Project Background

Guangzhou Foda Signal Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guangzhou Foda") was established in September 2007. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hongli Smart Group Co., Ltd. (stock code: 300219), with a registered capital of RMB 30 million. Guangzhou Foda Signal Equipment Co., Ltd. is among the first batch of enterprises in Guangdong Province to be recognized as a high-tech enterprise. Since its inception, Foda Signal has consistently pursued the goal of “building a benchmark brand in the signal equipment industry,” continuously optimizing production efficiency and operational performance while constantly enhancing product quality and technological innovation capabilities. To further strengthen its core competitiveness in independent R&D, Foda Signal has officially launched an R&D management digitalization upgrade project.

Following systematic evaluations and multiple rounds of comparative selection among domestic and international PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) vendors, SIPM stood out from the competition thanks to its globally leading MDA (Model-Driven Architecture) technology, mature and stable PLM solutions, forward-looking R&D management philosophy, and its relentless pursuit of craftsmanship excellence. As a result, SIPM earned unanimous recognition from both Foda Signal’s project team and senior management, becoming its strategic partner for R&D management informatization.           

Project Objectives

Through the implementation of this PLM system project, Guangzhou Foda aims to build a centralized and digitalized R&D and production management platform to enhance the company’s independent design and development capabilities and strengthen product lifecycle management. The specific objectives are as follows:

•  Standardize Product Development Processes: By implementing the PLM system, establish a unified product development process, standardize the management of input/output documents, review records, and other process-related files, ensure completeness, orderly archiving, and easy accessibility of all documentation, enable full traceability and recordability of the development process, strengthen project management capabilities, and improve R&D efficiency.  

•  Unify Material Coding System: Plan and implement a consistent enterprise-wide material coding system. Integrate PLM and ERP systems via an MDM (Master Data Management) platform to ensure coding consistency across upstream and downstream operations, providing robust material codes and accurate product BOM data to support manufacturing systems and further deepen their application.  

•  Data Management and Integration: During project implementation, consolidate engineering data previously scattered across individual engineers’ computers into a centralized online repository, organizing it by product type for easier access and management. Ensure a single source of truth for all data and maintain seamless interconnectivity among PCB schematics, 3D models, and PLM system data, enabling an efficient “change once, update everywhere” data management model.  

•  Routing and BOM Management: Based on the design BOM structure, simultaneously create and release manufacturing routings. Use the PLM system to build the production BOM (PBOM), ensuring accuracy and traceability of process-related product data.  

•  Paperless Office and Standardized Management: Leverage the PLM system to establish electronic workflows for notifications, submissions, and approvals, reducing human errors and omissions, and laying the foundation for a paperless office environment. Additionally, enhance the standardization of product-related drawings, inspection standards, technical documents, coding rules, etc., and establish a comprehensive document management framework.  

•  Knowledge Management and Sharing: Utilize the PLM system’s knowledge management platform to systematically capture and share design experience, gradually building a scientific and robust knowledge base to elevate the company’s overall capabilities in R&D, process engineering, and project management.  

•  System Integration and Collaborative Management: Break down data silos between the PLM system and other enterprise systems such as ERP, MES, and WeCom (Enterprise WeChat), achieve seamless data integration, and create an end-to-end digital information flow from product development through manufacturing, thereby enhancing cross-departmental collaboration and driving overall corporate competitiveness.  

Through this project, Guangzhou Foda will further optimize its technology R&D and production management processes, enhance market responsiveness and competitiveness, refine existing R&D workflows, establish an efficient innovative process management and technical documentation system, resolve data interoperability issues, and ultimately strengthen the company’s overall competitive advantage.            

Guangzhou Foda R&D Management Model Overview

I. Product Management

Prior to implementing SIPM/PLM, Guangzhou Foda faced the following challenges within its ERP system:Design tools were disconnected from the enterprise system;3D model data could not automatically generate structured BOMs;2D wiring harness designs required manual alignment with BOM entries;Design changes could not be automatically synchronized, complicating BOM management.

