Challenge
Improve collaboration and eliminate design errors related to misunderstandings due to language issues between German and Indonesian teams and delays relating to a five- to six-hour time difference by moving product development into the cloud.
Solution
Add design, data management, collaboration, and communication solutions from the 3DEXPERIENCE® Works portfolio, which operate on the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
Results
- Improved product development flow and release processes
- Shortened design cycles
- Reduced errors related to misunderstandings
- Overcame language barrier between German and Indonesian design teams
GEOMED® Medizin-Technik GmbH & Co. KG has produced a comprehensive line of precision surgical and dental instruments used worldwide for over 100 years. The company has more than 600 employees at its headquarters in Tuttlingen, Germany and its production facility in Semarang, on Java in Indonesia.
The company’s technicians used AutoCAD® 2D drawing software to develop and machine the company’s products until 2005. To create more complex, sophisticated products and take advantage of emerging CAM and computer-integrated manufacturing technologies, the company needed to add a 3D design software solution. GEOMED chose SOLIDWORKS®.
In 2022, the company added the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE® platform for its product life cycle management (PLM) capabilities. The platform helped improve collaboration, streamline product development, and eliminate design errors that arose from communication issues and the time difference between Germany and Indonesia.
Communicating in the Same Design Language
GEOMED Head of CNC Production Roland Kaiser notes, “In the past, all communications required email messages written in English. We’ve learned that there’s a big difference between English spoken by Indonesians as a second language and the English spoken by native Germans.”
Production Support Specialist Marc Mäder adds, “With the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, we no longer have all these email conversations for drawings released by our Indonesian colleagues because our language now is the design language associated with the part or product model or drawing. This makes it much easier to resolve any issues and has allowed us to eliminate mistakes related to language or misunderstandings, which shortens our design cycles and contributes to improved quality overall.”
Related Resources
Everything involved with developing and releasing a product proceeds more quickly and easily on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. For example, we regularly receive customer requests for slight modifications to existing products. Before we added 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions, processing such requests would take two to three days. Now, we can process these requests more efficiently in a single day. The product flow with 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions is awesome for releasing a product.
Streamlining Product Development
With everyone working in the same design environment on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, GEOMED product development flows much better and product release is streamlined. “Everything involved with developing and releasing a product proceeds more quickly and easily on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform,” Kaiser notes. “For example, we regularly receive customer requests for slight modifications to existing products. Before we added 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions, processing such requests would take two to three days. Now, we can process these requests more efficiently in a single day. The product flow with 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions is awesome!
Achieving Worldwide PLM via the Cloud
Implementing 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions has also helped GEOMED navigate the process of integrating separate data management systems with different databases within the company as it strives to achieve a PLM system for its worldwide operations. “We had two different [data management] systems before implementing 3DEXPERIENCE Works solutions,” Kaiser points out. “Now, we have brought all that data together on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. This improvement has given us more confidence that the data is accurate and provides us with what we’ve wanted for some time: PLM worldwide.”
Products Used:
- SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD
- Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS
- Collaborative Designer for AutoCAD
- Collaborative Industry Innovator
- 3DSwymer roles
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