Plataine Technologies
Bridges The Gap Between CAD And ERP

With production rate going up in the aerospace industry, the need to bridge the gap between production floor, ERP, and engineering platforms like PLM or CAD has gained immense importance. Plataine, headquartered in Waltham, MA, provides production optimization solutions for manufacturers who produce composite structures for different industries including aerospace.

Plataine’s patent pending production optimization and automation solutions enable manufacturers of composite and metal structures to be more competitive by increasing material utilization, improving productivity, controlling quality and shortening manufacturing cycles to ensure on-time delivery of products to customers. The core product, Total Production Optimization (TPO), processes all data in a single decision framework in real time, and offers manufacturers with an end-to-end solution that optimally selects optimal raw material and utilizes remnants, generates cut-plans and nests, uses RFID technology to track production floor activities and provides management reports for analysis and future plans. The solution takes into consideration multiple factors like customer requirements, order delivery date, geometric part-files, inventory at hand, and machine capabilities. Plataine’s solutions are SaaS based, minimizing upfront costs and allowing a considerably faster ROI.

The company’s unique approach is demonstrated by its offering that, unlike a sequential step-by-step method, processes all factors simultaneously and provides an optimal solution considering a range of inputs and balancing multiple, often conflicting, objectives. The solution’s production plans are adjusted in response to urgent un-expected orders, a wrong assumption on inventory at hand, or cutting machine breakdown, rendering it a dynamic decision making tool.

“To expand the breadth of its solution, we partner with an RFID technology provider that gives us the technology underlying our tracking capabilities. We have also partnered with Siemens PLM to integrate our solution with their core platform, and with mobility platform providers that offer us an opportunity to put novel applications in the hands of production floor staff and management,” says Avner Ben-Bassat, President and CEO of Plataine.

TPO processes all production and engineering data in a single decision framework, and offers manufacturers an end-to-end solution in real time

Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), a developer and producer of military and commercial aerospace and defense systems, was looking to improve broader manufacturing metrics, beyond the focus on material of nesting-only software. IAI had a sequential disconnected process which was replaced by Plataine with its single integrated system, the TPO solution. The solution takes full production order from the manufacturer’s ERP and takes into consideration the part structure, geometrical shapes, material constraints, and then connects it with the inventory system to know how to make the most out of the available stock. “TPO has been tested to save us over 5 percent in raw material consumption, while systematically utilizing our remnant materials and increasing our overall production throughput. On top of these, we’ve found Plataine’s novel approach to end-end automation as a key enabler of improved process visibility and quality control,” says Beni Manes, Deputy General Manager, Director of Operations, Aero Assembly Division, Israel Aircraft Industries.

Plataine envisions developing a strong hold in the composite parts manufacturing sector since the entire environment is moving from engineering to operational execution dilemmas. “We want to expand our presence in this industry and broaden our solution base as I see a lot of opportunity for the technology that we are bringing in to the market. We are planning to offer advanced solutions in terms of real time tracking with RFID and mobility, parallel to improved work on our algorithms. So far, we have been getting great responses from our clients for our initiative,” says Ben-Bassat.