Brilliant, sparking, fragile -- the beauty of glass has fascinated humans for thousands of years. Today, leading glass and crystal manufacturer ARC International has developed an aggressive industrial and marketing strategy using Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions to enhance the quality and originality of its products and to reduce costs. By boosting design productivity by 20%, ARC International is securing its future in an age-old industry undergoing 21st century change. And this is how they are doing it.
You May Own the Products . . .
Founded in 1825, ARC International remains a family business after more than 175 years. With its headquarters in Arques, France, the group exports 83% of its production to 160 countries.
To reflect the international nature of its operations, the company replaced its former name, the Verrerie Cristallerie d'Arques, with ARC International in 2000. In addition to its facilities in France, the group has factories in Spain, Italy, USA, and China.
The ARC International catalogue offers more than 8,000 products for the table, cooking, and decoration, including glass, crystal, stoneware, porcelain, and cutlery. The product line is grouped under six brands, including Luminarc, Mikasa, and Arcoroc.
Today, ARC International employs 16,000 people and has an annual turnover of 1.3 billion euros.
The Problem
Competition in the tableware market is fierce. Prices are dropping due to outsourcing and globalization. In addition, demand is down due to saturated markets in the developed world and changes in consumer behavior. This has pressured the company to diversify the product line, rethink distribution, and improve the performance of industrial processes.
To address these challenges, ARC International launched a growth strategy. A key part of the plan focused on improving the performance of the company's industrial processes -- in particular, product development. The objective was to cut development costs, deliver a wider range of innovative products in all its market segments from high-end to everyday articles, and improve time to market for greater reactivity to changes in market demands and competitiveness.
A PLM Solution
In 2001, ARC International launched a company-wide project to optimize its industrial tools, selecting a PLM solution from IBM and Dassault Systemes, Paris, France. The solution combines the advanced 3D product development capabilities of CATIA v5 with the comprehensive data and lifecycle management features of SMARTEAM.
IBM and Dassault Systemes were selected as a long-term investment and because of the strong ties ARC has with MDTVision, a local IBM business partner, who implemented the project.
Using PLM, ARC International completes the end-to-end product development capabilities it was looking for -- from initial product and mold design and analysis in the mechanical design department to numerical control programming in the machining department.
The roughly 100 employees in these departments use specialized, task specific modules in CATIA v5 and SMARTEAM, including styling, mechanical design, numerical control manufacturing, and collaborative design.
Progressive Implementation
Today, all new product designs are created using CATIA v5. Data from Euclid, the group's legacy CAD tool, is being transferred to CATIA v5. An interface has been created between SMARTEAM and INGRES, the group's legacy product data management tool. The ultimate goal is to use SMARTEAM to manage the CATIA v5 data and associated documents, including photos, .pdfs, market research, and other office files.
The industrial design department, the creative heart of ARC International, contributes more than 2,500 new projects each year. Of these, 400 are sent to the mechanical design office for development. Using an integrated PLM environment eliminates interface and data conversion problems, since the group's creative and mechanical designers now both work with the same tool. Also, since the projects are designed in 3D, designers can immediately get technical validation, since CATIA v5 points out any design constraints. So far this has increased design productivity by 15-20%, which amounts to $320,000. Time required to modify designs has also been reduced between 50-80% annually, according to a study by industry consultancy CIMdata.
Based on interviews with ARC executives and data regarding the PLM solutions, CIMdata calculated the overall ROI for a 6 month period, which determined a payback period in 10 months with an internal rate of return of 339%.
Looking To the Future
PLM has enabled ARC International to meet and surpass its business challenges. By improving its product development processes, the company was able to increase innovation, reduce development costs, and improve time to market. As the PLM rollout continues to evolve, other benefits on the horizon include faster and more accurate bidding on new projects, improved communication with customers, and increased re-use of existing and standard parts.
IBM and Dassault Systemes are helping ARC International to stay true to its philosophy of making affordability and attractiveness available to everyone. Tuning up the company's industrial tools was part of a 5-year plan to guarantee growth and profitability. PLM has enabled the company to offer competitive prices without compromising its deep-rooted tradition of innovation, creativity, and beauty.
In an increasingly competitive glass and tableware market, the importance of providing the right tools to meet the needs of the group and its customers remains crystal clear.
