In just six and a half weeks, Whittaker, a supplier to customers such as General Electric, Rolls Royce, and Pratt & Whitney, used SMARTEAM to set up lifecycle management workflow processes across engineering and manufacturing teams, also enabling other departments such as planning, contracts, marketing, and quality to participate in the web collaboration inititiative. The project included the successful import and qualification of a staggering amount of legacy data, including 140,000 documents from three different systems, and 1,200 projects and related meta-data.

Already successfully using its SMARTEAM solution for enhanced web collaboration and productivity, Whittaker is expanding the solution, merging its PLM, ERP and supplier processes to maximize its competitive advantage while further reducing costs and business risks. The company will soon begin using SMARTEAM for configuration management. It has already completed preproduction integration of the engineering BOM with its ERP system, using SMARTEAM EAI Gateway capabilities, Microsoft BizTalk® Server and an ERP adapter for business rules definition. Whittaker uses the Microsoft Windows® infrastructure integrated with the IBM i-series server for its enterprise IT platform, including Microsoft Windows Server and other Microsoft Office productivity tools.

"SMARTEAM has given our SBU an excellent enabling tool," said Geoff Smith, general manager, Whittaker Controls. "The nature of our business, which involves the engineering, design and manufacture of sub-component systems and heat management systems to aerospace, is highly complex and intricate, with our customers challenging us to deliver speed, agility and efficiency in all aspects of the process. SMARTEAM gives Whittaker a layer of advantage to effectively execute complex, multi-site co-creation projects."

Derek Aitken, Whittaker’s IT Director, noted: "Our own PLM Core Team conducted eight internal training classes, leveraging SMARTEAM reseller Design Data’s mobile SMARTEAM training environment. This enabled us to grow from six to 130 users in a 4-week period, while at the same time reinforcing our new business processes."

"Seamless web collaboration between applications and the teams that rely on them is the desired state for any enterprise organization focused on bringing new products to market in a more efficient manner," said Don Richardson, director of the manufacturing industry unit at Microsoft. "Microsoft and Dassault Systèmes have a long history of marrying the latest platform developments with advanced innovations in PLM, enabling suppliers such as Whittaker Controls to better serve their extensive manufacturing customer base."

"Whittaker Controls has grasped the essence of the PLM vision: a sum-total of mission-critical capabilities that facilitate successful product development and drive business transformation," said Avinoam Nowogrodski, CEO, SmarTeam. "We are delighted that Whittaker has positioned SMARTEAM, together with technology partner Microsoft, at the core of its corporate strategy."

The next phase in Whittaker’s PLM deployment calls for "extending the enterprise to our customers, suppliers and colleagues -- bridging the Meggitt divisions by leveraging SMARTEAM’s collaboration suite," said Aitken. Design Data will handle all integration, training, and deployment activities. Built on Microsoft technologies and infrastructure, SMARTEAM solutions deliver an open architecture for optimal interconnectivity and integration across applications, a powerful data model, and an easily implemented Windows-based user interface. SMARTEAM and Microsoft provide affordable, customizable, best-of-breed web collaboration solutions for today’s strategic manufacturing needs, featuring availability, scalability, performance, enhanced security and open standards support.

Whittaker Controls Inc. is a market leader in the design and manufacture of a broad range of precision fluid control devices and systems for aerospace, marine and industrial applications. Whittaker is located in Los Angeles and has been a leading supplier of these products since its formation in 1942. Whittaker is a division of Meggitt PLC ( LSE: MGGT.L ). Whittaker Controls maintains a close working relationship with key customers such as General Electric, Boeing and various major airlines. These longstanding relationships, combined with a global marketing effort and a distinguished 57-year history in the aerospace valves market, provide strong support for Whittaker Controls' continuing success. For more information, visit http://www.whittakercontrols.com.

SmarTeam develops, markets, and supports rapidly implemented, yet totally customizable, product lifecycle web collaboration solutions that drive efficiency, quality and responsiveness for customer-centric organizations and their value chains. Founded in 1995, SmarTeam is one of the fastest-growing web collaboration companies in the PLM market, with more than 3,100 customers worldwide. Its broad solutions portfolio enables manufacturing organizations and their suppliers and customers to efficiently manage and leverage product knowledge and business processes through web collaboration from concept through maintenance. SMARTEAM is a Dassault Systèmes and IBM PLM solution and is delivered by resellers on every continent. For more information, visit http://www.smarteam.com.