Benson Industries

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Investment in collaboration tools helped Benson to reduce design delays by 50% and product errors by 40%

Benson Industries, an international leader in building products manufacturing of custom curtainwall and external cladding, has worked on some of the world’s most iconic buildings, including New York City’s One World Trade Center and San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower. As the business expands globally and its projects grow in complexity, design and manufacturing teams must work together seamlessly, with no wasted time and as few errors as possible. The introduction of Autodesk tools helped to solve these challenges.

Email and paper processes slow project timelines

In globally dispersed and complex businesses, managing design processes across teams and time zones isn’t easy. As Benson’s business expanded, the need to collaborate with a wider range of internal and external teams, including contractors and suppliers, made things even more complicated.

Image courtesy of Benson Industries

“We used to just send emails and wait for a response from our foreign offices,” says Stancescu, Benson's Autodesk Inventor Administrator. “But email was taking too long and phone was a problem due to time zone differences.” In addition, using FTP to share files also bogged down collaboration, since Benson staff and partners had to wait for access permissions or work around server issues.

To streamline design processes, Benson invested in a lineup of Autodesk technologies including CAD, data management and simulation tools.

Creating, managing, and sharing project data all around the world

Benson needed to eliminate the disruptive barriers of time and distance, and Stancescu saw adopting cloud collaboration tools as the way to reduce errors and improve time to market.

Image courtesy of Benson Industries

To reduce product errors, accelerate time to market, improve collaboration across the global enterprise, and maximize its investment in its Autodesk products, Benson turned to Autodesk’s collaboration tools, specifically Shared Views and Fusion Team, to improve data and knowledge sharing and streamline design processes.

The adoption of these cloud collaboration tools enabled Benson to create, manage, and share project data, review and discuss designs, track project updates, and comment and mark up projects in one cloud-based centralized source. It can not only be shared with internal teams, but also with building contractors and suppliers, who don't have access to the data management tool.

50% acceleration in processes, with far fewer errors

With faster, more accurate information sharing, Benson’s ROI for its Autodesk technology investment grew exponentially. “Our design delays were reduced by 50% and product errors lowered by 40%,” Stancescu says of using Inventor. “When we implemented Vault throughout our offices, we got a 30% reduction in lost documents. And then, with Shared Views and Fusion Team, we saved an additional 10% with design process acceleration because these collaboration tools fostered faster communication.”

The benefits of better collaboration are inspiring Benson Industries to bring in more centralized cloud software systems. “We’re looking at a new collaboration software like BIM 360 construction management software, which would let us share information, especially Vault documents, faster with architectural and civil engineering teams,” says Stancescu.

When it comes to improving collaboration, you must be willing to adapt and take risks. The business benefits are worth it.

—Radu Stancescu, Autodesk Inventor and Vault Administrator, Benson Industries

Manufacturing productivity
with data at the center

Connecting design and engineering with manufacturing putting data at the center is one of the most powerful ways to enable concurrent engineering and improve your manufacturing efficiency. This connected data approach breaks down silos from design through manufacturing and production for efficient product development so you can get products to market faster.

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