Yangli Group
Over the last 40 years, Jiangsu Yangli Group Co., Ltd. (Yangli Group), a leading Chinese forging and pressing equipment company, has grown from a small enterprise to a manufacturer with approximately 3,000 employees and six key product portfolios.
A reputation for growth, innovation and quality
The product portfolios include more than 600 models of forging and pressing equipment, including presses, shearing machines, bending machines, hydraulic presses, computer numerical control (CNC) punch presses and laser cutting presses.
Many equipment manufacturers focus on enhancing production potential, improving quality and strengthening their research and development (R&D) capability. Through a disciplined approach, Yangli Group has done just that. It has established 18 advanced new products, attained more than 20 scientific and technological achievements at the national and provincial levels, and now possesses more than 50 new product and technical patents, leading its domestic industry sector in production, sales and export volume for five consecutive years. Yangli Group is well known for its growth, technological innovation and the quality services it provides.
“China’s technology lags compared to developed nations,” says Zhang Jun, deputy general manager of Yangli Group. “We don’t have a lot in the way of self-owned core technologies and intellectual property. However, one of the permanent guiding principles of our company has been to make knowledge our core competency, because we believe future success depends on continuously improving our enterprise proficiency and product quality.”
To meet its development goals and address the challenges of skyrocketing commodity prices, a broken capital chain and increasingly fierce competition, Yangli Group launched a series of software initiatives. The initiatives were designed to generate and retain innovation expertise, improve overall product design and R&D capabilities, and provide management with advanced communication/collaboration tools.
Pre-configured and scalable
The company’s goal was to strengthen the management of its product lifecycle management (PLM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Yangli Group wanted to use PLM to shorten its new product R&D cycle and time-to-market; improve innovation capabilities; guarantee the standardization, accuracy, validity and security of product data; enable enterprise data sharing and collaborative design; and accurately share bill of materials (BOM) information with ERP. Yangli Group hoped to enable a parallel product design and manufacturing process, integrating its technical data and management information systems.
Yangli Group evaluated and compared many well-known suppliers both at home and abroad before selecting Siemens PLM Software’s Teamcenter® software as its complete PLM solution. With an advanced technical framework, secure information management safeguards and abundance of pragmatic system functions, Teamcenter proved to be a strong choice for Yangli Group.
“Teamcenter is a great fit because it provides users with a pre-configured, scalable environment,” says Jun. “Teamcenter is the most competitive mainstream PLM product with the largest market share in China.” He notes, “It has enabled us to enhance our productivity by standardizing and unifying the management of our R&D knowledge and data.”
To implement Teamcenter, Yangli Group utilized Beijing Throughout Software Technology Co., Ltd., a Siemens PLM Software partner possessing strong implementation experience, expert project teams and an excellent reputation based on numerous successful customer engagements.
Establishing an efficient R&D process
In May 2011, Yangli Group commenced product data management (PDM) project implementation. Yangli Group and Beijing Throughout Company put together a joint PLM project team to undertake all implementation-related work. After two-weeks of PLM professional training, the project team developed a detailed work plan. A well-orchestrated implementation of the plan resulted in a smooth and successful project.
Yangli Precision Machine Tools Co., Ltd. (part of Yangli Group), was the first company in the group to implement Teamcenter, utilizing a data interface that helps closely integrate all design application software, which enables the effectively managing of the R&D design process throughout an entire project. The company’s designers use the tools provided by Teamcenter to store their design models in both 2D and 3D format. Each product model of Yangli Precision Machine Tools has an assembly drawing and a part drawing. The company configured Teamcenter to automatically extract the assembly drawing structure from its computer-aided design (CAD) software and generate a product BOM.
Phase I was completed on schedule, with Yangli Group establishing not only a uniform product R&D data management platform that enabled the standardization of its R&D data, but also a product design knowledge library and management system for electronic review, approval and engineering change process management.
In addition, with the completion of phase I, Yangli Group realized the automatic delivery and transfer of product BOM data, which was made possible by the integration of its PDM and ERP systems. This enabled the standardization of Yangli Precision Machine Tools business management processes.
Expanding access
In April 2012, Yangli Group commenced phase II of its PDM implementation. The purpose of the second project was to expand the availability of Teamcenter to staff in various research institutes across the group, including personnel in the processing equipment, production planning and quality inspection departments. These departments use Teamcenter to manage all of the product-related information. They are impressed with the data accuracy and traceability made possible as a result of using Teamcenter.
