Industry Forum 2018 presented itself as an ideal platform for trends and innovations around Industry 4.0 & IoT

The 19th Industry Forum of CADENAS GmbH this year was all about the current topics of Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things (IoT) and digitalization. On the 7th and 8th of March in the Augsburg WWK Arena, Germany, the international convention offered over 200 participants the opportunity to find out more about IT trends and to exchange ideas about modern technologies and solutions. In over 20 Best Practice presentations and interactive workshops, well-known companies showed the professional visitors innovative possibilities to optimize costs in engineering with Strategic Parts Management as well as to expand their marketing potential with Electronic CAD Product Catalogs and Building Information Modeling (BIM).

In his opening speech, the CEO of CADENAS, Jürgen Heimbach, took up the topic of digitalization. He gave examples of changes that automation could bring to the work world and to certain sectors such as Building & Construction, Sport, Journalism, etc. He also presented strategies and solutions of how CADENAS wants to use technologies and trends of Industry 4.0 in its software solutions. For example, the combination of augmented and virtual reality, as the so-called mixed reality, can greatly simplify the simulation of products. "Our Industry Forum is the ideal platform to exchange ideas with the other participants about the current challenges of digitalization and to work together on modern solutions," explains Jürgen Heimbach. The visitors were excited about the international convention as well: "In addition to the informative lectures, I was also able to make new contacts and take part in very interesting technical discussions at this year's Industry Forum. It was an all-round successful event," says Michael Kraning of ANDREAS MAIER GmbH & Co. KG.

The first groundwork for Industry 4.0 & IoT can be laid in engineering early on, as a genuine digital twin is available for components, thus significantly shortening the time-to-market. At the CADENAS Industry Forum, the speakers of numerous well-known companies showed how intelligent engineering data can be the key to success. Andreas Brandauer of Siemens Industry Software GmbH informed the professional visitors about how the digital twin by CADENAS supports the development processes of factory lines in Siemens Line Designer, Automation Designer and Mechatronic Concept Designer. Moreover, Peter Zander of KUKA Systems GmbH, for example, told how his company was able to optimize the SAP procurement process thanks to the CADENAS Geometric Similarity Search GEOsearch.  

At the end of the first conference day, Frank Epple and Jürgen Heimbach of CADENAS gave first insights into the new features of Version 12 of the Strategic Parts Management PARTsolutions. The new version will provide users of the software solution PARTsolutions with an extended partial search, among other things, which will make a search for edges and complex notches in components possible.

The topics of Industry 4.0 and digitalization are also important for component manufacturers. In the Best Practice lectures of the 19th Industry Forum, component manufacturers found out how to recognize sales opportunities, realize sales potential and thus prepare their catalog for the age of digitalization with the software solution eCATALOGsolutions.

For example, Afag Automation AG makes a decisive step towards the digital twin with photo realistically rendered product images based on the Electronic Product Catalog eCATALOGsolutions, Anthea Waidele explains in her lecture. Marcel Nagel presented how the kit "Modular Assembly Automation", from SCHUNK GmbH & Co. KG, was digitalized as a product configurator with CADENAS, how the configurator is used and what the advantages are for the company. "The Industry Forum is a great event for the exchange of ideas and networking, as a wide range of sectors are represented. Feedbacks and queries that follow the presentation are often in-depth and very helpful for us as a component manufacturer," confirms Marcel Nagel.

The new features of the upcoming version of the 3D CAD models download portal PARTcommunity were introduced by Stefan Waldner of CADENAS on the second day of the Industry Forum. In future, the search function and navigation will be brought to the fore within the download portal and centrally situated in all views. PARTcommunity users can then do the configuration of the component directly in the 3D view for the first time, by editing the dimensioning independently. Moreover, additional views of the components will be available in Version 8, like the 2D derivation and live rendering.

The architecture and building industries are strongly marked by progressing digitalization. The CADENAS Industry Forum 2018 showed here the current trends as well as the innovations in Building Information Modeling (BIM) and informed about new structures of digital work in the planning and construction industry. Matthias Bruhnke of Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG presented the BIM requirements at the CADENAS convention, along with his goals of BIM planning from a builder's perspective. Moreover, Robert Weitlaner of HELLA Sonnen- und Wetterschutztechnik GmbH showed the necessity and motivation for providing 2D & 3D multi BIM CAD data for optimum customer service for sun protection planning.

Parallel to the Best Practice lectures, three interactive workshops took place: Under the motto of "Intelligent finding instead of parts safari", the participants learned how to intelligently find product information as well as CAD data of standard, purchased and individual parts with extensive PARTsolutions search methods. Another PARTsolutions workshop was dedicated to the topic of promoting the standardization of components in companies with the help of PLM Synchro and the PURCHINEERING approach. In the area of eCATALOGsolutions software solutions, component manufacturers learned how to make procurement-relevant information clever and interactively available in the workshop "PARTprocurement – Interactive procurement and the intelligent providing of manufacturer information".  Attending the PARTprocurement workshop paid off for Manuel Gromann of AHP Merkle GmbH: "The workshop was very informative and the topics were well explained. Open questions were also gone into and existing solutions were clearly explained."

In the framework of the Industry Forum, "The Golden Catalog Seal" from CADENAS was awarded to selected component manufacturers. The seal awards Electronic Product Catalogs with, among other things, the integration of a product configurator, an automatic 2D dimensioning for CAD components and product data in at least three languages.

At a traditional evening event of the CADENAS convention, participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas in a relaxed atmosphere at the "hut of fun" get-together. A ski simulator provided a lot of fun and an adrenaline rush for many of the guests with speedy downhill skiing. The evening was rounded off with a tasty meal of original Bavarian cuisine.

The visitors were enthused: "The Industry Forum was very well planned and implemented. This year's evening event was once again a smashing success. Many thanks for the privilege of taking part in this event," says Rolf Lampert of RK Rose+Krieger GmbH.

Further information about the CADENAS Industry Forum can be found at:
www.industry-forum.biz

Impressionen zur Abendveranstaltung sowie Bilder und Vorträge zum Download finden Sie unter:
www.industry-forum.biz/review/2018