Picarro Gains Visibility, Traceability, and Control with Centralized Product Record

About the Company

Picarro is a leading provider of solutions to measure greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations, trace gases, and stable isotopes across many scientific applications including indoor/outdoor air quality and climate change. Their portfolio of gas analyzers and systems enables scientists around the world to measure invisible elements found in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we harvest.

Picarro’s industrial solutions range from mobile leak detection technology for utility companies to trace gas analysis for semiconductor fabrication and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

AT A GLANCE

SYSTEM USED

Arena PLM

Best Thing About Arena

“Extensive capabilities that meet all our product development requirements, plus ease of use and administration”

Bottom-Line Impact

All intellectual property is stored, controlled, and readily available to users local and abroad, which has saved countless hours by empowering users to access and process information efficiently

Key Benefits

Enables access anytime and anywhere in the Cloud
Improves collaboration and visibility with a controlled, centralized system
Simplifies quality and environmental compliance
Accelerates product design and development processes

BUSINESS CHALLENGES

Efficiently managing complex product information for the development of their gas analyzers while meeting environmental and quality systems compliance was key to Picarro’s new product introduction (NPI) goals.

Silos of information and the lack of traceability, visibility, and manageability associated with manual processes were ongoing challenges for Picarro and hindered their NPI objectives. Part information was managed within spreadsheets, and files were managed on both employee desktops and shared network folders. The company needed to improve change control and establish a central system for all product information.

Blue quote mark

We selected Arena PLM because of its extensive capabilities, as well as its ease of use and administration, which meant we could hit the ground running. Through Arena’s best-practice implementation and stellar service and support team, we were able to get immediate benefits with our engineering change and product release processes.

– Ramiro Melendez, Document Control Manager, Picarro

THE SOLUTION

According to Ramiro Melendez, Document Control Manager at Picarro, “We selected Arena PLM because of its extensive capabilities, as well as its ease of use and administration, which meant we could hit the ground running. Through Arena’s best-practice implementation and stellar service and support team, we were able to get immediate benefits with our engineering change and product release processes.”

Arena PLM is employed across multiple teams at Picarro. Their new product design and development process is managed from within Arena Projects. This gives key stakeholders the ability and visibility to monitor and manage the entire design and development process. Product and quality teams can easily collaborate within Arena PLM to make sure changes and new releases are completed in a timely manner.

Arena’s ability to integrate with enterprise systems is a significant advantage. “We have integrated Arena with our Oracle® NetSuite ERP system to transfer item and bill of materials (BOM) information automatically upon release,” stated Melendez. “We just completed our integration with Q Point Technology’s Green Data Exchange (GDX) system, which is helping us comply with Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations. We have also recently completed our single sign-on (SSO) integration with our Okta™ system, which provides us with centralized and secure access management to Arena.”

RESULTS

“Cost is always on everyone’s mind and Arena’s subscription and implementation pricing is very cost-competitive,” said Melendez. “Arena’s cloudbased system helps us save on IT costs including hardware, system administration, backups, disaster recovery, and more.”

Prior to Arena, Picarro did not have a formal change process or a single system to manage product information. With Arena PLM, the company was able to implement a formal change process with a centrally controlled and easy-to-access system for all their revision-controlled documentation.

Picarro must address several compliance initiatives including RoHS, REACH, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001, and the ever-present quality improvement process. “When it comes to compliance, Arena has helped us across the board. Arena Quality has helped to organize and simplify our CAPA (corrective and preventive action) and Eight Disciplines (8D) processes providing better flow and visibility. And Arena’s integration to other systems simplifies our environmental compliance processes,” said Melendez.

“From pre-sales to implementation and post-sales support, Arena continues to impress us by making sure we are always satisfied,” noted Melendez. “The Arena support and implementation teams are always ready to help with the setup of new releases and our integrations. Arena is definitely a key partner in our product development success.”