Nexion Group - Siemens PLM Software

Industrial machinery
Nexion Group
NX and Teamcenter deliver integrated product development environment
Products
NX, Teamcenter
Business challenges
Centralize IT system
architecture
Reduce time-to-market and
design costs
Extend change management
to manufacturing and
marketing
Keys to success
Extending Teamcenter and
NX from requirements to
maintenance
Integration with the
Microsoft environment
NX, including synchronous
technology, to repurpose
extensive assets in
legacy data
Results
Complete sharing of product
data across the organization
Integrated management of
distinct data types from
different sources
Nexion Group establishes
centralized PLM platform on
Siemens technology; time-tomarket, cost and quality
advantages realized
Specializing in equipment for car
shops and tire centers
Nexion Gruppo Industriale (Nexion Group)
manufactures equipment for car shops and
tire centers, with an organization comprising eight brands and production sites
under Nexion Financial Holding. Brands
include Corghi, Simpesfaip, Mondolfo
Ferro, Hpa, Orlandini, Sice, Tecnomotor
and Teco. Through a number of acquisitions, Nexion Group has grown into a heterogeneous structure, represented by
distinct companies that have taken
independent technical paths over the
years. Each company within Nexion Group
has acquired different computer-aided
design (CAD) and product data management (PDM) technologies. As a result,
management launched a project to
synchronize its product design and manufacturing systems in order to improve
communication and collaboration among
the companies.
The project involved engaging a full
product lifecycle management (PLM)
approach across organizations. Nexion
Group companies have been using
Siemens PLM Software’s comprehensive
product development solution, NX™
software, since 1998. Recently, after an
In a niche market where competitors are quickly
emerging, it is important to get new products quickly
to the market and reduce overall engineering costs.
in-depth software selection and benchmarking process and although one of the
organizations had already implemented
another solution, Nexion Group selected
Teamcenter® software, the world’s most
widely used PLM solution. “For a company
like Nexion Group, the Siemens PLM
Software solution offers all the basic and
advanced features and functionality we
need to improve development and design
times and to optimize costs,” notes Nexion
Group’s chief information officer (CIO).
“We also think that Siemens PLM Software
provides a growth path offering excellent
warranties in terms of investment protection and duration. It’s a long-term project
with a reliable partner.”
www.siemens.com/plm
Results (continued)
Improved efficiency
across group
Higher quality products
Infrastructure in place to
further increase productivity
and cost savings
Excellence in processes and quality
Four Nexion Group companies are involved
in the first project phase, representing five
sites located in Reggio Emilia (three sites),
Lucca and Pesaro-Urbino, and a total
number of 35 users. The decision to
adopt Teamcenter as its PLM platform
for product development was combined
with another agreement with Siemens
PLM Software, i.e., to upgrade all Siemens’
solutions to the latest versions available
and to adopt Teamcenter classification
functionality.
The CIO explains, “Compared to the previous infrastructure, with two separate sites
in Correggio and Mondolfo, we have set
up a four-tier architecture that offers
remarkable benefits. We have an efficient
and cost-saving infrastructure, as well as
co-engineering, re-use and standardization
capabilities. Now we are working with
one single server based in Correggio and
accessible to Corghi and Mondolfo Ferro.”
The company is currently adding Sice
Automotive Equipment (also located in
Correggio), which is migrating to NX and
With eight brands and 870 employees, Nexion Group
designs and manufactures mechanical equipment for
car shops and tire centers.
“For a company
like Nexion
Group, the
Siemens PLM
Software solution offers all
the basic and
advanced
features and
functionality
we need…”
Expanded through subsequent acquisitions, Nexion Group has developed a heterogeneous
structure over the years. Each business pursued an independent technical direction, resulting
in different CAD and PDM technologies.
Chief Information Officer
Nexion Group
each brand. With this solution, we have
achieved high flexibility in operations and
resource allocation.”
With Teamcenter, Nexion Group companies are quickly
reducing manufacturing cycle time.
leveraging the advantages offered by
synchronous technology. The decision to
migrate entirely to NX as a group-wide
CAD solution was based on an intense
benchmark with a competitive product.
The CIO points out, “We have created an
inter-company working team consisting of
two skilled designers working side-by-side.
Note that the benchmark was done with
an old version of NX, but in spite of this,
the Siemens PLM Software suite got the
better of the rival. The next challenge is
to recover the entire data heritage of the
company, for which we expect great
benefits from synchronous technology.”
