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case study

Using Capital to improve E/E system accuracy

Firstronix helps customers increase development efficiency by 10 percent

Using Capital to improve E/E system accuracy

Shanghai Firstronix Electronic Technology

Firstronix has provided R&D design tools, technical support and consulting services to customers in the automotive and transportation industry since 2010. Its services include network design, database design and development of plug-ins for Capital.

http://www.firstronix.com/
Headquarters:
Shanghai, China
Products:
Capital
Industry Sector:
Automotive & transportation

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Doing business with traditional component companies in China has shown us that we need to provide targeted solutions to change their current approaches. This is an opportunity for us to continue improving our expertise and meet our customers’ expectations.
Qi Chunli, Vice President,
Shanghai Firstronix Electronic Technology

Shanghai Firstronix Electronic Technology (Firstronix) has provided research and development (R&D) design tools, technical support and consulting services to customers in the automotive and transportation industry since 2010. It specializes in using Capital™ software, which is part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

Siemens Digital Industries Software recognizes partners that demonstrate expertise in its solutions. These Siemens Expert Partners are validated by customers and Siemens for demonstrating their business and technical acumen.

Firstronix earned recognition as a Siemens Expert Partner by helping customers’ growing need to produce quality products in shorter production cycles. Increasing market pressure pushed many Chinese automotive companies to adopt customized digital solutions to remain competitive. Firstronix leverages its expertise with Capital to develop customized plug-ins, including automatic transfer tools that enable customers to easily import batches of data and design checks for intellectual property (IP). Firstronix designed these plug-ins to help customers reduce product development time and costs.

“Doing business with traditional component companies in China has shown us that we need to provide targeted solutions to change their current approaches,” says Qi Chunli, vice president of Firstronix.

“This is an opportunity for us to continue improving our expertise and meet our customers’ expectations.”

Custom solutions help customers improve design efficiency

Firstronix’s automotive supplier customer, an auto parts supplier in Nantong, faced design and manufacturing issues due to its reliance on manual processing of paper-based drawings. Without access to the same advanced design tools found in large automotive plants, the customer was unable to meet its customers’ design requirements for electrical and electronic (E/E) systems and struggled to secure new clients.

The customer approached Firstronix because of its reputation for delivering comprehensive post-sales support and its success using Capital to develop custom solutions. Firstronix recommended using Capital to create E/E systems. It provided in-depth training before implementing the solution and a customized plug-in that enabled batch importing of wires into designs. This helped the company improve its front-end wire harness development capability from 30 to 100 percent.

By digitalizing the product development lifecycle and eliminating paper-based design processes, the customer improved design efficiency by 15 percent and reduced development costs by 17 percent. The customer also improved design accuracy by 8 percent by using Capital to verify designs.

Capital helps improve data validation

An automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) suffered from inconsistent design and data management that led to costly rework, which prevented the company from meeting demands for shorter product delivery times at more competitive prices. This customer’s personnel also needed further training to improve design efficiency and produce higher quality products.

Firstronix used Capital to provide the customer with data conversion interfaces, design rule checking (DRC) functions and web-based development of data maintenance tools. The team used this web-based database alongside in-software data validation functions to ensure that products matched customer requirements. The partnership created impressive results for the customer by reducing the rework rate from 21 percent to 7 percent.

Firstronix also provided training for the customer’s design staff. All members of the design team can now leverage Capital in the product design process, helping increase the company’s design efficiency.

Siemens Xcelerator enables future growth

Firstronix continues to look for new ways to support customers and improve its market positioning by introducing the Siemens Xcelerator business platform in all stages of the product lifecycle, including R&D, validation, manufacturing and process management.

“Siemens is driving global digital transformation and bringing great value to its customers. We are proud to work with Siemens to provide its solutions and we look forward to actively exploring more possibilities for its products in the future,” says Wang Weijie, product R&D director at Firstronix.

Siemens is driving global digital transformation and bringing great value to its customers. We are proud to work with Siemens to provide its solutions and we look forward to actively exploring more possibilities for its products in the future.
Wang Weijie, Product R&D Director,
Shanghai Firstronix Electronic Technology