After implementing SIPM/PLM, the company will achieve the following improvements:

Modular BOM Construction: Adopt a modular approach to build product BOMs by categorizing products into base units (bare machines), structural sub-assemblies, and electronic sub-assemblies. This enables R&D engineers to independently design products within the system, respond rapidly to requirements, and lay the foundation for a future configurable, platform-based product architecture.

BOM-Centric Integrated Technical Data Management: Use the BOM as the central link to associate and centrally manage all technical documentation (including drawings), and seamlessly transfer technical data to the ERP system. The integrated design and process data serve as authoritative references ("legislative" data sources) to better support downstream operations. Additionally, standardize and template key data elements such as BOMs, materials, documents, and planning information.

Structure-Driven BOM and Drawing Integration: Automatically extract BOM structures and associated drawings from 3D assembly models, ensuring consistency between drawings and BOMs. During design, the system enforces the principle that interface-related components must be added or removed together, maintaining integrity in interface material management.

Product Data Management

II. Component Management

Before implementing SIPM/PLM, material information was coded manually in the PDM system, lacking centralized group-level control. This made group-wide procurement difficult, as there was no mechanism for ensuring material code uniqueness at the group level, leading subsidiaries to frequently encounter "one item, multiple codes" issues—negatively impacting centralized procurement and inventory management efficiency.

After implementing SIPM/PLM, component coding is now performed in the MDM (Master Data Management) system, where specifications and model numbers undergo uniqueness validation. This group-level standardization effectively prevents duplicate coding of the same item and significantly reduces errors. Components are classified both manually and automatically within the PLB system according to a hierarchical structure (large, medium, and small categories), facilitating easier management and retrieval. Additionally, all relevant documents are linked directly to their corresponding components and managed in a structured manner within the PLM system.

Group MDM Master Data Distribution Process

III. Process Management

Situation Before Implementing SIPM/PLM:

Lack of Basic Process Data Management：There was no standardized database for foundational process resources—such as standard operation libraries, tooling/equipment libraries, and machine equipment libraries. As a result, process engineers could not quickly access standardized data during process design and had to recreate it from scratch each time. Additionally, there was no systematic workflow for building process routes.

Outdated Process Workflow Management：Product process route data was scattered among individual process engineers. Process flowcharts and control plans were shared via paper documents, SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) files were poorly managed, version updates were unsynchronized, and document approvals relied on physical signatures—leading to low efficiency and poor traceability.

Difficulty in Capturing and Reusing Process Knowledge：Valuable process expertise could not be effectively captured or reused. New process development lacked support from historical data, and process improvements were hindered by the absence of a solid data foundation.

Optimization Plan After Implementing SIPM/PLM:

Standardized Management of Process Foundation Data：Standardized libraries—including operation libraries, tooling/equipment libraries, and equipment databases—will be organized and initialized in the PLM system during go-live, enabling process engineers to efficiently reuse validated data during design.

Comprehensive Process Route Definition：Process engineers will be required to define complete, product-specific process routes directly within the PLM system.
Paperless Process Workflow Management

Overall process documentation—such as process flowcharts and control plans—will be uploaded to the corresponding process routes in PLM. SOP files will be attached to individual operations. By defining standardized document templates and approval workflows, electronic signing and review will be implemented in PLM, enabling seamless integration with MES and achieving a fully paperless process management environment.

Through these improvements, Foda Signal will establish a more standardized and unified process management framework, enhance data accuracy, and significantly improve collaboration between process engineering and production operations.

Process Foundation Data Management

IV. Design Software Interface Integration Management

Situation Before Implementing SIPM/PLM：Currently, the company uses mainstream electronic design software and 3D design software, but the versions are not unified across the organization. Engineers manage files locally, leading to version compatibility issues.

Optimization Plan After Implementing SIPM/PLM:

Electronic Design Management：

Unified Design Software Versions: In the future, all schematic designs will be produced using a unified software version. This approach will help improve design consistency and reduce compatibility issues caused by different software versions.

