Success Story HEKUMA: Well-Organized and Well-Calculated with simus systems

HEKUMA counts on simus systems for the classification of its master data and work plan generation. The high performance automation company from Eching, Germany, puts their trust for classification of their master data and work plan generation in the professional support of the simus systems GmbH and their software solutions.

The HEKUMA GmbH is a leading manufacturer of high performance automation systems for plastic injection molding production based in the north of Munich. The core business of the fully-owned elexis subsidiary is high performance extraction systems and turnkey package solutions for the medical, automotive consumer goods industry.

The HEKUMA standard systems produces plastic parts, for example for petri dishes, standardized systems, e.g. for pipette tips and sensor cases as well as custom solutions for which the material costs carry no weight. For manufacturers, this effectively means: The higher the quantity produced per time unit, the cheaper the production. HEKUMA’s own linear robots and grab technology provide maximum performance in acceleration, driving speed and positioning accuracy. This also illustrates the average time of only 0.3 seconds spent in the tool.

Automatic Classification

In order to retrieve component information and CAD documents quicker and subsequently achieve a higher reuse rate, the expert for automation decided to straighten out their master data and CAD documents in the summer of 2011. It became evident, that the manual classification of already designed CAD models as well as entering the machine parts in class lists of characteristics would consume a lot of time and money. After a preliminary project with this focus in 2012, simus systems was contracted to solve this problem with the support of intelligent software. The IT expert for class structures and data processing from Karlsruhe, Germany, developed appropriate tools for the analysis and automated classification of master data and CAD models as well as automated generation of working plans with their simus classmate software suite.

A total of 130,000 article masters and 160,000 CAD models were supposed to be classified in the company from Eching. The classification and processing of the 3D CAD models was carried out automatically using geometrical data by simus systems’ patented software solution classmate CAD. Simultaneously to the classification process, the class list of characteristics was also populated automatically. As the system is running in the background, there are no changes required to the remaining procedures.

Dr. Arno Michelis, Managing Director of simus systems GmbH, explains the advantages of this procedure:

‘Automating prevents errors and data quality is assured in a sustainably way without any additional work for the designer.’

classmate CAD can work interactively as well as in batch processing. At the same time, a functional classification of article masters is carried out. The software performs a combined classification and achieves an almost complete description of a dataset. An integrated quality assurance can also identify faulty models and displayed to the designer.

Automatic Work Plan Generation

In addition to the data classification, HEKUMA was also looking for a way of more cost-conscious design. simus systems therefore recommended the implementation of their classmate PLAN software, which generates work plans and calculates costs automatically and provides an ideal solution for budgeting. Fully integrated in the IT architecture of HEKUMA, classmate PLAN determines any required machining technologies, setup times and costs of parts and assemblies using the provided geometrical data and manufacturing technologies. We can therefore ensure a cost-effective production. This also has an immediate effect on Purchasing. Furthermore, the workload for work planning is lightened by the automatic generation of work plans.

Jakob Kammerloher, Technical Director of HEKUMA and responsible for the project, sums up the advantages for his company:

‘Automatically generated calculations are meant to encourage our designers to already consider the cost factor during the development stage.’

Complete IT Integration

A particular challenge is a working integration of the classmate software solutions in the existing IT infrastructure.

The simus systems project managers need to create interfaces for the existing ERP system Wwsbau by Baumann Computer, for the data management solution Productstream Professional (PSP) by Autodesk and for the technical job database which was developed internally.

All these systems deliver data, on which basis classifications, work plans and cost calculations are calculated on. In the case of work plans, some information is also being returned. An advantage of this is that the generated preliminary calculations and work plans are available in various text and table formats.

Automatic Data Maintenance for Saving Time and Money

Since 2013, various HEKUMA employees and a simus systems team consisting of three experts are tasked with the development of the classification and processing manufacturing technologies in a database containing information on machining and materials for work plan generation. All processes are due to be defined until February 2014. The following training dates for various classmate modules are delivered by the members of staff from Karlsruhe on site. The goal is to automate processes in data classification and CAD document maintenance for the future in order to keep time and staff expenditures to a limit in this area. Special attention is already been paid to the development of an automatic configuration which makes an automated maintenance of data possible.

About HEKUMA

The HEKUMA GmbH is a leading manufacturer of high performance automation systems for the plastic injection molding production. HEKUMA’s linear robots and upstream and downstream automation solutions combine the knowledge of more than 35 years experience. They provide top performance in acceleration, driving speed and positioning accuracy – even with high bearing loads.