"Our step towards digitalization is already paying off in several ways."
Dieter Kramer
Main project designer
POWER-HYDRAULIK GmbH: Products for more hydraulic power
POWER-HYDRAULIK, based in Sulz am Neckar, is a manufacturer of hydraulic controls, power dividers, compact units and electronic controls. With around 90 employees and its own production and assembly, the company supplies many different industries. The products are used in agricultural and construction machinery, in municipal technology and in stationary machines, as well as in a wide range of special applications. The company, founded in 1977, develops and designs all products individually tailored to the diverse needs of its customers.
Once upon a time: Microsoft Explorer
In earlier years, when only one or two designers could cover the design requirements, they made do with a directory structure on Explorer and, if necessary, with agreements. Until then - as the company grew - more designers and developers were added. In addition, DHWB students support the design department from time to time. At that point, the old system of Explorer and agreements was no longer up to date.
The goal: digitalization in construction
With some product requests from neighboring departments that went beyond the actual product data management, the two project managers at the Sulzer company started looking for a suitable PDM system in spring 2019. And here, GAIN Collaboration was already able to convince them with a number of points.
Dieter Kramer, project manager and designer at POWER-HYDRAULIK: “GAIN Collaboration offers excellent and deep interface connections with extensive functionality and intuitive operation. It also offers many options for adapting to our company requirements and structures. We were able to see early on that we could achieve our goals well and relatively easily with GAIN Collaboration. This included mapping our established processes.
Some alternative PDM systems that we looked at were not convincing. Too complex for our requirements; the costs and administration effort would be too high. The limited options of other interface solutions were also not impressive."
Wish List: The Specifications
After a detailed presentation of the PDM system, the various requirements for the PDM system were written down in a specification sheet in a workshop.
Initially in rough form, but then gradually in more detail in collaboration with GAIN Software. This is how the requirements gradually became more concrete:
- File management of Inventor and AutoCAD documents, as well as product-related documents in the form of MS Office documents, images and PDF files in GAIN Collaboration.
- The possibility of creating digital offer folders in which accompanying documents can be collected.
- The possibility of converting the existing quotation folder into an article folder using a function in the PDM system.
- Product classification / characteristics list: Transfer of existing data/classes for different product groups from an existing ERP system.
- Digital change management: Creation of change requests from the respective article folders using a number generator and a defined workflow by individual departments.
Test phase
The aim of the extensive test phase was to get to know and test various processes and working methods in GAIN Collaboration. To this end, various Inventor and AutoCAD files were imported or migrated into the PDM system.
The key users identified for the test phase were primarily designers and, in addition, employees from sales and work preparation.
Dieter Kramer: "A test phase before the actual go-live was very important to us from the start. This was also based on our experience with other software products. With the selected key users, we had covered the essential points. This meant we could counteract certain imponderables in the go-live right from the start."
Structured migration thanks to migration tools
Ultimately, around 35,000 data records had to be imported into GAIN Collaboration before the go-live, i.e. the activation of the PDM system.
Dieter Kramer: “At this point we were able to work very closely and well with GAIN Software. We had made the data to be imported available, partly in stages, via a cloud and an external hard drive.
The technicians at GAIN Software then assigned our data to the appropriate fields using their migration tools. What is particularly noteworthy here is the excellent quality in which we ultimately found our data in GAIN Collaboration."
Dagmar Küdde, a member of the design team, adds: “In addition, GAIN Software imported our articles from our ERP system into GAIN Collaboration and created them there as article folders.
When the classifications were subsequently imported, the articles were linked to their documents, including the associated classes, and the feature values were written to the document records. This saved us weeks of manual work."
Training in 2 days
Within two days, 7 users from design, development, work preparation, purchasing and technical sales were trained. Dagmar Küdde: "With a little more or less help getting started, all employees found their way into our new PDM system. As key users, we were able to answer any questions that users of the system still had."