During phase II, Yangli Group also improved the integration between Teamcenter and its software that manages ISO 9000 quality standards, thus making significant progress toward the group’s goal of realizing a completely template-based/standardized R&D business process.
Yangli Precision Machine Tools Co., Ltd., Yangli Heavy Duty Machine Tools Co., Ltd. and Yangli Machine Tools Co., Ltd. are located some distance from each other in different administrative districts of Yangzhou, China. The information technology (IT) configuration, as implemented, enabled the group to effectively eliminate silos of isolated intellectual capital, substantially improve data security, and notably increase innovation collaboration and knowledge management, while steadily constructing a totally integrated R&D management system.
“The fast implementation of the PLM project is a remarkable achievement for the company and is a milestone in the renovation of Yangli Group’s technical R&D system management,” says Jun. He notes, “We use Teamcenter to continuously strengthen the unification of our product design business, and any challenges, sentiments or suggestions arising from the use of the system can be escalated quickly and resolved. With Teamcenter, we’ve made incredible gains in standardizing product development and creating competitive advantage.”
Improving productivity
With Teamcenter, the efficiency of Yangli Group’s product R&D has been greatly improved, the accuracy and re-usability of product data has been enhanced and the product variant design cycle has been shortened.
In addition, the effective combination of PLM and ERP further promotes the efficiency of product design, quality improvement and change management, which enables the enterprise to quickly respond to dynamic market requirements and enhance the enterprise’s core competitiveness.
Jun notes, “As a matter of fact, key factors such as strategy, market, capital and technology are affecting the enterprise’s productivity and competitiveness, so it is critical to put systems in place that provide the information necessary to support effective management. We vigorously push management innovation while bearing in mind the supportive and promotional force of enterprise information construction. Those two factors complement each other, and combine to drive our management innovation and productivity forward by leaps and bounds.”
To date, Yangli Group has finished multiple IT projects to increase its operational effectiveness. The result is dramatically enhanced information and knowledge management, from production to after-sale service, including contract signing, materials procurement, operation and sales, production equipment, warehousing of finished products and shipment of products. “This has allowed Yangli Group to form international, network-based industrial chains for its forging and pressing equipment, including high-performance control, intelligent operation and remote monitoring,” says Jun.
In about seven years, Yangli Group has more than doubled its revenues.
The product portfolios include more than 600 models of forging and pressing equipment, including presses, shearing machines, bending machines, hydraulic presses, computer numerical control (CNC) punch presses and laser cutting presses.
Many equipment manufacturers focus on enhancing production potential, improving quality and strengthening their research and development (R&D) capability. Through a disciplined approach, Yangli Group has done just that. It has established 18 advanced new products, attained more than 20 scientific and technological achievements at the national and provincial levels, and now possesses more than 50 new product and technical patents, leading its domestic industry sector in production, sales and export volume for five consecutive years. Yangli Group is well known for its growth, technological innovation and the quality services it provides.
“China’s technology lags compared to developed nations,” says Zhang Jun, deputy general manager of Yangli Group. “We don’t have a lot in the way of self-owned core technologies and intellectual property. However, one of the permanent guiding principles of our company has been to make knowledge our core competency, because we believe future success depends on continuously improving our enterprise proficiency and product quality.”
To meet its development goals and address the challenges of skyrocketing commodity prices, a broken capital chain and increasingly fierce competition, Yangli Group launched a series of software initiatives. The initiatives were designed to generate and retain innovation expertise, improve overall product design and R&D capabilities, and provide management with advanced communication/collaboration tools.
Pre-configured and scalable
The company’s goal was to strengthen the management of its product lifecycle management (PLM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Yangli Group wanted to use PLM to shorten its new product R&D cycle and time-to-market; improve innovation capabilities; guarantee the standardization, accuracy, validity and security of product data; enable enterprise data sharing and collaborative design; and accurately share bill of materials (BOM) information with ERP. Yangli Group hoped to enable a parallel product design and manufacturing process, integrating its technical data and management information systems.
Yangli Group evaluated and compared many well-known suppliers both at home and abroad before selecting Siemens PLM Software’s Teamcenter® software as its complete PLM solution. With an advanced technical framework, secure information management safeguards and abundance of pragmatic system functions, Teamcenter proved to be a strong choice for Yangli Group.
