Motoring ahead with design integration
With 49 facilities and 15,000 employees on six continents, Eaton’s Vehicle Group supplies automotive and commercial vehicle manufacturers with products and systems designed to improve overall efficiency, performance and power. Dudley is the location for two streams of business: plastic moulded parts for reducing weight, integrating components and improving durability; and high-quality power steering, air conditioning and other fluid connection products.
Safe and secure file transfer
When Eaton sends files to its own suppliers it uses MX to make the transfer and to audit the movement of data in and out of the company. “We need to know that suppliers have definitely received data and MX enables us to track this,” says Blundell. “As there is no software to install or manage and no training is required, we can quickly set up programme engineers as MX users. They can then take responsibility for ensuring that any data they send is downloaded without having to go through the CAD department. This saves the time and effort of CAD engineers and allows them to focus on their own tasks.”
As system administrator, Ian Blundell has a global view of every piece of information that has been sent and received. “I can check that everything is moving along fine. If a member of the team is away I can monitor all the relevant notifications and we always get an automated message from the system if data has not been downloaded. This permanent record of exactly who has done what is particularly helpful. Prior to MX we had to chase suppliers up to ensure that they had downloaded any data we sent them.”
“MX makes life much easier. With a range of toolmakers in China and sometimes language difficulties, it can be an obstacle given very tight turnaround times. We might, for example, have just 16 weeks for a large tool, with two of those weeks taken up by transportation.”
– Ian Blundell, Senior Engineer of Eaton
Utilising MX+
“We first began working with Majenta Solutions when we required support for our contract to supply Ford under the C3P (CAD/CAM/CAE/PIM) programme,” says CAD Engineer Ian Blundell. “Compliance can be expensive for Ford suppliers, given the time that it takes to acquire appropriate knowledge. As a Certified Data Services Provider (CDSP), Majenta Solutions provides instant access to many years of experience.”
Majenta provides bespoke data services to automotive parts manufacturer to improve the exchange of design files with customers and suppliers. CDSP services are delivered using the MX+ services portal, a user-friendly bespoke tool developed by Majenta to support the OEM CAD data integration process. Whilst there are specific MX+ services for data translation, data quality checking, CAD re-mastering, and data migration, the CDSP service used by Eaton can include these elements in order to fully support the integration of engineering data into the Ford C3PNG environment. Eaton also benefits from using MX, an easy-to-use platform also developed by Majenta that enables the quick, easy, and safe transfer of large files, complete with transaction history.
“The technical guys at Majenta Solutions have become our user-friendly interface; they really understand both Jaguar, our major client, and Ford.”
– Ian Blundell, Senior Engineer of Eaton
“We can exchange customer data files with ease,” continues Ian Blundell. “We have had help from Majenta Solutions to solve issues with legacy CAD data and meet current customer requirements. We can make requests for certain data that we need from internal systems; and we can submit our design files for approval, data translation, and release.”
A direct link into the heart of Majenta
Ian Blundell reflects on the benefits of Eaton’s long-standing relationship with Majenta Solutions. “We are in constant daily communication, mostly through the MX platform, occasionally we speak on the phone. Majenta Solutions team members are unfailingly helpful. They provide direct and timely advice, a consistently excellent service and we know that we can rely on them completely.”
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