BOM Management: When creating new PCBA BOMs, a tightly coupled interface solution will be adopted to ensure consistency between the BOM and the schematic design. For changes, a loosely coupled approach will be used, allowing the schematic and BOM to be modified separately, ensuring flexibility during revisions.

3D Design Management:

BOM Management: Future structural BOMs will adopt a loosely coupled approach, where BOMs are not directly extracted from drawings but instead imported via Excel or built directly within the PLM system. This method simplifies the BOM management process and increases the flexibility of data entry.

Drawing Management: Engineering drawings and CAD files will only be used for design reviews and will not undergo electronic signature management, streamlining the process and enhancing review efficiency. This provides greater freedom for designers while ensuring that important documents still receive necessary scrutiny.

Through these improvements, Guangzhou Foda Signal Equipment Co., Ltd. will achieve more efficient design processes and unified design management standards, enhancing overall coordination and efficiency in R&D and production.

V. Integration Management with Peripheral Systems

Situation Before Implementing SIPM/PLM:Prior to implementation, material data had to be manually transferred into the ERP system, after which dedicated personnel manually maintained material information and alternative material records within ERP. This manual process posed significant risks to data accuracy, potentially impacting downstream data usage. For example, component designators and quantities required manual verification via Excel before entry. Additionally, coordination between systems involved cumbersome and complex procedures.

Optimization Plan After Implementing SIPM/PLM:

Data Completeness and Consistency:Clear responsibilities for data management are established among the MDM, PLM, and ERP systems. All core material master data—covering design, process, production, procurement, sales, and quality—is centrally maintained in the MDM system at the group level and then distributed to PLM and ERP. Once received, PLM and ERP systems do not allow modifications to this master data, ensuring end-to-end data integrity and consistency.

WeCom (Enterprise WeChat) Integration:The PLM system is integrated with WeCom so that offline PLM notifications are automatically pushed to users’ WeCom accounts, ensuring timely message delivery. Since WeCom does not support document viewing, this phase implements only message integration—excluding workflow approval functions—to prevent blind approvals.

Standardized PBOM Data Validation:During BOM submission, the system automatically validates the consistency between component designators and quantities, as well as the uniqueness of each designator. If inconsistencies or duplicates are detected, the system alerts the user and lists the problematic components, allowing the user to either correct the issues or proceed with submission based on informed judgment.

Integrated PLM–MES–ERP Management:Deep integration between PLM and MES is achieved. The PLM system can batch-invoke web service functions provided by MES to create or update SOPs and transmit SOP documents, enabling MES to automatically distribute them—thus digitizing and automating process management.

Furthermore, incremental changes to materials, BOMs, routing data, and alternative materials managed in PLM are compared and synchronized with the ERP system, ensuring continuous data alignment across platforms.

Through these optimizations, Guangzhou Foda Signal Equipment Co., Ltd. will significantly enhance the integration depth and automation level of its PLM system, ensuring efficient operations across product development, production management, and the supply chain.

PBOM Interface

Diagram of Peripheral System Integration

VI. Historical Document Management

Before Implementing SIPM/PLM:

Historical document management was inefficient: after design changes, historical drawings and documents were stored collectively on a shared network drive solely for archival purposes, without systematic linkage or version control. Updated data required manual copying and re-entry—a complex and error-prone process. Managing and retrieving historical files was cumbersome, often requiring users to manually create and organize related documentation, resulting in low operational efficiency.

After Implementing SIPM/PLM:

All changes to historical documents are now centrally managed within the SIPM/PLM system. Users can simply download the required historical documents directly from the system for immediate use or modification—eliminating tedious manual operations and significantly improving work efficiency.

To ensure data consistency and ease of management, historical documents are categorized and organized by product, making retrieval and download faster and more intuitive.

Through the implementation of the SIPM/PLM system, Guangzhou Foda Signal has achieved substantial improvements in design change management and historical document control, further optimizing its data management workflows and enhancing both the efficiency and accuracy of its engineering design processes.

