Multivac

Considerable increase in technical documentation productivity

By using the spare parts catalog software CATALOGcreator® Multivac Sepp Hagenmueller GmbH und Co. KG were able to increase their technical documentation productivity considerably - whilst using the same number of staff. Simplification processes and extensive automation now allows them to produce individual spare parts catalogs for 6-8 machines per day at reduced costs.

The company

Multivac  is a world market leader in packaging solutions. Multivac customers are industrial manufacturers, medium-sized businesses as well as craftsmen from various disciplines: food (fresh or processed), sterile items and other medical products, consumer and industrial articles. In accordance with the company’s philosophy „Better Packaging“ Multivac offers a complete packaging solution, innovative, with the latest technology and individually tailored to meet customer requirements.

Initial situation

Prior to the introduction of the spare parts catalog CATALOGcreator®, Multivac generated a paper version of their spare parts catalog using a contractor from the SAP environment.

This process was very time consuming and expensive and had to be simplified and automated as much as possible. Comfortable, easy to use, excellent performance, high availability, uptodateness of spare parts catalogs and fully automated catalog creation were the decisive criteria for selecting CATALOGcreator® software.

Requirements

World-wide Multivac is represented by approx., 30 subsidiaries, 40 agencies and 800 consultants and service engineers which, using their company’s SAP and Intranet, have 24 hour access without any time difference to product information and data. By placing the data in the Internet rapid availability and uptodateness of the information was to be assured. Moreover, their own service department requested a considerable handling improvement with regard to the creation of a spare parts catalog.

The old data from the existing systems had to be transferred in full and automatically. By means of the CC Hotspotter a total of 75,000 drawings were fitted with hotspots i.e. context sensitive areas and integrated in the electronic catalog.

Multivac’s aim was to create an electronic spare parts catalog using Tiff- and SVG – drawings and XVL-models from SAP. The 2D- and 3D- data were to be combined i.e. if a 2D drawing and 3D-model are available for a building block, then the catalog user will be offered both alternatives. The user can decide, individually, whether he prefers working with the drawing or the 3D-model or whether he wishes to switch between them.

At Multivac the spare parts catalogs were created straight from SAP by simply pressing a button following entry of the order number.

Solution

System technically the product and CAD construction data had to be processed first for the CATALOGcreator®. The ERP-data, in this case the structured item lists, are taken from SAP by means of an existing interface. Using the CC XML Data Converter, a module for structured reading of mass data, automatic import of the item lists data from SAP to the CATALOGcreator® follows. The construction data, produced by Messrs Multivac using SolidWorks, are fully automatically converted to highly compressed 3D-XVL data and stored and managed in a database (MaxxDB) The XVL-models, owing to their small file size, are extremely suitable for use in spare parts catalogs and can also, for instance for training purposes or assembly instructions, be animated.

Thanks to the excellent flexibility of CATALOGcreator® software, data originating from various software environments can be integrated in the electronic catalog without any problems. For environmental reasons Multivac decided to publish the spare parts catalog first on CD-Rom after which the web shop solution will be the future solution. Paper publications will be reduced to a minimum.

Experience and outlook

The overall creation process of the spare parts catalog was fully automated by Multivac, implying that the catalog creation can simply be activated by just using a mask in the SAP. That is where the order number, required languages and target groups are selected, after which catalog creation starts following a simple click on a button.

This saves considerable time and expenses whilst the automation results in a reduction of errors on data transfer. Switching to CATALOGcreator® proved beneficial to several Multivac departments: the world-wide service, the construction and training department and the technical documentation department.

The next expansion stage at Multivac has already been planned for the 1st Quarter of 2009: the CC up2date Webshop linked with the company’s own SAP. This will enable customers to obtain real time information about spare parts, availability, delivery times etc. from within SAP and place an order through SAP.

Conclusion

By switching to the spare parts catalog software CATALOGcreator®, the „Technical Documentation“ department at Multivac was completely reorganised.

“Workflows were optimised, processes and catalog creation handling was simplified and automated and last but not least, paper consumption was reduced by 30%. Moreover, productivity increased by 20%.“

Reinhard Lankes, manager of technical documentation, Multivac Sepp Haggenmüller SE & Co. KG