20% IMPROVEMENT OF ENGINEERING CYCLE BY USING AGNI LINK WITH IFS APPLICATIONS

In the four WestRock APS plants, over 100 machines are built each year to satisfy the needs of their customers for individual packaging solutions. One machine typically contains between 1,200 and 1,400 parts that vary in size, dimensions and finish according to the customer specifications.
As a result, each of these machines has a different configuration requiring specific Bills of Material (BOM) and part lists that are created by the design department. In order to link the data to the IFS ERP system, data was manually exported and then reimported every time the production team had made changes to the design.
With the implementation of Agni Link, this process has evolved since automatic data transfer in both directions has completely suppressed manual entry of product data. “Another important advantage of using Agni Link is its powerful Bill of Materials (BoM) comparison capability,” continued Tom Graham. “Changes are tracked through the user dashboard, which provides colour-coded indicators for quick and efficient validation and correction of potential issues with data transfers between Autodesk applications and IFS ERP.”

The implementation of Agni Link has resulted not only in improved data quality, leading to fewer reworks on the production side, but also permitted freeing up time of the design team for new design work, since manual data entry was not required anymore.

FAST AND EASY INTEGRATION MAKES USERS INDEPENDENT

WestRock APS has installed so far 28 licences of Agni Link in one of the four plants dedicated to machinery manufacturing for custom products. Elmo Solutions’ unique fixed-fee JumpStart Program covered all of the support services required during the implementation phase, namely recommendations on the best practices; deployment of the testing environment, training of administrators and end users as well as unit and integration testing. “The highlight of the integration process with IFS and CAD modules is the Agni Link Integration Builder, which allowed effortless integration with Autodesk Vault and AutoCAD Electrical.”

THE FUTURE IS IN THE CLOUD

“We are currently analyzing the deployment of Agni Link in other WestRock APS plants, while at the same time, our IT professionals are evaluating future cloud technologies and its impact on Westrock’s overall IT strategy. IFS Cloud, the next generation of IFS software is a radical departure from the traditional architecture requiring new internal processes. But migrating to IFS Cloud should be a smooth ride for WestRock APS, as it is readily supported by the Agni Link ERP Connector for IFS Cloud.”
Asked about practical advice for selecting an IFS-CAD connector supplier, Mr. Graham continues: “All companies involved in custom production need a supplier for IFS ERP-CAD, Product Data Management (PDM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) connectors. I recommend to watch out for suppliers that can demonstrate bidirectional data exchanges (stay away from the import/export approach), data transformation capabilities and CAD/PDM/PLM vendor certifications. In order to remain independent from your internal IT department, it is important to evaluate build-in customization tools.
And, last not least, make sure that also your connector supplier has a migration path into the future. New applications such as PTC Windchill, Siemens Teamcenter and Dassault 3DExperience are emerging the in the CAD/PDM/PLM environment, and you want to make sure that these types of applications are covered. We were very satisfied that with Elmo Solutions, we could tick off all these points on our list.”