Success Story
The Horstmann Maschinenbau GmbH Cannot Imagine Working without keytech Horstmann Maschinenbau GmbH In May 2007, Horstmann Maschinenbau GmbH began the process of implementing SolidWorks as their new 3D CAD system together with the introduction of a Product Data Management (PDM) system to manage their complex model structures. This mechanical engineering company based in Heek, Germany plans, designs and produces specialized machinery, warehouse and transport systems and complete operations systems that rarely comprise less than 80,000 parts. A PDM solution should support the user in managing development, design and produc-
tion data and should optimize existing processes. Because of the extensive demands on a future PDM system at Horstmann, keytech was able to stand out from the competition. Ultimately, the deciding factors for Horstmann when choosing the system were the functionality, the modular layout, and flexibility of keytech. In June 2007 at the beginning of the first phase of implementation, the 3 newly created 3D design workstations were equipped with SolidWorks and keytech. The 4 existing AutoCad workstations were also integrated with the new PDM system. The integration with the new ERP system
The Integration of PLM and ERP optimizes the work process at Horstmann. had already begun by the third quarter of 2007. keytech needed to be set up to automatically react to certain situations in the ERP
The goal was to coordinate bills of material and item information between the two systems. system. Now, when a new order is being entered into the ERP system, Horstmann
project-relevant documents are edited, have revisions made and are managed in keytech in this one centralized location. Besides all the other PLM requirements, keytech was able to develop a valuable document management system at Horstmann. At the end of 2007 the keytech “Image” module was introduced to relieve the user of the need to produce neutral documents such as PDFs or TIFFs. This also meant that from these neutral formats complete sets of drawings on paper could be produced. Depending on the requirements, these drawings could be printed and then distributed on a large format plotter (for formats A0to A2) and on an office printer (formats A3 and A4). “We certainly had extensive requirements of a PDM system. keytech was the solutions that was able to include most functions as standard. We decided on keytech relatively early in the evaluation pahase, as we could see quite quickly what this modular system is capable of. I can safely say that today at Horstmann Engineering anything that has to do with document management runs on keytech,” sayas Bruno Weßling, engineer and keytech administrator at Horstmann Engineering.
Warehouse System
has the ability to automatically create a new project folder in keytech with the given structure. In this folder they can find quotes, specifications and all other relevant documents. This functionality means that now all
The success of Horstmann Engineering and the growth that has followed has led to the creation of new jobs and the number of their engineering jobs has doubled. All other employees at Horstmann who require access to documents that are stored in keytech are linked to the system with keytech-Office licenses.
The intensive integration of the PLM and ERP systems has led to dramatic time- savings in work processes. Jobs that previously took time to be completed by hand, are today made much easier by keytech or have been completely eliminated. A positive side effect of this is that the number of mistakes in data management has been reduced. Data redundancies, searching for current data or entering data multiple times are a
thing of the past at Horstmann. For 2012, Horstmann is planning to upgrade to the keytech Version 12 .NET interface.
Stationary Shaft Extractor
Horstmann Maschinenbau GmbH Düstermühlenweg 13 D-48619 Heek Tel.: +49 25 68 93 14- 0 Fax: +49 25 68 93 14-30 E-Mail: mail@horstmann-maschinenbau.de www.horstmann-maschinenbau.de
keytech Software GmbH Suderwichstraße 68 45665 Recklinghausen Tel.: +49 2361 985 80 0 Fax: +49 2361 985 80 23 E-Mail: info@keytech.de www.keytech.de/en