Hydratech Industries: Bluestar PLM Makes Manufacturing Systems Communicate

Published in The Record, Autumn Issue 2018 – By Lindsey James

At Hydratech Industries, it’s essential that drawings and data flow freely between the technical departments, where the design is developed – to production, where the plans are implemented.

The company previously used systems where users had to manually enter all data from the technical systems to production. The time-consuming manual process involved with populating product data from one system to the other resulted in production errors and longer waiting times. Following implementation of Bluestar PLM, which links communication between engineering and production, those problems have been resolved.

Jesper Bangsgaard is the Logistics Manager of Hydratech Industries, a company that supplies hydraulic equipment to wind turbine manufacturers, the maritime sector and the mining industry.

According to Bangsgaard, Bluestar PLM was his company’s choice because it works so well with the company’s ERP system, Dynamics AX. ”We were looking for a solution that could tie together the worlds of production and technology, so we could stop re-keying information. Too 1/2 much extra work and time was wasted in that process,” Bangsgaard said.

Hydratech Industries wanted direct access to drawings and information from technical departments; Bluestar PLM provided that access. ”It was easy for us to decide that we wanted Bluestar PLM, as it’s a product that just makes the two worlds come together,” said Bangsgaard.

Works in any manufacturing environment

Jesper B. Thomsen is a project leader for PDM Technology, the company behind the product Bluestar PLM. Since 2001, PDM Technology has developed and delivered Bluestar PLM to the Microsoft Dynamics ERP platforms in Europe and North America.

According to Thomsen, a key factor that makes Bluestar PLM unique and extremely easy to use is that it is embedded within the ERP system, yet it also has contact with the CAD programs where the design takes place.

”Bluestar PLM allows data to flow freely between design and production, which improves accuracy and efficiency in any manufacturing environment,” Thomsen said, adding, ”Design changes are handled easily, because the change is seamlessly cascaded through the system, without the risk of error. That’s hard to do when you work in two different systems, and that’s where Bluestar PLM makes a huge difference.”

A solution for global operations

Bluestar PLM includes Version Management; delivering complete control over which versions are released and when – and then information is immediately transferred to production. ”This allows Hydratech Industries to automatically send drawings when we make a purchase order, because the two systems are ‘talking’ together,” said Bangsgaard. “When an operator makes a production order and needs to double check something, he just enters the screen and retrieves the drawing. Our service engineers, who are located around the world and in different time zones, will quickly be able to find drawings without waiting for business hours at our Denmark headquarters.”

Hydratech Industries has production facilities in both Denmark and China, where they had exactly the same issues. ”Our department in China is now experiencing the same benefits, and we can easily support them and keep track of what’s going on. We are about to roll it out for the rest of the organization, so hopefully another Danish factory in Silkeborg will soon do exactly the same,” Bangsgaard said.

Easy implementation

According to Bangsgaard, the implementation process was painless – especially on the Bluestar PLM side, where all the underlying system information was controlled. “There is good support from PDM Technology and it’s easy to use, so we feel we are in good hands. We heard good recommendations about Bluestar PLM from others in the industry who were very satisfied. That confirmed our feeling that we were choosing the best solution,” said Bangsgaard.

Source:
Sponsored case study published in Jyllands Posten, Danish newspaper, October 26th, 2017