IP Automation Design (IPAD) is located in Lunca Corbului, Arges, Romania and designs and manufactures equipment and machinery primarily for the automotive industry. Founded in 2001, the company offers solutions for automation, industrial design and mechanical processing. The company has 120 employees and is International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001/2008 certified.

IPAD uses three powerful solutions to win more complex projects from existing customers

IPAD started as engineering company with one license of Solid Edge® software. Now it has a complete Siemens Digital Industries Software solution with 15 seats of Solid Edge, two seats of NX™ software for computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and 25 seats of Teamcenter® software, which is integrated with IPAD’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The firm uses NX CAM for 3-axis and 5-axis milling, electrical discharge machining (EDM) and turning.

The main business drivers behind this project were to enhance IPAD’s ability to custom configure products, manage multidisciplinary projects, machine complex parts faster with a limited number of programmers, reduce time-to-market and costs, and increase efficiency and productivity.

IPAD’s technical challenges included defining and implementing a digital thread from request for quote (RFQ), design, analysis, manufacturing, documentation and delivery to maintenance; training engineers to capture knowledge and increase re-use; creating postprocessors for computer numerical control (CNC) machines (milling 3-4-5 axis, turning, EDM), integrating Teamcenter with electronic computer-aided design (eCAD) and ERP, and enhancing product data management (PDM) processes.

IPAD’s aim was to satisfy customer demand for quality, reliable machines that support mass production processes; innovate custom machines, comply with regulations for automotive standards and safety for robotic applications, and reduce costs while increasing revenue growth. IPAD needed to tackle these challenges because its operations included a multidisciplinary team, working in a complex product development environment. There were supplier delays for special components and limited time for manufacturing and assembly, and a short time to install the equipment on customers’ production lines.

IPAD selected three Siemens Digital Industries Software solutions to meet these challenges: Solid Edge, NX CAM and Teamcenter. IPAD selected Solid Edge for its multi-CAD support, synchronous technology, efficient standard parts management, advanced sheet metal functionality, and easy-to-use simulation.