LeverX helped underground technology and utility construction equipment companies to streamline their end to end processes.
Customer
Manufacturer of underground technology and utility construction equipment in the United States.
Challenge
The company needed to improve the organization and sharing of CAD data stored in their non-SAP system. They needed assistance with integrating their non-SAP PLM system containing all of their 3D product CAD data into SAP.
Solution
We integrated SAP Visual Enterprise into their existing environment, which acted as the bridge between their non-SAP PLM system and their SAP engineering and manufacturing environments.
Background
This company was acquired by a larger equipment manufacturer and they inherited two different manufacturing operation processes. Neither organization’s engineering CAD data was accessible across the new enterprise (and vice-versa). They needed help to locate, organize, and securely share all the engineering CAD data that was stranded in silos. They needed to create an integrated foundation where everyone could access the engineering CAD data to improve their manufacturing operations efficiency.
Products and Services
- SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM)
- SAP Implementation
- SAP Engineering Control Center (SAP ECTR)
Business Problem
The business problem for this underground construction equipment manufacturing company was organizing and sharing engineering CAD data that was stored in a non-SAP PLM system. The company’s CAD product data was effectively trapped in silos based on geographic location. They were unable to view or share 3D product data between their newly combined acquisitions, which made it difficult to effectively manufacture their products. They wanted lightweight digital twins of all of their CAD engineering data in SAP so that they could be leveraged downstream throughout their enterprise and digital supply chain. They needed help to integrate their non-SAP PLM system containing all of their 3D product CAD data into SAP to manage their product data more efficiently in order to create 3D visual work instructions for the manufacturing shop floor.
Business Solution
The solution for their business challenge was to integrate SAP Visual Enterprise into their existing environment, which acted as the bridge between their non-SAP PLM system and their SAP engineering and manufacturing environments. This introduced Visual Asset Management, Visual Plant Maintenance and Service, Virtual Design Simulation and Construction, Visual Manufacturing Planning, and Visual Sales and Marketing.
We also implemented SAP Engineering Control Center, which acts as a web portal to display and securely share their new lightweight digital twin data and 3D visual assembly instructions for use on the manufacturing shop floor.
TOP SAP Company
Results
Now the company is more efficient because they can now expose 3D product data for their extended enterprise and extended supply chain. The two merged companies currently have one single source of truth and everything is aligned between the two companies. They also have lightweight 3D digital twin visualization 3D files (which are similar to PDF files) that they can share securely throughout the enterprise. The important caveat of the project was getting the 3D visual work instructions to the manufacturing shop floor.
This interactive 3D video shows step-by-step how to build the product and tools required, which helps employees to build the product with ease. This company is now more efficient because everyone in their enterprise and supply chain is leveraging these digital twins, lightweight 3D files to help people build their products much faster.