Best Practice and Tips and Tricks from Mike Watkins

Suretank Ltd. is a world leading manufacturer of CCU’s (Cargo Carrying Units) for the Offshore Oil Industry  and now  new users of Autodesk PLM 360. Established 1995 in Ireland to supply the North Sea, the company is a global supplier with design and manufacturing facilities in Ireland,  UK, Poland, Thailand and China as well as sales offices in USA, Norway and Brazil. Suretank’s product range includes Chemical and Acid transport tanks, Helifuel tanks, offshore Containers, Baskets, Mudskips and Cryogenic tanks. Suretank Horizontal Chemical Tanks Suretank’s customer base includes most of the major service, rental, exploration and production companies in the offshore  industry. Their units are found worldwide in places such as the North Sea, West Africa, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Caspian, Sakhalin sea, India,  Australia, Middle East and the Far East. Manufacturing & Delivering Products Worldwide Further from Thailand t...

I'd like to introduce our Autodesk 'Open Doors' Product Lifecycle Management event. Please join us and our special guests for a day of strategic discussions and information sharing that aims to help you revolutionise your business and improve your processes. Perhaps you’re an expert in PLM but you are still trying to improve some key processes more flexibly and cost effectively, or maybe you suspect PLM could be good for your business but have always believed it’s too big, too complicated, and too expensive and maybe you just want to learn more.  Whatever your situation, attending one of our PLM ‘Open Doors’ events will be time well spent.  Germany:  http://www.autodeskplm360.de/events/autodesk-plm-open-doors-event-serie/ UK & Nordics:           http://www.autodeskplm360.co.uk/events/autodesk-open-doors-product-lifecycle-management-event-series/ Event Date & Locations: Dortmund, 31/10, with CIMData ...

This week I visited Rob Charlton ( Chief Executive ) and Adam Ward (Technology Leader) from Space Group, BIM specialists and new users of Autodesk PLM 360.  Laser survey of Manchester Town Hall Mike: Morning guys great to meet you both, after chatting via twitter for the last few years, it's good to put a face to the twitter name! Can you tell me about Space group and the companies background? Rob:  Space group started out a Waring and nets Partnership in the 1950s. Over the past 15 years we have evolved into space group. This process has occurred through our passion for finding more efficient ways of designing, delivering and operation building. Whilst there is a huge amount of talent in the UK construction industry we do continue to do things inefficiently.  We are passionate about using technology to achieve our goals. _space group now includes space architecture who have been an early adopter of BIM and now e...

This week I met with Nina Dar the Managing Director of Cheeky Monkey business solutions, I've known Nina for many years and prior to my role at Autodesk we met at many occasions at events like PLM Innovation. We share a mutual interest in PLM and discussed many best practices for Innovation. So after joining Autodesk I was really excited to show Nina Autodesk PLM 360 and get her team using our product. Mike: Hi Nina, we've know each other for many years but could you tell my readers about you and Cheeky Monkey? Nina:  I describe myself as a Business Architect; it's a term used in the US for people who have the rare combination of business knowledge, process experience, transformation talents, methodology skills, and a winning personality that helps with communication and business change management.   You have to take the Americanism "winning personality" in the spirit it is meant, as you know Mike, I'm not a wallflower! Really it’s the latest name fo...

With the convenience of the cloud, you can use Autodesk PLM 360 when you’re on location and outside of the office. Never again let an off-site visit prevent you from doing your job. Keep your projects on track with easy approvals and don’t let your timelines suffer. Whether you design and manufacture bespoke components ( JWA Tooling , Roulunds Braking ), create inspiring buildings ( David Miller Architects ), produce products for the motorsport Industry, ( Titan Motorsports ), design custom yacht interiors ( SMI group ), create t-shirts ( Maison Twenty ) or sunglasses ( Marcello Martino ), count votes at elections ( DRS ), supply digital media signage, websites, or mobile apps ( Beaver Group ) you can now discover how PLM could be right for you.  Use our Discovery Tool  today to see what Autodesk PLM 360 can do for you and your company. Thank you for stopping by and enjoying our cinemagraph series. We hoped that you enjoyed the fun new way to tell the Autod...

