CAD Catalog – Leverage Your Internal PARTcatalog to Standardize Large Assemblies
CADENAS PARTsolutions is working with large industrial machinery manufacturers to create a new approach for their design process, utilizing their CAD catalog. Their core business is manufacturing large machines which seem very similar, but come with an infinite range of sizes and options.
Currently, customers provide their requirements, while engineering is tasked with creating many custom designs – even though they are nearly identical.
Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a way the customer could select the model and options and the engineering software would create a quote and preliminary design? Customers would get their quote quicker and much of the repetitive burden would be lifted from the engineer.
What the client needs:
- A quick and efficient CAD catalog system that allows the sales team to configure “standard sell-able products” and guide their customer toward the best option.
- An engineering process that understands immediately what components and configurations are specified, so the company can quickly turn the sale into a Bill of Materials (BOM) and engineering drawings. Costs could be lowered by reducing the engineering time, purchasing time and customer delivery will be expedited.
The Solution:
Each design is made up of three components – user configured parts, specialized engineering parts and parts sourced from outside vendors. By incorporating the three components into one cohesive system, CADENAS PARTsolutions is able to create a standardized and repeatable process for the client to work from. These parts will be called upon by the PARTsolutions software for each design based on the features and options selected.
Design components incorporated into new single source system:
1) Standard parts from sales configurator
Standard configurations created by customers will be used as a base by engineering in the CAD system. These components are created entirely in PARTsolutions, and include standard size ranges and options. When the customer submits his request, the configuration is sent to the engineer the native CAD format needed.
2) Engineering parts from CAD system
Certain specialized parts are not included in the sales configurator but are necessary for engineering to complete the design. These components are built in the CAD system and are kept in the PARTsolutions CAD catalog with the other established standard parts. This way the standard parts are always accurate, up-to-date and easily sourced. If these components are necessary for the requested design, they will be called upon and included in the engineer’s native CAD format.
3) Commercial vendor parts
For items which require parts from external vendors, PARTsolutions provides hundreds of commercial manufacturer catalogs, with components certified by the manufacturer. These items can be configured brought into the engineer’s design to complete the product.
Conclusion:
By breaking down the sales and design process into more standardized, repeatable components, CADENAS PARTsolutions enables industrial manufacturers to greatly reduce their engineering efficiency while speeding up delivery for the end-user.
Adam Beck
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