Mr. Hiroshi Sekiguchi of Sanden says that "We avoided to choose NEC products blindly although NEC was participating in the planning phase of the project. We evaluated and examined PLM products of each company and proposals from vendors with an honest feeling about which system can realize our "new business requirements" that have been built up in the concept phase".

Specifically, the evaluation items at the time of selecting company's IT system as the feasibility of new business requirements are set by rating the product of each company and vendors based on detailed feasibility items such as measures for five global standardization policies, collaboration with existing systems, project promotion procedures and systems etc. As a result, NEC's Obbligato was the most highly rated.

Mr. Sekiguchi emphasizes that "Obbligato was focused on optimizing the overall MONOZKURI process, while other products were focused on the work of designers, and furthermore it also had a clear vision for global rollout. We were satisfied with the knowledge and know-how of NEC, which is also a manufacturing company, with respect to the significance of having an engineering BOM and a manufacturing BOM separately, and having the manufacturing BOM for each site, and integration of BOM by the purpose of application, that links with the ERP system by manufacturing site, and the approach of linking engineering and manufacturing with digital technology".

Early detection of problems and quick resolution by consolidation and visualization of information with BOM as core

Initially, Sanden launched Obbligato in Japan. Thereafter, Sanden plans to expand gradually to the Europe, United States, Asia and China. NEC provides collaborative support with Capgemini for global rollout of Sanden's PLM system, which is known as an IT consulting firm that operates in over 40 countries around the world.

Hideyuki Hoshino of the Sanden says that NEC was the only one who provided a concrete roadmap for such global rollout. The collaboration between NEC and Capgemini has a sense of security that provides support with an understanding of the local temperament.

The engineering and manufacturing process are standardized and rectified with BOM as core, and all kind of information such as related technical documents, 3D viewer data, change history information, manufacturing information such as inventory and cost, project information, contained chemical substances information, are consolidated in the form as linked with BOM, when rollout is completed. It centralizes the MONOZUKURI Information on a global scale, while linking with both manufacturing management and ERP system in each manufacturing site.

Mr. Hoshino says that "In the past, engineering BOM and manufacturing BOM were not separated and handling of hard copy of documents and various information were managed individually. However, now operations are digitized globally on the basis of integrated BOM such as standardized drawing and parts number rule, technical document system, process standardization etc. He believes that the efficiency of business gets improved dramatically with the utilization of Obbligato such as information that has not been captured until now can be visualized, necessary information can be extracted easily, waste of cost can be detected and concrete improvement measures can be considered.

Mr. Takahashi of Sanden says that "The environment has been set up. From now, how do we utilize it for ourselves? Innovation of MONOZUKURI process by Sanden is going to be the execution phase. With this challenge, Sanden's presence in the global market is likely to increase further.