Bastian Solutions

In a highly configurable product environment — particularly with conveyor systems — Bastian faced challenges typical for manufacturers dealing with complex products: Manual processes, heavy use of Excel macros, and fragmented communication slowed down engineering change processes and delayed manufacturing readiness.

“When I joined Bastian in 2019, it was clear we needed to scale and automate.. — Releasing Bills of Materials and communicating changes involved too much manual work. To move forward, we had to automate our engineering workflows.”

— Chris Perry, Product Line Engineering Manager, Bastian Solutions

Bluestar PLM was selected early in the journey primarily due to its deep and native integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 — a decisive factor for Bastian, which needed a seamless connection between engineering and business systems: “The fact that Bluestar is embedded in D365 made it the natural choice.” Perry explains.

While adapting Bluestar PLM to Bastian’s diverse and manually-established processes was challenging, Perry emphasizes the valuable support received from Bluestar’s implementation team:

“The Bluestar team worked closely with us. The transition was tough at times, but they helped us align our various processes into a unified approach. Today, we continue collaborating with them to evolve our solution.”

— Chris Perry, Product Line Engineering Manager, Bastian Solutions

This transformation extends across the engineering process. According to Carson Piedmonte, one of the key users of Bluestar PLM: “The engineering change management module has streamlined the process — we no longer need to manually update each object. It all happens automatically now, which saves a huge amount of time.”

Additionally, the system has improved how products and parts are imported and handled. “With the configurator and global part library, collaboration across factories has become much easier,” adds Carson Snyder, highlighting how shared resources and automated product drawing generation have further increased efficiency and reduced manual effort.

After implementing Bluestar PLM, the impact has been remarkable. Bastian reports a 90% increase in engineering efficiency for releasing Bills of Materials to production — a result specific to their conveyor product lines.

Instead of manually creating and releasing BOMs for each order, Bluestar PLM now automatically generates configuration-based BOMs — accelerating production readiness and freeing up engineering capacity.

“With Bluestar PLM, our engineers spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time improving product designs. Additionally, our downstream teams now receive automated notifications and workflows, ensuring smooth collaboration across production control, purchasing, and sales.”

— Chris Perry, Product Line Engineering Manager, Bastian Solutions

Following the successful rollout in the Product Line Engineering team, a lot of the other engineering groups at Bastian Solutions are now using Bluestar PLM. Looking ahead, the company plans to explore further modules including Compliance and Manufacturing BOMs to continue optimizing and automating its product lifecycle processes.

Asked if he would recommend Bluestar PLM, Perry responds confidently: “After going through the full integration process, I would recommend Bluestar PLM to any business using Dynamics 365 — especially those managing complex product lines.”