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Titan Motorsport Selects Autodesk PLM 360



This week I took a trip down to Titan Motorsport to see how these guys are using Autodesk PLM360 to make you go faster!


Wirth Research LMP2 Car



I'm meeting Zoe Timbrell and Mark Martin from Titan Motorsport, Zoe is the Sales & Marketing Manager and Mark is the Systems Manager.


Mike: Morning Guys, so tell me about Titan Motorsport


Zoe: Titan Motorsport was established over 30 years ago, building race cars and engines to compete in Formula Ford and Formula 3 Championships.  Since then, Titan has developed a strong reputation in the motorsport industry and in addition, now supplies production components into the high performance sports car automotive industry.  Continued investment in plant and manufacturing technology has enabled us to grow the business from what was once a small race team, to an engineering company employing over 50 people.



Titan Sponsored MK2 Escort 

Mike: Please tell me a little bit about your products?


Zoe: The business supplies Titan products to individuals, engine builders and race teams, these include steering racks, limited slip differentials, inlet systems and dry sump systems.  These have been developed in house at Titan and the range has grown each year to include new applications. In addition to these products, Titan also produces bespoke components either designed by Titan for a customer, or designed by the customer.  Such products include chassis, suspension, drivetrain, steering and powertrain components.  Many of which are supplied direct to high performance vehicle manufacturers, and has driven Titan to invest in comprehensive quality systems to ensure exceptional product and service is delivered.



The many CNC machines in the Titan workshops

Mike: Why do you need PLM?

Mark: At the last count we had 11 separate pieces of software  each one fulfilling a distinct task,  each one with its own particular workflow.  Whilst these are all needed, managing and integrating them has become increasingly difficult.  We needed to find a way of streamlining the workflows, at a business process level yet allowing each discrete activity to use individual software applications.  PLM ‘came up’ during a conversation with our Autodesk service provider. We were then introduced to PLM360 as part of the Autodesk PLM Early adopter program. It became clear to me by the end of that 15min demo that PLM would and could solve this issue.
Mike: Can you tell me about your first steps?

Mark: We picked one business process that was causing us a particular headache – Quote-To-Order.  The Value Stream Map showed us just how bad the process had become over time: We had a worse-case scenario of 14 working days to complete the process.  When we mapped the ‘Future State’ we had, theoretically, reduced this time from 14 to just 4 days! At this stage we began to build the improved workflows in PLM360.



Value Stream Map of the before and after process

Value Stream Map of the before and after process

Mike: How is it going?

Mark: Very quickly, our Autodesk PLM360 instance was setup and we had login details by email in literally a few minutes.  As it’s a web application – no server required, no software to install – just login and go!
We created a number of workspaces and then built the workflows, I say ‘built’ I mean dragged elements onto a page and connected them up.  The in-browser editor is very powerful and so makes this process quick and simple, we found it takes longer to think about the workflow  than it does to build it.
Some of our process involved calculation, previously handled with a spread sheet, PLM360 allows us to configure computed fields to deal with this  with the added benefit of storing and reusing the data.
Mike: What is next? 



Mark: Medium term we are looking to build engineering and quality processes using PLM360.  When you sign up for PLM360 you get a toolbox of apps, everyone gets the same toolbox and you choose how you apply it.  This flexibility is key, it allows us to use PLM360 where it’s most needed then start to develop it into new areas. My ultimate goal is to use PLM360 as a ‘Software Nervous System’ connecting everything together and keeping everyone in the process (internal & external) informed and updated in real-time.



Titan customer Ariel Atom













Thanks guys, great to catch up and I'll speak to you next month to see how your getting on.


Thanks for reading...Mike

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