The 11th Design & Sales Automation Conference brought together relevant networking partners in the fields of CPQ, Design Automation and System Integration. The conference program offered a good balance of practical layout-related topics as well as strategic and sales-related topics.

Participant, DSAK 2023

DSAK 2023 – Experience the Lino® 3D configuration solution live!

 

On April 25 – 26, 2023, the 11th Design & Sales Automation Conference took place after a four-year break. The event attracted about 90 users and industry experts to Favorite Parkhotel in Mainz. The conference participants were enthusiastic about the practical user presentations, the exchange with other experts and the technical papers on the automation and integration of engineering and sales processes.

The Design & Sales Automation Conference of Lino GmbH has long been a firm fixture in the annual calendar of many users. The participants are attracted by the personal and intensive exchange between consultants, developers and users. This year, too, there was plenty of opportunity for networking and community. For the eleventh time, the Mainz-based software company hosted an international user conference to provide information on new and further developments. The focus of this year’s conference: top-class user presentations, Tacton CPQ, Lino becomes a multi-CAD integrator and special applications for Solidworks and system integration.

FLSmidth – Tacton CPQ and Design Automation in parallel use

When experienced practitioners report on their productive use, valuable insights are gained for all participants: alternative use scenarios or problem-solving approaches and inspiration for further optimization. At DSAK 2023, Martin Birck Sörensen, Project Manager in Engineering Efficiency at FLSmidth A/S, spoke about the implementation and use of Tacton CPQ, Tacton Design Automation and Lino® 2D fix. FLSmidth is a full-service provider of flowsheet technology and services to the global mining and cement industries. The company uses Tacton CPQ and Tacton Design Automation to automate the creation of quotations and 3D models needed in sales and order fulfillment. In addition, FLSmidth uses the Solidworks add-in Lino® 2D fix to complete manufacturing drawings from configurable models faster. Sörensen revealed that this has reduced quoting time from days to hours and ensured consistent quotes across sales.

GEMÜ – Implementation of a central configuration system

A different challenge was addressed in the presentation by Oliver Tosta, Process Manager in the Product Systems & Data | Configuration & Digital Solutions department at GEMÜ Gebr. KG. As the world market leader in valves for sterile processes, GEMÜ offers a broad, configurable product range. In order to master this diversity and to accelerate processes, various configuration systems have been set up in the past. These are now to be united in a central configuration system. Oliver Tosta allowed the audience deep insights into GEMÜ’s internal configurator house. They were able to get an idea of the advantages that a central configuration system creates and enables, but also the challenges that have to be overcome on the way there.

Dürr – Automated engineering processes in an SAP system landscape

As an international market leader, Dürr plans and implements turnkey paint and final assembly systems as well as machine and robot technology for the automotive industry. Lennart Dümmel, Engineering Product Standardization, and Ernesto Walthart-Foz, Mechanical Design Engineering, reported how engineering and production planning were harmonized at Dürr Systems by developing configurable products with Solidworks® and Tacton® Design Automation and exporting them to the SAP ECTR® PLM system with Lino® PDM pro. The user presentation also showed ways to protect configuration knowledge and create complex products using Lino® Assisted Virtualization.

Wandres – Process automation from quote to machine

Wandres GmbH micro-cleaning from Stegen specializes in the development and production of innovative brush and air cleaning systems for industrial surface cleaning. Alexis Gmelin, Team Leader C, F, G-Line, gave a knowledgeable and structured description to the conference audience of the path to the current level of automation at Wandres. With the step-by-step introduction of Tacton Design Automation and Lino® PDM pro, design processes were first automated and then sales processes were integrated, thus achieving process optimization in many areas of the company at Wandres.

For configuration newcomers and users, the Lino Conference is an excellent opportunity to broaden one’s horizons a bit. At the DSAK, we were particularly interested in how Lino has implemented deep ERP/PDM integration of engineering and configuration in other companies. Finally, the possible final expansion stage – including web store integration – was particularly exciting.

ALEXIS GMELIN, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, WANDRES GMBH MICRO-CLEANING, STEGEN

Enhancements and new functions of the Tacton and Lino products

A central place at DSAK is occupied by the experts from the Lino universe: long-standing technology partners as well as the company’s own consultants and developers. Patrik Östberg, Vice President Product Management, Tacton Systems, kicked off the first day of the conference with his keynote on the Tacton CPQ product roadmap, including system configuration, layout visualization, subscription offerings and more. Östberg showed how Tacton CPQ and Design Automation support digitization and especially integration with PLM and ERP.

