Symetri helps Elddis mastermind a major transforma...

Symetri helps Elddis mastermind a major transformation

“We’re aiming to reduce our time to market to weeks or months rather than taking up to a year,” says David Styles, project manager at Elddis, the touring caravan and motor home manufacturer.

It’s an ambitious goal - and one that reflects the scale of the project behind it. Over the past decade or so, many manufacturers have crept steadily from 2D to 3Das a gradual evolution. Styles is driving the transformation of Elddis’ workflow from mainly 2D CAD design to a fully-integrated and seamless design-to-manufacture in one complete programme.

“We weren’t exactly still using drawing boards,” he continues. “But we were using old versions of AutoCAD and an early release of Autodesk Inventor and so weren’t taking advantage of the latest technologies.”

Despite the fact that the market for touring caravans has only remained steady over the past few years, Elddis has enjoyed growth in its market share due its innovative designs. However, the company had not been able to fully exploit its design-led approach because of time limits imposed by its old-style methods. Bold steps were needed to eliminate time-consuming and labour-intensive tasks to free up more time for further creativity while still getting new designs to market faster.

Styles first turned to one of the company’s long-term partners – the Durham-based management consulting firm, Waterstons – for guidance. It identified that Elddis was typical of many manufacturing businesses that have invested in machinery and then tried to make their computer systems fit, with little over-arching strategy. As a result they have ended up with a range of disparate systems and a disjointed workflow.

Waterstons recommended a “clean sheet” approach when talking to CAD specialists. “We got down to two 3D CAD providers. However, we knew that with a project like this, it wasn’t so much about the product as the consultancy surrounding it. That’s why we chose Symetri. They weren’t just selling software but a complete business solution. The more we discussed the issues involved, it became increasingly apparent that Symetri have the necessary breadth of business experience to provide practical solutions while challenging our existing paradigms. Quite simply, they know what they were talking about,” he explains.

“They were very positive about the benefits of the project but totally honest with me about what it would all entail, especially as we began to talk about feeding 3D digital design data into our corporate ERP system. They were also straightforward about the re-training and re-configuration of the business this would demand but had developed a complete programme schedule, so I could see it would be carefully managed and under control.”

Previously, if one of the design team wanted to create a new product, they used an old design as a starting point, evolving the original. They then made a physical prototype before passing the design across to the manufacturing team to evaluate whether it was viable for volume production.

The team now uses the latest version of Autodesk Inventor from the Autodesk Product Design Suite to create a digital prototype, so eliminating the lengthy process of building a physical model. “The benefit of 3D design is that you can see the product in front of you, walk through it, check that everything fits and ideally go straight to production,” says Styles.

“We purposely start with a clean sheet every time to help encourage original thinking – and we can do this as trying out new ideas is quick and easy.”

He explains that there are several major challenges to designing today’s caravans and motor homes. Construction has to be reliable and maintain structural integrity over many years and changing conditions. There is also constant market pressure to make them lighter and more fuel-efficient.

“Being able to design a shape is one thing – the ability to create a complete product is another,” Styles continues. “We use the latest automotive technologies to address these problems and the real advantage of digital prototyping comes with being able to visualise and analyse the 3D model to analyse the weight and strength of materials as an integral part of the design process. Introducing Autodesk Product Design Suite’s visualisation and simulation tools will certainly be part of the project.”

Styles adds that further software included in the Autodesk suite, such as Vault for data management, will be implemented as the project progresses. The team will also take time in the future to consider Autodesk’s cloud-based product management lifecycle solutions PLM360, downloadable as part of their subscription.

When asked about linking the CAD system to Elddis’ ERP system, Styles is adamant: “It’s more of an ultimate necessity than an aim. We want a completely integrated process, connecting the weight of a product, for example, with cost data to test a design’s commercial validity and to produce a bill of materials for the supply chain.”

He explains that the market does tend to be conservative, but it is also very knowledgeable as many customers begin by buying a used model first to see whether they enjoy the lifestyle. Consequently innovations must be practical and add value to convince their target audience.

“Elddis has recognised that no manufacturer can afford to stand still in the current, highly competitive climate. Accordingly, we have been able to show the team how to optimise new technologies and transform their processes surrounding them to bring major business benefits,” says Colin Watson, business development director, Symetri. “By linking CAD and ERP systems, Elddis is putting its design data at the heart of its operations and so drawing the maximum value from this great asset.”

“The main objective of this project is to create a seamless digital process from design to reality. However, the reason behind it is to optimise our design talents by making space for it to flourish and ensuring we can get the finished product to market faster than our competitors,” Styles concludes.