15th CADENAS Industry Forum 2014 – Networking at the highest stage

At the international specialist conference the who is who of the German small and medium sized companies met to exchange innovations and best practice methods in the electrical and mechanical engineering sector

The 15th CADENAS Industry Forum from 11 to 12 February 2013 was again attended by more than 200 professional visitors who informed themselves and exchanged ideas about current innovations and trends from the mechanical, electrical and plant engineering sector.

In 21 best practice presentations and numerous interactive workshops - i.a. about the topics SAP integration and creating a calculation assistant - the participants were able to get a detailled idea of the possibilities CADENA'S software solution offers. Not only the informative presentations, but also the numerous networking possibilities between the presentations and the evening event were of central importance to the visitors.

The forum was supplemented by an integrated trade exhibition of numerous renowned companies like the keytech Süd GmbH, the CINTEG AG, the DSC AG, and many more. The Systemworkx AG supported the event just as in the previous years by sponsoring hardware, providing the complete IT infrastructure of the workshop rooms and the presentation computers.

Trends and Innovations

The prelude for the 15th Industry Forum 2014 was the opening speech of Jürgen Heimbach, CEO of CADENAS, who gave an overview of the newest trends and developments in general  and especially at the software manufacturer from Augsburg. Topics that deserve specific attention in the course of the year are the so called "Internet of things" and the "near field communication."In the context of "big data" management, maintenance and automation in the production can be promoted significantly.

The development in the 3D print sector is also of key importance: Since the patent for Sintertechnologie is running out, the way for reasonably priced 3D metal printing is paved. Thus digital management and licensing spare parts will be of great importance in the future. 

In the search technology sector the participants were able to gain an exclusive insight into the new 3D partial search, where components can not only be found as a whole but by means of defined cut-outs. Jürgen Heimbach showed in his presentation how sophisticated software will help engineers and purchasers in the near future to use 3D searches only with a smart phone instead of a 3D scanner.

New distribution tools for component manufacturers

IIn numerous best practice presentations, component manufacturers received new ideas how customers and the sales department can use electronic product catalogs, which are based on the eCATALOGsolutions technology, in the best way. For instance, Volker Göbel of AMF reported about the experience with media centers as a marketing tool and selecting the right media for this purpose.

In his presentation "Calculation assistants and specialized apps" Patrick Mußler of AHP introduced integrated calculation assistants as an efficient method to handle the high rate of variant diversity in large catalogs.

Strategic parts management – perfect complement to SAP

Martin Anderer of Osram showed in his presentation "CADENAS PARTsolutions as a perfect complement to the SAP PLM system" how strategic parts management helps to reduce product development cycles and avoid redundancies.

In his presentation „PURCHINEERING" Frank Bröker of the consulting firm Krehl & Partner explained how CADENAS' software can be used for value analysis projects to integrate the procurement into the product development process at an early stage.

Eventually CADENAS gave the participants from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Great Britain and the US an exclusive insight into the newest PARTsolutions version 9.08 of the strategic parts management and into the developments that are planned for this year; for instance comparing search results with Cloudmapping and accelerating the catalog search from minutes to seconds.

Stranded with Brazilian feeling

This year the CADENAS traditional evening event at the end of the first conference day took place at the indoor beach club "Gestrandet" in Augsburg. In a laid-back strand atmosphere, the participants were able to forget the gray February with delicious cocktails and a solid beach barbecue while cultivating their business contacts. Participants who were looking for a compensation for sitting around at the presentations all day were able to play beach volleyball and take part in a table soccer tournament and a few were even awarded with a medal. 

CADENAS, the software manufacturer from Augsburg, organized the international specialists' conference Industry Forum already for the fifteenth time in a row. The main topics were sustainable cost reduction in engineering with the strategic parts management PARTsolutions and expanding the marketing possibilities with the electronic CAD product catalogs of the eCATALOGsolutions Technologie.

The 16th Industry Forum will take place in Augsburg from 4 to 5 February 2015.

For further information about the CADENAS Industry Forum, please visit:www.industry-forum.biz/rueckblick