Centron adopts Ares Oracle PLM for world-class SMT maker goal

Centron Electronics (Kunshan) Co, Ltd, a surface-mount technology (SMT) maker in China under the Wus Printed Circuit Group of Taiwan, officially signed a contract with Ares International Corp. for implementing and designing in the Oracle Agile PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) system in October 2007. With the system, Centron can establish a more efficient multi-region, multi-team, multi-structure and multi-product management platform, realizing a product supply/sales collaboration management model from the R&D stage to the engineering of the product, from the upstream supplier to the sales platform. With the joint efforts of Centron and Ares project teams, the PLM management system will thoroughly realize the ideal and mechanism for Centron's pursuit for the best product management.

Besides SMT process, Centron's capability also lies in the assembly of various boards, with several of its customers already handing the system integration and end-product assembly and testing parts over to Centron. Therefore, Centron needs different deployments for various customers and product needs to optimize its benefits. With the abundant PLM introduction experiences of Ares, Centron can instantly offer the products and service principles of the requirements of its customers while improving its quality in a non-stop fashion.

The PLM items that Centron intends to realize are as follows:

1. Centralized control for product e-document
   Gather various documents within the enterprise and systematically store those in the PLM database for a total management. In addition, Centron can manage the document audit and delivery tasks via e-process flow for shared documents from different regions. Furthermore, Centron can control the versions of any types of documents while launching maintenance for data search and index, with check-in and check-out functions as well as index establishment available too.
2. Parts information management
   Manage all parts information , improving the reuse rate for the projects and collaboration R&D benefits while fully considering issues such as environmental protection.
3. Product structure management (BOM management)
   Able to generate and process various Bills of Material (BOMs) in various formats for the product team while also allowing managing and establishing parts to reflect the various statuses of the products and cross reference of appropriate documents. With the BOM management function, the R&D, related engineering and manufacturing teams and procurement team can easily view the product structure and extended parts.
4. E-process (audit and countersignature)
   Inter-connect related staff and information from participants while pushing the system process flow including the whole process control from customer demand to design export and product release. Define related product/component lifecycle and control using e-signature process.
5. Visual management
   Support authorized enterprise users to audit related information of products in any formats such as Microsoft Office documents, 2D pictures and 3D models. All files are processed in the same window. Allow auditing model, viewing product structure and related information in a single and centralized environment. Support remote on-line concept design audit operation.
6. Design change management
   Realize design change management functions, control and monitor the set changes of the product.

Centron is not only the major SMT supplier of the Wus Printed Circuit Group and a leading professional global electronics OEM company, but was rated as among the top hundred enterprises of China-based companies under Taiwan-based groups in 2006.

Ares PLM customer portfolio:

(Taiwan) HTC, Advantech, ADLINK, SerComm, Richtek, Shuttle, Promate, DLink, Mustek, Foxlink, Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Acer, Cameo, TTY Biopharm, Everlight, Winstar Display, Thermaltake

(China) AMEC, Fiberxon, Sangfei, UTStarcom, Centron