VII. Electronic Management

Before Implementing SIPM/PLM at Foda Signal:

Schematic Management: Schematics were stored in the original PDM system without a unified version management system, making it difficult to trace version control and updates.

Component Material and BOM Management: The BOM of schematic components was not managed within the BOM structure; instead, solder paste quantities were manually calculated and input into EXCEL for importing into the electronic BOM.
After Implementing SIPM/PLM at Foda Signal:

Unified Management of Schematics and Versions:

Within the PLM system, schematics serve as the core, linked with different versions of component BOMs, and manage the storage paths of corresponding software code packages. Through the PLM system, clear associations between software versions, materials, and projects are established, ensuring that version management is synchronized with the BOM structure.

Association Management of Components and BOMs: Components are not directly included in the BOM structure for management. However, within the PLM system, through electronic material matching, BOMs are generated according to rules, and solder paste usage is automatically calculated. This ensures that during product development, schematics can influence the construction of materials and BOMs, ensuring that related issues are promptly identified and resolved during version upgrades or revisions.

Through the implementation of the SIPM/PLM system, Foda Signal has transitioned from fragmented to unified, systematic management in software management. This significantly improved the efficiency and accuracy of schematic development, version control, and issue resolution.

Schematic Management

VIII. Ad Hoc Task Management

Before implementing SIPM/PLM at Foda Signal:Some tasks were assigned verbally without any formal documentation, making it difficult to track or audit assignments. Additionally, the lack of a unified task board hindered effective monitoring of task progress.

After implementing the SIPM/PLM system:All tasks are now centrally managed through the PLM system’s task management module. This unified approach not only simplifies task retrieval and administration but also enables real-time monitoring. Tasks can be tracked and filtered by status, product, or organizational structure, allowing managers to promptly oversee progress and strengthen overall control and coordination.

Task Management

IX. Project Management Function Enables Controlled R&D Process

Before Implementing SIPM/PLM at Foda Signal:Project management heavily relied on manual processes, leading to a nearly uncontrolled state of project documentation and materials. Moreover, there was no standardized template for file formats used in projects, making project monitoring and task progress management extremely difficult. This lack of standardization hindered effective tracking and supervision of project progress.

After Implementing the SIPM/PLM System:Foda Signal reorganized and standardized its management processes according to business needs. Through the PLM system, activities, outputs, output templates, and validation processes for outputs were systematically and standardly managed. Specific measures include:

Standardized Process Management: By embedding standardized processes into the PLM system, these procedures are applied to actual project management, ensuring consistency and compliance.

Standardized Project Templates Implementation: Standardized project templates are created and utilized within the PLM system. This ensures that project workflows, process activities, outputs, output templates, and validation processes are executed according to specifications.

Integrated Project Management System: Establishing an integrated project management system that links projects with plans, plan outputs with document templates, and outputs with workflows. This creates a unified project management framework, achieving systematic and standardized project management.

Systematized RFQ Coding Rules: A unified RFQ (Request for Quotation) coding rule is established within the PLM system, automatically generating unique codes to ensure each RFQ request is traceable and manageable. The coding rules incorporate key fields such as project type, customer code, and timestamp, preventing duplicates and confusion.

Standardized Product Series Numbering: Develop numbering rules for product series based on categories, functional modules, and platform features. These rules are implemented through the PLM system, which automatically assigns and associates product series numbers, ensuring seamless alignment between product development and market demands.

Through these improvements, Foda Signal has significantly enhanced the efficiency and quality of project management, enabling effective monitoring and control over project progress.

Project Kanban Board

Project Execution Status

Ongoing Project Monitoring

RFQ Statistics Dashboard

Project Statistics Dashboard

X. PDF Factory Management

Before Implementing SIPM/PLM at Foda Signal:Documents requiring approval had to be printed for physical signatures, which reduced efficiency. Document circulation was insecure, and paperless document management was not feasible.

