Enhancing In-house Collaboration
Customer Application Story
An electrical services provider in the US gains the ability to create 3D panel layouts up to eight times faster compared to the incumbent software, decreases the time required to create schematics and enhances collaboration by implementing EPLAN software.
Conaway Electrical Service, Inc., located in LaGrange, Georgia, is a heavy industrial electrical contractor providing services throughout the Southeast region of the United States. Founded in 1979, the company employs more than 175 people who support projects from designing custom industrial control systems to conducting arc flash and electrical safety training.
Business Need
Conaway Electrical Service, Inc. had used computer-aided design (CAD) software for more than 20 years to help build its control panels, including components and devices. Every time they built a panel, they would have to create each individual component to use within the design, then create a bill of material for sourcing. This took an exorbitant amount of time.
They also wanted to improve their current redlining and customer approval process to reduce the amount of back and forth between their own departments, along with their customers. More specifically, they wanted to improve collaboration more efficiently between the design, automation and production teams to minimize lead times.
Further, Conaway Electrical wanted to standardize the process of passing PLC data such as rack layouts and IO lists created by the automation team to the design team. Traditionally, this was done through manual processes and could require 1-2 weeks and multiple meetings to accomplish for larger control systems.
To resolve these issues, they sought an automated electrical panel design solution.
Solution Implementation
To meet its needs, Conaway Electrical Service implemented EPLAN ProPanel software to maximize efficiency in the design and panel build process in 3D. They also installed EPLAN Electric P8 software to design and develop control and power drawings to wire their control panels. Conaway Electrical has successfully streamlined the handoff of PLC data from the automation team to the design team by utilizing EPLAN’s AML file imports. This enables seamless data transfer from programming software like TIA Portal and Studio 5000, facilitating automatic schematics generation for the PLC system.
To streamline panel wiring and increase productivity on the shop floor, Conaway Electrical installed EPLAN Smart Wiring software. In addition, they utilize a cloud-based repository of data-rich parts, the EPLAN Data Portal, which is used to select the appropriate product data for their engineering.
Further, they use the EPLAN eVIEW web-based tool to collaborate and communicate digitally with coworkers, service providers and customers. Customers can redline any changes they may have to a schematic drawing, which are sent automatically to Conaway Electrical for review. After completing a project, Conaway Electrical utilizes EPLAN’s reporting features to automatically obtain a complete bill of material for sourcing.
They also installed the Rittal Perforex system to support its panel building production by automating the process of enclosure fabrication. This drastically reduces the time for them to build panels and mitigates risk of error. The result is a high-quality product delivered to the end user with lower lead times.
Together, the EPLAN and Rittal solutions help automate design work, thereby freeing up time for engineers and designers to focus on other tasks.
Benefits
By implementing EPLAN software, Conaway Electrical gained the ability to create 3D panel layouts up to eight times faster compared to the incumbent software. They also decreased the time required to create schematics by utilizing the Data Portal for high quality component data and macro technology.
In addition, Conaway Electrical enhanced collaboration between their in-house design and automation teams while providing better documentation to the shop floor and ultimately their customer. This collaboration between the two teams could take up two weeks – now it can typically be accomplished in just one day. Reporting has significantly improved as well, and the time required to communicate with customers has decreased significantly. Regarding revisions, they streamlined and automated the process of receiving changes to drawings, thanks to the eVIEW web-based tool.
Overall, Conaway Electrical maximized efficiency in the design and panel build process.
