Kawasaki Robotics Builds Global Platform for Enterprise Engineering

Kawasaki Robotics relied on internally designed engineering systems for much of its history. However, as it shifted to 3D CAD engineering, the company embraced Aras Innovator to improve efficiency in the engineering process. This use case quickly expanded to include technical document management and more. Today, Kawasaki Robotics is a digital engineering powerhouse, in part thanks to its partnership with Aras.

“Aras Innovator is a flexible system that meets our wide range of needs. It is also a very useful platform that provides advanced functionality, such as Visual Collaboration and Configuration Services, for pursuing more efficiency opportunities.”

Mr. Yashushi Kurosawa, Senior Manager Technology Planning Department Robot Business Division

Challenges

The Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ Robot Business Division (or Kawasaki Robotics) is an industry-leading manufacturing business supplying robots for many industrial applications, from automotive to electronics.

Kawasaki Robotics employed internally designed engineering systems, encompassing design BOM management, workflow, technical document management, and production management.

From the beginning, Kawasaki Robotics tailored these systems to meet its business needs, ensuring compatibility and user-friendliness. The original use case mainly required the systems to handle drawing data in 2D. However, over time, a growing reliance on 3D CAD data within Kawasaki Robotics’ engineering process began to pose challenges for the team, including managing this data effectively on the file server.

PLM Requirements

Given this context, the Information Planning Department at the Kawasaki Heavy Industries Head Office started exploring the possibility of offering an in-house platform as a service (PaaS) to allow its engineers to handle robotic workflows predicated on three-dimensionality more effectively.

The company sought a certified partner to support the development of an internal PaaS. They needed a product that would integrate with existing design BOM management systems and workflow systems while handling the 3D CAD data management system without disrupting existing business processes.

• Ease of use
• Adaptability
• Scalability
• Streamlined handling of 3D CAD data
• Certified, trusted partner
• Minimal disruption to existing workflows
• Enhanced security

‘Land and Expand’ Experience

Ultimately, the team decided to adopt Aras Innovator, as Aras was a certified partner and leader in the PLM space for manufacturing.

Aras-certified partner ADS supported Kawasaki Robotics in implementing the project. They successfully integrated Aras Innovator with the existing design BOM management system and workflow system, allowing the establishment of a 3D data management system without significant changes to current business processes. Aras Innovator’s automatic generation of 3D PDF content enables verification and sharing of geometry data without requiring 3D CAD tool licenses.

After this achievement, Kawasaki Robotics expanded Aras Innovator’s scope.

In their second phase of Aras PLM implementation, Kawasaki Robotics aimed to transition to a new technical document management system. The existing systems, integral to the company’s core operations, such as procurement and production management, included the design of the BOM management system.

As Kawasaki Robotics expanded its global reach, enhancing security emerged as a significant business challenge. Consequently, they opted to replace the existing system with a new technical document management system based on Aras Innovator. The introduction of the viewing function within Visual Collaboration simplified information sharing through on-screen images, mitigating the risk of file leaks associated with transmitting drawing data.

Despite running concurrently with the Aras Innovator upgrade, the entire project — from concept design and development (including system integration) to upgrade verification and data migration — was completed within a swift 12-month timeframe.

The ongoing use of IT systems presents inevitable challenges, such as upgrading operating systems and updating browsers to maintain support. Since adopting Aras in January 2015, Kawasaki Robotics has undergone two upgrades.

Results: Becoming a Digital Engineering Powerhouse

Within just two years of implementing the CAD data management and technical document management systems, Kawasaki Robotics has already witnessed significant achievements:

• Enhanced software development quality by integrating Aras’ Project Management applications with Redmine
• Creation of a Schedule and Resource Management tool for designing, manufacturing, and installing industrial robots using Aras Dynamic Task Manager, a solution provided and supported by local Aras partner Zionex
• Establishment of a Global Sharing Environment for Software Control, improving security levels through migration from Notes DB
• Increased efficiency through the electronic workflow of product manuals

Ryota Nakamura, assistant manager of the Technology Planning Section, emphasized the pivotal role of Aras Innovator in resolving diverse departmental challenges, calling it an indispensable system. Kawasaki Robotics intends to leverage Aras Innovator as the foundation for future business enhancements.

“Aras Innovator fully supports upgrades that cover our customized environment and programs, which we developed in-house. In fact, we never experienced critical issues during our two upgrades, and we completed each within two to three months. We were pleased to find the upgrades were easy and required minimum investment.”

Ryosuke Sano, Information System Section, Robot Business Division, Kawasaki Robotics