After Implementing the SIPM/PLM System:Documents are now electronically signed according to predefined review and approval workflows, eliminating the need for manual signatures. The system automatically converts approved documents into PDF format. Both the PDF files and their source files are protected by permission controls that govern viewing, downloading, and editing—ensuring document security and integrity. This lays a solid foundation for the future implementation of a fully paperless office environment.

ECN Signature

XI. Engineering Change Management

Before Implementing SIPM/PLM at Foda Signal:

The change management process lacked systematization, with engineering change orders (ECOs) and general change processes being informal. Changes were primarily communicated through documents on shared drives, which increased the risk of data loss and errors.

Change types were not effectively categorized, complicating the change handling process and reducing efficiency. The approval and execution processes for ECOs were uncertain, and check-in/check-out procedures for data were unstable, leading to version confusion and loss of historical data.

Post-mass production engineering changes were not systematically managed. The application and execution processes for changes were unclear, and there was a lack of effective linkage between Engineering Change Requests (ECRs) and Engineering Change Notices (ECNs). Tracking the execution of changes was difficult. Notifications and execution mainly relied on manual messaging, which could easily miss critical steps, causing delays in the dissemination of change information.

After Implementing SIPM/PLM at Foda Signal:

Through the PLM system, Foda Signal has achieved visualized and automated management of the change process. All change data and ECR workflows are unified within the system for approval, and stages such as design, verification, archiving, and check-in for changes are systematically managed.

Change types are now effectively categorized, with specific management processes for ordinary changes and engineering changes. The system automatically selects the appropriate workflow based on the type of change, ensuring accuracy and timeliness in processing.

The system manages change designs and data replacements automatically. Old data is moved to a historical area, while new change data is updated in real-time, ensuring consistency and traceability of data. For significant engineering changes after mass production, the PLM system initiates an ECR first before executing an ECN. Steps such as data checkout, review, approval, etc., are all executed within the system, leaving a clear audit trail to ensure the rigor and effectiveness of the change process.
This approach eliminates human error and greatly enhances the efficiency and accuracy of change management. It ensures that every step of the change process is meticulously tracked and documented, enhancing overall process control and reliability.

Engineering Change Order (ECO)

Change History – Change Details

XII. Knowledge Management

Before Implementing SIPM/PLM at Foda Signal:The knowledge management system was fragmented and unstructured. A limited amount of knowledge existed only in paper form, making it inconvenient for employees to search and use. As a result, knowledge sharing was inefficient.

After Implementing the SIPM/PLM System:Foda Signal has established a structured knowledge repository, including a general knowledge base, an engineering experience library, and a standard document library. Knowledge is organized into a systematic framework by type, facilitating easy sharing, access, and long-term retention.Standardized design document templates have been defined and centrally managed within the system, enabling engineers to consistently retrieve and apply them—ensuring document standardization and compliance.Additionally, the system supports fast retrieval through keyword searches and other metadata attributes, significantly improving the efficiency of knowledge discovery and utilization.

Knowledge Base Management

Document Template

XIII. Process Management

After implementing the SIPM/PLM system, workflows are standardized and embedded within the system, and automatically linked to corresponding review data. Engineers only need to ensure the accuracy of the documents they maintain—the system guarantees correct workflow execution.During process execution, real-time tracking and monitoring are enabled, and all workflow records serve as a valuable data source for continuous management improvement. This also lays the groundwork for future paperless operations, where PDF documents with electronic signatures can be issued directly through automated workflows.

Workflow Template

Workflow Monitoring

Summary:

Through the successful implementation of PLM, Foda Signal has deeply integrated advanced design concepts and methodologies. Product data completeness is now effectively managed through project management. Traceability of product data has been achieved via robust workflow and engineering change management. Furthermore, the company has established deep integration among various information systems—seamlessly connecting design tools, ERP, PLM, MES, WeCom (Enterprise WeChat), and other platforms to enable end-to-end data flow. This comprehensive digital transformation has significantly enhanced the company’s product development capabilities and operational efficiency across the board!