DriveWorks is commonly perceived to be only useful in the product design stages to automatically generate 3D models and drawings, but it can actually be applied across multiple stages to expect better productivity and value addition.
Despite wide application of enclosures meant to protect electrical equipment and machines, its manufacturers ideally have very few differentiating factors to compete in the market. There are international design standards that almost every enclosure manufacturer has to follow along with couple of other certifications for quality checking purposes.
The demand for electrical enclosures on the contrary is expected to rise, with rising demand in consumer goods, energy, food, clean water, construction materials and infrastructure. This is because each industry will need to employ electrical equipment and machines to meet the growing demands. And, with increasing number of these machines & equipments, there will be an equal requirement of enclosures for protecting the automation systems, electrical equipment and machines.
For a manufacturer then, the only competing factor remains the pricing that they offer to customers, and the ability to manufacture and deliver the enclosures on or before the committed deadlines.
Manufacturers, for differentiating themselves from competition in such situations need to adopt right technology & tools that assist in improving the design and business processes, and add value to the business for enhanced profitability.
One way to achieve this is through integrating automation in processes like quotation, design and sales using design automation tools like DriveWorks. This tool is commonly perceived to be only useful in the product design stages to automatically generate 3D models and drawings, but it can actually do much more than that.
DriveWorks can be actually applied across multiple stages to expect better productivity and value addition, which can further enhances the brand value of the business.
Let’s look at how automating different processes can add more value in your electrical enclosure manufacturing business.
Automate Quoting
One of the key advantages of implementing DriveWorks for enclosure manufacturing is the ability to come up with quick and accurate quotes. Capturing the knowledge on design and manufacturing cost for enclosures and implementing rules can enable your sales team to quickly configure the enclosure as per customer requirements through a simple form.
Rather than struggling to communicate with the manufacturing department, the quote is generated automatically depending on the selection made, allowing your sales teams to confidently place the bids or accurately quote the customers.
Automate Library Creation
DriveWorks can actually help you to generate SolidWorks product library comprising of different enclosure configurations, without actually developing each part or assembly individually. The SQL database architecture that DriveWorks utilizes can be utilized to generate SolidWorks parts automatically. A SQL database also helps in maintaining and reusing existing parts easily. It saves your engineers from using Design Tables that gets complex with addition of new variants in the library.
Automate Integration with Enterprise Business Systems
The design automation tool for SolidWorks has the capability to be utilized across your ERP and CRM systems as well. The BOM generated by DriveWorks after the product is specified, can be directly utilized for electronic upload in ERP systems such as MS Dynamics, SYSPRO and others. This eliminates the manual BOM entry in ERP systems and avoids possibilities of errors. The tool can work the other way around, to access information on pricing and product availability from the ERP systems to generate quote.
For CRM systems like Salesforce, DriveWorks can automatically generate information on account, opportunity, contact, price book entry, new product, quote and more. The data populates automatically in the drawings and quotations and can also be utilized for providing discount rates and during the calculation for exchange and shipping rates.
