By Alaine Portnoy, Omnify Software
Supply Chain Systems Magazine
January, 2006

An emerging leader in the optical networking industry, OpVista develops, manufactures, and markets optical transport systems that deliver scalable and reconfigurable wave division multiplexing (WDM) for major organizations in the cable and telecommunications industries. The Irvine, CA-based firm’s customers include cable companies, such as Time Warner and Cox.

OpVista’s simple and standard approach to WDM provides previously unattainable levels of density and distance without the operational inefficiencies associated with first-generation platforms. Its flagship product, MetroVista, is emerging as a catalyst for the deployment of “everything on demand” services in the cable industry.

OpVista is a fast-growing company with highly configurable products. As the company grows, so does the amount of product data it needs to manage. It has a large quantity of bill-of-material (BOM) information, due to frequency details required for its products. OpVista was manually entering ECNs (engineering change notices) into its ERP system. As the quantity of information it needed to enter increased, the company realized that it would not be manageable under a manual process much longer.

“ECNs were manually entered into our ERP system, and as the amount of data increased, we began seeing some inaccuracies,” said Marc Matejka, director of quality for OpVista. “We knew we had to invest in a solution to automate and streamline our change processes.”

OpVista required a solution that would integrate its current engineering design environments with its ERP system to facilitate the management of its BOM data. The company needed a product lifecycle management solution (PLM) that was easy to use, cost-effective, and could be up and running quickly. From previous experience with PLM vendors, OpVista management knew it did not want lengthy implementations and high costs. Further, it wanted a secure solution that would allow it to maintain its own data, rather than have it reside on the vendor’s server. OpVista’s in-house server is a Dell PowerEdge 2200.

A key provision in the selection process was compatibility with its existing ERP system, “Expandable ERP,” from Expandable Software Inc. Also, the system had to easily integrate with OpVista’s electrical and mechanical engineering design environments, SolidWorks and OrCAD Capture. In addition, the company wanted to interface with its contract manufacturing (CM) partner in order for the CM to have visibility into the ECN process.

“We wanted to put processes in place to manage the product, top to bottom—from marketing, to bill of materials, to component selections,” noted Matejka. In the end, Omnify Software was selected as OpVista’s PLM solution.

“Omnify provides a common sense solution for PLM,” commented Matejka. “It is a very intuitive product that offers all the key features we require, with the flexibility to scale up as our company grows.”

PLM’s Place in the Enterprise

PLM establishes the data backbone for a company and its extended enterprise. It provides a system to manage the product-associated intellectual property, data, files, and business processes to support all phases of a product’s life span. PLM differs from activities such as ERP, Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), due to its focus on the product. By streamlining product development, PLM helps to increase revenues, improve product quality, reduce inefficiencies, and decrease time to market.

The Omnify Software product lifecycle management (PLM) system is designed with small to midsize manufacturers in mind. Data functionality includes centralized management of component/part data, lifecycle status, revisions, costs, lead times, vendor information, documentation, part-number generation, BOM management, variances, comparisons, change management, ECRs, ECOs, ECNs, deviations, and other information.

Omnify’s Web-based technology allows product data to be shared over a secure connection with all members of the design and manufacturing teams, including engineering teams, documentation/configuration management, manufacturing partners (CMs), and system integrators.

Omnify is built on an open-architecture platform, allowing for bidirectional integration with engineering (CAD/CAE) and business (ERP, MRP, CRM) systems. Implementing the Omnify PLM system does not interrupt existing environments. No additional software was required for the OpVista installation.

OpVista reports that training time for its in-house users was minimal, perhaps 30 minutes. Also, as the ECNs become more complicated, follow-up training on the system’s features and utilities is easily carried out.

Omnify’s business-ready solution enables bi-directional sharing of information among OpVista’s mechanical engineering environment, SolidWorks, electrical engineering tool, OrCAD, and their business system, Expandable ERP.

For instance, the integration to engineering environments allows mechanical engineers to import BOMs directly into Omnify from a SolidWorks design. Also, electrical engineers can select parts directly from Omnify to use in their OrCAD schematics, and can easily transfer their BOMs into Omnify as well. Further, changes made in Omnify automatically update the ERP system.

“With the integration between Omnify and Expandable, all of our item- and BOM-data and approved-vendor list information is automatically passed to Expandable,” explained Matejka. “We no longer have to make manual changes, which greatly reduces errors and improves the integrity of our data. Now, all product development teams, both internal and external, have access to the same data in a single, secure location.”

By changing from a manual product-development process to Omnify’s automated process, OpVista’s data integrity has increased greatly. The amount of errors OpVista experienced from entering data manually has decreased substantially, resulting in reduced ECN inefficiencies and cycle times. Additionally, time-to-profit has been shortened, due to OpVista’s ability to respond to custom orders more quickly. Further, OpVista benefits from Omnify’s customer-focused organization. “Omnify provides us with excellent customer support. The response we receive from the support staff is phenomenal,” continued Matejka.

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