At a Granta web seminar, Denise Massa described an enterprise project to manage GM’s materials information using GRANTA MI. GM have looked to support the company’s materials information needs while rationalizing the dozens of tools currently involved in handling materials information. They have designed a system based around just two key tools—GRANTA MI, which will be used to manage materials information and ‘author’ it into the second key tool, their Teamcenter PLM system, from where it can be consumed by a diverse audience from engineers, to purchasing staff, to lawyers. Key goals are to reduce the time taken on material studies and to ensure consistency across the users of materials data: “We want them to all be using the same version of the steel so we have less rework, better products, no product recalls, and fewer warranty issues.”
Speaking on the justification for the materials information management project, she explained how a business case had been put together analyzing both direct business benefits that impact the bottom line and indirect benefits: “after we finish each project, we go back and check that we have met our metrics. So far, we are about 50% of the way through the project and have met all of our metrics.”