Software brings savings and market opportunities

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Feb 10, 2003

Since upgrading its CAD system to SolidWorks and DriveWorks knowledge based engineering software the Rossendale Group has gone from strength to strength.

Materials handling specialists Rossendale Group is committed to providing its customers with highest quality, safe, fully certified and ISO9000 quality assured products.

Since upgrading its CAD system to SolidWorks and DriveWorks knowledge based engineering software the firm has gone from strength to strength, through productivity gains, the ability to quote and compete for more business and the identification of new marketing opportunities.

A large proportion of the company's product design work is based on rules, albeit complex ones.

By capturing and re-using the rules, Rossendale has been able to automate many repetitive tasks.

As a result the company has been able to save time, engineer-to-order and can now let nontechnical staff and their customers specify the products required, leading to several new opportunities to win more profitable work.

At the time of the software investment, Managing Director Simon Bamford said: "We expect to reduce the time taken from design input to output of manufacturing drawings/materials lists/calculations for our standard products from an average of 16 hours to 1 hour.

We also expect the output to be more accurate, comprehensive, consistent and reliable".

Four months on and expectations have already been exceeded on Rossendale's Safelift spreader beams.

Sarah Clegg, who uses the software on a daily basis said, "To start with we captured the stress and strain rules for spreader beams.

We can now apply the equations for each individual product and in one recent example we were able to specify a 340t spreader beam in just 10 minutes.

In the past it would have taken half a day to do the calculations and drawings by hand and so as a result the greatest spreader beam that we would have quoted for would have probably been 150t.

The output from DriveWorks includes all the drawings (2D and 3D), the cutting list, bill of materials and manufacturing data required".

Simon Bamford went on to summarise the gains in each area: "Customers receive a comprehensive response that includes a General Arrangement Drawing, a full engineering specification and associated calculations.

A full set of manufacturing details is also delivered to the works.

A typical design project previously taking 3 weeks now takes 1 hour.

We are reducing the instances and associated costs of human error and benefiting from consistency and greater repeatability.

We are also achieving higher quality communication - both internally and externally to ensure we are meeting customer requirements.

The facility to show customers 3D models and post e-drawings to the internet has improved customer relationships and helped to iron out costly delays or confused messages.

What the customer sees is what they get.

Component costs have also been significantly reduced (by up to 50%).

This is because the specifications are now much tighter and more accurate - and there is less wastage of raw materials.

The software more than paid for itself after the first successful project".

The rules are now being captured for other products in the company's portfolio including its Safelift jib cranes, runway system and portable gantries.