Documentation to production and offers are produced within minutes instead of days
Significant cost savings following full automation of calculations and drawing production
Better quality of production base and offers
Faster reaction time for delivery of offers and prices
Possibility to expand automation of technical documentation generation and offers into new product areas
“When we press the button, it takes only a few minutes until all documents are ready for use in production and sales, and everything is in extremely professional quality. During one morning I have been able to very easily generate about 150 main drawings with the accompanying detailed drawings. Previously, it could take up to a day’s work to generate the same documents for only one product.”
UTMANINGEN
LBH International AS was founded in the Funen island town of Kerteminde in 1985. The company’s 40 employees develop and produce industrial compensators. The products are manufactured in rubber, different types of tissues and increasingly stainless steel, which especially is demanded by the export markets. LBH International AS’s production takes place in Denmark and Poland and furthermore LBH International AS is a partner in two joint venture companies based in India and China
LÖSNINGEN
LBH International AS has implemented DriveWorks to automate the generation of all technical and sales documentation delivering significant time and cost savings as well as improved quality in its production of steel compensators.
Danish company LBH International AS has automated the generation of both its technical and sales related documentation with DriveWorks. All technical drawings, static calculations, production papers and offers for new round steel compensators are now created automatically with just a few entries in the customized DriveWorks user interface, programmed by the company itself. Previously, it could take up to one day to generate these documents. Following the introduction of DriveWorks, the full documentation for a specific case is generated in only a few minutes.
The company manufactures compensators for industrial use in steel, rubber and tissue materials. DriveWorks is now used for configuring round steel compensators where the system handles more than 20,000 variants. The next step will be to enter the other product types into the system to effectively manage all the company’s product types.
“When you have been sitting for a long time drawing the same thing over and over again in the CAD system, you begin to wonder if it could be done easier. PLM Group explained to me that it could be done easily by adding DriveWorks to SolidWorks,” says technical director Erik Pedersen, LBH International AS.
Professional documentation with DriveWorks
“When we press the button, it takes only a few minutes until all documents are ready for use in production and sales, and everything is in an extremely professional quality. During one morning I have been able to very easily generate about 150 main drawings with the accompanying detailed drawings. Previously, it could take up to a day’s work to generate the same documents for only one product,” says Erik Pedersen.
LBH International AS’s calculation standards for round steel compensators has been added to DriveWorks. Using these standards the static calculations for all variants are performed, and the selected materials, geometries and shapes are shown statically via the user interface. When statics and design fits the given application, the product configurator exports the data to SolidWorks, which generates the desired 3D models from a master model where all the geometrical dependencies are defined. After receiving the data, SolidWorks generates main drawings, detailed drawings, static strength calculations, and control documents, and not least, they offer documents to customers with both technical information and prices.
Fewer errors and higher quality
DriveWorks has not only offered vast time savings but the quality of both technical documentation and the production base has been greatly improved. The company previously used 2D, and in recent years 3D CAD, to design the round steel compensators, while the static calculations were done in an Excel spreadsheet. Now the possibility for errors due to double data entries in different systems has been eliminated, explains Erik Pedersen:
“Our rate of errors has been greatly reduced because far fewer human hands and computer keystrokes are mixed up in the process and we almost never make mistakes, for example, when we are cutting parts with laser based cutters.”
DriveWorks provides significant economic benefit
According to Erik Pedersen the introduction of DriveWorks has also resulted in significant economic gains in terms of savings:
To produce just a fraction of the drawings we generate now, without DriveWorks we would have been forced to hire more technical designers to do the drawing work.
In addition, the time to process the casework has been significantly reduced. When our sales people are calling with customers, they can promise to send them the offer with drawings and prices within 15 minutes,” Erik Pedersen says, adding:
”A further benefit to customers is that we always send uniform drawings, so when we meet with them, we seem more credible. When dealers or customers are questioning if we, as a relatively small company, can handle the large volume of inquiries, it is now easy for us to guarantee that we can handle even very large amounts of both inquiries and actual orders.”
The use of DriveWorks at LBH International AS will be continuously developed and expanded, explains Erik Pedersen: “DriveWorks has become the focal point for us. It is the system that both sales people and technicians need to log in to make offers and drawings and whatever else they need.”
