Industrial machinery manufacturer uses Teamcenter Rapid Start to reduce design time by 25 percent
Case in Point: Sparkonix
At a glance
Focus: Industrial machinery manufacturer uses Teamcenter Rapid Start to reduce design time by 25%
Challenge: Sparkonix uses Solid Edge® software from product lifecycle management (PLM) specialist Siemens PLM Software for computer-aided design
Approach: Sparkonix is in a highly competitive market, so the company needed to come up with new concepts and approach
Impact: Among a long list of examples that demonstrates the software’s advantages, the company is using Teamcenter Rapid Start for the pipes its uses to connect pumps and filters
Siemens PLM Software
Our software provides the technical foundation for our customers’ Digital Enterprise, supporting their transformation. Our software portfolio weaves a digital thread that creates a tapestry of information that connects people with data and applications for real-time, informed decision making.
This digital thread enables our customers to intelligently connect smart virtual models (digital twins) and real-time production information across lifecycle phases of ideation, realization and utilization, and across value chain participants to form a smart innovation environment. This enables our customers to digitalize across their entire ecosystem of products and plants, making it possible for them to realize the enormous benefits of digitalization, including dramatically shortening time-to-market, providing much greater production flexibility and significantly reducing costs.
Siemens PLM Software provides a fully integrated software solution across our customers’ entire value chains, from initial conceptual design, manufacturing planning and execution through service and support of both the products and plants that produce them.
With customers in 90 countries, Siemens PLM Software helps thousands of companies make great products by optimizing their lifecycle processes, from planning and development through manufacturing and support. By digitalizing their entire product lifecycle process, our customers are better equipped to initiate or respond to disruptive innovation in their industries.
Our industry specific approach is validated by the following numbers:
-
A total of 14 of the top 15 global vehicle manufacturers use our solutions
-
Twenty-two of the top 25 global automotive suppliers use solutions from Siemens PLM Software
-
No less than 18 of the top 20 aerospace and defense OEMs use solutions from Siemens PLM Software
-
All of the top 20 aircraft engine manufacturers use solutions from Siemens PLM Software
-
All but one of the top 30 medical device companies use solutions from Siemens PLM Software
-
Four of the top five consumer packaged goods companies use PLM solutions from Siemens PLM Software
-
Eight of the top 10 global electronics OEMs use our solutions to drive research and development (R&D) effectiveness and efficiency
-
Eight of the top 10 home appliance companies use our solutions to realize end-to-end product lifecycle process optimization
Sparkonix
Sparkonix India Private Limited (Sparkonix), which was established in 1968, is a leading manufacturer and exporter of electrical discharge machining (EDM) equipment. The company also produces special-purpose EDM drill machines and metal arc disintegrators, which are used to remove broken taps and drills. Furthermore, the company engineers a range of innovative solutions in steel rebar branding and handling, and construction technologies.
Sparkonix machines typically include hundreds of parts, from fabricated and machined parts to castings, sheet metal, electronics and electrical items mounted directly on mechanical assemblies. Its market is the die and mold industry and special purpose machine (SPM) and special purpose drill (SPD) EDM operators.
Business challenge
Sparkonix uses Solid Edge® software from product lifecycle management (PLM) specialist Siemens PLM Software for computer-aided design (CAD). However, the company was finding it difficult to manage a rapidly expanding amount of design data.
“The amount of CAD data was growing and we needed to manage it better so that no unnecessary duplicates would be created,” says Anand Atole, assistant manager of Design at Sparkonix. “Being able to re-use design data to speed up work was a priority. Also, the number of users accessing data was increasing and we required control of user workflow, so we needed revision management.”
Industry 4.0 solution
Sparkonix found the answer to its information management challenges in Siemens PLM Software’s Teamcenter® software Rapid Start configuration.
“By choosing Teamcenter Rapid Start, we have a central repository for design data with strong management capabilities,” says Anand. “We can search our database for required information to use and re-use parts and assemblies.
“Now we are able to efficiently manage product revisions. We can control the access rights to data based on user type, and share updated data easily and immediately. As a result, we have moved to more controlled paperless operations for the design department. Earlier, we had to do manual paperwork to maintain data that is now being handled by our PDM software,” says Anand. Currently, Sparkonix is using Teamcenter Rapid Start to provide design data to purchasing, sales and support. People can view documents and designs in Teamcenter Rapid Start, because the embedded visualization capabilities present designs in CAD-neutral JT format for viewing and markup. Stakeholders don’t need access to CAD applications to collaborate and get the information they need to make the right product decisions.
“Ultimately, Teamcenter Rapid Start has enabled us to streamline design data and make it available to all for re-use, from design to sales and support. Designers can now concentrate on design rather than on storing, searching for and retrieving data. We have reduced design time by 25 percent.”
Sparkonix is in a highly competitive market, so the company needed to come up with new concepts and designs. The company was intent on improving its existing products and processes without compromising quality. Achieving this while keeping costs in mind was a big challenge, as was meeting deadlines for deliveries of customer orders and providing updates to marketing on changes to designs.
With these challenges delaying the designto-delivery process, the company knew it needed a solution that would enable it to move significantly faster, especially with customer demand continually increasing.
Sparkonix previously had a central location for data, but it could not be easily searched. Equally frustrating, Sparkonix was unable to re-use the data. In addition, it was hard to avoid creating duplicate data, and anybody could access it. What Sparkonix wanted was total control of its design data, with ease of access, the ability to readily re-use the data and strong security.
Business outcomes
Among a long list of examples that demonstrates the software’s advantages, the company is using Teamcenter Rapid Start for the pipes its uses to connect pumps and filters. “With Teamcenter Rapid Start, we are able to get an idea about the different sizes of pipes that are being used,” says Anand. “Then we can decide to limit variations of pipe lengths and settled on some common sizes, so now we avoid maintaining excess inventory.”
Using the preconfigured processes in Rapid Start – such as design review, supplier design exchange and change management workflow – Sparkonix can streamline and better track project status.
Key benefits
| Area | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Visibility & Analytics | Sparkonix opted for Teamcenter Rapid Start because it wanted to get up and running quickly and immediately apply PDM best practices for data and process management. What’s more, the company wanted an affordable option suited to its small business profile. |
| Time & Speed | Teamcenter Rapid Start provided the PDM capabilities Sparkonix needed at a compelling price, while giving the company the option to grow into a full-scale PLM implementation at any time. Because Teamcenter Rapid Start is a preconfiguration of Teamcenter, Sparkonix can extend its implementation to PLM while retaining the preconfigured menu options and processes for PDM. |
| Operational Benefit | Following the standard PDM deployment methodology and best practices, Sparkonix implemented Teamcenter Rapid Start in just four weeks, taking two days to train its users. The company can easily upgrade with each future release, noting that it takes minimal information technology (IT) expertise to support and maintain the system. |