Casestudy

on
Schuler - Boosting collaborative
engineering with CATIA V5 and
ENOVIA VPLM

Overview


Founded in 1839 as a metal fitters shop, Germanys
Schuler has become a leading global manufacturer of
mechanical and hydraulic metal forming products, systems and
services, with fiscal 2005-06 sales of 560 million and a
workforce of 3,600. At the forefront of developing transfer and
servo presses widely used across the automotive industry,
Schuler pioneered hydro-forming technology for contouring
tubes in the 1990s.
Schuler has six forming system sites in Germany, and one
each in Brazil and China, with advanced technology sites in
Germany and the U.S. They have a joint world market share of
approximately 35 percent, are represented in over 20 countries,
and generate combined sales revenues of over 900 million
Business need

Schuler's number one business challenge is to satisfy the ever-
changing requirements of its customers such as automotive
manufacturers. These companies work in a volatile market
where investments in new presses are closely related to
winning new orders.
Solution
To standardize engineering processes and streamline
collaborative development, Schuler adopted a Product
Lifecycle Management (PLM) strategy providing its R&D
department with the best solution to achieve these goals. The
company rapidly and successfully rolled out a complete IBM
PLM solution, developed by Dassault Systems, deploying
CATIA V5 and ENOVIA VPLM across its development
organization. Starting in one location and five users, PLM is
now used globally at six sites by 250 users.

Benefits
Using PLM, Schuler has reduced the design time of presses
by 20% from five to four months.
Different units can handle different parts and processes such
as welding from anywhere concurrently.
This accelerates operational and decision-making capabilities,
and improves quality.
The resulting flexibility has increased capacity to meet tighter
deadlines.
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