Fujitsu Releases Enhanced Product-Data Management System Solution

Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu Nagano Systems Engineering Limited today announced the addition of a new function to their PLEMIA M3 series, an integrated product-data management system solution for the manufacturing industry that was released in 2009. The new function consists of product development support functions to smoothly facilitate the conceptual phase⁽¹⁾ overseeing design composition to meet product specifications. The new solution will be available starting March 1.

PLEMIA M3's new function helps users to prevent product flaws found during the development of previous products and smoothly refer to validated information such as the product's durability, thereby reducing the need for revisions resulting from design mistakes and aiding in the standardization of parts. In addition, the new function will make it possible to cut costs originating from the initial planning stages of new product development, as well as increase the level of product quality.

When developing products within the manufacturing industry, a set of specifications are initially drafted indicating the type of product to be made. The direction, parts, and method required to meet these specifications are looked at during the conceptual phase which takes place prior to the detail phase. The majority of product material and maintenance costs are also determined during this phase. After gathering different kinds of information, multiple designs are developed and the best design must be selected in the end. However, due to inadequacies in sharing reference materials and design-related information, such as flaw prevention measures and test data, the basis of selection was in most cases left up to the individual's personal experience, allowing years of accumulated product development know-how to remain untapped.

Fujitsu and Fujitsu Nagano Systems Engineering are providing the PLEMIA M3 series to resolve these kinds of challenges in product development. By helping to visualize and manage product information, designer workloads, and design processes, PLEMIA M3 reduces costs and the time needed to develop products. In the latest version of PLEMIA M3, Fujitsu is delivering a new function to help facilitate the conceptual phase of product design, thereby allowing smoother overall product development.

Features of the PLEMIA M3 Conceptual-Design Function

1. Leverages previous know-how for specification support during the conceptual phase

PLEMIA M3 enables users to take the desired plans for a product, break them down into actual product specifications, and display them on a specification sheet. Users can then take these specification sheets and use links to manage researched and verified information from the past, as well as key information on parts, thus leveraging previous know-how, making it possible to compare a number of alternative specification sheets. In addition, the new system allows information to be transferred from the specification sheet to a parts list, enabling the creation of a conceptual parts list for use in basic product design.

2. Makes evaluations and revisions at review points more efficient
The system enables users to save screen captures of images and related documentation at each stage of review during the conceptual phase. As well, the system enables users to go back to each review stage and look at previous designs . As product composition and document comparison from previous review points can be looked at, it becomes easy to determine where and how improvements were made, thereby facilitating the evaluation process.

3. Helps raise designers' awareness through information retrieval functions
While the amount of knowledge that an individual designer has at their disposal may be limited, it becomes possible to fully take advantage of the accumulated know-how within a company by sharing the relevant information to raise awareness. For example, the system will display and call attention to any past problems that have arisen with a certain key component during the conceptual phase of product design, allowing designers to determine whether they will need to take any precautions.

Fujitsu will additionally be offering PLEMIA M3/EDM, a data management function, enabling users to easily utilize conceptual-design features. In order to efficiently leverage information, which is the concept behind PLEMIA M3, this function enables improved access to design data through comprehensive data retrieval, the display of relevant data in real time, and the use of tabs. Companies will be able to achieve a dramatic improvement in business efficiency by allowing easy access to relevant information and accumulated knowledge, and effectively leveraging past design know-how during the conceptual design phase.

Pricing and Availability

* Stand-alone option for customers who have already deployed PLEMIA M3 is available from JPY 1.6 million and up.

Sales Target

Total sales of JPY 30 billion over the next three years