User report: HOMA Pumpenfabrik

55,000 documents of all kinds

The 16 designers at the Neunkirchen-Seelscheid site know that you have to master both components - submersible motor and pump.
For this reason, the motors are also developed and manufactured on site. And so the HOMA pump factory currently manages around 55,000 documents in its PDM software. The range extends from AutoCAD and Inventor documents, to Office documents, technical documents, PDF files and specific calculations from special software for motor design.

Company-wide access to PDM and ERP systems

The design and development departments with their various teams or sub-departments (pump design, electrical engineering, technical documentation, project planning) have access to PDM. Quality management and CNC programming can also access PDM to use design documents. Other departments such as purchasing or sales have access to the data via the ERP system, which is automatically provided by the PDM system.

Lengthy search for a suitable PDM system

For around 13 years, the components of HOMA Pumpen were managed with the product data management solution Autodesk Productstream Professional (PSP).
"Due to the impending replacement of PSP and because of our large, diverse data stock as well as many customizations that had grown, we started looking for a suitable PSP successor in the summer of 2015," says Martin Senkowski, the head of design.
"The successor recommended by Autodesk, Vault Professional, seemed like a closed system to us. Very inflexible and ultimately unusable for our requirements. Adaptation would only have been possible with very complex programming."

Good advice from cubikom

For many years, Martin Senkowski has relied on the know-how of the employees of GAIN Software's system partner cubikom: "cubikom introduced us to the PDM system GAIN Collaboration. After an initial, positive test, we then looked at the software with selected key users."

Step by step to the goal

Senkowski: "First, we analyzed our PSP in a workshop: What do we have? What do we need? Will it be possible to easily transfer previously used functions and familiar working methods to the new system? Here, cubikom, GAIN Software's system partner, gave us comprehensive advice based on practical implementations. Ultimately, together with cubikom, we created a concept of how GAIN Collaboration should be tailored to the requirements of HOMA pumps. In a specification sheet, cubikom specified the details for the PDM introduction: mask layout, file structure, release cycle, authorizations, and so on. After completing our homework, such as cleaning up the data in the old system, cubikom began programming the first test system. We worked with this until cubikom implemented our suggested changes for the next version. In many iterative steps, we went from the first test system to the finished, customized application in just 3 months.
We found working with our own data over the entire test period particularly positive. Two days before switching to the new system, cubikom trained our employees.”

Expanded: Information about the ERP system

"With GAIN Collaboration, we have expanded the possibility of using our ERP, which is familiar to all employees, for the distribution of drawings. For example, if a drawing is generated as a PDF automatically by the PDM system or manually by another software, it is available to employees via the ERP system at the touch of a button," says Senkowski.

PDM software enables fast assembly handling

Senkowski: "PSP always opened our assemblies completely over the network.
GAIN Collaboration first makes a copy onto the local hard drive, which you then work on. That alone has significantly accelerated our work. But numerous other new functions, such as the method of checking in and out, are also good and useful."

Good adaptability of GAIN Collaboration

The high level of adaptability of GAIN Collaboration has been very well received at HOMA Pumpenfabrik. Senkowski: "We are currently thinking about a new structure for the office documents, because as we gain more experience with the new PDM system, we are also seeing ever greater optimization potential. We now also manage our own engine calculations, the appropriate designs and simulations, engine data and internal calculations in the PDM system."

Strong partner – strong PDM system

"We are extremely satisfied with the advice from GAIN Software system partner cubikom. cubikom showed us very efficient options in the new PDM system," Senkowski sums up. "cubikom's recommendation to use GAIN Collaboration was spot on.
The product is very adaptable and is ideal for us as former PSP users. A work surface similar to PSP - paired with similar workflows - makes the changeover very easy. With cubikom's additional support, we can use the full product flexibility and adapt the PDM exactly to our needs. If we have a request, we simply speak to the experts at cubikom, who maintain very close contact with the manufacturer. So even if our concerns go into a little more technical depth, we benefit from fast response times. Direct and friendly contact with short response times. Exactly as we want it."