Collaboration - Apriso

10
For example, Microsoft partners now integrate 3D data into Office documents, including:
•
Structured images in Microsoft Word that can be clicked to select component information;
Calculated properties (e.g. material volume, or calculated price) in Excel;
Embedded 3D data in Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation graphics program.
Engineering Applications and Office Systems
Microsoft partners have created many opportunities to embed engineering data into Microsoft Office
documents. Examples include Autodesk’s DWF Viewer, Dassault’s 3D XML Player, UGS’s JT2Go 3D viewer,
Actify’s Spinfire, and Lattice3D’s XVL player. These can deliver tight integration between engineering
applications and Microsoft Office documents, allowing 3D data to be harnessed across the enterprise.
One example of integration with Microsoft Office is based on 3D XML:
“ Using the 3D XML documentation and tools available freely at www.3ds.com/3dxml, Powerway
added 3D capabilities into its existing industry-leading product, Powerway.com. Then, working
with Microsoft, it developed a demonstration that tied together real-time product data that
management, engineering and suppliers could access to solve the problems, quickly and
collaboratively, by seeing them in 3D via their existing applications, such as Microsoft Office.
The new application requires no additional learning by existing users.”
(Source: Dassault Systèmes 29 August 2005, Detroit, MI, USA)
But business systems also offer this integration, often by giving access to their data from inside Office
applications. These help create collaborative environments that can reach everybody who adds value to a
product, project or service. Familiar environments make it easy for users to access data from a range of
applications, which encourages the use of shared information sources that in turn improve consistency of
information across departments and trading partners.
The result is growth in the opportunity for, and the value of, collaborative environments for many job
functions (see panel below).
Using a collaborative environment
A collaborative environment has value for virtually every employee in a manufacturing company, from the
boardroom to the plant floor.
An Engineering Manager will use a collaborative environment to share realtime technical information,
investigate technical and project issues, run review meetings and progress initiatives. The environment
will allow the manager to communicate with colleagues and partners to solve problems, make decisions,
and approve action.
A Logistics Manager will use a desktop display of ‘traffic lights’ showing aggregated real-time information
covering production, stock levels and distribution events, with drill-downs. The manager may use it in a
planned manner to review and approve plans, and equally – perhaps, when investigating an ‘amber’
condition – to initiate ad-hoc collaboration to get more details. While travelling, the manager may switch on
text message alerts.
A Purchasing Administrator may access goods-received data and initiate ad-hoc collaborative sessions with
managers who requested purchases to complete authorisation. Their discussions will be supported by
immediate desktop or remote access to consistent, up-to-date information.
A Production Manager may find the main use of a collaborative environment is to discuss changes with
colleagues. Sales may want to push certain orders through. Engineering design may want to delay a planned
manufacturing change until a customer agrees the prototype. Purchasing may suggest the use of substitute
materials. A partner that provides a specialist finishing process may want to agree best dates for machine
maintenance. In each case, the interaction can be on the basis of accurate, shared information – meaning
fast decisions.
LEADING EDGE COLL ABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS IN DISCRETE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES