User report: Budde Fördertechnik

Mastered: Extensive PDM migration and cross-branch deployment

Whenever it comes to optimizing the flow of materials and just-in-time operational logistics, the experts at BUDDE Fördertechnik are in demand. The globally active full-service provider with over 50 years of experience offers both individual standard conveyor elements and individual system solutions.
The company also supplies the electrical controls and the appropriate steel construction platforms. From telescopic, belt or roller conveyors to sorting systems such as automatic or tilting tray sorters that are used in parcel logistics: the conveyor elements from the Bielefeld company can be found wherever just-in-time and reliable transport and sorting are required: for example at Esprit, Zalando, DPD, GLS, DHL, UPS or Amazon.

Numerous parts in over 30,000 documents

The individual parts and assemblies are correspondingly numerous and varied: from small holders or flat steel parts to finished components such as a telescopic conveyor. Around 25 designers at the Bielefeld site design and model what takes their customers' conveyed goods further. The Bielefeld-based company currently manages around 30,000 documents in the PDM system. These include 3D overview plans, Office documents, PDFs and photos, as well as DWGs and XREFs. Or external data, such as floor plans from architects, which are entered into drawings as references. The lion's share of CAD data is currently still AutoCAD data. Due to partner companies and the history of BUDDE conveyor technology, the conveyor experts now also work with CAD systems such as AutoCAD Mechanical, SolidWorks, Solid Edge and Autodesk Inventor. Now the product data management system (PDMS) Autodesk Productstream Professional (PSP) was about to be replaced. A PDM system that BUDDE Fördertechnik had trusted for 17 years. Nun stand die Ablösung des Produktdatenmanagementsystems (PDMS) Autodesk Productstream Professional (PSP) bevor. Ein PDM System, dem BUDDE Fördertechnik 17 Jahre lang vertraute.

Decision for GAIN Collaboration

Roman Mazurek-Bäumer, Head of Strategic Planning: "The successor product Autodesk Vault recommended by Autodesk did not convince us. So we spent a long time looking for a PSP successor that would suit us. And we received many offers from various areas. GAIN Collaboration immediately caught our attention because it is very similar to the PSP environment and retains the structures. I found it remarkable that many years ago there was talk of merging the products GAIN Collaboration and PSP, then still under the name Compass.
GAIN Software presented the product to us in detail, which meant that we gradually went into more and more detail. GAIN Collaboration ultimately convinced us both in terms of the overall concept, the features and also the price: Our employees find it very easy and quick to use in the usual way. GAIN Collaboration manages self-sufficient data in a structured environment. It is also very advantageous that physical data in GAIN Collaboration is not encrypted and stored somewhere with no possibility of access. Rather, it is located in a specific predefined location in a predefined structure. This means that even if the GAIN Collaboration environment is not accessible, you can access the data and continue working in the form of a backup scenario."

Always up to date at multiple locations

The Bielefeld-based company has outsourced a large part of its production to the Hanseatic city of Kamen in North Rhine-Westphalia and Schmalkalden in Thuringia. Mazurek: "Working across locations with GAIN Collaboration is very practical: With the bidirectional full replications that we primarily use, GAIN Collaboration compares physical documents and metadata in the background with our location in Schmalkalden without us noticing. The rights system lets us decide when we replicate document changes to Schmalkalden. This means we are always up to date on both sides."

CAD PDM Migration: Transfer of data from different eras

Mazurek: "First, we had to switch from AutoCAD 2008 to AutoCAD 2017 with the CAD system. In addition, we had a lot of data that had been created with AutoCAD 2000, among others, as well as drawings that had been created with AutoCAD Architecture and MDT. To make matters worse, the PDM migration to PSP 2009 had already generated a lot of errors. All in all, data that only became a challenge during the migration.

For the PDM introduction, we first tested GAIN Collaboration extensively in a test environment. The system was optimized so that all of our workflows could run smoothly. The next step was to migrate an entire PSP database to the GAIN Collaboration database. We could now begin working with some physical data on the test server. Since we had only tested with a small amount of data, we unfortunately only recognized a number of problems later during the actual migration. We received a lot of support from GAIN Software at this point. With a special additional program, missing references in drawings that had crept in under PSP could be corrected.

It turned out to be an advantage that GAIN Software had expanded its migration program so much that all CAD documents from different eras could be migrated, i.e. transferred from PSP to GAIN Collaboration. Due to the different data and the resulting problems, the switch from PSP to GAIN Collaboration naturally took a little longer. After the migration was complete, everything else was peanuts - basically cosmetic surgery," smiles Mazurek.
And emphasizes: "I can only recommend that when migrating, you first migrate the entire database including all physical data. And then work in a separate test environment before actually going online. Even if this means a higher investment."

GAIN Collaboration supports multiple departments

In addition to the GAIN Collaboration Professional variant for managing product data at design workstations, purchasing and sales use the Office variant to search for and edit non-CAD documents. In order to quickly look something up in the workflow, work preparation, purchasing and ordering are equipped with GAIN Collaboration View.

Working with GAIN Collaboration – looking back at PSP

Mazurek: "The usability and performance of PSP and GAIN Collaboration are very similar. And that was and is one of the strongest criteria for GAIN Collaboration. Also that with so many documents we can get to our goal directly and quickly with just a few clicks using a global search. GAIN Collaboration offers us the opportunity to continue to use the filters we are familiar with from PSP. We store drawings and models - as usual with PSP - using drag & drop. Or by entering a new entry using a template we have predefined individually."

Uncomplicated collaboration and support with and from GAIN Software

Mazurek: "We at BUDDE Fördertechnik are very flexible and ideally want a similar philosophy from our partners. This flexibility was a big factor in our decision to use GAIN Software. Communication and processing with GAIN Software are quite straightforward. GAIN Software's telephone and email support is fast and good. If we need it, we don't have to pull a number. Instead of a ticket system, you have a competent contact person on the phone. A very relaxed collaboration."