Custom Automated Manufacturing and Standardization
Customer Application Story
An automation systems builder in the US automatically generates reports for business system integration, gains a higher level of data accuracy and significantly decreases the time needed to create a design project from implementing EPLAN Electric P8 and EPLAN Fluid software.
Based in Holland, Michigan, Koops, Inc. designs, builds and integrates automation systems based on rock-solid engineering solutions. As a leader in the industry, they are dedicated to solving complex manufacturing challenges to help their customers reach their goals.
Founded in 1989, Koops employs approximately 300 people and have several locations, including South Carolina, Michigan and Mexico.
Business Need
Koops used a traditional CAD software but struggled to maintain accuracy throughout the design project as the software couldn’t automatically update details throughout the project when they were changed in one section.
They also struggled with a lack of flexibility regarding their incumbent software, making changes or adding details to the schematics to accommodate a project scope change was heavily manual. Moreover, the amount of time it took to create and complete a new project, particularly larger and more complex projects, was lengthy.
“Part of the problem I think is that we didn’t realize how much better other software could be. We just assumed that while AutoCAD Electric had a lot of issues, so did everyone else and there wouldn’t be anything meaningfully better out there on the market." - Nate Jessup, Controls Engineer
After the senior leadership saw an EPLAN demo at an industry event, they recommended the company’s controls team research the software. After a demonstration and thorough evaluation of the solution, Koops chose to proceed with a migration to EPLAN software.
“We agreed to have EPLAN come in and do a demo of their product for us and we were all kind of blown away. We decided to do a trial and we were again really impressed with the software and ended up making the decision to pursue switching." - Nate Jessup, Controls Engineer
Solution Implementation
Koops implemented EPLAN Electric P8 software to design electrical engineering schematics for custom automated manufacturing equipment. In addition, they invested in essential training and standardization services. Their engineers were able to create a new database of reusable content called macros.
Their parts database was filled with as many of their common components as possible. This enabled standardization so every engineer could utilize the same master data, quickly access the necessary part properties and create meaningful reports. Since the initial implementation, they have doubled their installation base, continued to train new engineers and have taken advantage of virtual coaching for continuous improvement.
Further, they employed EPLAN Fluid software to design fully integrated pneumatic systems in one cohesive project. Koops also uses the EPLAN eVIEW web-based tool to collaborate and communicate digitally with coworkers, service providers and customers.
Benefits
By implementing EPLAN engineering design software solutions, Koops saw an initial benefit of having more information in their design project with a higher level of data accuracy. Koops engineers have saved time as they no longer need to go through a project and update other pages after a change is made. This is due to the automatic updates within the EPLAN software after a change is made.
Regarding the automatic updates, Drew Miller, Controls Engineer says, “The software gives us a ton of flexibility to make changes as projects develop.”
In addition, Koops experienced a significant decrease in the amount of time it took them to create a design project. They can now rough-in a project with all the main information faster and easier compared to the previous traditional CAD software. They also appreciated having the ability to add pages into a project wherever needed without manually re-numbering and updating page numbers, wire numbers, device tags and other items.
Koops also gained the ability to share prints and redlines between machine builders and engineers with the help of the cloud based EPLAN eVIEW collaboration tool. Change requests are communicated more effectively, and the amount of time between the discovery of a problem and the update getting into the schematic had decreased significantly.
The eVIEW tool has also helped streamline the schematic control process, with less out-of-date schematics on the shop floor.
