December 5, 2017 – 6 River Systems is a warehouse robotics startup disrupting a one hundred-billion-dollar industry with a new approach to warehouse automation. Founded in 2015, the company has developed a solution built on proprietary mobile robots and cloud-based enterprise software. The 6 River Systems solution is half the cost of traditional automation and two to three times faster than manual, cart pick operations.
Challenge
6RS was ramping up a new Contract Manufacturer (CM) while developing the next generation of their robotic platform. They were using spreadsheets and shared file folders, making it difficult to share product information across internal and external teams. They needed a new system to document and control all product lifecycle information and ensure clear communication of information. The system also had had to provide complete and detailed Bill of Materials (BOMs) and Engineering Change Orders (ECOs) to their CM.
Goal
The team at 6 River was looking for an intuitive BOM and ECO management solution that would be effortless for both their internal teams and external partners to learn and use. “We participated in demonstrations of several Product Lifecycle Management systems and Omnify’s interface was significantly more intuitive than the other solutions,” stated Tim Higgins, Director of Hardware for 6 River Systems. “We were also impressed with the speed and security of the web hosted option.”
Solution
Omnify Empower is a scalable, and configurable solution that is ideal for start-up companies like 6 River Systems. They were able to get up and running quickly with a hosted deployment. “We have trained six users thus far and they have all commented on the ease of use during the first sessions interacting with the system,” said Mr. Higgins.
“I took the administrator training and have comfortably made several changes to our configuration without needing to contact support.”
Because the company did not have a formal solution in place prior to implementing Omnify Empower PLM, they realized improvement across the board with regards to ECO cycle time reduction, reduced rework, faster time-to-market, and most importantly for 6 River, seamless communication with their external manufacturing partner. “Our CM has a secure login to our Omnify Empower system,” stated Mr. Higgins. “They were able to quickly understand the interface and review BOMs and ECOs.”
