Jul 1, 2015
Engineering has just delivered a successful pilot implementation at the U.S.-based Energy & Utilities plant of one of the world’s leading engineering corporations. The products in scope of the project were Part Planner and Shop Floor Connect (SFC), both part of Siemens’ best-in-class Teamcenter for Manufacturing offering for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).
Led by Engineering’s expert team, the pilot focused on streamlining the way data flows from the customer’s engineering group all the way down to the shop floor, ending at the CNC machine controller. In order to achieve this, our team implemented Siemens Teamcenter Part Planner to help the customer better manage routings, NC programs, and other operational data. The Part Planner enables engineers to use graphical tools to arrange a sequence of operations into a manufacturing process plan, and all the source data (CAM, fixtures, CMM, etc.) is managed in a single location under revision control for easy access and retrieval. As a result, data is more organized and accurate, and the time needed for it to move from design to production is significantly reduced.
In addition to the Part Planner, Engineering’s team installed Shop Floor Connect (SFC), then configured and connected a number of CNC machines to the new system on site at the customer’s plant. Shop Floor Connect for Siemens Teamcenter is a Machine Data Acquisition (MDA) and Direct Numerical Control (DNC) solution that provides access to Teamcenter’s central repository for manufacturing and NC data, making it directly available to the shop floor and CNC machine controllers. As a result, shop floor operators are able to view, access and transfer current and released CNC programs, drawings, 3D models and other data sources through a web-based user interface that runs on any browser-enabled device or controller.
Following the completion of the pilot, the customer has decided to extend the program. Engineering will lead a second implementation to cover more and different machines at the customer’s plant, encompassing the cutting of actual parts as well. Our consultants will also provide Training to the customer’s manufacturing engineers in order to help them learn, utilize, and maximize the capabilities and benefits of their new IT system. Engineering looks forward to growing our relationship with the customer and to delivering many more successful projects in the future.
