Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing, sustainability, and artificial intelligence have driven manufacturing companies to want nothing short of the best software solutions to maximize productivity.
As a manufacturer dealing with engineers, production staff, and warehouse managers, after the product’s sale, service, and maintenance, you might be eyeing the integration of your PLM and ERP systems to strengthen collaboration. But are you getting the best value for your investment?
With experience that spans over 18 years in the manufacturing industry, we continuously enable global enterprises to streamline their engineering and manufacturing processes with a PLM-ERP integration for Dynamics 365.
During our experience, companies have often asked us: Why should I select your PLM-ERP integration for Dynamics 365?
Well, this article will offer you an inside look at what makes To-Increase's PLM-ERP integration stronger, different, and frankly, better than the run-of-the-mill integration solutions.
7 values to gain with To-Increase’s PLM-ERP integration for Dynamics 365
Value 1: Maximize data sharing while retaining true data ownership
Our PLM-ERP integration solution ensures that data remains where it should be while allowing easy sharing of this data. We provide a win-win situation for all teams by allowing everyone to work with tools they’re familiar with.
Engineers, who are experts using the PLM, don’t have to train or go through the hassle of dealing with an ERP — as our integration respects data ownership boundaries. Similarly, the manufacturers continue operating in the ERP system and stay out of the PLM system.
Using an integration solution that doesn’t maintain product data ownership introduces unnecessary complexity in your business, impacting productivity.
With our solution, PLM will always provide the master data for all the engineering data, design modifications, or engineering versions. Likewise, ERP will own and maintain standard items, and finally, one version of the truth, the ‘to be built BOM,’ is shared from the PLM to ERP.
Value 2: Ensure data quality with ‘data readiness checks’
Our PLM-ERP integration framework ensures data quality by validating if the data is mapped correctly to Dynamics 365 ERP. Any data exported from the PLM system is first staged for pre-release, allowing for validation before releasing it to production.
The integration applies the business logic to the product data to verify and ensure the quality of the data imported and that the data stays in sync.
Necessary validations or readiness checks are done to approve the data, and the BOM or product data is released after these validations. Additionally, you are immediately notified if there’s a mismatch or error in any product data.
Value 3: Track and manage product versions and design, production, or version changes
Our complete PLM-ERP integration solution is two-layered: The foundation is the integration that connects the PLM and ERP. The next layer is Engineering Change Management, a standard module within Dynamics 365 F&SCM to manage product versions, changes, and revisions.
Our integration solution extends the specific capabilities of Engineering Change Management (ECM) to handle product data better.
Using our PLM-ERP integration solution, you need not look for any other product version management solution, as we already use the standard Dynamics 365 capabilities to handle this aspect of product data.
This offers great convenience as you can leverage a standard solution to manage product versioning by simply enabling the ECM module within D365.
Watch this video on how our PLM-ERP integration for Dynamics 365, combined with ECM, manages data ownership, automatically imports data from PLM to Dynamics 365 ERP, and posts the data.
Value 4: Deep industry knowledge with a dedicated focus on Dynamics 365
With a rich experience of nearly two decades, we have successfully empowered multiple businesses to streamline their product engineering and manufacturing processes.
We’ve been continuing a successful partnership with Microsoft for 18+ years now and are the leading experts on the ECM component of D365 F&SCM. ECM (previously known as Product Engineering) is a solution we designed and developed at To-Increase, further cementing our long-standing alliance with Microsoft as a trusted ISV.
With our understanding of the inner workings of the solution, we can quickly assist you with the setup of ECM, guide you through the data migration process, and support you in implementing the solution.
Being deeply involved in the Microsoft ecosphere, we offer PLM integrations exclusively for Dynamics 365 ERP (or Dynamics AX). All our PLM integration solutions are built and embedded in Dynamics 365 F&SCM, following the monthly upgrade cadence of Microsoft.
Value 5: One-time setup for a lifetime of smooth communication
Our PLM-ERP integration solution is a one-time setup, which, once implemented, runs super smoothly in the background to the point where you won’t even realize a gap is being bridged between your PLM and ERP systems.
Once the integration is up and running, multiple processes are automated (from data import to released products) by default making the connection between your PLM and Dynamics 365 ERP seamless.
For instance, batch processing automatically picks and drops data from the PLM to Dynamics 365. And the solution automatically populates several components of each product by setting up defaults in the template, saving time and effort.
You can also enjoy flexible release policies to do part or full releases by setting up the relevant routings.
Value 6: Quick time to value with preconfigured solutions
We offer PLM-ERP integration solutions with low coding effort and an implementation process as short as two weeks. With accelerated implementation templates for major PLM providers, we can significantly reduce your time to market.
Being preconfigured, the solution is easy to set up, connecting your PLM and ERP systems with minimal intrusion on operations.
We offer out-of-the-box PLM-ERP integrations for PLM systems: Siemens Teamcenter and PTC Windchill. If you use any other PLM, PDM, or CAD system, you can adopt our PLM integration framework that is easily configured based on your business requirements.
Due to our strong global partner network, you can opt for an in-person or remote implementation, irrespective of your business’s location.
Value 7: Easy scale up beyond the ‘PLM-ERP integration’
Your business needs as a manufacturing company cannot end with integrating PLM and ERP. While PLM-ERP integration is an essential starting point, you will undoubtedly have growing technological needs with evolving market demands.
Thinking beyond ‘PLM-ERP integration’ is critical to stay competitive. Be it to handle third-party integrations, manage your master data, or introduce business intelligence and analytics.
We offer many more solutions on Dynamics 365 to address varying future business requirements. For instance, our analytics for ECM solution optimizes ECM with powerful data-driven insights from data preparation to visualization.
By starting your integration journey with us, you can scale up with our data management, analytics, and asset-as-a-service solutions.
Get started with PLM-ERP integration for Dynamics 365 today!
Investing in an integration solution like ours can effortlessly streamline your manufacturing processes without any hassles of designing, coding, and maintenance.
If you want a solution with a quick implementation time that ensures data quality and ownership, our PLM-ERP integration might be just what you’re looking for. Talk to our experts, who will guide you on the best approach to integrate your PLM with Dynamics 365.
Alternatively, you can download the solution factsheet to explore more about our PLM-ERP integration solution.
Sumana Samuk
Ken Dolbey
