Case Studies Establishing a Compliant Foundation for Defense Product Development

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	Establishing a Compliant Foundation for Defense Product Development

Establishing a Compliant Foundation for Defense Product Development

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Device Management Platforms
Applicable Industries	Electronics Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Product Research & Development Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Regulatory Compliance Monitoring Remote Control
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services System Integration Training
Challenge	With an approximately $20M contract from the U.S. Army, SIONYX launched a product program that required not only the team’s innovation and technical competence but also control of all technical data and design for government regulatory compliance. “We needed to demonstrate that we have a formal set of industry-standard controls around how we do things and how we manufacture,” stated Steve Anderson, Vice President of Operations for SIONYX. “We had manual processes early on and our government customers required us to implement a PLM system with embedded best practices and automated workflows—aligned to ISO9000 standards.” The defense contract brought SIONYX the compliance requirement for proper handling of technical data, including access controls, full audit history, and a compliant platform architecture. Arena’s AWS GovCloud platform solution provided a low-overhead solution for SIONYX to meet the business and regulatory needs with significantly reduced risk. An additional hurdle to the project was time, or lack of it. “We kicked off this project in January and we needed to demonstrate to the government by August that we had a compliant setup between QMS and document controls,” shared Anderson. “We had a very tight timeline.” Read More
About Customer	SIONYX’s mission is to provide the most accessible digital night vision technology in the world. As a silicon-based photonics company with proprietary ultra-low-light CMOS image sensor technologies, SIONYX designs solutions for commercial, industrial, medical, law enforcement, and defense markets. The Aurora, small and lightweight, is the company’s commercially available and award-winning night vision camera. SIONYX also works with OEMs who need advanced imaging technology for custom applications. Now, the company is proud to be working with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Army for delivery of digital lowlight level cameras for the highly publicized IVAS (Integrated Visual Augmentation System) program. Read More
Solution	SIONYX searched for a solution and found Arena. “Arena hit all the requirements,” Anderson remembers, “including best practices on how to implement and the ability to keep pace with our schedule.” The SIONYX team was motivated for success with the new product program, the processes that needed to be built, and the deployment of Arena. “This was a significant change management effort but our team saw the value and were very results oriented. In addition, Arena’s experienced implementation team led us through a well-thought-out framework with a set of milestones we needed to achieve in order to meet our ‘go-live’ timelines. The solution architect pushed us to stay focused and, as a result, we beat our timeline by two weeks.” With Arena’s AWS GovCloud platform, SIONYX provided their defense customer with a road map of what they would be putting in place. After implementation, SIONYX did a remote verification process with the customer. “We checked all the boxes of what we said we were going to do. They were quite happy,” shared Anderson. With Arena, SIONYX has a cloud-based secure system that will scale with the company and product lines. With the core product management, document control, and quality processes like corrective action and preventive actions in place, the team has the foundation to expand both depth and breadth as needed. “Arena operates as defined. We are looking to scale and Arena is a central component. From my perspective on both the platform and the implementation, I give it two thumbs up.” Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Device Management Platforms

Applicable Industries

Electronics

Healthcare & Hospitals

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Product Research & Development

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Regulatory Compliance Monitoring

Remote Control

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

System Integration

Training

Challenge

With an approximately $20M contract from the U.S. Army, SIONYX launched a product program that required not only the team’s innovation and technical competence but also control of all technical data and design for government regulatory compliance. “We needed to demonstrate that we have a formal set of industry-standard controls around how we do things and how we manufacture,” stated Steve Anderson, Vice President of Operations for SIONYX. “We had manual processes early on and our government customers required us to implement a PLM system with embedded best practices and automated workflows—aligned to ISO9000 standards.” The defense contract brought SIONYX the compliance requirement for proper handling of technical data, including access controls, full audit history, and a compliant platform architecture. Arena’s AWS GovCloud platform solution provided a low-overhead solution for SIONYX to meet the business and regulatory needs with significantly reduced risk. An additional hurdle to the project was time, or lack of it. “We kicked off this project in January and we needed to demonstrate to the government by August that we had a compliant setup between QMS and document controls,” shared Anderson. “We had a very tight timeline.”

About Customer

SIONYX’s mission is to provide the most accessible digital night vision technology in the world. As a silicon-based photonics company with proprietary ultra-low-light CMOS image sensor technologies, SIONYX designs solutions for commercial, industrial, medical, law enforcement, and defense markets. The Aurora, small and lightweight, is the company’s commercially available and award-winning night vision camera. SIONYX also works with OEMs who need advanced imaging technology for custom applications. Now, the company is proud to be working with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Army for delivery of digital lowlight level cameras for the highly publicized IVAS (Integrated Visual Augmentation System) program.

Solution

SIONYX searched for a solution and found Arena. “Arena hit all the requirements,” Anderson remembers, “including best practices on how to implement and the ability to keep pace with our schedule.” The SIONYX team was motivated for success with the new product program, the processes that needed to be built, and the deployment of Arena. “This was a significant change management effort but our team saw the value and were very results oriented. In addition, Arena’s experienced implementation team led us through a well-thought-out framework with a set of milestones we needed to achieve in order to meet our ‘go-live’ timelines. The solution architect pushed us to stay focused and, as a result, we beat our timeline by two weeks.” With Arena’s AWS GovCloud platform, SIONYX provided their defense customer with a road map of what they would be putting in place. After implementation, SIONYX did a remote verification process with the customer. “We checked all the boxes of what we said we were going to do. They were quite happy,” shared Anderson. With Arena, SIONYX has a cloud-based secure system that will scale with the company and product lines. With the core product management, document control, and quality processes like corrective action and preventive actions in place, the team has the foundation to expand both depth and breadth as needed. “Arena operates as defined. We are looking to scale and Arena is a central component. From my perspective on both the platform and the implementation, I give it two thumbs up.”

Impact #1	SIONYX was able to meet the compliance requirements of their defense customers, ensuring quality product deliverables.
Impact #2	The implementation of Arena enabled formal PLM and QMS processes in one platform, streamlining operations.
Impact #3	The company benefited from accelerated corrective and preventive action processes, enhancing their quality management.

Impact #1

SIONYX was able to meet the compliance requirements of their defense customers, ensuring quality product deliverables.

Impact #2

The implementation of Arena enabled formal PLM and QMS processes in one platform, streamlining operations.

Impact #3

The company benefited from accelerated corrective and preventive action processes, enhancing their quality management.

Benefit #1	SIONYX secured an approximately $20M contract from the U.S. Army.
Benefit #2	The project timeline was beaten by two weeks, demonstrating efficient implementation.

Benefit #1

SIONYX secured an approximately $20M contract from the U.S. Army.

Benefit #2

The project timeline was beaten by two weeks, demonstrating efficient implementation.

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Overview

Establishing a Compliant Foundation for Defense Product Development

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit