ProductSolid Edge

Business initiativesNew product development Value chain synchronization

Business challengesMaintain a reputation for innovationRespond quickly to customers’ demands for customized machines

Keys to successA single 3D CAD solution (Solid Edge software) used company-wideSoftware simulation of mov-ing parts; ability to detect interferencesSuppliers’ use of viewer to receive drawings and updates electronicallyAutomatic integration of com-ponent lists into the ERP system Use of CAD models in the pro-duction of manuals and other documentsUse of manufacturing specifi-cations from contracts to automatically design parts

Solid Edge revolutionizes packaging machine design

From small startup to international successTo meet the ever-increasing requirements of the market, such as shorter delivery times and greater product customization, Ulma Packaging replaced its 2D design tool with a 3D solution. Innovation has always characterized the company, along with a rapid response to customers’ expectations. Now, the company has an automated design workflow in which manual tasks, once a source of errors, have disappeared. The company invests the time saved in the development of new products.

Ulma Packaging is one of the seven busi-ness areas of the Ulma Group (agriculture, forklift trucks, construction, forging, han-dling systems, polymer concrete and

Machinery

www.siemens.com/solidedge

Ulma PackagingUpgrading from 2D CAD to a 3D solution that supports the entire company

packaging). Founded in 1956 as a business created by several friends to offer machin-ery repair and maintenance services to the then prosperous chocolate industry in Oñate, today Ulma Packaging provides employment for 700 persons, with more than half of its revenues coming from international sales.

2D: many sources of errorEvery day, Ulma Packaging’s technical office is confronted with the task of designing diverse packaging machinery intended mainly for the food products sector. It has six different product lines: Extendible Film, Flow Pack, Thermoformed, Thermosealed, Retractable and Vertical. The company’s machines consist of multi-ple parts (between 500 and 600 in Flow Pack machines for example). In addition to the complexity of the machinery, there is also a need for highly precise movement. In addition, the machines must meet the

exacting hygiene demands of the foot products industry.

Before 2001, Ulma Packaging based its design process on 2D MicroStation, a sys-tem that was not keeping pace with the new challenges of the business. The main obstacle was that many phases of design still had to be done manually, which gave rise to frequent errors. In addition to the limitations of 2D for calculating paths and movements, creating standard parts was a highly manual task, which practically forced the company to design each part from scratch. There were also visualization and dimensioning errors.

Creation of production lists was also a problem because, in addition to being a manual task subject to human error, there were also difficulties communicating with the company’s ERP system (Baan). Frequently there were omissions and con-fusion about quantities, which caused seri-ous problems. When it came to production, the company experienced interferences, which are difficult to find using a 2D pro-gram. The corresponding modifications required a redesign which, once again, posed the possibility of errors. Exploded

ResultsFaster design of standard parts allows more time for new product development Fewer errors now that manual design-related tasks have been eliminatedPlanners confidently delegate to drafters and focus on new projectsSolid Edge integrates the Technical Office with Production, Purchasing, Machining and Documentation

drawings for the documentation depart-ment were also produced manually, add-ing another potential source of error.

Implementing a more advanced solutionUlma Packaging replaced its 2D program with Solid Edge® software, which it pur-chased from Pixel Sistemas, a company that distributes Siemens products in north-ern Spain. Following a comparison with Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventor, the choice was made in favor of Solid Edge for several reasons. “The three basic points that determined our choice of Solid Edge were its ease of use, among other things, because it runs under Windows; the ability to customize the tool to our requirements, which is precisely the same thing our customers are increasingly asking for, namely machines made to mea-sure; and the price-performance ratio,” notes Aitor Olalde, technical director of the company’s Flow Pack line.

The implementation of Solid Edge occurred in phases. “We first equipped the New Products Launch team with the new system,” explains Olalde. “This team designs new catalogue machines and does not have to fall back on legacy systems, and its commissioning period was limited to one month. At the same time, we initi-ated conversion from the legacy system to 3D and, once this was completed, the Product team and then the Projects team were equipped. In total, full implementa-tion throughout the department was fin-ished in eight months.”

Pixel Sistemas took charge of training, offering basic and advanced courses in the afternoons so as not to interfere with designers’ daily tasks. Solid Edge proved to

“Solid Edge has become the central axis of a network of programs.”Aitor Olalde Technical Director, Flow Pack Line Ulma Packaging

be easy to learn. “It’s not more difficult than other software or the 2D system we were using,” Olalde explains. “Facilitating the leap from 2D to 3D is precisely the aim of Solid Edge,” adds Amadeo Corrius, man-aging director of Pixel Sistemas. “This soft-ware was designed to simplify the transition by integrating fully into the Windows-based PC environment.”

Advantage for machine designIn all, Ulma Packaging has three fixed Solid Edge licenses and 60 floating licenses. Floating licenses make it possible to increase the number of users without lim-iting them to fixed workstations. Solid Edge is used to design the machinery and to create production drawings, lists of assemblies and exploded drawings. The company has found Solid Edge to be well suited to the requirements of its design environment. The software’s support for product families works well with the mod-ular design of the machines. “The use of families of parts helps us greatly,” says Olalde. “Thanks to this, we are able to link the different modules and, accordingly, we have reduced the time needed for their design and management.”

