TPM software automates data processes

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 3, 2009

The TPM process management tool from Theorem Solutions has been proven to reduce the cost and time required for CAD translations in the automotive industry at Cosma International.

By automating its data exchange and data translation processes with TPM, Cosma has reduced the number of personnel required for the process from five to two.

The time for translation of large batches of files (that previously took two days) has also been reduced to between four and six hours.

A division of Canadian automotive component manufacturer, Magna International, Cosma specialises in chassis stampings, bumper beams and metal body panels primarily for light trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs).

Customers include BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen.

Cosma has to handle product data in a wide range CAD formats, including NX (Unigraphics) and Catia V4 and V5.

What this means in practice is that when requests for product data come in from supply chain partners or external customers, the data co-ordinators at Cosma have to go into each individual CAD application to translate the data into the requested format.

'Historically, translations were done on the data co-ordinator's own systems, so when they were doing translations, they were pretty useless otherwise,' said Dave Truchan, director of information technology at Cosma.

In an effort to reduce the time required for these translations, Cosma decided to deploy Theorem Process Manager (TPM), a process management and automation tool from Theorem Solutions.

TPM automates, manages, schedules and controls tasks or processes, helping to eliminate manual intervention and monitoring.

It is designed to help companies maximise investments in software and hardware resources by enabling batch-intensive tasks to be undertaken during off-hours when computers are usually idle.

The TPM system at Cosma is tied to the company's PLM system and automates the data exchange and data translation processes.

Aside from manpower savings, the company has also realised time savings over the previous manual process.

'Our data co-ordinators now just batch out jobs, so it has reduced translation time significantly, and the co-ordinators can work on different things while TPM is in the background translating,' said Truchan.

The TPM system at Cosma runs on a dedicated server.

When requests come in, Cosma data co-ordinators simply 'drag and drop' files to add them to the job queue.

The data is processed by TPM, then the data co-ordinators are automatically notified when the jobs are completed.

They, in turn, notify the person who requested the data.

Currently, the TPM server is processing translations 24 hours a day.

'The co-ordinators are now batching off 25, 50 or 100 files to the server, and then they go about other business,' added Truchan.

'I'd be reluctant to say it is a 100 per cent improvement, but it almost is; and our overtime is almost non-existent.

Cosma has plans to expand the use of the TPM system in the future to process other time-intensive computing tasks, while freeing computing and manpower resources to accomplish other tasks.

According to Patrick Shutter, system administrator, Cosma also has plans to deploy TPM to assist the analysis group with sharing product data with design collaboration partners within the company.