Project goals
Amsted approached Synergis Engineering Design Solutions for recommendations on how different tools could be leveraged to improve their change management process. During initial analysis and discussion, the following goals were established:
- Move from a somewhat manual process to an electronic process that provided accurate traceability and status at all times in a single, easy-to-use location.
- Increase collaboration across business units and departments by providing direct access and ability to contribute as a change moves through the workflow.
- Develop a process with approvals and tasks, automatically assigned and defined based on the content of each change order.
Solution
When accounting for all the variables presented, and the end goals of Amsted Rail, the recommendation was made to implement the Autodesk Fusion Manage product lifecycle management (PLM) solution to control their entire change process. To implement Autodesk Fusion Manage, an integration with Autodesk Vault was recommended and implemented. This allowed the related design files to remain stored on premise in Vault but be managed by the Fusion 360 Manage change process.
Business outcome
Upon successful completion of the project a new process was established for Amsted to fully manage their change process from start to finish with all necessary departments directly participating. The inclusion of additional metadata, approval assignments, notifications, and task assignments, configured to be automatically defined based on the change order content, allowed for a dramatically improved change process with complete status traceability and greatly improved reporting.
Conclusion
The expert guidance of Synergis Engineering Design Solutions enabled Amsted to greatly improve their change management process. The success of the PLM implementation has expanded well beyond change management to include several quality processes, a supplier approval process, a general request process, quality document change management and the related training processes, and more. Using Autodesk Fusion Manage across such a broad expanse of business processes has really allowed Amsted to capitalize on their investment and improve business processes across the entire organization.
Project Summary:
Autodesk Solutions:
- Fusion Lifecyle
- Vault Professional
- Fusion Manage
Services Provided:
- Cloud Migration
- Collaboration & Productivity
- Data Migration
- Technical Support
- Solution Adoption Services
- Business Process Assessment & Documentation
Amsted Rail has been an industry leader in freight railroading for more than 100 years. Their experience, dedication and efficiency in servicing today’s demanding heavy haul operations is unequaled as we keep railcars rolling in some of the world’s toughest railroad environments.
