Accelerated engineering lead time from 4-5 days to a few hours by using Autodesk Inventor iLogic-based configurator for a storage tank manufacturer
Reduced engineering lead time from 4-5 days to one hour
Reduced ECOs by eliminating all non-permissible design inputs
Eliminated all repetitive design drafting and modeling tasks
Client Profile.
The client is a leading custom-made storage and pressure tanks manufacturer based out of Netherlands.
Business Need.
The client used Excel spreadsheets to customize design orders for each tank. However, addressing mass communication demands with legacy methods was time consuming and prone to errors. To deal with this challenge, the client had already adopted Autodesk Inventor as the primary CAD tool. But scarcity of skilled resources proficient in CAD design automation, led to iterative design drafting and modeling tasks.
To eliminate repetitive work and increase modeling efficiency, the client was looking for a design automation partner. The expectations from the business partnership were accelerated lead time and higher accuracies in custom 3D models and manufacturing documents.
CAD configurator interface for tanks
Challenges.
An assessment of as-is existing sales-to-manufacturing cycle threw up challenges such as:
Addressing multiple change orders from the shop floor due to low coordination between the manufacturing, design and sales teams
Investing excessive man-hours due to haphazard design downstream processes
Compromising quality of tank design to avoid lengthy wait periods for design change approvals
Solution.
An Inventor iLogic-based product configurator was deployed to accelerate and streamline sales-to-design cycle for each tank. This configurator backed workflow:
Did away with repetitive modeling tasks for custom storage tanks to increase design efficiencies
Increased multi-team coordination which averted signing up for any “out of scope” orders
Enabled quick generation (within hours) of technical documents like manufacturing drawings, 3D models, and sales quotes
Approach.
Customized CAD model of process tank with design form
The project team comprehended design intelligence of various storage tanks through study of existing design models. Internal flow requests were studied. Based on initial findings, the team suggested using iLogic to develop the configurator as it would be compatible with Autodesk Inventor with minimal efforts.
Native CAD models were taken as inputs and new master models were developed from scratch in Autodesk Inventor
Design intelligence was captured by the CAD team and configurable parameters were clearly defined
The automation team developed design forms to be used by the design engineer to select design specifications for custom tank design as requested by the end client
Logical rules were written to enable customization for tanks based on the client’s manufacturing capabilities
Upon confirmation, the configurator would automatically generate 100% accurate manufacturing drawings, Bill of Materials, and 3D models
Quality check:
A test run was conducted by the project team to ensure that each configured tank met quality benchmarks and standards. Once the configurator passed the test runs, it was deployed for project use at client’s end to quickly configure custom tank designs and generate manufacturing documents.
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CAD configurator interface for tanks
Customized CAD model of process tank with design form