that works for you:

Integrating company initiatives with the Internet of Things needs a strategy, this is what we are here for.

Our connect services team works with your organization to deliver workshops, prescribe technology solutions, and create an IoT strategy that coincides with your company initiatives.

We want to help you define a strategy that makes a connection between your products and operations that already exist within your company and the smart, connected world that we live in today.

We tend to operate our businesses like we’re playing a game of telephone…and it’s costing us all money.
You don’t have to be a genius to know that within many companies’ sales, marketing, and R&D teams serve separate functions. With different goals, targets and initiatives these teams tend to collaborate among themselves using the same system of record.

For example, within the same company, a department may rely on Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems while others may depend on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Execution System data (MES), and Quality Management Systems (QMS).

Marketing, Management, Purchasing, Engineering, Technical Publications and manufacturing all need to operate off product designs and Bill of Materials (BOM), but while doing so people are likely to interrupt engineering to get information.

With this information they ask different questions, have different intentions, and speak different departmental languages.

The reality is; this inaccessible data is about the same product that happens to be housed in a system you can’t normally access.

By resorting to these misaligned processes, we end up operating on data without its entire context, therefore we lose productivity to requests for data and the switching costs of changing tasks.

Besides, these interruptions are generally counterproductive, especially when you’re working on one task and you’re interrupted regarding a completely different topic.

Without a single means to bridge these systems, your company is missing out on valuable information, time savings, and productivity.

We live in a world where siloed departmental communication doesn’t need to be the norm, after all technology is just about everywhere!

By integrating your critical data into a centralized location, your organization will increase visibility, and achieve better, more informed business decisions.

With technology that exists today, your separate departments can pull data from multiple systems into easy role-based dashboards, providing greater visibility and enhanced analysis.

The result is a rapid way for your team to get data from the vast data pool within your organization, and access it in an easy to consume space.

One of the ways we transform the way companies design, manufacture, connect, and service their products is by value stream mapping ‘Product Development Systems’ and looking for ways to ensure people have access to the information they need when they need it.

Tools like Thingworx Navigate, for companies invested in PTC’s Windchill solution, or the standard Thingworx platform and PLM Apps for those that aren’t, are helping companies pull information from different departments, systems, vendors, etc. to make sure every role has a simplified view of the information they need, when they need it, without slowing down any other departments.

Download our white paper, Digital Twin: A Primer for Industrial Enterprises

We transform the way companies design, manufacture, connect to, and service their products.

To fully grasp how we assist and serve our customers, you need to understand our core organizational beliefs:

• We believe the product development process is broken.
• We believe that there is a better way to achieve business initiatives through product development processes and it all starts with learning.

This is exactly why we created the EAC Value Model. We’re a learn first organization. We focus on taking the LAMDA approach.

What is LAMDA?

The LAMDA is a basic learning cycle of lean product and process development. It literally stands for “look, ask, model, discuss, and act.” Ideologically it is a way to learn and optimize within a closed-loop learning cycle that continually looks to improve a situation by defining and improving root-cause issues.

Our LAMDA based EAC Value Model works as follows.

The first phase of the EAC Value Model: Learn

During the learn phase, our specialists take a first-hand approach with your business. This is when we learn about your business initiatives, ask open-ended questions, and gather information so we can truly understand the key drivers of your business’ success, any the root-cause of any potential areas of improvement.

Throughout this phase we take time to learn about your people, your team, your processes, your technology, and the ways of your organization.

We take an in-depth look at your business from front-office to back-office to determine the how your company can extract the most value from its interaction with EAC.

This leads us to the second phase of the EAC Value Model – The Mutually Agreed Upon Plan or M.A.P.  

The second phase of the EAC Value Model: The M.A.P.

Using the knowledge acquired from our learning exercise, our team creates a unique customized M.A.P for your organization. Your M.A.P. is a Mutually Agreed Upon Plan that incorporates a multiple step strategy, with actionable steps and business cases for your organization.

This phase provides an understanding of what needs to be accomplished in order to achieve your desired results.

Throughout this process we evaluate solutions that may address your organizational needs. Wither they may be through engineering services, educational training services, product development consultations, system implementation services, software solutions; we configure a plan to fit your specific needs.

The creation of the M.A.P. provides a clear path to value for your organization. It holds everyone accountable for the actions needed to solve business problems and tackle initiatives.

Once we have created your mutually agreed upon plan, the implementation phase begins.

The third phase of the EAC Value Model: Implementation

During the implementation phase we put the M.A.P. into action. This is where our teams move your solution from the developmental stage into production.

You could also refer to this stage as ‘deployment’, ‘go live’, ‘roll-out, or even ‘installation’.

The tasks performed during this phase might include installing or implementing CAD, Windchill, Industrial Automation, IoT or any number of other systems. Perhaps your M.A.P. incorporated training programs for your current teams or additional services for product information. No matter what your plan includes, our team works with you to provide any service, system, or additional skill necessary to achieve your desired results. 

Throughout this phase our focus remains on helping your organization become a smart, connected enterprise.

The fourth phase of the EAC Value Model: The Score Card

This is the phase that sets EAC apart. Once we have implemented your solution(s), we never lose focus on gathering feedback on how we did, how a solution is working, or whether the desired outcome or return on investment is being realized…

Remember, our overall goal is to build a long-term relationship with your organization. We feel the best way to do this is by making sure you achieve the success your company needs.

Our business is built around the way your company designs, manufactures, services and connects your products and we recognize, its’ happy customers like you who keep us in business!

With the help of our EAC Score card, we obtain your feedback on how we can continue to help your organization grow. 

Our dream for your organization is to create a smart connected enterprise where you have the ability to connect to your products, your shop floor, and know your predictive downtime before it even happens. We make it our priority to help your organization achieve more than you had had imagined. 

In a recent Tip of the Week video over on our YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/eacpds) I talked about a new feature in PTC Creo 5.0 – Topology Optimization. Topology optimization has been around for about 20 years, but primarily as stand alone solutions. In spring 2018 PTC announced they had fully embedded a solution from the folks over VR&D into their flagship CAD tool.

This is big news because it allows every user to easily optimize designs in new ways; whether designing for traditional manufacturing or additive manufacturing / 3D printing. Light weighting a part or assembly while maintaining structural integrity is an important part of modern product development. Optimizing topology reduces shipping weight and costs, may improve user experience, and lowers material costs. I’m sure there are other benefits, but those alone can help companies compete in today’s global economy.

After talking with some of our technical resources and engineers, it sounds like the built in Creo 5.0 tool does a fantastic job shrink wrapping/finalizing the optimized geometry to ensure the surfaces can be solidified and don’t have any weird overlapping surfaces or gaps. Most topology optimization tools kick out facetted surfaces that still need to be smoothed out in another tool. Creo turns the optimized geometry into a Creo Freestyle surface that can be easily solidified. This is especially important when optimizing parts for 3D printing.

We’d love to show you this Creo functionality live. So, after you watch the tip of the week video, head over to our contact page to request a demonstration.