CHALLENGES

• Limitations of 2D design drawings
• Working with large assemblies
• File management

KEYS TO SUCCESS

• Ability to work in both 2D and 3D
• Better support for large assemblies
• Simple file handling systems
• Excellent product support

RESULTS

• Increased new equipment revenues by 50 percent
• Increased export sales of new machinery by 60 percent
• Decreased manufacturing process lead time by 30 percent

Farmgép

Farmgép has been providing agricultural equipment, including crop sprayers, misters and seed treating units, in Eastern Europe since 1991.
www.farmgep.hu

Agricultural equipment manufacturer grows market share with high-quality products

Employing the most advanced technologies

Farmgép has built a reputation for developing high-quality crop spraying and misting equipment. Founded in 1991, the company is the market leader in its native Hungary, and also sells machinery throughout Eastern Europe. In the United Kingdom, Farmgép machines are marketed under the brand name FarmGem.

Farmgép designs and develops its machinery using Solid Edge® software from product lifecycle management (PLM) specialist Siemens Digital Industries Software. “We always use the latest technology in the development of our products,” says Tibor Tar, senior engineer at Farmgép. “That includes raw materials, laser cutters, benders, welding equipment and Solid Edge. We’ve been using Solid Edge since 2010 when we changed from AutoCAD. The migration was seamless.”

Crop sprayers are precision instruments, designed so that pesticides and fertilizers are applied only to targeted crops and not adjacent plants. Environmental regulations require periodic inspections of this machinery to enable proper operation at all times. To meet the needs of farmers and regulators, Farmgép designs and builds its sprayers according to the highest quality standards.

The role of Solid Edge

Farmgép designs and builds crop sprayers with tank capacities ranging from 600 to 6,000 liters. “We have two or three competitors, but they are not in the same league,” says Tar. “Their products are cheaper, which means lower quality and less manufacturing flexibility.”

Tar says the company uses Solid Edge – the most complete hybrid 2D/3D computer-aided design (CAD) system – throughout the design process. He notes, “Solid Edge helps us develop unique machines for our international partners, especially for the UK market. We can save 3D PDF files derived from Solid Edge, so they can open the files using Adobe Reader to check the design of the machine.

“We use Solid Edge to generate lists from 3D assembly drawings, such as profiles for laser cutting, or we can directly generate DXF files as well. We also create exploded view drawings using Solid Edge.” Tar notes, “We use synchronous technology on a daily basis. We often have to add or remove parts from a CAD assembly imported from one of our suppliers. Since I don’t have to know the model’s history, creation and modification of product variants is easy. I also use synchronous technology during the design of custom tanks and trays manufactured out of stainless steel plate. Sheet metal models are easily created by referencing solid parts, then wrapping the completed sheet metal around the part.”

In addition, the Insight™ design data management solution enables Farmgép to use concurrent engineering to speed product development. Tar points out that an individual engineer can work on different aspects of the same machine simultaneously using Solid Edge with Insight. He explains, “The collaboration is more effective than it was using our previous process, and we can save time. As the production process is shortened, we can react faster to market demands. Production flexibility is one of our main advantages, which enables us to fulfill special requests. This helps us keep our position in the market.”

With the aid of Solid Edge, Farmgép has increased its revenues on new equipment sales by 50 percent. Export sales on new machinery have increased by 60 percent. Tar notes, “Due to proper listing and accurate modeling, we have decreased manufacturing process lead time by 30 percent.”

Support is a key factor

According to Tar, in today’s highly competitive market, selling a machine is not the only key factor to success; another essential element is proper support. “That means that when a new machine is developed for a specific market, the dealers and end-users rightly expect the parts lists and schematics to be provided, so they can order spare parts,” says Tar.

In fact, good support was a major reason behind Farmgép’s choice of Solid Edge. “One of our reasons for choosing Solid Edge was outstanding support. There was a good example recently, when the new version of the software was released. The support team from Siemens Digital Industries Software’s partner, the Enterprise Group, installed it to our server, updating the dataset on the server as well via remote desktop access.”

Tar concludes, “In the near future, we are planning to use an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system that will work together with Solid Edge. So that when we get an order, we can assemble the machine using Solid Edge and the part lists will be exported to the ERP system, which will be used to handle purchasing and subcontracted manufacturing.”

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