SUCCESS STORY
ADS Automates Underground Water Storage and Drainage Design Process with System Built on the Cloud
Customer Challenge
Due to an increase in market demand, ADS reviewed their current processes to identify ways to improve turnaround times to customers. It was determined that ADS had two options: 1) Hire approximately 20 additional engineers, which would require years of training to get them up to speed, or 2) They identified that 70% of the work could be defined by implementing an engineering system. ADS decided to move forward with option 2 to leverage technology which would provide more long-term cost savings.
Project Goals
“At ADS, we embrace continuous improvement and focus on innovation,” said Kelly Kokesh, Director, Engineering Services Group. “As the industry evolved and our customers needed faster responses and more customized designs, we looked for ways to increase efficiencies, including dramatically enhancing the automated processes used by our internal engineers/technicians as well as our customers.”
Solution
At the time that their existing design tool was developed, it was an industry leading 2D web system, however with market demands for mass customization of systems, Kelly recognized that ADS needed to modernize their design approach and reached out to IMAGINiT Technologies to explore their options. IMAGINiT’s team of automation experts recommended using 3D models in Autodesk Inventor automated with iLogic to allow the user to input values to drive the design. iLogic also enables ADS to engineer to order a product configuration based upon a set of rules standardizing product designs. IMAGINiT’s software development team then developed an easy to use web-based front-end, using standard, simple web technology and Autodesk Forge which is a collection of web service APIs developers use as building blocks for new software solutions.
Business Outcome
The enhancements from this project have resulted in several important benefits, allowing ADS to improve overall engineering efficiency by 15%.
“Our engineering team is now able to leverage the automated design solution from IMAGINiT with the mini-CAD desktop technology developed to work with Inventor, to get started quicker. The goal is to automate monotonous tasks and focus on the design,” said Kokesh. “Mini-CAD is like a skin that’s over the system, allowing our engineers to do configurations in a familiar CAD setting. The software developed by IMAGINiT does a lot of the heavy lifting in the background.”
Conclusion
“The solution created by IMAGINiT has enhanced our productivity, customer satisfaction, and employee morale,” said Kokesh. “We now have more time to focus on complex projects where the ADS water management solutions continue to help protect a precious natural resource.”
Project Summary
Delivery Date
2020-07-21
Project Duration
15 days
Autodesk Solutions
- Forge
- Product Design & Manufacturing Collection
Services Provided
Customer Industry
- Design & Manufacturing