Keeping up with our transportation theme, you can use Autodesk PLM 360 on a train, boat or plane. When your data is in the cloud, you can work almost anywhere with easy access to your data stored in your PLM. From the beaches of Ibiza  !  to being stuck at the airport waiting for a connecting flight, you don’t have to miss a beat when you have Autodesk PLM 360. SMI Group  replies on the fact that they can access their PLM data anywhere, anytime and on any device. With their  super yachts located miles from the office they don't have to worry about bringing all the data with them, with PLM360 they have access on the move.  Use our Discovery Tool  today to see what Autodesk PLM 360 can do for you and your company. Don’t forget to come back on Friday for our final cinemagraph.  Thanks for reading....Mike

Since Autodesk PLM 360 is all about doing things differently, we decided to do something new. We decided to develop a series of cinemagraphs as a fun new way to tell the Autodesk product lifecycle management story.  Cinemagraphs are still photographs where a subtle animation occurs. For this week we have 3 to share with you, I will reveal a new cinemagraph on Wednesday and Friday. Autodesk PLM 360 is accessible from planes, trains and anywhere there is an Internet connection from any device including mobile phones, tablets to laptops. For example,  Beaver Group  one of our customers, uses Autodesk PLM 360 to streamline their processes in order to manage design, project management and installation process of their digital menus and signs. Being able to access their PLM while on the move is a big benefit to Beaver Group. Autodesk PLM 360 is also a perfect fit, not only is it accessible on the move, but it allows them to configure the software to fit wi...

This week I visited David Miller (Director & Principal Architect) and Fiona Clark (Practice Director) from David Miller Architects, based in London and new users of Autodesk PLM360. Mike: Hi David, Hi Fiona, thanks for meeting me today and sharing your thoughts on the Autodesk PLM 360 experience! Can you tell me about DMA and the company’s background? Fiona:  The practice was set up in 2000 by David shortly after he completed the Media Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground when he was the Project Architect for this Stirling Prize winning building at Future Systems. The structure was the world’s first monocoque aluminium building and the knowledge that David gained from this experience, along with his work on earlier projects with the Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, helped develop his expertise in complex three dimensional problem solving. This has been a major influence on our practice’s approach where we combine 3D skills with new te...

This week I visited JWA tooling, a company close to my heart, and one of our Autodesk PLM 360 customers. Prior to Autodesk, I spent 20 years working in the manufacturing and construction industries so to visit one of our true UK manufactures and long-time Autodesk Inventor users was great. Talking about apprenticeships, tools, shadow graphs and topless calendars…I could go on for hours! They have been around since 1985 and are a truly innovative company and manufacturing institution. They specialise in design and manufacture of special purpose ECM machines and tooling. Their CNC machines run 7 days a week and as you walk around the shop floor the sounds and smell of coolant let you know you are in a company that designs and manufactures products that really improve the way we do things. So I caught up with John and Pete Wood, owners of JWA tooling, to find out more and to learn how they’re using Autodesk PLM 360. John Wood - As quoted by all the staff at JWA, “The Brains” o...

Maison Twenty is a visionary unit comprising twenty  emerging artists/designers from the UK. From multi-disciplined backgrounds,  each artist has designed a collaboration of T-shirts that can be now seen in Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge, London.  Founded by artist  Dannielle Hodson, Kevin Dixie - Managing director of Fuelmywebsite and Peter Joyce - Managing director of TOT Shirts. Maison Twenty is supported by  one of the UK’s largest garment printers, TOT Shirts Ltd. Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge, London Maison Twenty is distinctly different with its approach to t-shirt decoration - seeing  them as artistic platforms. Ranges have been created for the brand by some of  UK’s most exciting artists - each from different artistic backgrounds - video art, make-up, costume, fashion, illustration, punk, typography and photography to name a few. Antonia Rudebeck - Antonia has been a make-up artist for several years,  she has ...