Introduction of Eplan Engineering Configuration in the technical design department
In the beginning there is always the idea, then it is necessary to put it into practice. For SENNEBOGEN machines, this means that the design has to be well planned and well thougt out. For some time now, a configurator has been helping electrical designers to do this. From the design of variants to the preparation of cable assembly, a lot can be automatically pre-constructed - a great time saver that helps them to concentrate on the essentials: implementing customer requirements in the best possible way.
With the increasing complexity of the machines, there is also an additional expenditure in the construction. Classically, this means for the electrical design of the material handlers and cranes, meticulously drawing electrical diagrams, inserting connections of all controls, sensors and components and creating hundreds of pages of electrical circuit diagrams. But this should now be the end of the story.
Because the customer-specific design of SENNEBOGEN machines and the associated variety of options had become more and more extensive, the company now relies on a configurator that creates the relevant circuit diagrams almost at the push of a button and makes them available for the subsequent production steps. Many option variants - for example a height-adjustable cab or the choice between mobile or crawler drive - have a great influence on the design and electrical equipment.
Configurator creates circuit diagrams at the push of a button
„The aim of all parties involved is to implement the customer‘s wishes flexibly and without complications. This is what we want to focus on“, Roman Eichenseer explains the challenge. And adds: ”We have traditionally worked according to the principle of option technology - with standard circuit diagrams for each machine type, which contain the maximum configuration and have been processed accordingly for each order.” However, this has disadvantages when a single component is modified: ”Then all of the total of around 100 master circuit diagrams had to be modified individually and loaded back into the ERP. In addition, from the designers‘ point of view, the options technology had its limitations because the individual options could not be logically linked.”
The solution was the introduction of Eplan Engineering Configuration (EEC) and thus, similar to what is already being done in sales, to also work with a configurator in the electrical and hydraulic design. Today, one simply clicks on the option selected by the customer and completes the relevant basic machine data in a form. This is followed by import into the EEC and the circuit diagram is generated automatically, options are logically linked.