Mar 20, 2001 Valor Computerized Systems (Neuer Markt: VCR) today announced powerful new functionality in release 6.0 of its Enterprise 3000 DFM software for PCB physical design verification. This release is focused on improving collaboration between OEMs and electronics manufacturers in generating optimized PCB design manufacturing data for right-first-time production. It also solves the complex challenge of efficient design manufacturability rules management across a global supply chains. Valor is a global world leader in providing engineering solutions to OEMs and CEMs in the electronics industry. Release 6.0 strengthens Enterprise 3000 as the market-leading system for design-for-manufacturability analysis.
In today's 'design anywhere, build anywhere' environment the trend for manufacturing outsourcing is gathering momentum and so the need for improved collaboration tools and technology between OEMs and manufacturers becomes vital. Producing PCB designs that can move through manufacturing with fewer reworks and errors relies heavily on the precise definitions of manufacturing process -constraints being passed upstream during the earliest stages of the design process. Typically, manufacturing service providers supply this detailed information to their customers in the form of complex comprehensive rules files.
Electronics product designers face a real challenge in managing, integrating and controlling all the design manufacturability rules files and constraints (known as ERFs: external rules files) that arrive from multiple manufacturing sources. The new ERF Exchange Manager, in Enterprise 3000, forms a structured basis for efficient rules management and combines all data for integration into the engineer's DFM and design process. It provides an effective way to transfer rules between design manufacturers and manufacturing design companies across the global supply chain networks.
"Managing the data feedback overload from the manufacturers presents our customers with a real headache. We developed this new product to help design groups optimize their DFM processes and make sense of the multiple data sources for DFM rules that are a feature of outsourced manufacturing," said Julian Coates, vice president of marketing at Valor.
"The manufacturing constraints fed upstream by multiple manufacturing service providers are often are in conflict with each other, which is nobody's fault, yet the designer needs a rules-rationalization solution if he is to apply the constraints to his design process effectively. The ERF Exchange Manager opens the way for effective more extensive OEM and manufacturing collaboration on DFM, and solves the 'many into one' problem of manufacturability rules management," said Julian Coates, vice president of marketing at Valor
The ERF Exchange Manager is a high-level tool that manages/edits/compares rule sets and combines rules into logical sequences for optimized PCB verification. It allows engineers to compare rules from different manufacturing service providers and make informed decisions on how to consolidate these rules sets according to company specifications. The intelligent ERF Exchange Manager identifies logical conflicts in ERFs, both within a ERF and between different ERF groups, and supports the controlled use of multiple ERFs during the design verification and CAM operations.
This new Enterprise 3000 release will be available for customers in Q2 2001.
Valor Computerized Systems [Neuer Markt: VCR] is a global leader in providing engineering solutions throughout the design-through-manufacturing electronics supply chain. Valor is a public company listed on the Neuer Markt of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The company's powerful software tools, based on ODB++, the Valor-funded data format which has quickly become the format of choice for high-level data exchange, ensure the rapid transfer of optimized data from design through manufacturing. Enterprise 3000 DFx system for physical design verification, Trilogy 5000 for assembly and test engineering, and the unique Valor Parts Library on-line data service are utilized by designers and engineers to deliver enhanced productivity, higher yields, shorter cycle times and increased product quality. All Valor products are sold and supported by a worldwide network that includes global subsidiary offices, VARs and OEM channels.
