Engineer-to-order (ETO) software has been around for a long time, with roots reaching back to knowledge management systems developed in the 1980s.
The biggest reason more companies don’t use engineer-to-order software is that the front-end configuration, to set up an ETO system, has often been too much work, requiring lots of training and expensive consultants.
Tacton makes a SolidWorks-based tool for ETO: TactonWorks. They just issued a press release reporting that one of their customers, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has seen a 90% time savings in engineering work for custom orders. This after only having used the software for about 3 months.
The press release gives no clue as to how much work it was to configure TactonWorks with their SolidWorks models. While I suspect it was fairly easy, the fact that they’re saving 90% time within 3 months of starting suggests that it wasn’t all that hard, and that buying TactonWorks was a home-run for Mitsubishi.
Here is the press release:
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Compressor (MCO) Chooses TactonWorks for Customization of Large Scale Compressors and Turbines
Stockholm, Sweden – April 16, 2012- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Compressor Corporation, (MCO) began using TactonWorks in 2011 and has already seen drastic time savings for detailed engineering work of up to 90% per quote.
MCO, a 100% owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ldt. (MHI) is a leading global supplier of large scale compressors and turbines used at petrochemical plants, natural gas processing plants, LNG Plants, FPSD, etc. in more than 60 countries.
TactonWorks, an add-in to SolidWorks, is Tacton’s tool for Design Automation. It automates the customization of complex products, which helps you save time and money. It also ensures correctly updated models and drawings.
Not long ago, MCO saw a need to automate the customization of their products in order to reduce delivery time and engineering costs. Their reseller, Hiroshima Daia Systems HDS learned about Tacton and TactonWorks at SolidWorks World Japan in 2010. MCO implemented TactonWorks for the first section of their assembly three months ago and have already experienced detailed design time savings of approximately 90% per customization.
“We are amazed at the amount of time we’ve saved since starting to use TactonWorks—and this after implementing it in only one part of our product assembly. We really believe in this solution and are eager to start using it for our other models as well”, says Mr.Yasuhiko Omi, Director of Plant Engineering Division at Technology Management Center, MCO.
MCO plans to continue to implement TactonWorks for the other parts of their assembly with a final goal of having the complete assembly implemented.
“We are very happy to see a customer get such fantastic return after using our solution for only a short period of time. We look forward to seeing how much more time they will save in the coming phases of the project”, says Christer Wallberg, CEO Tacton Systems.
The sale was made together with Tacton’s Japanese partners, Hiroshima Daia Systems (HDS), who implemented the solution and Kozo Keikaku Engineering (KKE), who sold the software licenses.
For more information contact:
Christer Wallberg, CEO, Tacton Systems AB
Telephone: +46 8 690 07 50
E-mail: christer.wallberg@tacton.com
About Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Compressor Corporation (MCO) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) specializing in the compressor business. We were formed by integrating the compressor business of the Industrial Machinery Business, Technology & Solutions Division with MHI Turbo-Techno Co., Ltd. (MTT, a company which is responsible for after-sales services.
About Tacton Systems
Tacton Systems is the world leader in advanced configuration. Tacton develops and sells embeddable software for sales and design configuration. This software simplifies the sale of customized, complex products offline as well as online. Tacton’s solutions integrate easily with surrounding systems and have standard integrations for many leading e-commerce, ERP, CRM, PDM, PLM, and CAD systems. Customers currently using Tacton’s solutions include GE, Siemens, Tetra Pak, ABB, Scania, Toshiba, Aker, and Alfa Laval. www.tacton.com.
