Success Story
Windhoff Bahn- und Anlagentechnik is paving the way towards keytech PLM Windhoff Bahn- und Anlagentechnik GmbH Windhoff Bahn- und Anlagentechnik GmbH decided to introduce a PLM system in 2005. The company from Rheine manufactures and sells products from the fields of rail vehicles as well as rail track and industrial engineering and has been a member of the plant engineering division of the GeorgsmarienhĂźtte group of companies since 2002. Extensive demands were placed on the future system in order to optimize the administration of the research, development, construction and production data. In this regard, the PLM solution from the company keytech was able to set itself apart from the competitors.
Alongside the linking of diverse CAD solutions, the integration of the ERP system was also an important component of the requirement catalogue. The company Windhoff relies on the software solutions SolidWorks and EPLAN and SAP are used in the ERP environment. The topics plot management, transfer of inventory data from the 2D system used and Citrix support were also important components of project requirements. „For us, it was important to find a modular system which can be easily integrated into our business processes and existing systems.
Experience, flexibility, reliability - important decision-making criteria for Windhoff We were therefore looking for more than simply a database-supported design management. Our work is project-based and, in addition to technical data, we also require access to information from other depart ments“.
„A certainly complex matrix of requirements which was impressively implemented by keytech.“ Josef Stallmeister, Head of IT at Windhoff Bahn und Anlagentechnik.
product portfolio and the strong-selling CAD solutions. PLM specialists such as keytech are therefore a perfect solution provider with a neutral focus, a wide range of interfaces and extensive expertise for companies with different CAD systems. The many years of experience with the various CAD and also ERP systems was a key basis for Windhoff‘s decision to choose keytech during the evaluation phase. Even in the selection phase, keytech was able to meet a majority of the requirements in the system and the intuitive user interface signaled the fast operational readiness of the system. When Windhoff made the decision to select keytech in May 2005, the linking of SolidWorks (Version2004) and EPLAN (Version 5) was at the forefront of the first implementation phase. While, in the case of the SolidWorks interface, the standard functionality conformed with the working processes, in the EPLAN integration a few customer adjustments had to be made. These adjustments were necessary as Windhoff internally structured certain projects differently.
Lifting system
For many companies with different CAD applications, it soon becomes clear when evaluating an administration system that there is only a limited number of „real“ multiCAD-PLM solutions on the market. CADmanufacturers with their own PLM software are increasingly focusing on their own
Phase two of the implementation essentially dealt with the SAP linking. When transferring the parts lists to the ERP system, it was also the E-CAD system which put particular demands on the interface between keytech and SAP. The sub-items resulting from the E-CAD, which appear by using the same articles in different mounting locations, were not to be summarized as a general parts list item but
transferred to SAP as individual items. This ensured that the sub-items are automatically generated within an SAP parts list. As a last step, Windhoff implemented plot management. Keytech‘s own module „PlotUI“ was linked to the Windhoff ROWE plotter without using any other plot management software. SolidWorks and drawings from old data inventories (NesCAD or scanned TIPP files) were primarily taken into account for
Rail vehicle
plotting. There are now a total of 40 construction workstations equipped with keytech and the EPLAN integration was expanded in 2008 for the version P8. Windhoff uses the terminal server solution „Citrix“ for access to keytech PLM from the other departments.
Windhoff Bahn- und Anlagentechnik GmbH Hovestraße 10 48431 Rheine Tel.: + 49 5971/58-0 Fax.: + 49 5971/58-209 eMail info@windhoff.de www.windhoff.de
keytech Software GmbH Suderwichstraße 68 45665 Recklinghausen Tel.: +49 2361 985 80 0 Fax: +49 2361 985 80 23 info@keytech.de www.keytech.de