Project Log

A solution that saves time and money

BHEL’s switchgear division at Bhopal is using Wrench, which has reduced manufacturing time and enabled the collaborative sharing of drawings. D K Dikshit, Senior Deputy General Manager, BHEL, Bhopal, explains the project in some detail

We specialise in the design, manufacture, installation, commissioning and servicing of switchgear. BHEL has a wide spectrum of switchgears catering to applications such as power station auxiliaries, power distribution, process industries, rural electrification, opencast mines and electric traction in railways. These switchgears have many components attached to them. Managing the engineering designs of the switchgears and their components and the information pertaining to them can ensure faster manufacturing; hence that was our focus.

Manual drawings

We were doing engineering drawings manually. They had to be created in a physical form. We needed to maintain their hard copies as they contained details on each assembly component of the product.

However, we wanted to have a repository of the drawings so that we need not reinvent the wheel for developing new products as many switchgears and components are the same for various products. Since the drawings were in a physical form it was difficult to comprehend the information recorded on them. Storing the drawings in a centralised place was causing problems as they had to be physically carried to the location which was one-and-half kilometres away from the manufacturing unit. Retrieving and recalling drawings was not easy as they carried confidential and sensitive data, and required raising a request for the same. All this led to delays in retrieval and affected the manufacturing cycle.

At a later stage, we installed PCs to carry out the engineering designs but there was no real-time collaboration between the designing and manufacturing team.

Opting for Wrench

We decided to go in for a solution that would help us in better management of engineering designs and documents. Many vendors gave presentations about their products’ strengths, but we were impressed with the Wrench solution [formerly called CADD solution]. We felt that it was cost-effective and comprehensive with regard to managing drawings and enabling faster retrieval.

Huge database affected implementation

Implementing Wrench was a long exercise as our information was in a fragmented state and had to be entered into the system in a proper format. Importing the legacy data from the manual system was a tedious task as that had to be refined to meet the new format. There were close to 40,000 drawings containing information of around a thousand components.

The solution went live in about six months, but putting the legacy data into the system itself took nearly one-and-half year. The implementation started in mid-2004 and was completed in early 2005 with four people working on it. We have 20-concurrent user licences from Wrench.

Faster response time

We have started reaping the benefits of implementation as we are now able to comprehend information faster than before. The members of the manufacturing team can take spontaneous decisions because the information is viewed online. The response time to any problem has been reduced from one day to a couple of minutes. Apart from better design management, we have been able to incorporate functions such as production planning into the system since data sharing is concurrent and real-time. Because the design information can be shared on a real-time basis, important decisions can be taken in a few minutes.

The solution ensures efficient monitoring of workflow as information pertaining to the drawing (such as who is handling it) is flashed on the screen. Any changes made are immediately highlighted on the screen. This makes the drawings error-free as the display helps avoid duplication and enables proper interpretation.

The technology has led to accurate prototypes. Earlier, manufacturing error-prone prototypes was common and it meant longer production cycles and loss of money. Now, with the new system, accurate prototypes are generated. It has also become easy to approve the drawings online, thereby ensuring faster production cycles. Approvals that used to take a few days now take a few minutes as the drawings are shared on a real-time basis. They are checked and approved online. Managing the variants of the Bill of Material is easier and has resulted in reduction of design cycle time because of the maximum reusability of designs.

New version next

We are now planning to use the new version of Wrench (Industrial Machinery and Equipment) which has stronger PLM capabilities along with customised document management. The enhanced version will give us the capabilities to share and extend our production information with our customers and vendors on a real-time basis. We will also be able to share information with our R&D division in Hyderabad.

— As told to Abhinav Singh
abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com