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Enhancing Product Development through

Product Lifecycle Management

Zurn Industries, LLC accelerates product development with help from Advanced

Solutions PLM

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Product Lifecycle

Management

“From a consulting

perspective -

Advanced Solutions

was the only Autodesk

reseller that we

considered.”

Company Overview

For over 115 years, Zurn Industries, a

leading brand of Rexnord, has been a

recognized leader in commercial,

municipal, healthcare, and industrial

water solutions. Zurn provides innovative

water solutions, sustainable plumbing

products, water conservation, and total

building solutions for a variety of

building environments. Not just a mission

statement, “One Earth. One Goal.” is the

way Zurn approaches building value and

trust with customers, through superior

knowledge, reliability, accountability, and

service.

J.A. Zurn purchased his first patent for a

back-water valve from the Erie City Iron

Works in 1900. He then began creating

the legacy that is, today, Zurn Industries.

Zurn has continued to pioneer new

innovations in plumbing and water

systems to revolutionize the Zurn

Engineered Water Solutions® industry.

Through advancements in technology,

they are positioned to explore new

product development and innovation,

within a broader market. By moving into

electronics and implementing lead-free

materials, they have exceeded

government mandates and impacted the

health and safety of water.

Business Goals & Objectives

As advances in technology led Zurn to

pursue enhancing its own internal process

for product development, they began the

search for a technology and integration

partner.

Zurn had already used Advanced Solutions

for a successful Autodesk Vault® product

data management implementation, so the

choice to use Advanced Solutions as its

partner for improving the Zurn Product

Development Process (ZPDP) was

straightforward. Zurn’s existing product

development process involved the use of

Excel spreadsheets to track product

lifecycle in three separate locations. They

found they were unable to easily share

the systems or harvest the data for easy

reporting to business managers.

They recognized the need for a global

platform capable of integrating all ZPDP

data into one central system that provides

full accessibility, eliminates software

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compatibility challenges, and quickly

reports product development data. It

was clear that they needed a turn-key

solution to quickly meet their current

needs, giving them the scalability to

grow their business in the future. So,

they turned to a trusted advisor in

product lifecycle management,

Advanced Solutions Product Lifecycle

Management (ASI PLM).

Business Solutions

Advanced Solutions PLM took the

existing ZPDP system, used to cover the

full lifecycle of the product from

conception to completion, and

analyzed each macro and calculation of

the various Excel spreadsheets to fully

understand the process and workflow

needed. ASI PLM technical experts,

Scott Hoover, Industrial Engineer, and

Tim Sealschott, Manufacturing

Solutions Manager, set forth

configuring each precise detail into the

Autodesk PLM 360 platform, providing

the existing ZPDP functionality with

greater efficiency and enhanced

collaboration capabilities. The

knowledgeable ASI PLM team took the

time to familiarize themselves with

Zurn’s existing development process,

prior to implementation. The

investment in a thorough

understanding of the whole scope of

the project allowed the execution team

to start off on the right foot.

Originally performed in massive Excel

spreadsheets, the ZPDP required

creative configurations and scripts

within PLM 360 to fulfill the ZPDP

requirements. Advanced Solutions’ PLM

team took the lead on development of

the site content and scripts, while its

software development team created

any necessary interfaces with external

systems. Advanced Solutions allowed

Zurn to continue its business as usual,

minimizing impact during the

development of the new PLM system.

ASI PLM subject matter experts

understood the process quickly and

anticipated challenges and solutions

before they even came into play. “The

team was committed to the project,

engaged, responsive, and knew PLM 360

very well,” noted Phil Schmalzried, Zurn

Lead Application Developer. “If they

didn’t know the answer, they quickly

found answers and adapted.”

The RFP process for the project began

with demos in September 2014, spanning

a variety of PLM solutions from a diverse

group of technology companies. The Zurn

management team settled on Autodesk

PLM 360, due to its reporting capabilities,

ease of implementation, scalability, and

integration with other Zurn and Autodesk

applications.

“The other solution that we reviewed

against PLM 360 for the ZPDP process was

project portfolio management (PPM),

which had a completely different feature

set than PLM 360. The PPM software was

highly focused on process management,

but it didn’t offer any of the more

advanced engineering or quality functions

of PLM 360. The other advantage with

PLM 360 was that it kept us with the

Autodesk family of products that we are

already heavily invested in,” stated Sean

Waldron, Zurn Business Analyst.

Sean went on to say, “From a consulting

perspective, once we selected PLM 360 as

the software we wanted to move forward

with, Advanced Solutions was the only

Autodesk reseller that we considered,

since we had an existing relationship with

them, in supporting our other Autodesk

products.”

“When we switched Autodesk resellers

about two years ago, we specifically

selected Advanced Solutions as our

Autodesk reseller because they are a

Platinum Partner, the highest reseller level

from Autodesk. ASI was also one of the

few PLM certified Autodesk advisors,

which meant they were qualified to

implement PLM if we decided to move

forward with PLM 360 at some point in

the future, which we obviously did.”

CEO, programmer or director of IT, they

present the data in a way that makes

sense to you, no matter what your role is.”

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Results, Benefits, and Final Thoughts

The project kicked off on April 20, 2015

with an intense exploration and

workflow analysis performed by

Advanced Solutions. The data migration

and training continued throughout the

development and implementation phase

of the project and completed with a live

launch of a fully functional system, just

three short months later, on July 30,

2015. Scott Richards, Zurn Project

Manager, said, “We challenged and they

delivered.”

The tiered training approach and

seamless migration into the PLM 360

tool, provided by the Advanced

Solutions PLM Team, has given Zurn

users access to a simple straight-forward

approach to product development. Phil

recalled, “I’ve worked with several

consulting companies before, and I

don’t know of any that were as amiable

and agreeable to different ideas. They

(ASI PLM) just had a real can-do attitude

the whole time.” The Zurn team is now

able to set up company-wide metrics to

measure project status, track workflow,

and monitor productivity, while

developing and refining the process.

When asked, “What

would you say to

anyone considering the

PLM 360

implementation with

Advanced Solutions?”

Phil said, “You’ve

picked a good

partner.”

PLM 360 is help Zurn measure success

which wasn’t possible in the past. Zurn

did not change its product development

process, but since the implementation

of PLM 360, it has become more

efficient, secure, and has poised itself

for further growth by adding the ability

to interface with different applications

and modules to encompass other Zurn

workflows.

Accessibility from any location or device,

global revision control, cloud backups,

and security are what makes PLM 360 a

viable solution. As Zurn continues to

innovate, they will be considering

additional workflow applications for

PLM 360 and integration with the help

of their trusted PLM Advisor, Advanced

Solutions PLM.

When asked, “What would you say to

anyone considering the PLM 360

implementation with Advanced

Solutions?” Phil said, “You’ve picked a

good partner.”

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