Boost engineering efficiency through smarter product configuration
In an age when more and more customers are demanding personalized products, the ability to quickly and efficiently configure and customize products is crucial for staying ahead of the curve. Engineering teams are often bogged down by the complexities of managing intricate bills of materials (BOMs), product variants and change processes — slowing time-to-market and eroding profit margins.
Leading companies are turning to specialized software solutions to streamline these critical workflows and deliver greater value to their customers. ENERCON and JCB are two such industry leaders who have partnered with Siemens to transform their engineering and configuration processes. In this article, we’ll take a look at the challenges ENERCON and JCB faced and the difference that the Siemens digital thread backbone solution, as part of the Siemens Xcelerator digital business platform, made in their operations.
The need for a reliable source of truth
When ENERCON, one of the leading wind turbine manufacturers, was looking to streamline manufacturing operations and enhance variability management, it turned to Siemens for a solution.
In a highly complex and ever-changing industry, ENERCON’s previous approach to product variability management wasn’t meeting the mark. While managing an intricate product line, it needed to be able to meet customer demands for customization and find a way to shorten lead times. As a result, it required a way to ensure that all stakeholders could work with valid, up-to-date product configurations. To address these challenges and expand its capabilities for future growth, ENERCON called for a solution that would integrate a common product configuration definition across its design BOM (DBOM), engineering BOM (EBOM) and manufacturing (MBOM) — acting as a single source of truth across disciplines.
Streamlining configuration and validation
ENERCON implemented Teamcenter Product Configurator, which is part of our digital thread backbone solution, as its central platform for BOM management. This solution established a single source of truth, enabling ENERCON to manage product variability more effectively and meet diverse customer requirements without compromising speed or quality. With easy, user-friendly access to valuable data within Teamcenter, ENERCON’s engineers were able to configure and validate products early in the development process, eliminating the need for downstream configuration changes.
Improving data management, accelerating time-to-market
By partnering with Siemens, ENERCON was able to streamline internal processes and enhance collaboration between stakeholders across the development lifecycle. With a common source of variability information — which provided everyone with seamless access to the latest and most accurate data — it was able to eliminate silos, enhance efficiency and reduce errors caused by outdated or incorrect configuration data.
Using the predefined rules and constraints within Teamcenter Product Configurator empowered ENERCON to deploy new product features faster and implement changes more efficiently, resulting in a significant reduction in development time and faster time-to-market.
Simplifying product configuration
ENERCON isn’t the only industry leader turning to Siemens to accelerate time-to-market and ensure engineering efficiency. JCB, a global construction equipment manufacturer, also leveraged our digital thread backbone solution to develop a more efficient product configuration process. With 200,000 possible product variations within its organization, product configuration was previously a very complex process. JCB had historically performed configuration using various spreadsheets, and this manual method of specifying parts made it impossible to identify potential issues during assembly.
Implementing Teamcenter Product Configurator enabled JCB to bring all possible product options and variants into one place — creating the equivalent of a 600 percent BOM per product range or family — as a solid foundation for product configuration. With a centralized data source for product configuration, JCB’s product development and engineering teams can now easily and accurately select every item needed for a given product order and validate builds before they go to the shop floor. Leveraging a single source of truth helped JCB reduce configuration errors, shorten lead times and drive innovation faster.
Learn more about ENERCON and JCB’s digital transformations
If you’re looking to streamline your own manufacturing workflows, be sure to explore the full case studies below and discover more ways Siemens can help your business thrive.
