Case: “Nedcon”

NEDCON-advanced storage technology is an international company that designs and produces industrial storage systems. With more than 500 employees at 12 locations throughout Europe and the United States, NEDCON is very successful and the company is a leader in product innovation and project management.

This Dutch company is a global leader in shelving based storage systems and large scale, complete warehouses with lots of built-in “intelligence”. These storage systems often serve as the load-bearing roof and wall structure of the building, a high quality patented concept (silo structure) by NEDCON for cost effective, automated storage of goods.

NEDCON started talking with Technosoft about its need to make certain steps in its primary process more efficient.

Technosoft methodology

The first step was to map out the customer’s needs in detail. Without going into great detail, the analysis conducted by Technosoft boiled down to the fact that Nedcon needed to find a way to manage its shelf and model revisions for their actual core business, which is developing designs for storage systems.

Needs analysis

This came about as follows: The expertise at NEDCON lies with the engineers. All that knowledge is located in the drawings. Approximately 30% of the drawings used for any given project are existing ones and the remaining 70% are new drawings, because each storage system is custom made.

Not being able to find drawings or, even worse, applying an incorrect revision, has serious consequences. Think about warehouse storage areas that are as long as a football field and 30 meters tall, where robots handle vertical and horizontal traffic. A deviation of just a few millimeters could result in a disaster. Therefore, the management of drawings and revisions is crucial.

Vision behind possible solutions

Technosoft had the following vision while coming up with possible solutions for Nedcon: In order to make the sheet and model revisions as manageable and clear as possible for the organization, this process must be implemented in the location where it is used and updated the most: in the drawing office (in AutoCAD). General overviews and controls for other departments or locations are handled outside AutoCAD.

Chosen solution

The chosen solution was TS/CadConnect with TS/ProjectManager with a company-specific modification (customization, in which Technosoft also participated). Technosoft provided assistance with the migration through close collaboration, installation and instruction.

Advantages for Nedcon:

• The latest drawing versions (model revisions) are now accessible to everyone in the same format, whereby substantially less errors occur;
• Improved manageability and control;
• The draftsmen continue to work in their familiar AutoCAD environment, which interfaces and exchanges information seamlessly with the back-end database (Lotus Notes);
• The list of drawings can be accessed immediately at any time;
• Shipments are stored in the database;
• This customer now has a standard package with customer-specific enhancements;  these enhancements will continue to work with a new version of Lotus Notes and AutoCAD;
• One part of the implementation was the conversion of existing data from Automanager Workflow; it was not necessary to re-enter current data in the new system thanks to this conversion;
• This same software is available in Dutch and English at different locations in Europe

References with a similar solution from Technosoft

• Grontmij Nederland B.V. (Rotterdam, Houten en Arnhem)
• Adviesbureau Tielemans B.V.  (Eindhoven)
• Op ten Noort Blijdenstein B.V. (Utrecht)
• Smits bouwbedrijf B.V. (Beverwijk)
• Dura Vermeer Beton en Waterbouw B.V. (Beuningen)
• WSM Engineering B.V. (Heythuysen)
• Architectenbureau Ir. Bonnema B.V.. (Hardegarijp)