8/7/2019 Explicit Modeling in Use at Van Beek Conveys Quality and Flexibility

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Case Study     Van Beek Page 1 of 2

 Explicit Modeling in Use at Van Beek Conveys

Quality and Flexibility

 Van Beek, Drunen, NetherlandsSuperior quality and very short lead times are essential in Van Beek’s

 business. The company’s stainless steel screw conveyors, which link

production stages together, are an indispensable part of manufactur-

ing lines. When assembling production lines, companies generally

order custom conveyor systems last. That in turn creates immense

pressure on Van Beek to deliver high-quality products within tight

lead times. As such, the company uses a highly automated logistical

process to produce efficient quotations, optimal customer support,

and an aligned supplier network.

 Dutch-based Van Beek further improved performance by introducing

3D CAD and PDM to its environment. To remain ahead of the

competition it was necessary to improve product designs, raise

quality, and cut lead times and costs. This involved driving product

development from conception to completion by working flexibly and

fast on evolving design specifications. Moreover, Van Beek needed

an approach to product design that helped them to excel in speed.

The ability to quickly show design concepts to their clients was

considered to be very important.

 Van Beek has some 70 years of experience and employs 30 people of 

 which 8 engineers manage around 1200 customer projects each year.

 Each project consists of several screw conveyors.

The Challenge:

•  Derive 3D representations of design projects quickly

•  Effectively work on evolving design specifications

•  Reduce lead times with better efficiency and factory performance

•  Increase quality for best competitive advantage

The Solution:

•  CoCreate Modeling

•  CoCreate Model Manager

The Results:

•  50% faster design and 90% cut in data size in explorative design

projects.

•  Unforeseen changes are easily incorporated late in the design

process

•  Explicit modeling approach can quickly change existing geometry

to reflect the new specs of the new project.

•  Error-free customer designs and better products by moving to 3D

•  Increased control of business process - availability of the right

data at the right time

“The explicit modeling approach has proven to

 be very fast for us. Even after many iterations of 

design changes the models can be handled by

anybody in the team. All our unexpected changes

could easily be incorporated into the models”

 Marten Verhoeven

 Head of ICT

 Van Beek BV

8/7/2019 Explicit Modeling in Use at Van Beek Conveys Quality and Flexibility

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Case Study  Van Beek Page 2 of 2 

 Van Beek focuses its production entirely on producing high-quality

products within short lead times. Its ERP system is a home-built

solution that supports rapid production of quotes, provides direct

insight into order status, facilitates purchasing, and controls produc-tion. In fact, the ERP system unifies all the company’s business data,

no matter the actual source.

To cut lead time further and assure quality, Van Beek migrated its

customized 2D software to 3D explicit CAD and PDM. With 3D CAD,

the company hoped to increase response times with the customer,

handle unforeseen changes at each stage of product development,

and with increased speed and flexibility produce error-free designs.

As a result, the company reasoned, 3D CAD would streamline

engineering and limit production stops in the factory.

e,

3D

nt.

uickly found that the CoCreate explicit modeling ap-

product development was better suited to their needs,

as the company is primarily interested in deriving a design quickly

 without creating or maintaining a recipe of parametric design fea-

tures that produce that geometry. “Since we have to cope with con-

stantly changing input from our clients we needed a system that

supports our need to incorporate a huge amount of unforeseeable

changes,” says Verhoeven.

 Verhoeven and his team spent quite some time to evaluate the com-

peting modeling approaches. “In a pilot–project, we started to proc-

ess customer orders, which is the best way to evaluate an engineer-

ing application,” explains Verhoeven. “The explicit modeling ap-

proach has proven to be very fast for us. Even after many iterations

of design changes the models can be handled by anybody in the

team. All our unexpected changes could easily be incorporated into

the models”, summarizes Verhoeven. Needless to say, the engineers

at Van Beek did not have to spend any time to think about building

intelligent models – they simply explored their various design alter-

natives by freely interacting with the geometry directly.

 Van Beek also found that CoCreate Modeling was an ideal choice

 when an existing design was to be the starting point for a new crea-tive design project. The explicit modeling approach allowed them to

quickly change the existing geometry to reflect the new specs of the

new project.

 Van Beek decided to invest in CoCreate Modeling. “We implemented

CoCreate Model Manager along with CoCreate Modeling to be sure

of accurate data management.” says Verhoeven. “This is important

to Van Beek’s processes because the ERP-system relies on the avail-

ability of the right data at the right time.”

The final implementation is so well integrated, engineers do every-

thing from quotation to delivery using only the CoCreate Modeling

interface. They add metadata and CoCreate Model Manager adds

production-specific data from CoCreate Modeling.

The company’s ERP system can fully access the data. Bills of material

are fully synchronized including support for long lead items. “Pur-

chase orders for our supply network are based on the bills of mate-

rial,” says Verhoeven. “The system automatically provides the right

data from CoCreate Model Manager.”

 Drawings are generated automatically, including all annotation, DXF,

and PDF files.

“CoCreate Modeling and CoCreate Model Manager streamline the

  Van Beek business process and meet the demands for improved

quality and reduced lead times while keeping personnel happy. “Our

engineers are very fast and highly flexible in evolving their 3D based

designs.” 

“We started our search with 3D looking at PDM at the same tim

says Marten Verhoeven, Head of ICT at Van Beek BV. “PDM-evalua-

tion followed immediately so implementation could be donesimultaneously.”

 Verhoeven looked closely at the practical usability of a parametric

 based application as well as the explicit modeling approach to

”

product developme

 Verhoeven q

proach to 3D

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