User report: SWG Production

SWG Schraubenwerk Gaisbach GmbH – Production Division

High-quality connecting elements and fastening technology. That is SWG Produktion. Based in the climatic health resort of Waldenburg in the north-east of Baden-Württemberg, it has been synonymous with innovative and high-quality screws for major customers for decades. The product range includes wood construction screws, screws for fastening metal and plastics, and assembly screws made of steel and stainless steel in diameters from 3 mm to 14 mm and lengths of up to 1.5 m. In addition to the European ETA approval, SWG Produktion also has special approvals for wood construction screws in the USA (ICC) and Canada (CCMC).

And if you think of Würth when you think of screws, you are already on the trail of SWG Produktion: The company's foundation stone was laid in 1958 by Prof. Dr. h. c. Reinhold Würth. With more than 50 years of experience in screw production, material and energy efficiency, highly qualified employees and future-oriented management, its first production facility contributes to the success of the entire group. Thanks to the in-house engineering office "SWG Engineering", SWG Produktion can also offer customers extensive know-how in the field of dimensioning, planning and consulting in timber engineering.

Product data management for screws.
For over 10 years with PSP

For over 10 years, SWG Produktion has relied on the product data management (PDM) system Autodesk Productstream Professional (PSP), whose support was discontinued in October 2017. One year later, the company began actively looking for a new PDM system to manage around 4,700 items and 22,000 SOLIDWORKS files. For several years now, the Waldenburg-based company has been designing its products and machine parts primarily in 3D. In addition, there are Outlook, PDF and Excel documents that contain various product configurations or customer contacts.

Requirements for the new PDM system

About a year after PSP support was discontinued, the design and project management departments took a closer look at a total of three PDM solutions. Andrej Geiger, designer and PDM administrator at SWG Produktion: "The basic idea was that the program should be structured in a similar way to Productstream Professional. GAIN Software or GAIN Collaboration was convincing in the first run through in a web meeting. After another presentation at our company, the decision was no longer difficult for us, because the similarity to PSP is remarkable."

Intensive testing and implementation

At the Waldenburg plant, a large-scale test phase was decided at short notice. Shortly afterwards, GAIN Software installed its PDM system, followed by a two-day training course for CAD users. The designers put GAIN Collaboration through its paces. From editing documents and creating articles to checking the metadata that was transferred from PSP to GAIN Collaboration. A month later, the final switch from PSP to GAIN Collaboration took place. PSP was still active for some time after that, but was only used for reviewing information in case something needed to be looked up or checked.

Andrej Geiger: "Sure, when you switch over after so many years, you have to rethink things in some areas. However, after just a training phase of 4 to 6 weeks, our colleagues had already gotten used to the slightly different way of working with GAIN Collaboration. Compared to other products, the effort required to get used to GAIN Collaboration seemed to be the least. The data we wanted was migrated from AutoCAD and SOLIDWORKS to GAIN Collaboration. Without any loss of quality. All metadata was transferred and in some cases even supplemented. For example, through entries in the change lists."

Product data management for all

Many departments at SWG Produktion now use the PDM services from GAIN Collaboration: The design department works with GAIN Collaboration Professional, quality assurance uses the GAIN Collaboration Viewer and product management uses the GAIN Collaboration Office variant to look up details of a drawing or integrate approvals. "We also use the JobServer when we order a tool that requires a vector file. It creates all the required neutral formats in one go," says Andrej Geiger.

Adopted: The article-based search

For years, designers were used to searching for linked documents, drawings of a tool or test reports in PSP via the articles. In addition, they were still used to working with views in PSP - these are special views of documents or links. When standing on an article, they only saw the most recent, released documents. A view that is now also available in GAIN Collaboration.
Andrej Geiger: "We almost always look for drawing numbers that we assign to an article. The article then contains drawings and 3D models or 3D assemblies, which we then use to find the drawings or 3D models. The document itself is given an ENG number in GAIN Collaboration - as it used to be under PSP. The number generator in GAIN Collaboration was set up in such a way that our documents were numbered without gaps." Using a special function developed by GAIN Software, screw professionals are now able to right-click on an article to display all drawings and models in a new search. This special function has now been standardized in GAIN Collaboration.

Connected: The central View System

Back in the PSP days, the company used a view solution programmed specifically for SWG production. This enabled employees to view all documents for a specific drawing number. With just a few adjustments, the central viewer could be adapted to the new PDM system GAIN Collaboration. In addition, the PDF of SOLIDWORKS drawings automatically generated by GAIN Collaboration is now available to production and other departments in this way.

Practice emphasized introduction

An introduction to GAIN Collaboration was carried out immediately after implementation. Andrej Geiger: "At the time of the switchover, the PSP database was transferred to GAIN Collaboration as it existed. That looked good and we were able to try out a lot of things. On this basis, we then carried out a 2-day training course. We tested the program with all its functions. I also received administrator training. Personally, I found the switch from PSP to GAIN Collaboration very easy."

After a year of working with GAIN Collaboration…

In terms of processes, the employees at SWG Produktion did not have to get used to any new features. In general, everyone at SWG Produktion is very satisfied. Andrej Geiger: “It is nice that everyone can now design their interface in the PDM system as they wish. In other words, what should be displayed where. Be it the display of documents or the control panel. The windows, drawing number and title are now also movable. With PSP, there was not as much flexibility in this area. Performance has also noticeably improved with GAIN Collaboration. The system only ever pulls a copy of the requested drawing. It is good to know that nothing can be changed in an undesirable way on the original. And if we still have customization requests, we can do a lot of the work ourselves or contact GAIN Software, who always respond promptly, in a friendly manner and with great service. We are completely satisfied."