No-one pretends this is easy

Time to market for new projects slashed by 55%, prototype costs down eur115,000 per year, product data quality up 70% and a design office that can explore 50% more options: that's what anyone would call dramatic design productivity improvement. It's being achieved by Italian Maschio group as a result of moving from 2D (with some product data management) and early 3D CAD to Catia v5 3D CAD and SmarTeam PLM (product lifecycle management) software. Maschio Group has two main business arms: Maschio makes rotary tillers, power harrows and soil shredders, while Gaspardo manufactures crop cultivators, finger blade mowers and seed drills – and these achievements involve both, although no-one pretends it was easy. One of the firm's first hurdles was to migrate more than 25,000 2D drawings, including the archive system (links between drawings and historical records), to the Smarteam database. Then the 10-person design office had to re-train in the new 3D CAD. But Lorenzo Asti, Maschio's project manager, insists it's been worth it: "Today, our design engineers say they cannot imagine how they could work without it." And by way of example, he notes that the cost reductions the company is experiencing extend well into the product lifecycle: "We now realise that by switching from our previous 2D system to Catia v5, we've improved quality by 70%. We've been able to reduce the number of errors made during the design phase, which were proving very costly later on." Asti also says that using the PLM system has enabled his design engineers to cut development cycle times by spending less time on design changes. "To do a part modification, a designer can now immediately identify all projects where the part is used, and verify the impact of the modification on the other projects. In the past, he had to open all assembly files one-by-one. This saves time, cost and worries." Think and do better Meanwhile, at Gaspardo, a PLM project began in 1999, with the firm transferring all its legacy data from an original 3D CAD system to Catia. The design office here consists of three project managers and eight design engineers who now develop all new machines using 3D modelling, sheet metal, surfacing, assembly, drafting and analysis tools. Currently, the department is implementing Smarteam PLM as part of a strategy to better structure its work in progress. Paolo Grasso, Gaspardo project manager, also has nothing but good to say of it: "A new employee starting from square one is now fully operational in Catia v5 within four or five days, and is capable of producing detailed drawings 100% compliant with our standards after just two weeks. The software gives you the opportunity to think better, since your attention is not focused on the type of command that has to be used, but on the type of design that is being prepared." He reckons the system is enabling design engineers to explore 50% more design options for every project, which in turn improves quality and fosters innovation. Gaspardo has also reduced development costs by using the digital mock-up capabilities within Catia. Engineers can now detect design errors before producing a physical prototype. "In the past, creating a mould for testing cost the company around eur5,000. With the new software, stereolithography prototypes cost eur150. That's overall direct savings of more than eur115,000 per year," claims Grasso. Add to that development cycles for new machines cut by 55% – from 18 months to eight – and it isn't difficult to see why both men are so keen on 3D CAD and PLM. And there's more to come: the group is planning to extend the system to the whole business. It plans to use Catia's NC manufacturing module, for example, at its Terranova factory (which manufactures most of the parts for assembly at its various sites) to automatically define the NC programmes for parts machining. It also wants to use Smarteam tools to enable engineers to synchronise company databases and re-use part information between the design offices at Maschio and Gespardo. Next, the strategy is to integrate the company's ERP system and Smarteam to synchronise engineering and manufacturing bills of material (BoMs) and allow purchasing to be more responsive. Then it will invest in web collaboration tools to enable the group to share design information with other departments, such as purchasing and manufacturing. It will also enable the companies' suppliers and remote operating centres to access current detailed design information remotely, without running the CAD applications, over the Internet via a browser.