CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
June 30, 2008
Implementation Investments
SyCSA Increases Production 200 Percent by Embracing 3D Design Technology
Silos y Camiones, S.A. (SyCSA), a leading maker of transportation and storage systems for a variety of bulk materials, today announced that SolidWorks® 3D CAD software has helped it cut development time in half and double production capacity, dramatically improving its market share.
SyCSA, headquartered in Mexico, can now also guarantee the quality of its products, enabling clients to do the same for their customers, whether they transport flour, pellets for the plastic industry, or any material that requires temperature and moisture control. Having embraced 3D design with the purchase of SolidWorks software, SyCSA designs all of its products with SolidWorks, including the bolted silo, which is assembled at client sites, and the single-section welded silo.
“By optimizing design and production with SolidWorks software, we have improved our business performance and, by extension, have helped make our country’s food, plastics, and construction industries more competitive,” said Romualdo Tellería Beltrán, CEO of Silos y Camiones.
SyCSA serves 60 percent of its market and has recently increased exports by approximately 25 percent, to countries like Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil, and the US. “3D technology has been instrumental in achieving this position, in many instances enabling us to close sales by taking clients on a virtual trip through the transportation and storage systems we offer,” said Carlos Hernández, the company’s director of automation. “This way, our products’ benefits come alive.”
The Road to the 3D Era
SyCSA reports that it has dramatically reduced the time it takes to design a 24-meter-tall silo, which supports up to 90 tons of contents. Design time for the silo used to take 10 hours but now takes three hours – or only half an hour when SyCSA can reuse design information. Designs are more accurate now that the company is designing in 3D, and errors are easy to see.
The company’s directors chose SolidWorks over other 3D CAD products with improvements like these in mind. In addition to 3D visualization capabilities, SolidWorks offers SyCSA seamless interoperability: it is the software of choice of a key supplier and many designers in the workforce. Ease of use was another deciding factor. Designers are productive within three months, benefitting in part from the training provided by SolidWorks distributor Diseño y Manufactura Digital (DMD).
In the Three-Dimensional Phase
SyCSA is also using the PDMWorks® data management system to control design file versions, eliminate costly duplication, and collaborate more effectively. With SolidWorks’ COSMOS® design validation software, SyCSA has reduced material usage by 30 percent without sacrificing quality. This reduction saves money and lessens the toll on natural resources.
“In short, SolidWorks allows us a more complete, sustainable, agile design, free of hidden flaws, without the need to develop prototypes,” said Hernández. “The result is measurable product improvement, return on investment, and customer satisfaction.”
The next step for SyCSA is using Visual Basic® software to create an application that will generate detailed customer estimates from proposed designs.
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