How the Commercial Products Industry is Using Design Automation & Product Configurator Software

Dolphin Solutions

Dolphins Solutions, headquartered in Robertsbridge UK, design and supply a range of products and accessories for commercial washrooms. Dolphin Solutions have used DriveWorks to create an online sales configurator tool to help them achieve two key targets:

• Reduce Design Resources
• Create a Great Customer Experience

To save design time, Dolphin Solutions have also automated the creation of drawings. The process used to be manual, but now with DriveWorks and SOLIDWORKS working together, a drawing is automatically generated for each specification, ready for manufacturing.

Dolphin also capture customer data, allowing them to track orders and assign an ID to the customer’s project. An email alert is also triggered when a specification is complete, automatically sending an email to the sales and marketing team, with information such as the customer’s name, email, phone number, and company. The customer also receives an email automatically as confirmation of their request.

Dolphin have created an aesthetically pleasing, easy-to-use online configurator, with all the relevant information.

The configurator guides the customer through the configuration process easily. Each time a selection is made, the online configurator takes the customer a step closer to a final design. Based on the previous selections, options will become greyed out if they are unavailable. This guided selling tool has helped Dolphin to achieve so much success, and they are consistently seeing more interaction with it month on month.

Learn more about how Dolphin Solutions are reducing design time & creating a great customer experience with DriveWorks Pro: How Dolphin Solutions Use DriveWorks

ÖDÜL MADENİ EŞYA

ÖDÜL MADENİ EŞYA, based in Turkey, has been a manufacturer of home appliances for more than 50 years, exporting to over 86 countries around the world.

ÖDÜL have used DriveWorks Pro to create an online configurator that is used by both their sales team and their customers.

Before implementing DriveWorks, the sales team at ÖDÜL used a pre-designed excel spreadsheet to input the details of each order. These forms were then manually sent to the relevant department within ÖDÜL via email. This meant the entire process relied on their sales team members to make sure it was sent to the appropriate teams individually, leaving room for error.

Using DriveWorks, ÖDÜL now collects all the required information from each individual specification, such as product details, delivery times, payment & delivery terms. Once collected, this information is automatically shared with ÖDÜL’s ERP system. Order and customer data are now collected from a single source, DriveWorks, which limits errors and significantly reduces time spent collecting order information from customers.

DriveWorks’ document generation capabilities mean all the desired files are automatically generated, named, and ordered correctly. All documents related to each specific order, such as technical drawings, manufacturing documentation, and purchase orders are automatically generated, then sent to the relevant department within ÖDÜL.

Adding DriveWorks to their design process has also reduced the time spent specifying new products for their customers by 40% and reduced labor time by 70%. Designs are created with pre-engineered and approved parts, significantly reducing the possibility of customers selecting the wrong product. ÖDÜL has achieved end-to-end automation with DriveWorks.

Novameta

Novameta are a manufacturer of customized stainless steel equipment for professional kitchens, based in Lithuania. The company was founded in 1997 and now exports to more than 25 markets worldwide. Novameta mainly produces non-standard equipment, specific to customer requirements.

Using DriveWorks software with SOLIDWORKS, helps Novameta be better to their customers. It benefits their design engineers and is helping their sales teams understand the capabilities and limits when dealing with custom orders and inquiries.

Using DriveWorks not only helps to avoid mistakes but also speeds up work processes by reducing the number of repetitive tasks. Novameta uses DriveWorks to design and automate the design of configurable products without needing to re-create models and drawings for each configuration. Users can easily select variable sizes and details in the model, and the program will generate drawings, specifications, quantities of materials, and parts for production.

Novameta can generate technical drawings and files for the production department. This allows employees to enter the necessary data into the configurator and submit them straight to the production department quickly, and with all the required information included.

Novameta CEO, Mindaugas Jonuškis explains “This solution, first of all, helps us to better serve our customers. We can work faster, we can work more efficiently – which also affects the potential prices for customers. We can create much more complex projects.”

Learn more about how Novameta are working faster and more accurately with DriveWorks Pro: How Novameta Use DriveWorks