Integrated Partner Solutions: Integrated Workflows through Simplified Data Management

Gene Perry, Vice President

At a time when digital technology adoption is reaching its peak, most manufacturers continue to work with fragmented, complex, and manually-driven data processes. Various departments, including shop floor, engineering, and procurement, have predominantly been executing tasks independently by relying on their own specific data management methods. With little visibility into where accurate engineering data is authored, employees in a manufacturing organization spend a great deal of their time reentering the same data again-and-again in different applications in the design and manufacturing lifecycle. Although some cloud solutions provide alternative ways of handling data, they may be somewhat limited, performance can be a concern, and the staff may still be wary of embracing the change due to the complexity in handling data across platforms. With the lack of global data standardization, each department finds it daunting to manage the growing number of associated document versions. The need of the hour is an approach that stresses a single source of truth to achieve efficient and simplified vertical data management.

Enter Integrated Partner Solutions (IPS) that enables organizations to manage their engineering data centrally for maximum outcomes. The United States-based company helps its clients streamline their document management processes by replacing mundane manual day-to-day tasks with automation. “We allow organizations to determine where their data is authored and provide proper visibility with vertical integrations between systems so data read/write cycles can occur swiftly without reentry errors,” says Gene Perry, Vice President of IPS.

IPS works closely with its customers, understanding their authored data origin points. To elaborate, the company extracts item master information such as part number, folder structure, description, revision, and author details as well as BOM structure data. It also comprehends where and when the data needs to be reflected across different applications and departments.

We allow organizations to determine where their data is authored and provide proper visibility with vertical integrations between systems, so data read/write cycles can occur swiftly without reentry errors

Subsequently, the company connects data, files, and their reference points within a database, so that managed changes are properly reflected in all the departments and processes collectively. To tackle the challenges with managing data, documents, and folders, IPS brings automation through which part numbers, descriptions, folder structures, and workflows are pre-configured using standard forms. This proactive approach prevents loss or misplacement of files and keeps the process flow visible and consistent.

As a premium partner of MechWork for SolidWorks, IPS offers MechWork PDM, a document management application. The application focuses on automation, functionality, security, and adaptability aspects of data management processes with the highest level of integration for engineering departments. “Our solution is configured to help the customer achieve their desired goals quickly while improving user experience and task management in manufacturing,” adds Perry.

Backed by such capabilities, IPS has secured a well-defined product data management (PDM) integration with SolidWorks. With MechWorks PDM, SolidWorks configurations—which allow users to maintain multiple instances of a model within a single file—can be efficiently managed. Each managed configuration will have its own record and revision history in the database. All the managed configurations can be handled in one drawing within a table, or in independent drawings. Interestingly, MechWorks PDM offers a linking mechanism through which changes to the model of a component can be automatically synchronized to its associated drawing.

Focused on growing its knowledge and expertise by aligning with the latest releases in SolidWorks, servers, databases, and Visual Studio, IPS continues to adapt to their clients’ requirements and provide them with an optimized workflow. IPS remains committed to helping customers chart a well-documented roadmap for better manufacturing outcomes. Moving forward, IPS plans to incorporate additional functionality in areas such as advanced workflows to improve the overall user experience.

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Company
Integrated Partner Solutions

Headquarters
Hammond, WI

Management
Gene Perry, Vice President

Description
Integrated Partner Solutions (IPS) enables organizations to manage their engineering data centrally for maximum outcomes. The US-based company helps its clients streamline their document management processes by replacing mundane manual day-to-day tasks with automation. It allows organizations to determine where their data is authored and provide proper visibility with vertical integrations between systems so data read/write cycles can occur swiftly without reentry errors. To tackle the challenges with managing data, documents and folders, IPS brings automation through which part numbers, descriptions, folder structures, and workflows are pre-configured using standard forms