About ABCO Automation, Inc.
When you have to fill 60 bags of liquid soap in 60 seconds for refillable dispensers, you need automated packaging solutions that are fast, reliable, and cost-effective. ABCO Automation, Inc., has met challenges like this since 1977. For ABCO, which provides comprehensive industrial automation and fabrication services to a variety of industries, success rests on the company’s ability to develop high-quality automation equipment within a tight development window
Over the last decade, the automation systems manufacturer has experienced dramatic growth, resulting in a threefold increase in the size of its North Carolina development facility. To manage this expansion, ABCO needed to resolve issues within its development processes that inhibited growth, according to Chip Montgomery, team leader in ABCO’s Mechanical Design department.
Removing barriers to growth
After implementing SolidWorks 3D CAD software and SOLIDWORKS Enterprise PDM without experiencing significant downtime, ABCO has successfully cut development costs, reduced design cycles by an estimated 30 percent, and accelerated time-to-market by 20 percent. And because it’s intuitive and doesn’t require extensive resources, Montgomery says administering the PDM system requires about 10 percent of the administrator’s time.
Maximizing collaboration produces efficiencies
ABCO has achieved these productivity gains because SOLIDWORKS Enterprise PDM facilitates design standardization and reuse, promotes greater collaboration across the project team, and minimizes design errors that require rework. “With PDM, there’s less chance for overwriting a file, re-creating 10 different versions of a cylinder when one will do, or breaking important links to a previous project,” notes Document Control Specialist Mike Sveda.
Improving quality by automating workflows
By automating ABCO’s workflows, SOLIDWORKS Enterprise PDM has helped the company dramatically reduce scrap and rework costs, and consistently improve quality.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Industry
Automated Packaging
Solution
SOLIDWORKS Enterprise PDM
Results
- Shorten design cycles by 30%
- Accelerated time-to-market by 20%
- Reduced development costs by 20%
- Cut scrap and rework costs by 50%
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