At the recent 'Race for Innovation', the IBM and Dassault Systemes PLM Forum, three Nordic brands shared the business success they are achieving with PLM software products.

IBM and Dassault Systemes (DS), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, have announced that, at the recent 'Race for Innovation', the IBM and Dassault Systemes PLM Forum in Gothenburg, Sweden, three well-known Nordic brands, longstanding and recently gained clients, shared the business success they are achieving with PLM solutions. Husqvarna, a world leader in forest and garden equipment such as chainsaws, trimmers and riders, explained just a few of the advantages that PLM is bringing to its business. 'Implementation of CATIA V5 made it important to have a PDM system to handle documents,' said Magnus Persson, manager, Husqvarna.

'The next step is to implement article structures and workflow.

ENOVIA SmarTeam is a simple-to-use system, which works across multiple departments seamlessly, from R and D to purchasing, linking our suppliers and the production/ assembly line.

This allows us to control the whole design process, which is a very good start for building a PLM system.' Two years ago, Getrag All Wheel Drive, which produces all-wheel drive, chassis systems and components for passenger cars and sport-utility vehicles, was facing the loss of its access to a major US vehicle manufacturer's network.

'The challenge was to build an IT-environment of our own, but also to transfer more than 100,000 different objects created in several different CAD systems,' noted Tord Ljungkvist, PLM manager, Getrag All Wheel Drive.

'Our solution to this was to implement ENOVIA SmarTeam while standardizing CAD on three systems: CATIA V5, CCD and Pro/E.

With a seamless changeover to a PLM system, production and construction work continued without interruption, making our life easier.' Christian Nilsson, manager for Tools and Processes at Alstom Power Environmental Control Systems, located in Vaxjo in central Sweden, explained how successful Alstom's efforts have been in consolidating product development information in the 3D world of CATIA V5 and ENOVIA SmarTeam.

'Our products have been fully parametrized in CATIA V5.

All our CAD data is stored in our ENOVIA SmarTeam database, greatly improving productivity.

This means that detailed drawings of a product such as an electrostatic precipitator, can now be engineered in less than a week from start to finish, significantly improving efficiency and competitiveness.' At the 'Race for Innovation' PLM Forum event, attended by more that 200 participants?including DS clients, business partners (Semcon, SYSteam Engineering, Transcat PLM, DELFOi, MCAD, PLM Technology, IdePro), educational partners (Gesab, SYSteam, Transcat), development partners (Icem, Abaqus, LMS), services partners (Volvo IT) and academics?

the clients spoke of the ongoing innovation that underlines the versatility of IBM and Dassault Systemes PLM solutions, and the competitive advantages they bring to companies in widely varying industries.

'By participating at our 'Race for Innovation' event, clients learned best practices for implementing PLM business solutions and how to achieve rapid Return-On-Investment to keep a competitive edge in increasingly demanding markets.

It demonstrated our commitment to playing a key role in revolutionizing business practices through technological know-how in the Nordic Region,' said Didier Gaillard, managing director, Dassault Systemes, Sweden.

Raimo Nikkilae, manager of Product Lifecycle Management Solutions, IBM Nordics Region, added: 'This event provided our clients with a unique opportunity to get some insight on how to leverage PLM to help foster innovation and business transformation.

It also enabled them to discover the most recent advancements, new market trends and discuss the future outlook of their business with key players in the PLM community.'