After activating 35 users in the first phase,
Nexion Group is now planning to extend
the PLM solution to all corporate users,
also incorporating its Chinese and German
branches according to available bandwidth. “The technical department consists
of about 70 people distributed in different
sites,” notes the CIO. “Previously, we
needed distributed servers in each site,
while the new project has allowed us to
centralize the database on a single server,
achieving two significant benefits. On
one hand, we achieved a clear benefit for
ICT (information and communication technology) in terms of reduced maintenance
and simplified updates. On the other,
we established an optimized technical
development process. The closer synergy
among developers, who can now work as
if they were actually inside the same office
(although they are located in different
regions and using different products),
enables us to meet the specific needs of
Reduce and re-use
In preparation for this project, Nexion
Group’s ICT managers increased available
bandwidth. Moreover, the solution
proposed by Siemens PLM Software
has proved to be very efficient. The CIO
describes the setup: “The new architecture
is articulated in four levels, with a local
cache machine in each site. The core
element is an Oracle database, which is
referenced by the volumes distributed on
the cache servers.”
Nexion Group’s project consisted of two
strategic goals: increase organizational
efficiency and fully integrate the
group’s culture across companies. ICT
managers were looking for a more flexible and less expensive architecture,
as well as one that was effective in
improving time-to-market and reducing
design costs. “We are leaders in a niche
market, where Asian competitors are
regularly coming up with low-end
products,” says the CIO. “For
A new structure, built by Nexion Group on Teamcenter, lays the foundation for continuous
business process improvement.
Solutions/Services
NX
www.siemens.com/nx
Teamcenter
www.siemens.com/teamcenter
Customer’s primary business
With eight brands and 870
employees, Nexion Group
designs and manufactures
mechanical equipment for
car shops and tire centers.
www.nexion.it
Customer location
Correggio (Reggio Emilia)
Italy
“The CAD-ERP integration
is one of the key strengths
of the solution we have
implemented. We will
pursue tighter and tighter
integration between CADPDM on one side and ERP
on the other, managing
bills of materials within
one environment.”
Chief Information Officer
Nexion Group
this reason, it is important to get new
products to the market quickly, as well
as to reduce production costs, which are
typically high in a company that strives
for excellence. Already, with the Siemens’
solution, we have taken a big step forward. In the second stage of the project,
we will also introduce product classification, an essential tool to re-use our design
intellectual property and the know-how
we have accumulated over the years.”
The CIO points out, “Besides classification,
we plan to revise the entire engineering
change management process. We currently use a workflow process based on
Excel. We plan to replace it with a new,
structured workflow process to monitor
engineering changes and product development step-by-step, considering workflow
time for each phase and area. In this
way, we can optimize the quality and
quantity of our production operations,
with retroactive feedback for procedure
and process improvement. From the acquisition of basic requirements to the launch
of pre-series production, we will reorganize the entire flow with Teamcenter.”
Continuous business process
improvement
Among the reasons that Nexion Group
decided to adopt Siemens PLM Software
technology, the integration of NX and
Teamcenter with Microsoft Corporation’s
software was a key factor. The group is
strongly based in Microsoft applications,
both for individual information technology
tools and at the enterprise resource planning (ERP) level, where the organization
has adopted Microsoft Dynamics AX.
“The CAD-ERP integration is one of the
key strengths of the solution we have
implemented,” says the CIO. “We will
Four Nexion Group companies are involved in the first
PLM project phase, representing five sites located in
Reggio Emilia (three), Lucca and Pesaro-Urbino, and a
total number of 35 users.
pursue tighter and tighter integration
between CAD and PDM on one side and
ERP on the other, managing bills of
materials within one environment.”
The new structure, built by Nexion Group
on Teamcenter, lays the foundation for
continuous business process improvement,
especially relative to product development
efficiency and organizational effectiveness. The CIO notes that the group
companies are much more culturally
integrated, which is now helping to drive
collaboration and best-practice sharing.
Excellent results in terms of competitiveness have already been achieved.
Nexion Group also sees significant
advantages forthcoming. These include
full visibility and sharing of product
information throughout the organization
and across geographic boundaries;
improved overall data quality (through
the integrated management of different
data types generated by various applications); protection of the logical and
physical integrity of information; and
improvement of collaboration and communications among all business functions.
Siemens Industry Software
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+1 314 264 8499
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+44 (0) 1276 413200
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www.siemens.com/plm
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