CAD models from SolidWorks and product configuration with DriveWorks has made production of drawings for customers much faster
Standardized drawings have improved communication with customers
«It could last up to three days to make the drawing ready for the customer. Now the salesperson receives the drawing in just 5 to 10 minutes and can forward it to the client for final review and approval.»
UTFORDRINGEN
JELD-WEN Europe has 6,000 employees and is part of the American JELD-WEN group. It is the leading supplier of doors to the European market. The product range consists of standard doors, exclusive high quality doors, special doors and door projects.
Previously, production of drawings for custom doors was tedious and time consuming and the company wanted to speed up the process, explains Dennis René Jacob Hvam, who is internal CAD and PDM consultant at JELD-WEN. JELD-WEN Denmark started out by developing a system to automate the task, but in 2009 the company decided to standardize on DriveWorks because it did not want to maintain both the drawings in the proprietary program and the program itself.
LØSNINGEN
When customers approach JELD-WEN Denmark to buy a custom door or new glazing, it takes only a few minutes before they receive a complete drawing of the product they wish. Using CAD models from SolidWorks and product configuration with DriveWorks, the salespeople at JELD-WEN Denmark simply enter the customer’s specific requests into the ERP system. DriveWorks then generates the desired drawings automatically and sends it by e-mail in PDF format to the salesperson who can then forward it to the customer.
JELD-WEN did extensive tests of DriveWorks before implementing the system. A number of projects were put into the system and made available to a test group either via DriveWorks or via the company’s ERP system. The goal was to create a system that supports the full production of a new design.
Today DriveWorks covers 75-80 percent of customer orders for special cutouts in doors and complete glass panels.
Although the primary focus of the DriveWorks project was time savings, savings on costs and overall efficiency, JELD-WEN Denmark also gained other benefits with DriveWorks. Previously it required four people to make the daily registration of orders. Two of them are now assigned to development projects and to solve specific problems that can not be resolved with DriveWorks.
Dennis René Jacob Hvam also points out that DriveWorks has improved communication with customers both because customers receive drawings faster and also because the drawings today are completely standardized using the same basic layout.
