Royal Canadian Mint Promotes Innovation With PLM from IBM & Dassault Systèmes

21 April 2006, Published by Dassault Systemes

In advance of the XXIV Mint Director’s Conference (Paris, May 1-7), IBM and Dassault Systèmes today announced that the prestigious Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) has streamlined the design and production of its high-quality coins and medals with their product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions.

Recognized as one of the largest and most versatile mints in the world, the RCM is leveraging PLM to foster innovation and business efficiency for the best benefits of its customers. It has made gains throughout the entire product development process by using CATIA V5 for 3D product design and SMARTEAM for product data and lifecycle management.

"Our PLM solution automates and integrates the entire quotation, new product development and engineering process," said RCM Chief Information Officer Neil Hallam. "Simplifying and bringing better control to the engineering change process, and allowing users to more quickly and easily access existing data for reuse, has driven down engineering and manufacturing costs. It furthers our goal of becoming a lean enterprise."

CATIA V5 enables RCM engineers to create 3D virtual definitions of a coin, its engineering specifications such as weight and dimensions, as well as the associated tooling and packaging. Using SMARTEAM, the RCM incorporates into its business processes information such as the metal’s formula and properties, engineering specifications, tooling and production data. By consolidating its intellectual property in a single repository accessible by everyone in the production and marketing cycles, the RCM has now increased customer responsiveness, developing and marketing innovative coins more efficiently.

"Like many organizations, prior to its PLM initiative, the Royal Canadian Mint had vast knowledge of its industry and processes, but few mechanisms to use that expertise to its competitive advantage," said Joel Lemke, president, Dassault Systèmes Americas Corp. "The innovation the RCM achieves with IBM and Dassault Systèmes’ PLM solutions demonstrates how a forward-looking company can do better work in less time by bringing its institutional knowledge into every facet of design and production

About the Royal Canadian Mint

The RCM, an ISO 9001-2000 certified company, is the Crown corporation responsible for the minting and distribution of Canada’s circulation coins. In operation since 1908, the RCM is recognized as one of the largest and most versatile mints in the world, offering a wide range of specialized, high quality coinage products and related services on an international scale. For more information on the RCM, its products and services, visit http://www.mint.ca/