CASE STUDY How ROKI Brought CAD Administration ... - aras.com

How ROKI Brought CAD Administration In-House with the Aras Low-Code Platform

CASE STUDY

▪ Needed centralized management of multi-CAD data for multiple customers (automobile manufacturers)

▪ Wanted the ability to share product data with global sites

▪ Needed to transfer PLM management operations in just 3 months

OPERATIONAL ISSUES

“Aras Innovator, which enables function development with low-code, can implement many user requirements with a small amount of code. The low-code development method could be learned in just the free initial training.”

“When it is difficult to envision specific requests for a functional improvement, we first try to create a rough draft with low-code, and then align each other’s vision. This enables to not only develop functions that meet the requirements, but also to pick up needs users were not aware of.”

- Yoshihiko Kurita, Instructor, Design Control Section, ROKI Co., Ltd.

▪ Data management possible regardless of CAD vendor

▪ Subscription model that minimizes initial investment

▪ Achieve centralized management of multi-CAD data

▪ Reduce wasteful design duplication and achieve smooth and timely information sharing through global

product data sharing

▪ Achieve traceability of design work

▪ Manage, operate, develop functionality and customization without the need for programming expertise

▪ Develop functions that meet user requirements in a short period of time by shifting development from

waterfall to agile model

REASONS FOR SELECTION

BENEFITS ACHIEVED WITH ARAS

2 How ROKI Brought CAD Administration In-House with the Aras Low-Code Platform

Number of Employees

5,500 worldwide

Established

April 1958

Slogan

Challenge, creation, infinity

Locations

Japan, USA, India, Mexico, others

Business Activities

▪ Development and production of

automotive filtration equipment

▪ Development, production

and sales of air and water

purification systems

▪ Development of fuel cell

systems

▪ Development of cogeneration

filter systems

With Aras Innovator, ROKI Co., Ltd. is able to centralize the management

of CAD data, which differs for each of their customers. This allows ROKI

to avoid the duplicate management of data while establishing a global

common workflow. With Aras’ industrial low-code platform, ROKI’s IT

Department is now able to handle many of the requests for additional

functions from users internally, thus reducing the cost of outsourcing.

Based in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, ROKI is a

manufacturer that develops and sells a variety of products based on its

unique filter technologies. The company’s products are widely used in

the automobile industry. Their major products include air cleaners that

remove dust and other particles from the air that’s taken in from outside

a vehicle and supplied to the engine, intake manifolds that properly

deliver air to each cylinder in the engine, power steering oil tanks that

filter and control the flow of oil that goes through the power steering

mechanism, canisters that prevent gasoline vapor from escaping, engine

oil filters, and fuel filters.

3How ROKI Brought CAD Administration In-House with the Aras Low-Code Platform

ARAS’ SUBSCRIPTION MODEL FOR MINIMIZING INITIAL COSTSIn order to make development operations for those products more efficient, the company

introduced Aras Innovator in 2016. Prior to that, the CAD systems being used to create

design drawings were not standardized within the company. With automobile-related

manufacturers as customers, ROKI often had to use a specific CAD system at the request of

the manufacturer it was delivering to. That made it difficult to unify systems, and the different

types of data that needed to be managed for each CAD system used, even though it may be

for similar products. This meant that it was impossible to use past development assets to

streamline new development work.

This led to the search for a PLM solution that could centrally manage design data without

unifying CAD systems. Ultimately, ROKI selected Aras Innovator. While there were already

a variety of PLM solutions that could handle data from multiple CAD systems, ROKI

chose Aras Innovator because of its subscription model that allowed them to reduce the

initial investment. A unique feature of an Aras subscription is that it has a simple pricing

structure, with a fixed price according to the range of users, guaranteed upgrades including

customization, unlimited free training, and access to almost all Aras Innovator functions

at no additional cost. And even before signing up for a subscription, anyone can install the

free version without time limit, and conduct Proof of Concept (PoC) and feasibility studies to

sufficiently verify that the software will meet their needs. Additionally, the ability to reduce

the total initial cost was another factor that led the company to choose Aras Innovator.


ABILITY TO EFFICIENTLY SHARE DESIGN INFORMATION EVEN WITH DEPARTMENTS THAT DO NOT HAVE CAD SYSTEMSWith the introduction of Aras Innovator, a PLM platform that can support data management

of multiple CAD systems, ROKI is now able to centrally manage CAD data globally. In addition

to its global headquarters in Japan, the company has offices in locations such as the USA,

Mexico, Romania, India, Thailand, and Indonesia, and it is expanding its business globally.

In product development, design information needs to be shared with locations in India, and

the ability to complement each other’s development work is needed. Prior to Aras, with

CAD systems differing by customer, such sharing was complicated, and it was sometimes

difficult to know where the latest version was. Converting CAD data to a common format

such as STEP makes it easier to share, but that also caused important information, such as

histories, to be lost. Thus, it is meaningless if the original data cannot be saved. There were

some departments, such as production sites, where CAD systems are not available and when

sharing information with these departments, relied upon inefficient procedures such as

printing the information on paper and then distributing it.

