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Enhanced Data Security for the Manufacturer Sollich KG

Enhanced Data Security for the Manufacturer Sollich KG

Customer challenge

With 450 employees, Sollich KG is a family-owned company based in Bad Salzuflen who designs and manufactures machines for temperature control, covering, decorating, and cooling chocolate. It sounds a bit like paradise; Sollich KG from Bad Salzuflen deals almost exclusively with the production of chocolates. However, the mechanical engineering company does not focus on the enjoyment of these fine products, rather on the design of the production systems. The family business has over 100 years of history, and Sollich KG machines can now be found in chocolate factories worldwide. The machines and production lines are designed in 3D with Autodesk Inventor to ensure this world-renowned quality. The 35 designers currently use Productstream Professional (PSP) as drawing management software. However, with no updates for PSP since 2017 and thus no possibility to use newer software versions of programmes such as Inventor, those responsible decided to switch to Autodesk Vault a few years ago.

Project goals

This is a large project that they hope to accomplish with the help of Graitec, and after many weeks of data preparation, the changeover is set to take place shortly. "We have a very large collection of old drawings, which we want to migrate as cleanly as possible," explains André Grohmann, System Administrator of Sollich KG. Alongside three other design and merchandise management colleagues, he is responsible for the changeover. They ensure that the system is tested again and again, with weak points uncovered and adjustments made. With this approach, they want to ensure that the processes are not watered down and that employees adapt more to the system than they had done previously.

Solution

In the past, the designers' motto was "What does not fit, is made to fit". Vault is now intended to prevent employees from simply changing files without traceability in the system. This will be made possible by Autodesk Vault's revision management, which saves every change and makes it visible. André Grohmann says "Our main focus is on higher data security – this is the most important thing for us. The whole company will benefit from this, as we will become faster in all areas and achieve better response and implementation times in production as well. This will also make handling easier and more efficient for the relevant departments." Due to a relaxed approach to storage, the team struggles with master data problems. Metadata is partly in the design data, whilst article numbers are sometimes stored in one field, and article titles haven't always been organised continuously. These bugs have crept in over the years but will now cause major problems when switching to Vault.

Business outcome

Since PSP has not been supported since autumn 2017, the number of professional IT consultants who know this software inside and out is dwindling. However, for such a complex changeover as with Sollich KG, this is a prerequisite for the conversion to be successful. Luckily, Jens Bruhn is a programmer and PSP-to-Vault expert at Graitec. The Sollich KG System Administrator says, "We have relied on the support of Mr. Bruhn for years. Once a month, we have a fixed service day on which he is available to us – usually on-site and in Covid times via video conference. Here our designers can ask him questions about Inventor, for example. In the meantime, it mainly involves questions and answers about switching from PSP to Vault." Thanks to the meticulous preparation at Sollich KG and the extensive experience of Graitec, there is no reason to fear that the data migration to Vault will take longer than expected, leading to wider delays in design and production.

Conclusion

In any case, André Grohmann will be most happy when the huge project is completed without incident. This will allow the employees of Sollich KG to devote themselves entirely to the construction of their machines for the complicated process of confectionery production. Grohmann explains the art: "The temperature control and cooling of the chocolate mass determine how long the chocolate can be stored, how it shines, how the breakage, i.e. the noise when you bite on it, sounds – all these things are decisive for the quality of the product afterwards." That does sound a bit like paradise.

Project summary

    Duration & delivery

  • 8
  • 2021-06-21

    Autodesk solutions

  • Inventor
  • Product Design & Manufacturing Collection
  • Vault Office
  • Vault Professional
  • Vault Workgroup

    Services provided

  • System Integration
  • Technical Support

    Customer industry

  • Additive Manufacturing
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