ASIA Company reduces wire harness design cycle time using Mentor CHS tools

WILSONVILLE, USA: Mentor Graphics Corp. announced that ASIA Company, a Korea-based wire harness supplier, has made dramatic gains by deploying the CHS™ software. The CHS tool has enabled ASIA to add significant automation and cut their wire harness design cycle time by up to 75 percent.

ASIA supplies GM-Daewoo, which in turn uses standardized General Motors design tools and methodology. ASIA's challenge was to automate the previously manual transcription of Daewoo design data into ASIA’s internal systems. This design data is originated in multiple tools, including Siemens-PLM's NX 3D MCAD application, and is further complicated by a high rate of change and the presence of optional content.

ASIA has now deployed Capital HarnessXC, one of the core CHS tools, to intelligently merge the data streams and perform automated engineering tasks such as checking, component selection and drawing creation. This in turn led to the large design cycle time savings reported.

Namgyung Y-Chief of ASIA’s R&D Center said: "CHS fully automates data transcription and harness engineering. Not only can we read in Daewoo's design information, we can also drive the resultant engineering data onwards to our production systems, creating further efficiencies."

ASIA's success further consolidates Mentor's position in the region; several other Korea-based wire harness suppliers also use CHS to implement efficient, correct-by-construction design processes.

Nick Smith, business development director of Mentor’s Integrated Electrical Systems Division, said: "The challenge ASIA faced is exactly what Capital HarnessXC was created for. The tool itself is very flexible. It can receive data from a wide variety of electrical, mechanical and other CAD tools, and also supports emerging standards such as KBL. ASIA's implementation is a perfect example of the benefits that can be derived from a seamless digital data flow coupled with engineering automation."