Original Date: 09/14/1998
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Raytheon Missile Systems Company (RMSC) set up the Product Data Management/Product Information Management (PDM/PIM) system as a direct consequence of IPD methodologies. The company’s recent mergers with Hughes, E-Systems, and Texas Instruments underscored the necessity to share data across multiple sites and to eliminate duplicated efforts. RMSC used an IPT to address specific concerns with the former data management system. Reasons to implement a new system included increased complexity of products; communication among diverse organizations; teaming and partnering over great distances; and integration of legacy system data.

The PDM/PIM system is a powerful tool for streamlining product development by managing data pertaining to design, development, configuration, change notification, and support functions. The system is based on Sherpa’s Integrator software, and supports data input from various commercial software packages (e.g., Pro/Engineer, CATIA). Users can access the PDM/PIM system via a Wide Area Network within RMSC.

Since implementing the PDM/PIM system, RMSC reduced product development time and cost; facilitated IPD teaming; established on-line data retrieval; increased internal and external communications; improved schedule and cycle time tracking; documented standards for ISO-9000; and shifted the focus from managing paper to managing data. The company also reduced cycle times for engineering changes by 21%, manpower for data management by 30%, floor space for data management by 63%, and capital equipment costs by $15,000. By scanning the legacy system data into the PDM/PIM system, RMSC saved $5 million in 1997, and estimates a savings of $28 million annually.

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