CSI talk to Jordan Valley Semiconductors Ltd about how DDM helped them resolve their difficulties with accurate data management and revision control.
Jordan Valley is a manufacturing company shipping bespoke products to an international market. Seventy five per cent of the worlds’ top 25 semiconductor manufacturers rely on Jordan Valley metrology tools for front-end and back-end applications, including development of the next generation’s thin films.
What are the main challenges you face?
“DDM reduces data loss or duplication, using a sophisticated document and drawing control tracking system.”
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In the past we found it difficult to maintain an accurate part numbering system with revision control, engineering change processing and supplying PDF drawings to our suppliers. Most of our products were unique configurations and our designers had to ask each other what files were in use and ended up with duplicate parts and lost files. We found ourselves fire-fighting more than designing. DDM reduces data loss or duplication, using a sophisticated document and drawing control tracking system.
“The SQL data transmitted over the DDM was very fast and because the files were transferred to the local server the load times were very good”.
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CSI approached us with a solution called DesignDataManager to improve our data accuracy, reduce part duplication, introduce revision history and implement a usable computerised workflow for engineering change control. DDM also offered the added bonus of user permissions and a web interface. We implemented the data management system to control the parts and it also understood the structure of our assemblies making it possible for anyone to search the ‘Where Used’, ‘Used On’, and ‘Bill of Materials’ from DDM’s user interface. We made use of part States and User Permissions, to allow designers to work on files that are not visible to Manufacturing and Purchasing departments and to help us eliminate accidental usage of unapproved parts and drawings. The web interface would prove extremely useful for Field Service Engineers working at customer sites to identify parts by name or part number and by using part previews. It would also allow them to view an older revision in case the customer had the older part -something not possible before DDM
Quick and Easy Search using DDM search functionalities
We now have a very efficient manufacturing company compared to pre-DDM. Our service engineers can repair our products on site by locating the correct part first time using the DDM web interface’s part preview, used on, BOM and search by part number or description functionality. We also use some custom properties to help identify parts controlled in our ERP system such as a Stock Code number. Purchasing and Manufacturing rely on DDM’s automatically generated PDFs of Drawings to build and order machined parts from suppliers. We always have the correct revision with suppliers, which has reduced our non-conformance and rejections significantly!
We also had an office in Prague using Creo Parametric®. We used a module from CSI called RIFS (Remote Intelligent File Server) to synchronise files locally between offices and a virtual private network (VPN) connection to the SQL server for the part information. The SQL data transmitted via the DDM was very fast and because the files were transferred to the local server the load times were very good. If a part was not available locally it was immediately pulled from the remote server. Most parts were synchronised during out of office hours over the VPN.
Further expansion with DDM planned
We are looking into using the business workflow system in the near future to automate engineering business processes. For example, we can enter a flow chart and DDM can email purchasing to send the new drawing to the supplier when the revision increases. This is something that could be overlooked in a manual process.
“We are a small company and most products were overly complex for our situation requiring more staff than we had available just to administer the systems.”
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We are also looking to implement DDM in our Headquarters office in Israel with the RIFS and we are going to use DDM with SolidWorks and Creo Parametric simultaneously as a step towards ultimately migrating to one software package for CAD design. DDM has been very useful and it is also an affordable price. We are a small company and most products were overly complex for our situation requiring more staff than we had available just to administer the systems. DDM is truly scalable and can be implemented for a small team of CAD engineers through to large scale assemblies, integrating into extranets and across international offices and partners.