DFM Tool Enhances Collaboration Between Design Teams

A product-lifecycle management toolset, vShare, supports design-for-manufacturing (DFM) collaboration between pc-board design and engineering teams across global supply chains. The tool delivers enhanced communications capabilities into the electronic design and manufacturing process, resulting in faster product innovation and DFM cycles for users of Valor Computerized Systems' productivity-enhancing software. vShare provides a centralized, scalable platform with secure access to important design information and DFM issues that form part of the product development process. The complete workflow — including design changes, design reviews, and final manufacturing sign-off — is intuitively managed in vShare, enabling companies to achieve the most manufacturable designs possible.

Using standard internet browsers within a secure, web-based environment, vShare users can easily import DFM results from Valor's DFM tools, as well as attach third-party graphical or text objects. The project leader can then filter, group, and prioritize issues ready for collaboration. During this phase, members can share ideas or comment on improvements and/or corrections for each issue, or group of issues, up and down the supply chain. Reports can be quickly generated to document critical steps, project status and details, or final approvals, and template-driven instant reports can be used to track progress. The project manager can assign projects, actions or issues to particular individuals, and monitor events until complete sign-off and approval is reached.