Machinery, plant and equipment manufacturer Lingl, which serves the ceramic building materials market, has converted its entire development process to 3D, using CoCreate OneSpace Modeling, now coming under PTC control.
Jürgen Hofmann, Lingl Anlagenbau und Verfahrenstechnik’s CTO says that the new 3D CAD environment has modularised product development processes, and enabled bidirectional integration of PDM (product data management) and ERP systems – thus speeding up project work involving design, purchasing and production departments.
“Re-use at assembly group level and installation of components in a new piece of equipment is easy and problem-free using OneSpace Modeling,” says Hofmann. “Explicit Modeling (formerly Dynamic Modeling) gives us precisely the freedom we need for efficient development. In fact, that’s why we’ve now converted our entire design process to 3D,” he explains.
And he adds that efficient development also comes from interdepartmental cooperation at Lingl. The new 3D environment includes interfaces to Lingl’s PDM software, also from CoCreate, as well as its ERP system. So now, when the plant releases a component, the entire BoM (bill of materials) moves to the ERP system automatically, creating new BoM items.
What’s more, the company’s web site then uses the BoMs for online BoM searches, so customers can surf through their bespoke plant order and request replacement parts directly.