Fluid System Components Maker Swagelok® Compresses Engineering Change Times with SMARTEAM PLM

Global manufacturer reduces order processing lead-time by 70% on make-to-order products

Solon, Ohio, and Kfar Saba, Israel – Swagelok Company and SmarTeam Corporation Ltd., a Dassault Systèmes company (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) announced today that Swagelok®, a world leading provider of fluid system components technology, is using SMARTEAM to develop an advanced change management system. In a presentation at SolidWorks World 2004, this week in Boston, Swagelok reported that it has already tripled its engineering change handling capacity since deploying SMARTEAM® collaborative Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).

Swagelok’s SMARTEAM solution features enterprise workflow automation, intranet data access, revision management and interconnectivity with Microsoft® Office and email. “SMARTEAM is the backbone system for life-cycling and linking our documents,” said Jim Stewart, engineering systems manager at Swagelok.

Swagelok began using SMARTEAM to manage drawings in 1999. Over the next few years, Swagelok expanded its use of SMARTEAM to manage all controlled documents, including SMARTEAM – Workflow to automate change control processes. “SMARTEAM has provided a system for managing, communicating, and integrating technical and business change throughout the organization,” said Stewart. “Using these systems, we have processed about 300% more changes with reduced effort required. Change management is a component of our processing time on Make-to-Order products, which has been reduced by 70% and translates to a five-ten day reduction in lead-time for our customers.”

The Swagelok industry portfolio includes reliable fluid system components for the research, analytical and process instrumentation, bioprocessing, oil and gas, power, petrochemical, and semiconductor industries. Swagelok products include tube fittings and quick connects; weld, pipe, and sanitary fittings; instrumentation, process, and high-purity valves; as well as tools and accessories.

“SMARTEAM gives Swagelok the ability to meet the tight design control requirements of its diverse industry base, including fast time-to-market, cost-effectiveness and regulatory adherence,” said Jim Ryan, vice president PDM sales, Dassault Systemes of America. ”Using SMARTEAM’s automated workflow, and internal portal support, Swagelok can execute changes quickly, obtaining required customer approvals on design changes before their implementation and without exceeding schedules.”

Swagelok currently uses SMARTEAM to meet quality systems requirements necessary to adhere to a wide array of regulatory and third-party approvals, including ISO, PED and METI. They will continue to leverage SMARTEAM to optimize their product design and quality planning processes by evaluating each process and applying lean, best-practice methodologies.

“No process or technology is sacred,” said Stewart. “The pace of change is tremendous and our ability to respond to it is fundamental to our ability to compete. We want to not only manage this process but, with SMARTEAM’s help, become a leader in supporting our customer’s needs.”

The Swagelok implementation is being carried out by cSHARE (www.cshare.com), an experienced SMARTEAM reseller based in the U.S. Midwest.