Consilium Improves Product Development and Safety With Aras

“The decision to implement the Aras solution has paid off in record time. Ultimately, our customers benefit from this new approach. For our customers in a range of industries, products meet the highest safety requirements.”

Magnus Erenstedt, manager of R&D, Consilium
Consilium
Headquarters
Gothenburg, Sweden
Established
1912
Size
~1,000 Employees
Industry
Safety and Fire Protection

Before Aras: Challenges

  • Fragmented information: Product data and documentation were spread across multiple systems, making it difficult for employees to access up-to-date, relevant information.
  • Lack of scalability: Consilium’s existing data management system wasn’t flexible enough to scale its growth and adapt to the increasing complexity of its product development processes.
  • Inefficient revision and change management: The product revision process was manual and time-consuming, impacting Consilium’s ability to respond proactively to pressing issues.

After Aras: Outcomes

  • Centralized data management: Consilium now has a central data archive that allows engineers to quickly find relevant product data and documentation.
  • Efficient and scalable change management: Aras facilitates a streamlined change management process, allowing Consilium to automatically track change histories and analyze the impact of product changes on safety certifications.
  • Lower total cost of ownership (TCO): With Aras’ pricing model, Consilium enjoys a lower TCO, as the subscription includes upgrades and minimizes the need for high initial investments.

Explore This Story

    Consilium Safety Group, founded in 1912 and based in Nacka, Sweden, is a leading provider of fire and gas detection systems. With a presence in 27 countries and over 1,000 employees, Consilium serves high-stakes industries with stringent safety requirements, such as global transportation, offshore infrastructure, and oil and gas. The company specializes in creating reliable safety systems that protect lives and critical assets.

    Consilium adopted the Aras Innovator® platform to improve its complex product lifecycle processes. By centralizing data management and improving change tracking, Aras helps Consilium achieve faster, more efficient product development and simplified regulatory compliance. This partnership with Aras reflects Consilium’s commitment to operational excellence and allows the company to maintain high safety standards while keeping costs in check.

    Pain Points

    Before Aras, Consilium struggled to manage product information across disconnected systems. Product documentation and critical data were scattered across many locations, from network drives to standalone IT systems. This fragmentation made it difficult for employees to access relevant, up-to-date information. As a result, teams often wasted valuable time searching for data and determining if they were working with the right information.

    Another major pain point was inefficiency in managing product changes and revisions. This process was slow, manual, and prone to error, making it difficult for the engineering team to address critical tasks and ensure compliance. The limited visibility it provided was also concerning, given the company’s need to maintain continuous compliance and ensure product integrity.

    Overall, Consilium’s data management system was not scalable or flexible enough to keep up with the company’s growth. The team needed a system that could handle high complexity and drive essential business processes from new product introduction to manufacturing and, ultimately, the final product.

    PLM Requirements

    Consilium searched for a robust product lifecycle management (PLM) solution that could help the business overcome its lifecycle challenges. As the team considered a new system, they realized they would have to evolve and break free from the constraints of their legacy tools.

    “We were able to transfer some data from the old systems, but a reboot ultimately seemed to be the most efficient. The team was aware that we needed to keep up with the complexity of the products and needed a system that accompanies us in all product phases.”

    Magnus Erenstedt, manager of R&D, Consilium

    The Consilium team decided that the essential requirements for a modern PLM solution would be:

    • Speed: Help teams accelerate product development.
    • Visibility: Offer a unified view of all product data and relationships among components.
    • Scalability: Support the company’s growth and adapt to complex product requirements.
    • User-friendliness: Feature an intuitive interface that minimizes training time and promotes adoption.
    • Cost-effective: Provide a predictable cost structure with minimal upfront investment and no expensive upgrade fees.

    Successes with Aras Innovator

    After a test run of Aras Innovator, the Consilium team was convinced that Aras was the best fit for their environment. Consilium implemented the platform across its global operations, replacing fragmented systems with a unified approach to product lifecycle management.

    Consilium was pleased that the implementation finished quickly, thanks to Minerva’s expertise and Aras’ low-code configurability. With the platform up and running, the team found that all of their needs had been met, including complex change management workflows, automated impact analysis, and centralized document control.

    Results

    Aras Innovator transformed Consilium’s product management processes and clarified its operations. In addition to improved visibility, engineers can now easily search for product and documentation characteristics in a central data archive. This is a significant improvement compared to previous years when engineers had to search through countless data files and standalone systems.

    Another important advantage is the identification of change effects. While it was once difficult to foresee and track the impact of changes on the complete product, this process is simple today. When changes are made, Aras allows the team to quickly see any impacts on the product and its safety certificates. This is the only way to fully understand if changes impact crucial certificates and if re-certification are required. Consilium also saves time by automatically creating change history reports and impact matrices.

    The transition to Aras has saved time and resulted in a lower TCO than Consilium’s previous data management solution. Due to greater visibility across document management, part and change management, manufacturer parts, and the supply chain, Consilium has certainty that all product information is up to date. These new capabilities allow the team to respond quickly to new requirements since impacts are significantly easier to estimate.

    “Compared to the past, we now have a better overview of data, releases, and relations of parts and components. In addition, the handover from development to production is substantially smoother. With a view to time and quality, we are now positioned much better.”

    Magnus Erenstedt, manager of R&D, Consilium
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