Christa Carey of Protocase, Inc.
Interview with a Sheet Metal Industry Customer
About Christa Carey
Christa is the Technical Support Manager at Protocase Inc., who specialize in low volume, quick turn-over custom design/manufacture of high quality steel enclosures and brackets based in Sydney, Nova Scotia
Q: Tell me about your company's business and industry position.
A: Business - Manufacture and design customized steel enclosures and brackets.
Industry – That’s a tough call, I think the industry is Sheet Metal but I’ll have to get back to you on that. We specialize in low volume/customized orders; 100 or less. Two to three day turn-over. Customer base ranges from large corporations to hobbyists. Currently serving and expanding our customer base in Canada and the U.S.
What CAD system did you use before implementing SolidWorks.
We actually started using SolidWorks right from the get go, when the business began five years ago.
What were the primary business challenges and technical requirements that led your company to evaluate SolidWorks?
Again, we started with SolidWorks, but because our turn-over time is so fast, I would say speed was a factor. Ability to handle custom work of course is another requirement.
How did you find out about SolidWorks?
On-line research.
How did you find our about Javelin?
I think Javelin was the only Canadian reseller for SolidWorks at that time.
Did you evaluate any other CAD systems? Which ones?
I think the boss may have evaluated Unigraphics and I personally used Microstation and CADKEY in the past. Unigraphics was definitely more expensive, that I remember.
Why did your company choose SolidWorks?
Basically what happened was we went to the local university and watched an on-line demo on SolidWorks. It was clear that the product did everything we needed. The price was right. SolidWorks was more user friendly and all around a better product that, as I said, did everything we needed. No need to really look much further than SolidWorks.
Were there one or two product features and related benefits that were most important in your decision to purchase SolidWorks?
i) Sheetmetal function – the fact that you can take the metal, flatten it and create a flat pattern on it; this is a great function for us.
ii) Ease of manipulating original drawings/making design changes.
iii) The ability to import files from other CAD systems sent to us by our customers. This feature is also extremely important in our business since our turn around time is so quick. I don’t think we’ve received a customer file that we couldn’t import and work with.
How many SolidWorks licenses do you have?
Three.
What version of SolidWorks do you have?
SolidWorks five years ago and more recently SolidWorks Professional.
Do you think that SolidWorks technology is innovative? If so, how? Can you provide any examples of capabilities or functions that you would consider especially innovative?
Innovative? I would say yes because of the animation ability. It shows you moving parts and their assembly. You can actually see what something looks like before it’s manufactured. Each year SolidWorks gets faster and faster. This speeds up the amount of time it takes to complete a design. Also, SolidWorks is willing to listen to any comments or suggestions that you may have and uses that information to improve on the product.
Do you have SolidWorks Simulation? SolidWorks PDM? SolidWorks eDrawings? If so, how does each benefit your product development process.
SolidWorks Simulation is not in the budget right now.
SolidWorks PDM, we have it, but we haven’t used it yet. It would definitely benefit us. At this point it’s just a lack of time on our part. We are currently under staffed and considering the volume we put through, we haven’t had the time to do the training on it yet. Really that’s all it is, the time factor.
SolidWorks eDrawings – this is how we communicate to our customers. We usually provide then with an eDrawing of the product design within 24 hours of the time they submit their design order/request to us. The benefits of SolidWorks eDrawings for us are numerous …for example increased sales, less product design issues because the customer sees the product and dimensions prior to it being manufactured. This really speeds the process up in terms of getting the customer’s approval on the design because SolidWorks eDrawings allows the customer to check measurements for themselves with the measurement tool. Also, SolidWorks eDrawings has the ability to make the design transparent…so you can see through it.
Are there specific tools and capabilities that are especially beneficial? If so, how?
The measurement tool. See comments under SolidWorks eDrawings above.
How much has SolidWorks reduced your product design process, for example, “from four months to three weeks,” or “50%.”
This is hard for us to say because we never used another system so we don’t have that basis for comparison. If I had to guesstimate, I think it takes 20% of the time that it would take with AutoCAD..
How much money you have saved in your product development process with SolidWorks on a particular project or as an overall by percentage? Are you savings related to producing fewer prototypes or less scrap and rework?
SolidWorks definitely helps for sure. Again, because we always used it, there is no comparative from which to speak of. I can’t give you figures, but SolidWorks definitely reduced the number of reworks. In terms of savings, this definitely saves our customers money because they pay for fewer prototypes. I would say it’s a savings of 50 to 75% less because of this.
How have SolidWorks design capabilities improved the quality of your products? Have you been able to reduce the number of design errors, and if so, by how much?
SolidWorks allows for adjustments and accommodates for the wearing of steel tooling. Parametric changes are easy to do.
Have product innovations enabled by SolidWorks increased your company’s market share or gross sales? If so, could you indicate or estimate the increases?
Yes because we are able to accept files from more than one CAD program from our customers. This gives us the flexibility to serve more customers and obviously increase market share and gross sales.
What does it take to compete effectively in your industry? What are some of the challenges involved in maintaining your market position? How does SolidWorks impact your competitiveness?
Custom ability and speed… We have to be able to do customized work and make the design changes very quickly; this translates to faster turn-around time. SolidWorks allows us to do this. There are a lot of enclosure manufacturers out there…but you can’t get a combination of good customer service, technology and speed. We have a wide range of customers both in Canada and the U.S.
Was the transition to SolidWorks smooth? (If moving from 2D to 3D) Were there any capabilities in SolidWorks such as file translation and other built-in tools for preserving and reusing legacy 2D data?
N/A no transitioning involved. We started with 3D. We do accept 2D files from our customers, no problem.
Did Javelin make a significant contribution in terms of training, support and implementation services?
Not really. Our training was on-line tutorials. Javelin was helpful with technical support. Their response time was great. They also keep records of past problems which is helpful. We didn’t really do any training. Our employees all had CAD experience based on their backgrounds or education. SolidWorks is easy to use, you can catch on quicky.
Could you provide an example of an engineering design project completed in SolidWorks that you’d like to highlight? How long did the project take from start to finish?
All our work is custom work. It’s all designed through SolidWorks. Individual projects vary. Generally speaking, I would say custom work takes anywhere from 1 to 5 hours. We also offer stand alone design services without actually producing the product. SolidWorks designed 30% of our in-house equipment. SolidWorks also designed our Motion Control Systems and helped with silk-screening set-up. We are looking for a new CAM program and will be evaluating EdgeCAM.
What’s different about Javelin as a company from other companies in the CAD marketplace?
Although I have no basis for comparison, I would rate Javelin Technologies as excellent. They are helpful, thorough and always get back to you with an answer. If they can’t answer you question right away, they tell you that they will get back to you in a specific time frame.
In terms of how SolidWorks helps us design better products, I would say…because thanks to SolidWorks, we can always improve our customers’ custom designs without having to start from the beginning.
This allows us to spend more time on the actual design.
