Arena helps in the Benelux High Tech en Med Device companies to innovate
As a global manufacturer, perhaps you’re aware of the Benelux region. It’s a magical place that includes the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
In the Benelux region, Arena has a partner, ProductStream, located in Rotterdam, which is — whether you believe it or not — an enchanted city that overlooks the biggest harbor in Europe.
Arena spoke with ProductStream executive Ard Zonneveld to discuss this fascinating market where innovation rivals that of Silicon Valley. ProductStream recently completed a survey with Arena’s cloud-based product development platform customers; through that survey, Ard and his team discovered the most critical challenges facing medical device and high tech companies in this European region.
Arena: In Benelux, how important is collaboration?
Ard: More customers here work with external advisors and designers to develop their product. Arena makes collaborating with external supply chain teams a breeze because Arena is a cloud solution so you just point these external teams to a browser. You don’t have to worry about infrastructural needs. This is why so many manufacturing companies decide to work with Arena because of the cloud offering.
Arena: How important is having a business ready platform?
Ard: Another important reason why companies choose Arena is that the tool is business ready. Many of our sales wins came because we were able to convince these fast-moving high-tech companies that we could implement and deploy fast. We can deliver and provide a pre-configuration based on best practices, especially when it comes to structures and processes, change orders and requests, new product introduction (NPI) projects, and quality procedures as non-conformances and corrective actions.
Arena: Does embedding QMS in PLM help?
Ard: Another important differentiator between Arena and PLM competitors is that the Arena product development platform integrates product lifecycle management with quality management. Other products in the market provide separate Quality and PLM systems; however, Quality Management and Product Development are so closely related — with both sharing the product record — it is very strong to have these capabilities combined in the tool to support quality procedures directly related to the product. A quality issue is analyzed and may lead to a change request requiring modification of that part or assembly and implementing these modifications in a new revision of the product to be shared with your contract manufacturers. Having quality integrated with PLM makes for a very strong solution.
Arena: You said customers cal tell – and like- that Arena was build by manufacturers. How?
Ard: Our prospects and customers say they feel that the product is credible because Arena’s founders themselves dealt with product lifecycle challenges when developing scuba diver cameras and lighting. Arena’s founders had experienced the challenge of solving product development issues, such as the bill of materials and change management.