Oshkosh Corporation Case Study | Red Arrow Software Architects

Case Studies

Oshkosh Corporation - Oshkosh Prototype Builder

Overview: An international vehicle design and manufacturing company came to Red Arrow looking for help designing and developing an application that would bridge the information gap between their product lifecycle management application and their enterprise resource planning system.

Outcome: The goal was streamlined and effective planning of prototyped trucks from design, through inventory planning, project approval and physical build of the truck prototype, resulting in reduced project cost and time metrics.

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Then: Design uses a Product Lifecycle Management Application. Procurement and Production use an Enterprise Resource Planning application. Management used MS Project to track progress. The team communicated by phone, email and handwritten note.

Now: All the participants and stakeholders in the prototyping process use the same application. Management has much more insight into the process and because communicated happens through automated workflow, people are informed in real time of parts and production issues.

Then: Previously our client managed prototype design and management through manually created and updated MS Project files that were printed, posted and updated on office walls. Problems in the process were sometimes difficult to track down quickly because the process was manual.

Now: The application integrates ERP and PLM and provides an automated, audited way for communication to take place between multiple teams and management. Issues can be identified and addressed more quickly and addressed in a coordinated way more simply. Prototype production planning is much simpler.

Then: Accuracy of the information relied solely on the manual update of this information from these systems and the specific knowledge of the engineers working on the project.

Now: The solution queries the PLM system on-demand via an XML web service and stores relevant data into its own database, where any further work will be kept. At the end of the workflow, users trigger submission to the ERP system, which is also accomplished via web service calls. People can annotate and communicate in context using the application.

Then: Sneakernet, spreadsheet printouts, pen and ink.

Now: The Microsoft web stack forms the core of the solution, with the web site being implemented in C# using the ASP.NET MVC framework. Working data is persisted to MS SQL Server. Communication with external systems is accomplished via WCF over web services. The application is modular and scalable.