With the introduction of Aras Innovator, users can now register and share design information

in the PLM platform and collaborate with each other on a global level without having to

be conscious of the differences in CAD systems. Now that the data is centralized on Aras

Innovator, some of the major benefits are that it is easy to determine which is the latest

version, simplifying version management, as well as providing departments without CAD

systems the ability to refer to the data using Aras Innovator alone.

Another benefit ROKI has seen from the introduction of Aras Innovator is that now not only

design data, but also model information, can be shared globally. Since the design data is

centralized, the unique numbers assigned to each model are also centralized. And since

part numbers are assigned so that they are linked to the unique number of a model, part

numbers are now also standardized globally. This makes it possible to search for parts

globally, by part number. This helps prevent situations where parts cannot be found and then

the waste of having to design new parts that are similar to replace those that weren’t able

to be located. Since numbers assigned to each project have been standardized, smooth and

timely information sharing is now possible, even in projects where development is carried

out in coordination with other global sites. This has led to an improvement in workload

management efficiency.


DIGITALIZATION OF THE APPROVAL PROCESS WHEN RELEASING DRAWINGS, ASSURING TRACEABILITY IN THE DESIGN PROCESSIntroducing Aras Innovator has made the approval process smoother when releasing

drawings. Prior to the introduction of Aras Innovator, the company had to first go through

the process of printing the drawings when releasing them for manager approval, and then

distributing paper copies to each production location. As the approval process was not

computerized, only the people directly involved could identify the progress of authorization.

And, if drawings were not

approved due to problems being

found, there were no records

of the specific reason for not

approving and of the actions

subsequently taken. There was

also no way to later reference who

took what actions and when those

actions to resolve the problem

were taken.

Since the introduction of Aras

Innovator, the approval process

can now be completed entirely in

Aras Innovator. The approval process is no longer dependent on the paper-based documents

and it can now be completed regardless of location or department. The progress status and

response history are also visualized in Aras Innovator, and the work related to the drawings

is standardized globally, achieving traceability of design work.


NO PROGRAMMING EXPERIENCE NECESSARY WITH ARAS INNOVATORWhen the company first introduced Aras Innovator, ROKI relied on an external vendor to

administer and manage it. However, ROKI wanted to gain experience in the administration of

Aras Innovator in order to reduce costs. In 2018, ROKI took over the administration of Aras

Innovator. Yoshihiko Kurita, Instructor of the company’s Design Control Section, was assigned

to take charge of that. Even though he had over 13 years of experience as an engineer in the

company’s Design Department and Analysis Department, Mr. Kurita reflects that when he

was first appointed to be in charge, “My programing experience was only at the level of high

school or college classes, and I had no work experience in programming. Excel was about the

only IT tool I could use, and I was worried that it was beyond my capability.”

There were only three months left in the original contract with the commissioned vendor,

when Mr. Kurita took over. One reason that Mr. Kurita says he was able to smoothly

transition the administration management from the vendor and start work in the three-

month preparation period with only a two-day initial training, was Aras Innovator’s feature

of being a low-code platform. “If the administration management required programming in C

or JavaScript, it would have taken hundreds of hours just to learn that, and the three-month

period would have ended before reaching the level of knowledge needed to do the actual

work. Aras Innovator, for which functions can be developed with low-code, can implement

many of users’ requests with a small amount of code. The low-code development method

enabled the platform to be learned with just the free initial training.” (Mr. Kurita)

One task that Mr. Kurita took on with the Aras Innovator low-code platform was preparing a

FAQ. In order to improve the efficiency of user support, he created a database of the contents

of common inquiries so that users can look up and solve problems that have occurred in

the past, and it also serves as reminders for system administrators. Mr. Kurita was able to

develop that function in just three or four hours. “This gave me a feeling of how things I felt

were needed could be achieved quickly with low-code without programming.” (Mr. Kurita)

7How ROKI Brought CAD Administration and Management In-House with the Aras Innovator Low-Code Platform

ABILITY TO QUICKLY HANDLE REQUESTS FROM USERSThe ability to easily add tools and make corrections in order to develop various functions

by themselves with low-code is another one of the benefits that Mr. Kurita experienced with

the introduction of Aras Innovator. When he was first assigned to be system administrator,

there were already about 50 requests from users for functional improvements. “When

administration management were all outsourced, we had to request the vendor to make

functional improvements. However, this of course incurred costs, so we couldn’t make all of

them and had to prioritize. Over time, requests for functional improvements built up and so

did users’ frustrations.” (Mr. Kurita)

When Mr. Kurita investigated the remaining requests for functional improvements, “I

discovered that about 50 to 60% could be done in-house with Aras Innovator’s low-code

platform.” (Mr. Kurita) In fact, many requests didn’t need to be outsourced to the vendor.

