Company Background

Lu Zhiyao Group was founded in 1986 in Yueqing, Wenzhou. Today, the company operates across three major business segments: intelligent manufacturing, modern services, and e-commerce, employing over 3,000 people and occupying more than 500,000 square meters of factory space.

Suzhou Lu Zhiyao Technology Co., Ltd., established in 2001, is the core enterprise within the group’s intelligent manufacturing segment. Covering an area of 110 mu (approximately 73,000 square meters) with 80,000 square meters of factory space, the company specializes in integrated solutions for smart robotics and intelligent controllers. Its products are widely used across numerous sectors, including aerospace, 5G communications, artificial intelligence, medical equipment, rail transit, smart sanitary ware, industrial automation, and new energy.

Suzhou Lu Zhiyao has been recognized by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) as a “Manufacturing Champion” enterprise for its specialized product—the microcomputer controller for smart toilet seats. The company also serves as Vice Chairman of the China Electronics Information Industry Federation. Over the years, it has received numerous prestigious honors, including National High-Tech Enterprise, Green Factory, National Intellectual Property Advantage Enterprise, Postdoctoral Research Workstation, Provincial Enterprise Technology Center, Provincial Engineering Technology Center, Provincial Model Smart Workshop, and Provincial Demonstration Enterprise for Integration of Informatization and Industrialization (“Two-in-One Integration”).

 

Project Objectives

The implementation of the SIPM/PLM project aims to achieve the following objectives:

Establish a design system centered around the Bill of Materials (BOM) to facilitate easy upload, download, query, reference, modification, and comparison of materials, models, drawings, documents, etc., by users.

Streamline the entire enterprise's information flow, achieving integration between design software, ERP, and other related systems.

Fully leverage the efficiency of the internet to gradually establish electronic notification, approval, and review mechanisms. This will prevent errors and omissions that occur with manual processing, paving the way for paperless office operations.

Standardize document criteria, enhancing the unified management of drawings, inspection standards, product description documents, technical documents, product specifications, and coding rules related to products. Establish a document management standard.

Centralize product and project management within PLM, providing strong support for transitioning from project-based research and development to productization.

 

Business Panorama:

Business Panorama

 

Project Management:Based on the existing project processes, standardized project templates aligned with the company’s management system are developed and imported into the system. Once a project proposal is approved, project planning can be quickly initiated using these templates. The approved proposal is data-linked to the corresponding project, enabling easy access and visibility of relevant information.

For newly planned projects, key elements—including project teams, phases, schedules (milestones), and deliverables—are clearly defined. Project plans are directly assigned and broken down into actionable tasks, ultimately assigning responsibilities to specific individuals, clarifying timelines and required work hours to ensure thorough and precise planning. Project progress and other aspects are tracked, managed, and optimized through various built-in reports and dashboards.

Project Management

 

Schedule Management:By utilizing project-based automatic scheduling, the system ensures that subsequent tasks cannot be initiated until their prerequisite tasks are completed. Product batches are managed in the form of projects, embedding standardized processes into the system. This enhances the standardization of project management and enables comprehensive monitoring of contract timelines.

Automatic Scheduling

 

Quotation Document Management:The coding system has been extended to include a dedicated quotation code, distinguishing quotation items from standard materials. A quotation material zone has been added in ERP. Based on the BOM structure and ERP view information, PLM retrieves the BOM and corresponding ERP quotation data (including alternative materials).

Quotation Sheet

 

Quotation Process Management:A quotation project template has been added, and automatic scheduling is applied to ensure that technical staff complete their technical documentation first. Only then can procurement personnel proceed with preparing quotations based on the finalized technical data. This eliminates the need for procurement staff to repeatedly check whether prerequisite tasks have been completed.

Quotation Project

 

Component Management:For components, corresponding component attributes are defined, with dropdown values configured for each attribute. These attributes support fuzzy search but are non-editable, ensuring standardized and consistent attribute values. Additionally, a set of characteristic attributes is established, with dropdown options that can be directly maintained within business codes.

Component Attributes

 

Automatic Component Classification Management:Components are automatically classified based on the first three levels of the component coding rules. Users can navigate to any level of the classification hierarchy and retrieve the corresponding data. The names of the first three classification levels correspond directly to the naming of the respective code segments defined in the material coding rule library.

 

Component Design Status Management:Components have two design statuses: "Active" and "Design-Discontinued." This distinction is made via the material attribute "Usage Status," which is synchronized to ERP. The ERP system then enforces restrictions on materials marked as "Design-Discontinued."

