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

Im Werk Waldenburg entschloss man sich kurzfristig zu einer großangelegten Testphase. Kurz darauf installierte GAIN Software sein PDM System, gefolgt von einer zweitägigen Schulung der CAD-Anwender. So testeten die Konstrukteure GAIN Collaboration auf Herz und Nieren. Vom Bearbeiten von Dokumenten und Anlegen von Artikeln bis hin zur Prüfung der Metadaten, die aus PSP nach GAIN Collaboration übernommen wurden. Einen Monat später erfolgte die finale Umstellung von PSP auf GAIN Collaboration. PSP war einige Zeit danach immer noch aktiv, wurde jedoch nur noch für die Sichtung von Informationen verwendet. Für den Fall, dass man etwas nachschauen oder überprüfen musste.

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: „Wir suchen fast immer nach Zeichnungsnummern, die einem Artikel von uns vergeben werden. In dem Artikel sind dann Zeichnungen und 3D-Modelle oder 3D-Baugruppen hinterlegt, über die wir dann zu den Zeichnungen oder 3D Modellen finden. Das Dokument selbst erhält in GAIN Collaboration – wie früher unter PSP – eine ENG-Nummer. Dabei wurde der Nummerngenerator in GAIN Collaboration so eingestellt, dass eine lückenlose Nummerierung unserer Dokumente gewährleistet war.“ Über eine durch GAIN Software entwickelte Sonderfunktion sind die Schraubenprofis nun in der Lage, auf einem Artikel stehend, mit einem Rechtsklick alle Zeichnungen und Modelle in einer neuen Suche anzuzeigen. Mittlerweile wurde diese Sonderfunktion in GAIN Collaboration standardisiert.

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…

Von den Prozessen her mussten sich die Mitarbeiter der SWG Produktion nicht umgewöhnen. Überhaupt zeigt man sich sehr zufrieden im Hause SWG Produktion. Andrej Geiger: „Angenehm ist, dass sich nun jeder seine Oberfläche im PDM System gestalten kann, wie er will. Also was wo angezeigt werden soll. Sei es die Darstellung der Dokumente oder des Bedienfeldes. Auch die Fenster, Zeichnungsnummer und der Titel sind jetzt beweglich. Mit PSP war man an dieser Stelle nicht so flexibel. Spürbar verbessert hat sich auch die Performance mit GAIN Collaboration. Das System zieht sich ja immer nur eine Kopie von der angeforderten Zeichnung. Dass so am Original nichts unerwünscht verändert werden kann, ist schon gut zu wissen. Und wenn wir noch Anpassungswünsche haben, können wir vieles selbst anpassen oder wenden uns an GAIN Software, die immer prompt, freundlich und servicestark reagieren. Wir sind rundum zufrieden.“