How to Create More Value for Your Panel Building Business
If you are looking to improve the performance of your company then your first step should be casting an objective eye over your design and operational processes, however time-honoured they may be. While many companies have become reliant on certain, established routines, it’s likely that many of these procedures could/should be updated.
It may be a tall order to conduct wholescale audits and changes to operations when deadlines are looming but relying solely on custom and practice can stop the development of new initiatives and is likely to throttle innovation within a company.
The good news is that achieving higher levels of output and profitability doesn’t have to be complicated. The process involves some investment of time and resources, but in the longer term, this will pay off through better products and value for your customers – and it will help your team speed-up customer order fulfilment.
The key to this boost in productivity lies in employing modern software packages that will support and enhance each of the steps you use in manufacturing panels, from design, to engineering, work preparation and maintenance. The software is easily accessible and simple to introduce.
In essence, we are talking about reforming your ‘value chain’, or your business model, where each link in the chain represents a process you use to arrive at the final, finished products. If you can optimise each step, making each one demonstrably faster and better than before, you will be able to deliver greater value for your business for the least cost, and help achieve a clear competitive advantage.
Electrical Systems Process
The steps involved in most electrical system manufacturing include: design, the selection of components, creating drawings, production data and bills of material (BOM), kitting, preparing the cabinet and mounting plate, cutting the trunking and mounting rails, terminal rail assembly, wiring, testing, incorporating last-minute changes, generating documentation for the end user, and finally shipping the finished product.
Each step can be improved with modern ECAD software packages such as Eplan. These technologies will eradicate tedious and time-consuming engineering design activities, which ultimately means that you can enjoy higher productivity, shorter project turnaround times, better product quality – and appreciably higher staff satisfaction!
The latest ECAD software automates designs, creates reports, and integrates data, which can reduce engineering times by 50% when compared with traditional, manually intensive CAD-based drafting packages.
Once created, your panel designs can then be saved and reused in future projects with the software taking care of changes such as component designations and wire numbers. Not only does this approach reduce engineering time, it also ensures you get consistency in the design process, and you can virtually eliminate any risk of human error.
The software will also automatically make changes to any imported circuit diagrams to ensure they conform with local standards, regulations, and user-defined guidelines.
ECAD Gives 360º Visualisation of Designs
ECAD software provides engineers with clear, on-screen, 3D models of their designs allowing them to scrutinise panels from every angle to check the layouts of components and cable runs before it is signed-off. This means that shopfloor teams won’t need to make further changes to the design once it is passed to them, potentially saving a lot of time during panel manufacture and reducing errors.
Some ECAD packages can even generate what is known as a “digital twin”, which allows the engineers to virtually view their models before they pass it on to the shopfloor.
ECAD Supports Cooling & Component Selection
Moreover, Eplan ECAD software makes it easy for engineers to design-in cooling for switchgear panels. It can calculate the total power output of the switchgear, including that of the devices and the busbar systems, which is then transferred across to the Rittal RiTherm software. RiTherm will then instantly and accurately calculate the optimal air-conditioning and thermal management solution.
We also know that choosing the best components to build control panels can be a time-consuming and tricky area for design engineers given that new and improved devices appear almost daily. Trawling through component manufacturers’ websites looking for their latest product variant is tedious and time-consuming.
Help is at hand with Eplan’s Data Portal which contains data on millions of components from hundreds of manufacturers. It is free to use and, because the data is provided by the manufacturers, it is accurate, complete, and up-to-date. The information it provides allows engineers to select the most up-to-date version of any component for their applications from one single, easy-to-access location.
ECAD Automates Document Production
ECAD systems not only help engineers create detailed mechanical and electrical drawings for control panels, they can automatically generate some of the more tedious paperwork, including terminal schedules, bills of material (BOMs), PLC I/O allocation tables and other documentation, ensuring that these are completed accurately and without exception, including small and easily overlooked items (such as terminal end cheeks and coding plugs for connectors) that are a requirement for the kitting process.
We have carried out research that shows a typical panel builder can cut the time spent on kitting and fetching parts from the stores by as much as 50% by switching from manual to automatic methods.
ECAD can also create QR codes, embedded in drawings and other documentation, giving everyone who reviews the documentation at any stage of panel’s lifecycle (from manufacturing and testing, to commissioning and maintenance), easy access to wider information.
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