How Kyocera Unimerco Stays on the Cutting Edge of PLM with Aras

Kyocera Unimerco specializes in developing and manufacturing high-quality precision cutting tools for various industries, including metalworking, woodworking, and composite materials. Founded in 1964 and headquartered in Herning, Denmark, the Danish-Japanese company has built a reputation for meticulous craftsmanship and innovative, customer-first solutions.

Kyocera’s corporate values include continuous improvement and technological adaptation. The team has openly embraced digital transformation to enhance the quality of its products. Its sophisticated product lifecycle management (PLM) processes provide complete visibility and traceability of product data, which is a best practice in manufacturing to achieve both quality and compliance.

Moreover, Kyocera’s eagerness to custom-configure solutions — typified by its unique implementation of the Aras Innovator® platform — shows the company’s dedication to meeting the evolving needs of its global customer base through creative solutions.

“What we like about Aras is the flexible and configurable platform. It is more than just an enterprise application. Innovator is open and flexible, enabling companies like ours to configure it to match our needs. That was the main reason why we chose Aras. There is a dedicated community where the culture is welcoming, and everybody is genuinely interested in contributing to making Innovator even better. It was the right choice for us. And five years later, we are still very pleased with Innovator. In every way. It has been a good and interesting journey for us so far.”

– Claus Skallerup, IT Director at Kyocera Unimerco

Pain Points

In the late 2010s, Kyocera dealt with significant challenges stemming from an outdated product data management (PDM) system that was developed in-house. Its PDM had, over time, become cumbersome and difficult to use. Delays piled up as it began to require more maintenance and repairs, and productivity suffered.

The company developed this PDM system based on the Oracle 4 platform back in 1995. After decades of operation, it became clear that the system is unmaintainable and could no longer support the company’s PLM needs or keep up with the evolving demands of the globalized manufacturing industry.

“Our previous solution was already ten years past its end-of-life stage. No one could maintain it anymore or fix the growing list of bugs, so we really needed to find a new solution.”

– Claus Skallerup, IT Director at Kyocera Unimerco

Some challenges the team faced due to the outdated PDM included:

• Difficulty maintaining product change histories
• Long review processes for product design requirements
• Errors in documentation, collaboration, and control processes

Tracking and tracing the journey from receiving a piece of raw material until it leaves the assembly line as part of a finished product (and beyond) is vital in manufacturing. Doing so enables companies like Kyocera to maintain complete visibility across products, meeting quality standards both customers and regulators expect.

Because its old system could no longer support the company’s rigorous standards, the Kyocera team began to look for a new PLM solution. After researching several software vendors, the team chose Aras Innovator. The decision was primarily driven by the need to overcome the old system’s limitations and support the company’s growth and innovation goals, such as modernizing its manufacturing and software systems.

Aras Innovator demonstrated the flexibility, configurability, and integration capabilities that Kyocera required to streamline its processes and regain its competitive edge.

PLM Requirements

As mentioned, Kyocera needed a modern PLM platform to replace its outdated PDM system. Here are the requirements the team identified:

• Flexibility to support version control, traceability, and change management
• Customizability to meet unique business needs
• Integration with existing systems to streamline workflows, reduce errors, and drive cooperation
• Visibility and traceability across product data to meet compliance mandates
• Future-proofing the PLM to support the company’s growth and changing needs

Kyocera wanted a platform that could adapt to new technologies and industry trends, which it knew would help it remain competitive in the global market.

Successes with Aras Innovator

Kyocera selected Aras Innovator because it met all the requirements described above.

The internal IT team configured Aras Innovator to support version control, traceability, and change management, implementing the platform across the company’s tooling division. Approximately 220 users, primarily in Denmark and across production companies in the UK, US, and Lithuania, now benefit from using the system.

The team also developed an app named “Aras Light” that enables the sales team to retrieve product information on the go. This lightweight application fetches data from Aras Innovator, allowing the sales team to access RFPs, customer requirements, and other statistics whenever they need it. This customization was crucial for improving the sales team’s productivity by providing access to the latest product information. The ability to develop custom applications was one of the critical advantages of Aras Innovator, allowing Kyocera to tailor the system to their specific needs.

“We are very impressed by the performance. There are almost no errors. We may see 1-2 errors a month, which our internal developer handles, so it is an extremely stable platform. But the best thing about Aras is the ability to create whatever you can imagine. It is totally configurable. And that is the entire value of the platform. It is easy to configure and build new functionality. If you can imagine it, you can build it.”

– Claus Skallerup, IT Director at Kyocera Unimerco

The platform’s ability to support complex workflows and manage large volumes of data launched the company’s operational efficiency forward. Kyocera continues to leverage Aras Innovator’s capabilities to stay ahead in the manufacturing industry.

Results: Staying on the Cutting Edge with Aras Innovator

The transition to Aras Innovator had positive impacts that rippled across Kyocera’s product management processes. The company streamlined access to databases and modules for all stakeholders and simplified manageability. Everyone has the information they need to do their jobs well and make informed decisions. This improved accessibility and has opened new opportunities for collaboration and communication across different teams and departments, driving overall productivity.

Aras Innovator has provided a stable yet customizable foundation for the company’s operations. Configuring and building new functionality has been a significant advantage, allowing the company to build exactly what it needs when it needs it.

The modern PLM platform has also reduced the time and effort required to maintain and update systems, allowing the company to stay sharp around its core business activities.

Overall, implementing Aras Innovator has catapulted Kyocera forward, positioning it for future growth and success. The platform’s flexibility and configurability have enabled Kyocera Unimerco to achieve its strategic goals and remain on the knife’s edge of innovation in a globalized industrial market.