Terrafugia Selects Product Lifecycle Management Solution from Omnify Software

Aircraft Company Takes BOM and Part Management to New Heights with Empower PLM 

 

Omnify Software announces its latest Omnify Empower PLM implementation case study featuring Terrafugia a growing company developing novel roadable aircraft.

 

The Transition® Roadable Aircraft from Terrafugia addresses head-on the issues private and sport pilots face: cost, weather sensitivity, high overall door-to-door travel time and a lack of mobility at destination. Its unique design allows the Transition® to fold its wings and drive on any surface road with a modern personal airplane platform. Once at the airport, the wings extend and the aircraft is ready for take-off.
 

The Transition® will be compliant with the FAA’s Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) standards. All manufacturers of LSA are required to maintain complete production documentation, including parts lists/Bill of Materials (BOMs). When new revisions of the standards become accepted by the FAA, old production vehicles still need to demonstrate line item compliance to the standards in effect when they were shipped. Initially, Terrafugia was managing their product information in a paper-based manner with automotive and aviation specifications contained in large manuals and BOMs tracked in Excel spreadsheets without any association to each other. The company needed to track this detailed and dynamic data in a more controlled and efficient manner to ensure adherence to the LSA requirements.

 

“We consider it a best practice to have a digital BOM under change control. A product lifecycle management tool was therefore a very natural need for us,” stated Douglas Quattrochi, Vice President of Operations for Terrafugia. “As a small company with very limited resources, we needed to make sure that the PLM solution we purchased was intuitive, immediately configurable to our needs, and an excellent value. We found all of this with Omnify Empower PLM.”

 

All Terrafugia vehicles are custom ordered consequently each build is a variant of a Parent BOM. A system to support efficient product information management was a necessity. The robust BOM and revision management capabilities of Empower PLM allow Terrafugia to electronically track old and new production vehicle information in a central location and with associations. Additionally, Terrafugia uses the BOM Attribute feature of Empower PLM to track the weight of each part to determine the weight of the entire vehicle/aircraft which is a critical aspect of aircraft development. This information provides greater insight to the BOM and better design control.

 

“Terrafugia is a classic example of the daunting challenges our customers can face with managing complex product data and adhering to stringent regulations such as the FAA,” stated Dave Solimini, Vice President of Sales for Omnify Software. “We aim to alleviate those challenges by providing a comprehensive system that electronically manages detailed part, BOM, and engineering change information along with associated documentation and processes.”