“Teamcenter is a great fit because it provides users with a pre-configured, scalable environment,” says Jun. “Teamcenter is the most competitive mainstream PLM product with the largest market share in China.” He notes, “It has enabled us to enhance our productivity by standardizing and unifying the management of our R&D knowledge and data.”
To implement Teamcenter, Yangli Group utilized Beijing Throughout Software Technology Co., Ltd., a Siemens PLM Software partner possessing strong implementation experience, expert project teams and an excellent reputation based on numerous successful customer engagements.
Establishing an efficient R&D process
In May 2011, Yangli Group commenced product data management (PDM) project implementation. Yangli Group and Beijing Throughout Company put together a joint PLM project team to undertake all implementation-related work. After two-weeks of PLM professional training, the project team developed a detailed work plan. A well-orchestrated implementation of the plan resulted in a smooth and successful project.
Yangli Precision Machine Tools Co., Ltd. (part of Yangli Group), was the first company in the group to implement Teamcenter, utilizing a data interface that helps closely integrate all design application software, which enables the effectively managing of the R&D design process throughout an entire project. The company’s designers use the tools provided by Teamcenter to store their design models in both 2D and 3D format. Each product model of Yangli Precision Machine Tools has an assembly drawing and a part drawing. The company configured Teamcenter to automatically extract the assembly drawing structure from its computer-aided design (CAD) software and generate a product BOM.
Phase I was completed on schedule, with Yangli Group establishing not only a uniform product R&D data management platform that enabled the standardization of its R&D data, but also a product design knowledge library and management system for electronic review, approval and engineering change process management.
In addition, with the completion of phase I, Yangli Group realized the automatic delivery and transfer of product BOM data, which was made possible by the integration of its PDM and ERP systems. This enabled the standardization of Yangli Precision Machine Tools business management processes.
Expanding access
In April 2012, Yangli Group commenced phase II of its PDM implementation. The purpose of the second project was to expand the availability of Teamcenter to staff in various research institutes across the group, including personnel in the processing equipment, production planning and quality inspection departments. These departments use Teamcenter to manage all of the product-related information. They are impressed with the data accuracy and traceability made possible as a result of using Teamcenter.
During phase II, Yangli Group also improved the integration between Teamcenter and its software that manages ISO 9000 quality standards, thus making significant progress toward the group’s goal of realizing a completely template-based/standardized R&D business process.
Yangli Precision Machine Tools Co., Ltd., Yangli Heavy Duty Machine Tools Co., Ltd. and Yangli Machine Tools Co., Ltd. are located some distance from each other in different administrative districts of Yangzhou, China. The information technology (IT) configuration, as implemented, enabled the group to effectively eliminate silos of isolated intellectual capital, substantially improve data security, and notably increase innovation collaboration and knowledge management, while steadily constructing a totally integrated R&D management system.
“The fast implementation of the PLM project is a remarkable achievement for the company and is a milestone in the renovation of Yangli Group’s technical R&D system management,” says Jun. He notes, “We use Teamcenter to continuously strengthen the unification of our product design business, and any challenges, sentiments or suggestions arising from the use of the system can be escalated quickly and resolved. With Teamcenter, we’ve made incredible gains in standardizing product development and creating competitive advantage.”
Improving productivity
With Teamcenter, the efficiency of Yangli Group’s product R&D has been greatly improved, the accuracy and re-usability of product data has been enhanced and the product variant design cycle has been shortened.
In addition, the effective combination of PLM and ERP further promotes the efficiency of product design, quality improvement and change management, which enables the enterprise to quickly respond to dynamic market requirements and enhance the enterprise’s core competitiveness.
Jun notes, “As a matter of fact, key factors such as strategy, market, capital and technology are affecting the enterprise’s productivity and competitiveness, so it is critical to put systems in place that provide the information necessary to support effective management. We vigorously push management innovation while bearing in mind the supportive and promotional force of enterprise information construction. Those two factors complement each other, and combine to drive our management innovation and productivity forward by leaps and bounds.”
To date, Yangli Group has finished multiple IT projects to increase its operational effectiveness. The result is dramatically enhanced information and knowledge management, from production to after-sale service, including contract signing, materials procurement, operation and sales, production equipment, warehousing of finished products and shipment of products. “This has allowed Yangli Group to form international, network-based industrial chains for its forging and pressing equipment, including high-performance control, intelligent operation and remote monitoring,” says Jun.
In about seven years, Yangli Group has more than doubled its revenues.
