Eontes®, an Aras Systems Integrator Partner, is solving specific procurement and assembly process problems faced by a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC). Through its advancements in Aras Innovator® MPP, Eontes tailored Aras Manufacturing Process Planning (MPP) to fit the FFRDC’s requirements. These enhancements offer broader work instruction capabilities with ease of use in varying work environments – from assembly areas to offices, shop floors, and cleanrooms – improving the FFRDC’s operations.
“Eontes’ ability to solve challenging problems quickly with its expertise in Aras Innovator MPP and supply chain – augmented with its knowledge in IoT technology and how to apply them effectively – was vital in delivering value to the FFRDC.”
—Group Leader, Digital Technology, FFRDC
About the FFRDC
This FFRDC was created to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. They provide world-class semiconductor research, have developed exceptionally secure communications systems, state-of-the-art activity monitoring in space, and have invented biomedical devices.
The FFRDC’s research and development functions focus on long-term technology development, rapid system prototyping, and demonstration. Its core competencies include sensors, integrated sensing, signal processing specific to information extraction, decision-making support, and communications.
FFRDC’s Challenges
To improve the FFRDC’s manufacturing operations, the leadership team recognized that benefits could be achieved by digitizing their assembly processes. The complexity and lack of transparency from product design to assembly work instructions and prototype build – or the hand-off between engineering and manufacturing teams – render their paper-based processes inefficient and unreliable. They understood that with design-to-build coordination and subsequent traceability, they would eliminate information silos and improve productivity and increase operation performance.
Already an Aras Innovator enterprise, the FFRDC furthered its digital transformation by extending its model-based operation by expanding Aras Innovator Manufacturing Process Planning (MPP) to manage its work instruction creation, assembly execution, and technical data package definition.
Eontes’ Enhancements to Aras Innovator’s Manufacturing Process Planning (MPP)
Aras Innovator MPP functions as the FFRDC’s manufacturing execution system, which aids product engineers in transforming design products into manufactured assemblies. Eontes broadened the digital thread by digitizing assembly procedures with accurate traceability throughout assembly execution via connected processes, actual physical part identification, and automated creation of the technical data package of the final build configuration.
This seamless process ensures that shop floor build instructions align with engineering designs and any subsequent changes. It eliminates the need for paper-based documents and manual processes previously used to define, build, execute, and test product assemblies. The new capabilities enable the FFRDC to assess each layer of the bill of materials (BOM) – EBOM/MBOM/ABOM – and to quickly make decisions by comparing the build configurations and the traceability between all levels of the BOMs.
While Aras Innovator MPP is a pivotal contributor to the FFRDC’s transformation to extend their digital thread, there remained challenges in productivity: shop floor technicians needed to return to their fixed desktop devices to access work instructions – a limitation that would negatively impact productivity. They needed a flexible way to access product design information, assembly instructions, and capture execution information.
We solved this by developing a mobile application with similar Aras Innovator Manufacturing Process Planning (MPP) capabilities in a versatile platform.
By developing the mobile application’s capabilities, we simplified the interaction between the FFRDC technician and Aras Innovator Manufacturing Process Planning, enabling teams to access work instructions and execution procedures in dispersed workspaces. This change improved productivity and efficiencies by giving technicians real-time access to product information in Aras Innovator MPP.
Eontes’ ability to solve challenging problems quickly with its expertise in Aras Innovator, augmented with our knowledge of IoT technology and how to apply it effectively, was vital in delivering value to the FFRDC.
“With the Aras MPP go-live, we now have improved efficiency through digitized product assembly instructions, simplified handoffs between departments, integrated data exchange with legacy systems and real-time access to information. The value of these enhancements will enable us to further extend our models-based enterprise initiative and further leverage the capabilities of Aras MPP,” said the digital transformation leader at the FFRDC.
About the Partner: Eontes & Manufacturing Process Planning
Eontes is proud to be a Systems Integrator Partner for Aras Corporation’s Innovator application. Eontes is a strategic solution provider that enables enterprises to extract more business value from their digital transformation and product lifecycle management technology investments. With Eontes, complex environments and Manufacturing Process Planning are simplified to allow for more transparency across the digital domain and physical world, resulting in client value, efficient, and quality. We call this Digital2Physical2Value. Eontes’ mission is to partner with its clients to help them gain a competitive advantage. Follow Eontes on Twitter and LinkedIn and learn more about its Aras capabilities at eontes.com/aras.