“For example, there was a request to be able to search data from both before and after Aras

Innovator was introduced. The background to this request was that data before and after

introduction was stored in different locations, but nobody knew where to search for data

created during the transition period. Such functions, however, were easy to make with Aras

Innovator low-code platform.” (Mr. Kurita)

Mr. Kurita was able to develop such functions in-house in two or three days, and sometimes

they could be completed in as short as a few hours. That meant user requests could be

handled quickly without building up unanswered requests and thus, user convenience and

productivity improved.


ALIGNING IMAGES WITH LOW-CODE FOR AGILE DEVELOPMENT IN A SHORT CYCLE

The process of improving functionality changed dramatically thanks to the feature where system administrators

are able to develop functionality by themselves without relying on outsourcing. This is a shift from the waterfall

model where requirements are defined in detail and then developed, to the agile model where a rough draft is

created with low-code and then refined.

As a low-code platform, Aras Innovator is particularly well-suited to taking this approach. This is because

the internal operations staff, which is close to the users, can communicate with those users frequently and

gradually put together the required functions, while repeatedly checking with the development team. “Some of

the requests for functional improvements are related to tasks that we do not have much contact with on a daily

basis, so it is sometimes difficult for us to have a clear vision of the workflow. In such cases, we first create a

rough draft with low-code. By using the rough draft as a starting point, we are able to align each other’s vision

and not only develop functions that meet the requirements, but also sometimes pick up needs that the users

were not aware of.” (Mr. Kurita)

By proceeding with development based on a rough draft, easier solutions could sometimes be found. “For

example, when there was a request for a function to confirm errors in detail, we found when looking closely at

the rough draft that it was an unexpectedly simple request to be able to find places where errors occur right

away. In that case, all we needed to do was to highlight the location of the errors that occurred in red — a

task that could be easily implemented with low-code. If it were outsourced, a function that was unnecessarily

advanced and expensive may have been implemented.” (Mr. Kurita)

“When development of new functions was done by the vendor, the vendor

would carefully listen to requests from users, compile those, and perform

system development that incorporated all of them. Of course, that is

something to be grateful for, but the completed system would end up

being bigger than planned, and functions that users would not actually

use would be included. We began to wonder if, instead of making all

the functions from the start, there might also be an approach of adding

necessary functions a little at a time.” (Mr. Kurita)


However, Mr. Kurita does not insist on developing all the features in-house with a low-code platform.

“To what extent should we handle users’ requests for improvements to functions in-house, and to what extent

should we outsource? Aras Innovator may offer a basis for that judgement. We provide filtering devices mainly

for the automobile industry, but by us being the “filter” for issues from inside the company, I believe that we can

quickly solve issues within the company,” says Mr. Kurita. In other words, the work is done in-house to the extent

that development can be done with Aras Innovator’s low-code platform, and outsourcing is utilized for those

tasks that are higher level and more complex. In that way, not just cost reduction, but optimization of function

development too, proceeds by collaboration with users.

“Since users change little

by little every year due to

department transfers and

the like, the same questions

and requests tend to come at

the same time every year. By

accumulating this know-how

in handling requests, we will

be able to respond to user

inquiries more efficiently; and

with this know-how and the

low-code platform, we will be able to expand the scope of in-house production and reduce the costs associated

with outsourcing. I believe that the necessary know-how for in-house production can be obtained by simply

taking the initial training offered by Aras.” (Mr. Kurita)

Aras’ low-code platform enables ROKI to quickly and appropriately respond to inquiries from end-users, thereby

supporting the company as it expands its business globally.

In the future, ROKI plans to take advantage of the flexibility of Aras Innovator to further utilize the platform and

to migrate existing internal systems and systemize the management work for material characteristics currently

managed in Excel.

ACHIEVING A BALANCE BETWEEN COST AND FUNCTION DEVELOPMENT SPEED BY APPROPRIATELY SEPARATING WHEN TO INSOURCE AND OUTSOURCE


Aras provides a resilient platform for digital industrial applications. Only Aras offers open, low-code technology

that enables the rapid delivery of flexible, upgradeable solutions for the engineering, manufacturing, and

maintenance of complex products. Aras’ platform and product lifecycle management applications connect users

in all disciplines and functions to critical product data and processes across the lifecycle and throughout the

extended supply chain. Headquartered in Andover, MA with major offices throughout the world, Aras supports

more than 380 customers globally and over 375,000 users. The Aras Innovator platform is freely downloadable.

All applications are available at a single subscription rate, which includes all upgrades performed by Aras. Aras

customers include Airbus, Audi, Denso, GE, Honda, Kawasaki, Microsoft, and Nissan.

www.aras.com

© 2021 Aras. All rights reserved. This document is for informational purposes only. Aras and Aras Innovator are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Aras Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. REQ-2280-2109

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CASE STUDY How ROKI Brought CAD Administration ... - aras.com