Plano, Texas—Sept. 5, 2014—Everdigm specializes in manufacturing construction machinery and machine components, such as concrete pumps, drill rigs, fire engines, tower cranes and attachments. It is the only company in the Republic of Korea that produces tower cranes.
In 2004, Everdigm adopted Solid Edge software—a complete hybrid 2D/3D computer-aided design (CAD) system that uses synchronous technology for accelerated design, faster change and improved imported re-use—from product lifecycle management (PLM) specialist Siemens PLM Software. Subsequently, the company adopted the Teamcenter portfolio, also from Siemens PLM Software, to enable integrated product information and planning management.
With an integrated PLM system in place, Everdigm significantly improved product development efficiency, as well as notably reduced manufacturing rework. The company is now responding much more quickly to both customer requests and rapidly evolving market trends.
“Implementing PLM enabled the company to systematically conduct product planning, which helped increase productivity and reduce planning defects, resulting in a positive impact on sales,” said Un Kyoo Hwang, team manager, proactive research and development (R&D) at Everdigm. “Collaboration with other divisions, including manufacturing, purchasing and service, was difficult because we initially focused on CAD; however, we needed an environment that would enable company-wide cooperation.”
Other Everdigm divisions used various point solutions, including product data management (PDM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). These systems weren’t effectively integrated and integrating them would have been cost-prohibitive. Consequently, people with a need to know could not share information. This led to errors and rework. Productivity and competitiveness were notably hampered. With delayed responses to customers, and a lack of agility in responding to market trends and opportunities, the bottom line suffered.
Single Source of Information across Product Development Operations
To help address these issues, Everdigm implemented an integrated, company-wide PLM environment. This enabled the company to manage the overall product lifecycle, from planning through service. Moreover, the system enabled each division to focus on its strengths, pulling from a single source of up-to-date information.
“Siemens PLM Software enables company-wide PLM system integration through Teamcenter,” said Hwang. “Use of Teamcenter delivers data management efficiency. Siemens PLM Software is the only partner in the industry that supports company-wide collaboration.”
The use of Solid Edge and Teamcenter enable Everdigm’s product planning specialists to focus on managing the generation of documents and blueprints, as well as the composition of CAD files and bills of materials (BOMs); its purchasing and manufacturing groups to focus on form confirmation, manufacturing BOM composition and ERP production plans; and its service and quality control experts to concentrate on producing technical documents, blueprints and feedback, so that 3D CAD models, BOMs and planning information may be utilized on a company-wide basis. With Solid Edge and Teamcenter, configuration information is automatically delivered from planning to manufacturing to service and, ultimately, relevant information is produced in the form of a product manual for customers.
“The work error or mistake occurrence rate was reduced by more than 95 percent,” said Hwang. “Work efficiency increased by 50 percent or more through the re-use of product information and planning data.
“All information is based on 3D CAD models. We utilize product data generated with Solid Edge via Teamcenter. Such effectively integrated content management enables us to easily create, publish and manage technical documentation.”
Through the use of Solid Edge and Teamcenter, Everdigm established an integrated management system for product planning and significantly improved its product development operations. Moreover, the company improved its market competitiveness. The use of a more powerful and cohesive virtual system enabled streamlined internal and external communications, as well as improved responsiveness to customers and the market.
Improved Service, Increased Sales
Another Everdigm objective is to construct an infrastructure to help boost sales. The company’s products are built in small quantities and multiple varieties are available according to customer-selected options. With products that are essentially engineered to order, Everdigm encountered service issues in providing components to satisfy customer needs.
In the past, Everdigm especially had difficulties producing product manuals and component catalogs due to its many derivative products. For example, it took as long as two years to produce or update a manual. Because component handbooks were made by using text and spreadsheet software, additional work was required after completing the blueprints. This work had to be repeated for each option and language. With this approach, preparation time was substantial and user error rates were high. This hindered communication with customers and gave rise to increased service costs. As a result, there was a decrease in component sales, which decreased the company’s overall profitability.
Using Cortona3D RapidAuthor integrated with Teamcenter enabled Everdigm to establish a process for more efficiently producing product manuals and various handbooks using the JT data format. CAD graphics can now be processed in an integrated manner alongside product development processes, increasing the ability to re-use up-to-date content. With content compatibility and standardization, document management and quality improved. This positively affected the customer’s impression with Everdigm’s service and support. In addition, direct communication with the customer through web portals now enables Everdigm to promptly and accurately deliver product and order information.
According to Hwang, with such improvements, the company’s market competitiveness and sales improved significantly.
