Synchronizing your Computer-Aided Design (CAD) workflow with your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system can provide significant benefits to businesses. By integrating these two systems, you can streamline your product development, quotation, and manufacturing processes, improve data accuracy, reduce errors, and increase speed within the processes. In detail you’ll benefit from:
- Improved efficiency: By integrating your CAD workflow with your ERP, you can streamline your business processes, eliminate redundant data entry, and reduce errors. This can lead to improved efficiency and productivity.
- Improved data accuracy: Integrating your CAD workflow with your ERP can help ensure that data is consistent and accurate between the two systems. This can help reduce errors and improve decision-making.
- Reduced lead times: By automating workflows and reducing manual data entry, you can reduce lead times and speed up product development and manufacturing processes.
- Improved communication: Integrating your CAD workflow with your ERP can improve communication between departments and stakeholders, leading to better collaboration and decision-making.
- Better customer satisfaction: By reducing lead times, improving quality, and delivering products faster, you can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- By using automation for more simplistic design requirements, designers’ resource can be released and used on alternative tasks and assignments.
The demand for synchronizing CAD with ERP has been increasing due to the growing complexity of product design and manufacturing processes. As businesses continue to adopt digital transformation strategies, integrating their CAD and ERP systems becomes a key priority.
The chances of success in synchronizing your CAD workflow with your ERP depends on several factors, including the complexity of your business processes, the maturity of your systems, the level of integration required, and the availability of resources. To increase your chances of success, you should have a clear understanding of your business requirements, define your integration strategy, select the right integration tools and technologies, and have a skilled team to implement and maintain the integration.
However, with the right strategy and tools in place, the chances of success are high.
Businesses that prioritize synchronizing their CAD workflow with their ERP gain a competitive advantage by improving their product development and manufacturing processes. With increasing pressure on businesses to reduce costs, improve quality, and deliver quotations and products faster, the demand for synchronizing CAD with ERP is likely to continue to grow.
However, many organizations struggle with the challenge of synchronizing these two systems due to the complexity of the integration process, lack of expertise, and difficulties in finding the right integration tools. These challenges often result in a disjointed workflow, errors, delays, and missed opportunities for improving efficiency and productivity.
To overcome this barrier and take advantage of the immense benefits of the integration, Aicomp and Esko collaborated to create a standardized CAD integration for the packaging industry into Aicomp’s industry ERP solution. This integrated package design and workflow solution eliminates redundant data entry, reduces errors and delays, and improves collaboration between departments, streamlining processes, and increasing accuracy. The solution has set a new standard for packaging design and production.
CAD integration explained
CAD integration refers to the process of combining Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software with other systems or applications, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
It allows businesses to streamline their design and development processes by eliminating manual data entry, reducing errors, and improving data accuracy. For example, integrating CAD with ERP can help automate workflows, enable real-time data exchange between systems, and reduce lead times.
CAD integration in SAP environment allows businesses to automate their design and development processes by integrating CAD drawings, models, and data into SAP systems. This integration enables real-time data exchange between CAD software and SAP ERP systems, providing a single source of truth for design and manufacturing data.
The integration between CAD software and SAP software is achieved through specialized connectors or middleware, which enable seamless data exchange between the two systems. For example, integrating CAD software with SAP’s Material Management (MM) module can help automate procurement processes.
How to integrate your CAD workflow in your ERP system
The general solution for synchronizing your Computer-Aided Design (CAD) workflow with your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system involves several steps, including:
- Analyze your business requirements: Understand your business processes, identify the data and workflows that need to be integrated, and determine the level of integration required.
- Choose an integration method: Determine the integration method that best suits your needs. Options include using middleware, direct integration, or web services.
- Select an integration tool: Choose an integration tool that can support your integration needs.
- Map data and workflows: Define the mapping between CAD and ERP data and workflows. Identify the fields and data elements that need to be exchanged between the two systems.
- Implement integration: Implement the integration by configuring the integration tool and connecting the CAD and ERP systems. Test the integration to ensure it is functioning as expected.
- Maintain and monitor: Once the integration is implemented, monitor, and maintain the integration to ensure that it is working correctly. Update the integration as needed to reflect changes in your business processes or software versions.
Synchronizing your CAD workflow with your ERP requires careful planning, selection of appropriate integration tools, and thorough testing to ensure that the integration is working correctly. This of course has already been achieved by Esko and Aicomp.
Esko’s CAD solutions integrated into Aicomp’s industry-specific ERP solution
One-Up & Multi-Up shortly explained
One-up refers to the ability to create a single design on a sheet or layout. This feature allows designers to focus on creating a single design that meets the specific requirements of a particular project. One-up functionality is commonly used in various industries where a single design is sufficient, such as in architectural or mechanical engineering design.
Multi-up refers to the ability to create multiple copies of a design on a single sheet or layout. This feature allows designers to optimize their designs and increase the efficiency of their production process by fitting as many designs as possible onto a single sheet. Multi-up functionality is commonly used in the printing and packaging industries, where maximizing the use of materials can lead to cost savings and increased profitability.
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Specializing in ERP solutions specifically designed for the packaging industry, Aicomp is a top provider of complex SAP variant configurations and SAP cloud solutions. Esko, as a market leader in the industry, offers end-to-end solutions for the packaging production process, ranging from prepress to finished products. Depending on customer’s needs, Esko’s best practice solutions may include various products for packaging development, such as ArtiosCAD and WebCenter, which comes with data management and approval processes, as well as prepress solutions like ArtPro+ and Automation Engine.
Aicomp also contributes to this portfolio with its complete software solution package, which includes the SAP-ERP Add-on VCPowerPack for product configuration and real-time calculation, SAP S/4HANA, and SAP Sales Cloud from the SAP C/4HANA portfolio for customer relationship management (CRM). These solutions offer highlights such as automated price calculations, offer preparations, and the determination of the optimal production routing for each individual project.
Currently, the standard covers single product (one-up) definitions and multi-component (multi-up) definitions in terms of the same sense, and additional developments are continuously being invested in to cover a larger scope. These developments include assembled sets, separation articles (multiple products on one sheet), which are applicable to both folding carton and corrugated packaging.
The standard solution offers three different levels of integration data.
The first level is the project header, in addition to standard header information such as customer, delivery address, and quantity, it also holds the status of the project and integration. The status is used to control the use of the integration throughout the full process,
The CAD product level defines the product, including its style, size, materials, and score definitions. The manufacturing level is dependent on the product type and contains the overall sheet size for production. Each component requires a mandatory single level, and the multi-level manufacturing level is used for all die cut products.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the integration of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) environment can provide significant benefits for businesses in terms of improving efficiency, accuracy, and productivity while reducing errors and lead times.
The general solution for integrating CAD in an ERP environment involves analyzing business requirements, choosing an integration method, mapping data and workflows, implementing integration, and maintaining and monitoring the integration. The Esko and Aicomp solutions offers a more comprehensive and industry-specific approach integrating CAD in an ERP environment, specifically for the printing and packaging industry.
Stay up to date
Aicomp has been recognized for its expertise in the industry and has hosted events such as the Aicomp Summit, where they showcase their latest products and services. The Summit brings together professionals in the packaging industry to discuss trends, challenges, and solutions to common issues. Aicomp’s commitment to innovation and excellence has earned them a reputation as a trusted partner in the packaging industry.
For more information, on demand access to all recordings and the latest updates around the CAD integration and further topics register on the website summit.aicomp.com.
