Throughout his many years in hardware designing and manufacturing, Michael Corr has brought a wide range of products to market, including drones, IoT devices, and wearables. At that time, Corr had relied on PLM systems as an intrinsic component of the manufacturing process to help collaborate and work with other teams. However, he noted that most of these PLM systems were far too rudimentary and used several manual processes in product data management, complicating the job for him and other hardware engineers. Errors would often creep in and disrupt the product development lifecycle, and Corr found himself releasing designs to his contract manufacturer with his fingers crossed, hoping that nothing went wrong. There had to be better solutions, and he began pondering on ways to translate innovations popularized by the agile software renaissance into hardware toolsets to make things easier for the engineers and unburden them from the administrative nuances of BOM and CAD data management.

“I learned the importance of managing product data in a more agile and automated workflow so that engineers can focus all of their attention on their core operations and bring robust hardware products to market.” It was this philosophy that drove Corr (CEO) and his Co-Founder Kellan O’Connor (COO) to establish Duro, a leading cloud-native PLM solution provider. The company specializes in offering a first-of-its-kind agile workflow PLM platform that delivers a collaborative and easy-to-use single source of truth for all product-related data. Duro provides a broad range of capabilities to streamline the development lifecycle, from design, sourcing, change control, bill of material (BOM) management, and real-time monitoring of changes to sourced items.

The solution works with SolidWorks as an add-in that extends the value of both SolidWorks CAD and PDM, enabling hardware engineers to focus on their core operations and perform PLM-related tasks more conveniently without toggling between different PLM and CAD tools. SolidWorks users who were traditionally tied up to desktop applications now have access to the benefits of a cloud-based platform by leveraging Duro’s SolidWorks Add-in. “Our solution links desktop applications to a flexible, cloud-native platform that brings cohesiveness between globally distributed teams, comprising engineers, manufacturers, procurement partners, and other engineering departments,” says O’Connor. In essence, the Duro SolidWorks Addin enhances the communication between teams and operational transparency and serves as an easily referenceable source of truth for organizations that saves time and reduces the administrative burden for the engineers.

Duro boasts a quick and straightforward onboarding process as the SolidWorks add-in can read the BOM structure directly from the FeatureManager design tree. Furthermore, its ability to automatically assign Duro-based part numbers to parts and assemblies in SolidWorks (CAD or PDM) makes Duro the go-to solution for hardware engineers. With this category-driven part-numbering scheme, Duro allows engineers to easily run parametrically based searches and data validation checks.

Elaborating on Duro’s capabilities, Corr mentions, “It allows mapping of assembly structures automatically concerning the BOM, eliminating the need for any manually-created spreadsheets. Designed with the ability to export PDF drawings and other production file formats, the Duro SolidWorks add-in enables non-engineering teams to extract that information for any number of parts and assemblies instantly without having to interface with engineers or the SolidWorks application. It also allows teams to publish released revisions, drawings, and production files to Duro’s centralized hub. Unlike other PLM tools, Duro can seamlessly and securely share data, helping the hardwareengineering team establish a strong relationship with their manufacturing partners.

With such a powerful line of capabilities, Duro serves as a partner of choice for clients in the aerospace, industrial automation, robotics, and consumer electronics markets. The company recently collaborated with a large aerospace customer who wanted to extract the BOM, material configurations, and metadata from SolidWorks as they moved into manufacturing. Duro also deployed its solution to help them accurately translate this information into the manufacturing realm and enabled them to run cost analysis across their BOM, validate requirements beforehand, and disseminate it to their globally distributed partners. By allowing their data to flow seamlessly and automatically, the company helped their client save time and enhance operational efficiency.

Such success stories stem from Duro’s dedication to adding value to clients’ operations by giving them access to real-time data to help make better decisions and get products to market at a lower cost. Moving ahead, the company plans to continue its innovation-driven approach and build a platform that helps clients engage with their BOM in all possible ways. Duro is also looking forward to integrating its platform with other systems, including inventory management, ERP, and supply chain management, to name a few.