Poly-clip System

Fast creation of documentation with CATALOGcreator®

Poly-clip System GmbH & Co. KG is the world's leading manufacturer of clip closure systems. The product program and the range of services offered form a system, that besides the wide range of clip machines includes suitable clips and loops for any application. With the software CATALOGcreator® and the module CC-XML Data Converter Poly-clip System generates their spare parts catalogs for CD-ROM and print significantly faster, more reliable and more cost effective than in the past.

The company

Poly-clip System is the world's leading manufacturer of clip closure systems for the meat processing industry. Besides the standard machines the development of custom-made machines is one of the strengths of Poly-clip. The history of the company goes back to the year 1922.

Our own branch offices in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Austria, Spain, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Hungary and the USA and exclusive sales partners in almost all the other countries in the world stand for the international network of Poly-clip System.

Initial situation

Before the introduction of a software for the electronic catalogs Poly-clip System created the spare parts documentation traditionally as printed version for their customers. Only the documentation for the machines takes up more than 1 mio. printed pages per year and caused high costs for the company. Increasing customer requirements as well as the running costs for the printed catalogs were at last the trigger to think about new standards.

Requirements

A software solution for electronic spare parts catalogs should meet the following criteria:

• Print- and CD-catalog out of one data source
• Quick identification of spare parts by end customers and local service
• Quick catalog creation
• Simple handling of the software for technical editors

Solution

To have a reliable and long term perspective, they decided for a standard software already established on the market. „After in-depth evaluation our decision was made very quick for the software CATALOGcreator®. Crucial for the decision was that the 2D graphics are scalable and not just pixel images as other vendors have. Furthermore we already had very good experiences with the service provider TID Informatik,“ explains Rolf Hillefeld, manager of documentation and training at Poly-clip System.
With the program CATALOGcreator® electronic product and spare parts catalogs can be generated simply and published in the different media directly.

In the clear CD catalog of Poly-clip System the end customer will find the needed spare part easily in the 2D graphic. Picture and list are linked and the shopping cart function makes the following order of the needed part a child's play.

Benefit for the end customer

Meanwhile Poly-clip System creates the complete spare parts documentation out of one central database electronically. The user manuals have to be delivered still as printed version to the customers, but the complete spare parts documentation is delivered in German and English on CD-ROM with the machines. A printed version is delivered if required.

The 2D graphics for the CD catalog are generated as exploded view drawings from the CAD system SolidWorks and imported directly in the workbench of CATALOGcreator®. Because of the SVG technology all 2D graphics are based on vectors and stay accurate even with strong magnification.

The user of the CD catalog has many useful functions available, simplifying the identification of spare parts significantly:

• Clear and quick orientation in the catalog
• Search function for parts
• Optimal image quality of the 2D graphics
• Linking of images and parts list
• Shopping cart function and much more

Quick catalog production

To further optimize the production process for the catalogs, Poly-clip System uses the module CC-XML Data Converter, available for the software CATALOGcreator®v. Another crucial advantage is the automatic take over of given classification structures. Because of this „mapping“ it is possible to take over complete assembly structures into CATALOGcreator®.

Poly-clip System uses the CC-XML Data Converter in documentation since spring 2006 . Excel lists are imported from SAP via the special interface into the CATALOGcreator®. The complete structure is taken over automatically. Because of this the catalog production could be accelerated and the completeness of the data is ensured automatically.

Fazit

In the end the complete production process for the documentation could be simplified significantly with the spare parts catalog software and at the same time the running costs could be reduced lasting and the quality was increased.

„The result of the project with TID Informatik is 100 percent what we expected. The optimal project support by Mr. Weigelt and compliance with the time schedule have convinced us that the decision for this vendor was right. The documentation we produce with the CATALOGcreator® now has a very positive feedback from our customers. We succeeded to meet the requirements of the trademark Poly-clip in this relation, too.”

Rolf Hillefeld, Manager of documentation and training, Poly-clip System GmbH & Co. KG