Many participants expect reports on new and further developments from the “Software Made by Lino®” portfolio at the DSAK in particular. And they got their money’s worth, because in terms of content, DSAK 2023 was certainly one of the best conferences Lino has organized so far. The Lino team showed innovations in these areas:

Lino becomes a multi CAD integrator

At the end of 2022, Lino extended its business partner agreement with Tacton Systems to include Tacton Design Automation for Autodesk® Inventor® software in its portfolio, because many companies have mixed CAD landscapes in use. In parallel, Autodesk confirmed membership in the Autodesk Developer Network. Lino consultant Lennart Poggenburg-Harrach demonstrated live at DSAK how to configure and design customized products in record time using Tacton Design Automation for Inventor.

More performance for Tacton Design Automation

Philipp Schreiber, software developer at Lino, presented the new Tacton Design Automation plug-in Lino® Fast Update to the conference participants. After extensive testing, the update performance increase for medium and large assembly models can be quantified as up to 25 percent. Lino® Fast Update is 100% compatible with Tacton Design Automation and is very easy to integrate.

Mastering complex machines and plants

Highly variant and complex machines confront many of our customers with major challenges. With Lino System Configuration, we have been offering a solution for years to map complex systems in a modular way and thus simplify their mastery and management. In the contribution of Marcel Haas, Consultant/Software Developer, the principles and methods behind the solution were presented and gave insight into the future vision of Lino GmbH.

Flexible, powerful and secure

Ingo Knoch, Senior Consultant, and Marcel Haas, Consultant/Software Developer, presented the current and planned functional status of Lino® PDM pro and Lino® ERP pro and . The fundamental innovations, such as the encryption of Tacton rule sets in the PDM system, the expansion of the action list concept and the ability to model processes PDM and ERP system-wide, make the software even more flexible and powerful. The unified settings structure and the highly flexible interface architecture ensure that almost all customer requirements can be met – even the connection of ChatGPT.

Simplify Solidworks® assemblies

The ever-growing variety of technological possibilities is constantly presenting companies with new challenges. Visualization is becoming more and more widespread, both in web and VR applications. Sectors are working more and more closely together, relying on each other’s CAD data. Roy Streicher, Consultant, presented in his talk how two companies have mastered these challenges in practice with Lino® Simplify.

What’s new in Lino® 2D fix?

Lino® 2D fix is an indispensable tool for designers and engineers who work with Solidworks models on a daily basis. It allows quick and precise adjustment of drawings after a model change. Version 2.0 includes additional features that help optimize workflows and increase productivity. The special feature is the wide range of control options that allow precise results. The new functions were demonstrated live by Willi Bär, Consultant/Software Developer, so the audience could see the performance for themselves.

Integration options Tacton CPQ

Tacton CPQ offers a range of integration capabilities to improve sales, engineering and manufacturing processes. Tacton’s flexible API allows companies to seamlessly integrate their existing systems and data sources and automate workflows. The presentation by Dirk Noack, Head of Development, focused on the most important integration options, which were explained from a technical perspective and illustrated with examples.

Hands-on and try it out yourself

DSAK is known for not only allowing its attendees to listen to lectures, presentations and panel discussions, but also to try out many solutions for themselves. The opportunity for this was provided by the much-attended hands-on workshops, where the interaction of Solidworks® or Inventor® with Tacton Design Automation could be experienced, or the intuitive and automated project planning of plants with Lino® 3D layout. Further workshops were offered on Lino® Simplify, a Solidworks add-in that automates the process of individual model simplification of Solidworks assemblies and Lino® 2D fix, a Solidworks add-on tool for automatic and correct positioning of drawing contents.

The VR show certainly provided a special experience: visitors could bring their own CAD model – a real assembly, machine or production line – and view it in virtual, three-dimensional reality. Seeing the self-created models virtually “come to life” became a surprising highlight for some visitors.

We would like to thank our speakers and partners for their support.

Your Lino Team

At the DSAK, we were able to experience what is possible with rule-based layouting and automated configuration. Especially through the hands-on workshops and the exchange with experienced users who produce in a comparable way, we learned a lot. Now we are looking forward to delving deeper into the topic with Lino.

STEFAN LIEBERMANN, HEAD OF DESIGN, STEIN AUTOMATION GMBH + CO. KG, VILLINGEN-SCHWENNINGEN