Based on the V6 platform, SOPAL has adopted a PLM strategy for all of its products, from initial styling of new equipment to product phase out and end of life. Using Dassault Systèmes’ solutions, SOPAL can manage all of its product information, such as technical specifications, design data, manufacturing data, regulatory constraints and sales throughout the entire lifecycle.

SOPAL chose V6 PLM Express for its superior handling and lifelike visualization of sophisticated surfaces, enabling its designers to create the complex shapes in CATIA V6 that give its faucets a distinctive and attractive look. DELMIA’s V6 Machining Solution will be used to produce their tooling and speed up the entire process. This multi-brand implementation of V6 PLM Express allows SOPAL to keep track of each product and makes the data available to anybody in the company with a need to know.

With trends in faucet design changing often, SOPAL felt it had to remain flexible and reactive to market demand.

“Knowing how to detect new trends and delivering products that respond to these changes is of prime importance. Part of bringing the right product to market, while shortening delivery times as much as possible, is being able to see that product first, in a lifelike experience,” said Moez Regayeg, manager, SOPAL. “We used the lifelike visualization enabled by V6 to create an interactive 3D experience. We even went one step further with 3DVIA Mobile, and published the actual lifelike models of our products for viewing on customers’ iPhones.”

SOPAL chose 3DVIA Composer to document the assembly process, and deliver it in an interactive 3D experience, complete with animated procedures. SOPAL uses 3D animation to explain to architects, construction companies or the final customer how their products should be installed and how they function. To gain worldwide exposure, SOPAL recently published its product portfolio on the 3DVIA.com website, the DS online solution for searching, uploading & sharing ideas in 3D. “3DVIA will help promote our products worldwide,” said Regayeg.

V6 is key to enabling collaboration between SOPAL’s different departments and with subsidiaries. Working together accelerates the development process, fuels innovation and helps avoid mistakes. “As more people collaborate on a design and share ideas on the fly, changes are made, which is why they need to know that they are working on the latest and right version of a design,” said Regayeg.

“V6 covers all our needs in design, manufacturing, and documentation management all on the same DS V6 collaborative platform,” concluded Regayeg.