According to his calculations, Ulma Packaging designed 10,000 new parts with Solid Edge in 2006. As someone who works with the software on a daily basis, Olalde emphasizes the sheet metal module as the feature that offers the most value and distinguishes Solid Edge from other tools on the market. “The sheet metal module is the one that makes the differ-ence; it’s the most complicated module to use but, at the same time, it is the most powerful,” he says. “In the machines that

we design, composed of a large number of sheet metal parts, it is a great help.”

Olalde finds the exploded drawings mod-ule easy to use and says the drafting envi-ronment is “very good because it allows you to obtain a part automatically from the assembly you’ve created. It extracts the various views without errors and it offers the automatic dimensioning func-tion,” he says. Another important feature is Solid Edge’s ability to run simulations and detect interferences, especially with the parts of machines that are in motion. This is something that was not possible with the old system.

The main result of using Solid Edge at Ulma Packaging has been “a revolution,” in the words of Olalde, in the way the com-pany tackles design. “The precision and the ability to automate tasks have allowed planners to confidently delegate to techni-cal drafters,” he explains. “This has trans-lated into a situation in which, now, we can have the planners, who are very pow-erful professionals, creating while the drafters develop their creations.”

“The use of Solid Edge has been a veritable revolution. The precision and the ability to automate tasks have allowed planners to confi-dently delegate tasks to technical drafters, allowing the planners to focus on developing new projects.”

Aitor Olalde Technical Director, Flow Pack Line Ulma Packaging

© 2013 Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. Siemens and the Siemens logo are registered trademarks of Siemens AG. D-Cubed, Femap, Geolus, GO PLM, I-deas, Insight, JT, NX, Parasolid, Solid Edge, Teamcenter, Tecnomatix and Velocity Series are trademarks or registered trademarks of Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. All other logos, trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks used herein are the property of their respective holders. Z3 10325 9/13 Bwww.siemens.com/plm

Siemens PLM Software Americas +1 314 264 8287 Europe +44 (0) 1276 413200 Asia-Pacific +852 2230 3308

Solutions/ServicesSolid Edge www.siemens.com/solidedge

Customer’s primary businessUlma Packaging, part of the Ulma Group, specializes in the manufacture of packaging units, systems and services. www.ulmapackaging.com

Customer locationOñate (Guipúzcoa) Spain

“The three basic points that determined our choice of Solid Edge were its ease of use, the ability to customize the tool to our require-ments, and the price-perfor-mance ratio.

“In the end, Solid Edge has become the central axis of a network of programs. It is the program that supports multiple departments.”

Aitor Olalde Technical Director, Flow Pack Line Ulma Packaging

Advantages for other departmentsThe advantages of Solid Edge are not lim-ited to the technical office. Parts lists for manufacturing are created with Solid Edge and passed on to the production depart-ment. The purchasing area also benefits because suppliers can visualize the parts they are going to make using the Solid Edge viewer. In addition, the company has a small machining department that uses the Solid Edge data to create CNC pro-grams using EDGECam (a Solid Edge Voyager program). The analysis depart-ment has linked its Ansys program for finite-element analysis to Solid Edge. Finally, the company uses a program cre-ated by the Abantail Company that trans-lates specifications in commercial contracts for use in Solid Edge in such a way that it is possible to design parts auto-matically and to adjust them perfectly to customers’ demands.

“Solid Edge has become the central axis of a network of programs, and it is the pro-gram that supports multiple departments,” says Olalde. “For production and the tech-nical office, it was fundamental to be able to link Solid Edge to the company’s ERP application so that lists of components can be produced automatically. And the docu-mentation department uses WebPublisher, another Siemens product, to collect our designs and to prepare manuals and docu-ments for customers, branch offices, dis-tributors, etc.” This last option supports the company’s ‘B2B’ program intended for

suppliers because it allows them to obtain any diagram of part orders made by Ulma using a viewer. Also, they automatically receive diagrams of the latest versions whenever parts have changed.

Future plans for Solid EdgeUlma Packaging is currently extending the use Solid Edge to improve returns from its business. One objective is to expand the capabilities of the automatic configurator developed by Abantail to reduce to the maximum extent possible the time needed for the design of standard machines, with complete automation of the process as the ultimate goal. This will permit the com-pany to focus on the more complex designs that require customization. Moreover, the company intends to expand the use of Solid Edge to all the engineering work performed at different locations so that engineers can collaborate as a team and share information from any location.

The Ulma Packaging Technological Center (UPTC), the company’s R+D+i center which also uses Solid Edge, will play a fundamen-tal role in achieving these objectives. Ulma Packaging’s business growth and the expansion of the UPTC will entail an increase in the number of Solid Edge licenses, confirming its position as the strategic software in the organization.