Relex Tools Enable Company Expansion and Increased Profitability

T&L Communicators, Inc. has been preparing technical data and logistics management programs for domestic and international customers for 25 years. Manufacturers of mechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic, electrical, and electronic products rely on T&L Communicators for assistance in the preparation of quotations and proposals as well as in the development and management of logistics programs. The services offered by T&L Communicators include the development of the following deliverables in most major languages: reliability, maintainability, and safety documentation; logistics support data; technical manuals and literature; engineering services; configuration/data management plans; design to cost and life cycle cost data; and training projects.

T&L Communicators Chooses Relex

In 1995, T&L Communicators licensed Relex Reliability Prediction along with the Relex 217 calculation model so that they would no longer have to base their reliability predictions on manual calculations using MIL-HDBK-217 and other source data. Additionally, T&L Communicators licensed the Relex RBD and Relex FMEA/FMECA modules to support its efforts to provide customers with various reliability analyses that meet the specifications of commercial and/or military programs. Over the past few years, T&L Communicators has added additional licenses for the Relex Reliability Prediction and Relex FMEA/FMEA modules as well as a new license for the Relex PRISM calculation model.

According to Larry Newell, Sr., Chief Executive Officer of T&L Communicators, the adoption of Relex software tools has enabled the company to vastly expand their client base, thereby increasing both its size and profitability. "The decision to purchase Relex tools was based on the currency of the Relex Parts Library data and the superior product support," said Newell. "Relex Software provides monthly updates with current part data. This, combined with intuitive keystrokes, makes Relex an extremely user-friendly program, which reduces training time for new employees along with decreasing production time."

Relex: An Industry Standard

Franz McLaren, the Logistics Program Manager, explained that, due to the nature of the industries served by T&L Communicators, data must eventually be reviewed by a major industry or government organization. "It is imperative that our customers be able to justify the validity of our reliability predictions," said McLaren. "Over the years, we have found that most reviewing bodies either use Relex software or accept it as an industry standard. Using Relex tools has greatly reduced the number of comments or the need for resubmittals."

Relex Provides Flexibility and Speed

McLaren, a Certified Professional Logistician (CPL), indicated that T&L Communicators primarily performs reliability prediction analyses during the design phases of new programs. However, the company also performs extensive analyses on existing equipment for proposal and comparative purposes. "There have been several programs where the flexibility provided by Relex tools has been invaluable," said McLaren. "Last year, we were asked to generate a reliability prediction for a refueling system containing 1,600 piece parts, subassemblies, and assemblies. It was an emergency situation where the customer needed the prediction within three business days. This would have been impossible using MIL-HDBK-217 and a calculator."

According to McLaren, the use of Relex Reliability Prediction allowed T&L Communicators to supply the needed prediction within the three-day deadline. Last October, the customer that they aided with this last-minute proposal won the refueling system contract, and now T&L Communicators is in the process of developing all of the reliability and maintainability data for this program.

"We are often called upon to quickly turn around reliability predictions for numerous reasons, such as proposals, design concept comparisons, and frequent last-minute design changes," said McLaren. "The Relex program enables the analysis speed that our customers have hoped for and now have come to expect. As a result of this flexibility, we have become the provider of choice for numerous clients throughout the U.S. and overseas."

Relex Saves Time and Money

According to McLaren, Relex has helped T&L Communicators save time and money in four primary areas:

• Reduced learning curve for employees.
• Speed and ease of data development.
• Rapid report development and delivery.
• Improved consistency of data developed by different analysts across programs.

Relex Provides Additional Benefits

When listing the additional benefits that Relex tools provide T&L Communicators, McLaren includes:

• The ability to find a part using an extensive, easy-to-search database.
• The support of numerous user environments to enable increased accuracy of part selection.
• The ease of selecting environments, defining duty cycles, and inputting appropriate modifying factors.
• The wide selection of Relex-supplied report formats.
• The ease of adding or defining customer-peculiar data input fields.

"The primary benefit of Relex for us—a supplier of data to numerous and often varied customers—is the credibility and acceptability of the Relex name," added McLaren. "Additionally, the great flexibility of the software allows our experienced engineers to quickly and accurately analyze any design, whether it is for a small component or a complex electro mechanical system."

About T&L Communicators, Inc.

T&L Communicators Inc. is a leading provider of technical data and management logistics programs. In business since 1980, T&L Communicators tailors its services to meet the needs of small- to medium-sized manufacturers who produce mechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic, electrical, and electronic products. In addition to preparing quotations and proposals, T&L Communicators develops and manages data packages and logistics programs. The documentation that the company develops is formatted to be compatible with all major software and hardware systems. Its list of customers includes suppliers to such major companies as Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon, L3 Communications, Xerox, Western Gear, Airbus Industries, Teledyne, ITT, TRW, and Northrop-Grumman. For more information about T&L Communicators, call 818.953.7331, or e-mail TLComm2@aol.com.

About Relex Software Corporation

Relex Software Corporation is a world leader in reliability analysis software. Its products are used by thousands of engineers in a variety of businesses around the globe. In business since 1986, Relex Software's mission is to provide a superior line of high-quality software tools for reliability analysis. Long-recognized for their user-friendly, state-of-the-art features, the modular tools in the Relex Reliability Software Suite include an intuitive graphical user interface, support for scientific graphical charts, an enhanced CAD interface, visual system modeling with redundancy support, completely customizable output reports, extensive parts libraries, and a comprehensive online help system. For more information about Relex Software, call 724.836.8800 or visit www.relex.com.