Material Status

 

Multi-Attribute Management for Components:For wire harness components, different types have distinct sets of attributes.

 

Establishing a Unified Coding System for Lu Zhiyao:By leveraging the coding management module of the SIPM/PLM system, Lu Zhiyao has standardized and embedded coding rules for components, technical documents, process routes, and other elements throughout its product development process. This enables engineers to easily access and apply codes, significantly improving coding efficiency and enhancing the standardization and consistency of the company’s coding management.

Unified Coding System

Code Invocation

 

Extracting BOM Information via Design Software Interfaces:After product design is completed, the generated drawings are uploaded to the PLM system through an interface. The PLM system extracts relevant data—including material information (such as drawing numbers, material names, and specifications/models) and BOM structure—from these drawings via the interface and stores it in its database. The drawings themselves are saved on a file server and linked to their corresponding components and other related information. Users can then view models or drawings directly within the PLM system.

 

Substitution Management:Only BOM-based substitutions are used. A dedicated substitution association tab has been added within the BOM Manager to maintain substitution relationships. Substitution options are managed and selected within the same table.

Substitute Material

Substitution Type

 

Substitute Material Inquiry:The BOM Manager includes a dedicated query page titled “Substitute Material Inquiry,” which allows users to view all substitution relationships associated with a selected material.

Substitute Material Inquiry

 

Substitution Relationship Release:A dedicated "Release Substitution Relationship" button has been added specifically for substitution and replacement relationships. Users can select multiple relationships for batch release, and substitute material information is uploaded separately to ERP.

 

PLM Approval Workflow:Different approval workflows are configured based on the first letter of the component name and the document type.

Approval Workflow

 

PLM and ERP Integration:Materials, BOMs, and substitution relationships are all created in PLM and then transmitted to ERP via intermediate tables. Substitution relationships and BOMs are handled separately and can be transferred independently of each other.

 

ECN Management:For BOM changes involving electronic components that do not affect drawings, modifications can be made directly through an Engineering Change Notice (ECN). If an ECN removes or deletes a child component, the corresponding substitution relationships are automatically invalidated in sync.

 

ECN Release:ECNs can be released independently to ERP, enabling changes to be implemented without requiring individual BOM transmissions.

ECN Release

ECN Upload

 

Change Order Linked to ECN:When creating an ECN document, users are still required to fill out a change order in the PLM system to record the details of the change.

Change Order Linked to ECN

 

Offline Email Notification:Enables automatic email notifications for pending tasks and to-do items when users are offline.

 

Process Management:Process design is carried out based on the Engineering BOM, enabling the generation of process documents and structured process data to facilitate seamless data exchange across upstream and downstream stages.

 

Routing:Create or add new routings by referencing the standard operation library and work centers.

 

Copy Routing:To facilitate user design, a routing copy function has been added. When a routing is copied, the system automatically populates the new routing with the current component’s material name, material number, and specifications/model. The entire manufacturing operation sequence is duplicated as well, allowing users to make minor adjustments to quickly generate a new routing.

 

Process Document Management:Based on actual routing information, operation cards and process operation cards are automatically generated. These documents support online approval workflows and electronic signatures. Additionally, depending on whether the operations are classified as critical or special processes, different digital seals/signatures are automatically applied when outputting the process operation cards.

 

Change Traceability:Every change is recorded by the system. BOM changes can be reviewed through BOM difference comparisons, and document changes are tracked via historical versions, all of which are available for reference and download.

 

PDF Factory:Enables electronic signing of PDF documents for engineering drawings and technical files, streamlining the traditional approval process, reducing enterprise costs, and enhancing efficiency. Each signed PDF includes an electronic controlled stamp, and the system automatically records the timestamp upon signature completion.

 

Technical Document Management:Technical documents are categorized by type, and major attribute fields are mandatory. Based on document classification and specific file attributes, the system controls user permissions—including rights to create, download, and view documents.

Technical Document Permissions

 

Summary:

Data Management – Establish an approval and review mechanism for data, enabling centralized, standardized, and unified management of product-related data such as BOMs, drawings, and technical documents. This enhances data security, improves search efficiency, and elevates the company’s overall product data management capabilities.

System Integration – Achieve seamless data interoperability across systems, significantly improving data transfer efficiency and accuracy.

Knowledge Management – Continuously capture and accumulate technical data, transforming it into the company’s core digital asset.