Further steps towards the digitalization of construction
Digital production and assembly documents
Kramer: "We used to work a lot with paper forms and agreements between each other. Now we have clearly taken another big step towards digitalization. And that is already paying off in many ways."
Workflows for shorter processing times
For change management, the workflow suitable for POWER-HYDRAULIK could now be set up with GAIN Collaboration. "For changes, we now have the procedure from before, when we still worked with paper, in the PDM system. This went and still goes through many departments in our company, right down to programming, work preparation, purchasing and so on. This significantly shortens the lead time through the company," says Dagmar Küdde. And she continues: "We are delighted with the implementation of this workflow in GAIN Collaboration. We want to start another workflow for our purchased parts soon."
Search and find without limits
Finding specific parts quickly has always been an important point for POWER-HYDRAULIK employees. SAP was not convincing in terms of searching and finding. GAIN Collaboration, on the other hand, with its powerful search tools, enables very specific searches. Dagmar Küdde: "You can already search in the system using several different types as standard. Whatever you like. Now, with the additional classification module, nothing is left to be desired."
Convert offers into articles
GAIN Collaboration documents offers in digital offer folders, so-called containers. Offer drawings and accompanying documents can be summarized here.
Dieter Kramer: "This offer folder was a very important and good point that we were able to implement in the system. Up until now, we had to scan everything that was on paper. And that's not just production documents, but everything that belongs to a process. With regard to quality management, we also have to save all of these processes and document them for years. The simple option for documentation in the PDM system saves us a lot of time every day.
When the order is placed, we simply convert this offer folder into an article folder. We assign an article number in the system and this way we can continue the process in a time-saving manner. More or less a small product life cycle that allows a quick and high-quality statement and also gives us an optimal overview in the event of a complaint. This is because you can see very quickly how many changes have been made. And you can also quickly find any additional documents that may have been attached. Statements and data quality have improved significantly in this respect."
Classification
The classification of product data plays an important role at POWER-HYDRAULIK. The characteristics of individual control block tools and accessories are too diverse to be able to work with them efficiently without appropriate classification.
Classifications were already used in the previously used ERP system Infor:NT. Now this part is only used via the “Classification” extension in GAIN Collaboration.
Dieter Kramer: “Today we can search flexibly for up to 9 characteristics in six classes. From individual product groups to tool data. Our sales department benefits from this, not least for calculating new parts and searching for existing products. Or for specifying similar blocks as a reference in offers.
Now that we wanted to standardize this topic, GAIN Software gave us detailed advice on the use of attributes in general, i.e. independent of the software. It's usually a balancing act with the topic of classification. How many fields do you set up, what is the benefit, or what is the cost-benefit analysis? Ultimately, we adopted the attribute system largely as we had it originally. The only difference is that we are now much faster."
Just take a look: Documentation and overview
Today, POWER-HYDRAULIK consistently manages all data relating to the development or changes to a customer project in the PDM system.
"This is primarily data from Autodesk Inventor or AutoCAD. There are also neutral files such as PDFs that document data sheets or releases. We also record correspondence and emails this way. This type of documentation is worthwhile," says Kramer.
GAIN Software: Please Support
Dagmar Küdde: "We find the response times in GAIN Software's support to be exceptionally good. Especially in the software industry. Our questions were always answered competently and mostly quickly. The conversations with our contacts from technology and sales are collegial, almost friendly."
One year after the introduction
After a year of cross-departmental use, all employees are happy to receive support from GAIN Collaboration.
Dagmar Küdde: "You can quickly find what you are looking for. GAIN Collaboration offers a clear interface and is also intuitive to use. The system has worked well for us and runs stably without any crashes."
Dieter Kramer adds: "I also have positive feedback. I like working with GAIN Collaboration. The investment in this flexible system has definitely paid off. We are also well prepared for the future, as the system can be expanded. We will certainly integrate more later, which will increase our productivity."
