Michelin to Use TraceParts 3D Enterprise Content Management Solution

TraceParts announced the global deployment of its 3D Enterprise Content Management solution within Michelin’s Mechanical Engineering Design Offices.

Michelin has been using TraceParts 2D and 3D component content since 1995. To prevent designers from getting mired in electronic and printed catalogues offered by manufacturers, the Michelin Parts Library (MPL) was already limited to components that had been approved and codified by the Michelin Methods department. The approved components were associated with a classification, a bilingual “group” description, and simplified 2D and 3D representations.

In 2010, Michelin invited TraceParts to submit a RFQ for a new MPL project that specified a number of objectives that reflect its continuous improvement initiative: To provide in-house and at subcontractor machine designers with a comprehensive online component library of 2D and 3D CAD models that integrates seamlessly with their existing PDM solution; to update the online component library in real time as required by the Methods department; to provide the global mechanical design offices with an open selection process, during the CAD phase of a project, that conforms to the component prioritizing system specified by the methods department: standardized, restricted use, prohibited or obsolete; to automate engineering requests to the methods team when the use of a non-standard component is needed; to deliver an interactive workflow, between designers and methods experts, for tracking, justifying, monitoring the processing of requests, and reporting component non-conformity; and to be able to combine components from different suppliers, in the same Michelin item code, to facilitate interchangeability or integrate regional constraints within a tolerance defined by the methods team.

“We want to provide our hundreds of designers, in-house and at our subcontractors, with a modern tool that reminds them of the importance of standardization for the group while helping them design new machines more quickly and more efficiently,” said Judith Noyelle, IT support manager for the design office teams. “Specific requests from the design office for market components should be processed by the methods department within seven days. That doesn’t mean that the part will be standardized in that time. Methods may propose an alternative from among the listed components or suppliers, or they may decide to incorporate the component into the MPL database. In any case, a process will be initiated to find the best solution, and the request will be followed up.”

For more information, visit TraceParts.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.