Formation unveils software designed to cut costs
Product Lifecycle Managmenet (PLM) software that completely
integrates the product development process from formulation to
packaging.
The company says that the functionality offered by its Optiva V product enables food and beverage manufacturers to dramatically accelerate product introduction to world markets, lower development costs and enhance product innovation and quality.
"Formula management is the heart of product development within the process industries," said Michael Burkett of AMR Research.
"However, it takes a team of marketing, manufacturing, quality management, and product development professionals to share ideas and product data seamlessly to successfully develop and launch a new product. When there is no single system of record, delays and waste result from the inefficiencies of reconciling inconstant information."
Enhancements to the functionality for formula, label and packaging design and management make these processes fully integrated allowing companies to develop the whole product as an integrated and dynamic process. In addition, Optiva V boasts a new, service-oriented architecture (SOA) that enables companies to deploy tight, two-way integration of product development and the supply chain based on Web services.
Additionally, Optiva V's SOA integrates the tools users use today to do their jobs, such as Microsoft Excel, and Project, with the enterprise PLM system, Optiva. Formation Systems says that the ability to provide the right interface for each user is necessary in order to integrate all the participants in a typical product development process, from concept to launch.
Optiva V's unique capabilities for coordinating the development of the whole product across the whole development process and its bidirectional integration with supply chain systems enables companies to minimise their time-to-market, optimise their product costs and cut the risk of quality and regulatory compliance issues.
"For process manufacturers battling against increases in global regulations and a rapidly changing consumer demand cycle, the ability to develop products faster, cheaper and better is the key to success," said Rory Granros, vice president of product management for Formation Systems.
"With Optiva, our customers have been able to reduce product launch times by as much as 50 percent, reduce costs significantly early on in their design process and develop products that are easier to manufacture. With Optiva V, companies will realise even greater benefits when they integrate their complete development process for the complete product with their global supply chain."
Current Optiva customers include Barber Foods, Cadbury Schweppes, The Campbell Soup Company and The Coca-Cola Company.
