Experts in HVAC continue to set the ETIM pace
There may be a change of personnel at the helm of the EDA’s ETIM-UK initiative, with David Lorrison taking over as Head of ETIM-UK from David Bate who has left to take a job nearer his home in the West Midlands, but the progress continues.
On one of the sunniest days of the year, product experts from three EDA affiliate manufacturers of HVAC Ventilation products met at the EDA’s Rotherwick House offices to collectively work their way through Groups, Classes, Features, Values and Units.
Taking a well-earned break: l-r back row: David Lorrison, Head of ETIM-UK at the EDA; Jenny Smith, Marketing Manager Volution Ventilation (Vent-Axia); Richard Paine, Product and Marketing Director, Volution Ventilation (Vent-Axia); Christian Hadley, Head of Product Marketing, Glen Dimplex Heating & Ventilation. L-r front row: From Zehnder Group UK Ltd Alexa Stubbs, PBU Senior Product Manager, and Chris Walley, Master Data Manager.
Challenges
“We made some great progress today and have reviewed over 2,000 separate data fields to adapt the language of ETIM to English,” said David, “In HVAC this has been especially challenging because of the variance in terminology used across the ETIM territories.
“It may need more scrutiny to refine the language but once that’s done, we’ll submit the HVAC Ventilation product group to ETIM International, whose role it is to publish the classification on their website. At that stage our manufacturers will be able to download the structure and classify their own products.”
International markets
Christian Hadley, Glen Dimplex Heating & Ventilation’s Head of Product Marketing, added
“At Glen Dimplex we’re going through a global inter-connected PIM initiative. We have PIM systems locally but ETIM has given us a base to translate our products for the international markets.”
ETIM is central
Richard Paine, Product & Marketing Director at Volution Ventilation, added,
“We are delighted to support the EDA’s initiative to digitise the UK’s electro-technical sector.
“Our business has grown massively through acquisition and, as new products come on board, ETIM provides us with a common framework with which to structure product data. ETIM’s technical classification is central to how we as a company manage and structure our product data.”
Key data platform
Alexa Stubbs, PBU Senior Product Manager at Zehnder Group UK Ltd, said
“ETIM is a high priority for us. Within Zehnder we’re holding our own ETIM Working Groups to ensure that all the countries in which we operate are sharing knowledge.
“Our colleagues in Zehnder Netherlands are more advanced than we are here in the UK but across our group ETIM has been the subject of a major review and for us it’s a key data platform”