In automation solutions and the composite industry, the reputation of the family business Langzauner from Lambrechten in Upper Austria reaches around the world. Composites are compound materials made of two or more constituents: their "composition" creates a material with better properties than its individual parts. The comparison to the machine factory's IT landscape practically suggests itself.
One platform instead of two systems
For Langzauner, introducing the solution realized a long-held vision: a company-wide platform for data and documents that employees of all departments can access equally, filing and researching information along the lifecycle of every product.
The company designs in 3D CAD with SolidWorks. The ERP system is proALPHA, which also includes a document management system that Langzauner used for filing commercial records. CAD drawings were simply managed on network drives; their neutral formats as PDFs were checked into the DMS manually by the design staff - sometimes more, sometimes less consistently.
"When projects grow and more and more design happens in teams, everyone involved needs fast access to the design documents," says Ing. Gerhard Mayrhofer, MSc, Head of Automation at Langzauner, describing the starting point. "Filing on distributed drives and working with the neutral formats in the DMS are no longer enough. A DMStec, by contrast, offers check-in and check-out mechanisms, and several people can work with the information from one product structure at the same time."
Automated data exchange with all surrounding systems
As far as product creation and product management are concerned, the important property of PDM software for Gerhard Mayrhofer is its ability to integrate: with various CAD systems on the one side, with the ERP solution on the other. Langzauner learned that lesson only after initial attempts to implement product data management with SolidWorks' own PDM system. The attempt failed less because of the solution's functional capabilities or its interaction with the CAD software - it was the missing integration with the ERP and the eBASE ECAD solution, the precondition for exchanging information between systems automatically.
For day-to-day work, automatic exchange is essential; otherwise design engineers have to create bills of materials by hand in the PDM or ERP system. That is exactly how it was at Langzauner, because an automated part and BOM reconciliation was impossible without integration. Manual transfer, in all experience, never works completely and is extremely prone to transmission errors. PDFs of the drawings were filed automatically in the PDM system and additionally by hand in the DMS. But since the CAD data was not available there, two systems remained in use: the commercial departments worked with the DMS, design with the PDM system. The PDM module of the proALPHA ERP in use also lacked exactly this integration capability and was therefore never an option.
Looking at PLM from a company-wide perspective
Langzauner therefore decided to switch to the PLM system PRO.FILE, which combines the previously separate functions of PDM and DMS. "You should not approach such a project through the design lens alone," Gerhard Mayrhofer has learned. "You have to look at the topic company-wide." In a comparatively short implementation time, Langzauner met all the standard PDM requirements of typical SolidWorks users with the solution, and covers technical document management completely as well. trisoft implemented a solution that can be expanded step by step into a comprehensive data backbone with far-reaching PLM functionality.
The role of the implementation partner should not be underestimated in projects like this. With its proven IT know-how, trisoft managed to implement an interface between PRO.FILE and proALPHA within a short time. The partner was given database access to the DMS and could transfer all the parts, BOM information, records and customer-related documents stored there into PRO.FILE via the new interface. The old DMS was then switched off.
Relationship knowledge between PLM and CAD
trisoft proceeded the same way in the second project phase, replacing the SolidWorks PDM system. There, numerous legacy issues from the era of the switch to the former PDM had to be cleared first: conversions had to be performed and lost references restored. After the clean-up, the assignments between 3D drawings in SolidWorks and drawing-related documents in the PDM system finally match again in PRO.FILE. "trisoft has great experience here and proactively contributed numerous suggestions for improvement in the project," says Christian Doblhammer, Head of Design at Maschinenfabrik Langzauner.
In total, around 50 PRO.FILE licenses are in use at Langzauner - of the roughly 100 employees, almost half work with the system every day. The roughly 20 design engineers research in the PLM software, as do colleagues from other departments at 30 further workstations who mainly use its functions as a technical document management system. In design, the proALPHA ERP system is hardly used any more - previously necessary to create parts and BOMs or to search for where parts are used. The central working environment is now PRO.FILE, where the design engineers create bills of materials that are transferred to the ERP system automatically.
"That is exactly why we introduced such a system: to become faster and to have interfaces, so that not every design engineer has to create parts in the ERP system and maintain BOMs. After all, that is not part of their core job," explains Christian Doblhammer.
A central platform for the entire company
At Langzauner, PRO.FILE has become the central platform for the entire company for viewing and exchanging product-relevant data. From design and the technical departments through sales and purchasing to service, everyone quickly finds all the information along the products' lifecycle on the platform. For Gerhard Mayrhofer, company-wide use across all product phases is the essence of product lifecycle management.
About Maschinenfabrik Langzauner
Maschinenfabrik Langzauner from Lambrechten is a leading expert in the development and production of hydraulic presses, automation solutions, special-purpose solutions and turnkey concept solutions for the automotive, aerospace and sports industries. What began in woodworking in 1924, the family-run company has consistently carried over to automation solutions and the composite industry over the decades.