Situation
The French army is moving from a process of fully internal maintenance to collaborative maintenance done jointly with OEMs and external providers. This means they have to share product data and processes, something their legacy IT systems are not well-suited for. To address this new challenge, temporary solutions had been developed that led to silo applications.
Problem
A new information system was required, which could handle all data exchanges with OEMs and make it available to the legacy IT systems, support interaction with OEMs, minimize manual inputs from maintenance operators, reduce faulty spare part orders, and generally increase the quality of feedback data.
Solution
SIMMT established PENCIL, a secure collaboration solution based on Eurostep ShareAspace. PENCIL manages the exchange of product information, as delivered from the manufacturer, and keeps two-way communication about event report feedback, resource orders and audits. PENCIL allows secure collaboration with external partners; SIMMT publish product configuration data to the collaboration platform, and the OEM can update the service information for their specific component. All parties can protect their IPR by using granular access rights to the product data.
Benefits
- Easier doing business – With a stable contractual data exchange framework in place, it is now easier for SIMMT to close deals and follow up on contracts.
- More control and higher quality – With a single auditable process record, and full control of their own data, less time is spent resolving errors.
- Drive partner satisfaction – Providing a common cross-program approach to data exchanges, partners have an easier time exchanging accurate, reliable and timely data.
