Success Story
Magnum Systems is one of North America’s leading designers and manufacturers of material handling and packaging systems for dry bulk materials. The Lenexa, Kansas company works with customers that process a variety of bulk materials including grain, seeds, cereals, sugar, flour, plastic pellets, plastic powder, sand, cement, fly ash, fertilizers, and granulate chemicals.
Magnum Systems was established in 2001, through the merger of the Smoot Company (a pneumatic conveying system manufacturer founded in 1960) and Taylor Products (a well-established dry bulk packaging equipment manufacturer).
The company has been steadily growing, establishing a new facility to house assembly operations; a new location for engineering, project management, sales, and administration; and a technology lab to test customer materials and hold training and seminars.
About five years ago, Magnum Systems adopted 3D CAD technology. That transition went well, but all documents were stored on a server without robust revision control or engineering change order processes.
“All processes were manual and lacking strong controls. For a company to grow and expand, it must eventually explore better options to improve efficiency,” said Anatoly Grushansky, Senior Engineering Manager at Magnum Systems.
Anatoly, Senior Engineering Manager at Magnum Systems, initially met with IMAGINiT to discuss finite element analysis, but the conversation shifted to a higher-level discussion about Magnum Systems’ broader business goals. It became clear that IMAGINiT could help the company achieve its strategic growth objectives through technology and more efficient operations.
Initially, IMAGINiT implemented Autodesk Vault for Magnum Systems. Vault serves as the central repository for Magnum Systems’ engineering drawings. This set the stage for deploying more robust processes for peer review and release of documents, as well as management of engineering change orders.
The Vault project included deployment of Change Orders functionality. This enables Magnum Systems to manage engineering changes in an efficient way and preserve the history of changes in one system of record.
“Our projects are dynamic and our equipment is highly customizable. With Vault, engineering changes are now traceable and visible. This reduces rework and nothing is forgotten,” said Anatoly.
Following the Vault implementation, Magnum Systems engaged with IMAGINiT’s software development services team on a custom programming project designed to streamline interactions between engineering and the fabrication shop.
“Before system fabrication can begin on a customer project, all engineering drawings and relevant documents must be collated and sent to the fabrication team. Historically, the engineering team handled this work manually. For a small project, there might be 20 drawings, but for a large project, there can be as many as 600 drawings. The work was time consuming and tedious,” said Anatoly.
To address this challenge, IMAGINiT developed software functionality that Magnum Systems calls the “magic button.” This sub-routine is integrated with Autodesk Vault, enabling engineers to compile a project drawing package into a PDF with the click of a mouse. The entire process takes ten to fifteen minutes.
“Everyone loves the magic button. The documentation packages are organized and complete. The fabrication team no longer has to sift through documents and ask for additional files. At the same time, the engineering team’s work has become more value-added and efficient. It’s made life easier for everyone,” said Anatoly.
Magnum Systems describes its partnership with IMAGINiT as a success story.
“IMAGINiT’s knowledgeable team of project managers and implementation specialists were very easy to work with and we quickly established an excellent relationship. The team trained 14 of our engineers, as well as our fabrication shop personnel on Vault and the magic button. In addition, the customer service and response times have been great,” said Anatoly.
In the weeks and months since the Vault and magic button deployment, the company has seen a variety of benefits. The engineering team has dramatically streamlined its processes and eliminated wasted time.
On an average project with 350 drawings, the magic button saves around two days of work (16 hours) for an engineer. At any given time, Magnum Systems has six to seven projects running in parallel, so the time savings for the engineering team are significant.
Faster generation of document packages also improves the efficiency of the fabrication team. Before the magic button, this group would often be idle, waiting for project documents and drawings from engineering. That no longer happens.
Based on the success of these initiatives, Magnum Systems plans to work with IMAGINiT to migrate its Industrial Automated Control System group to Vault in the next few months with future plans to connect Vault with its Made2Manage ERP system.
“Thanks to our work with IMAGINiT, we are achieving our goals for growth and expansion. We can finish projects faster and our communication with customers has improved. With Vault, up-to-date project information is organized and easy to access,” said Anatoly
Project summary
Duration & delivery
Autodesk solutions
Services provided
Customer industry
C2AE Trusts IMAGINiT with BIM Management Services
For several years, the Building division within C2AE successfully followed a BIM-management-by-committee approach to making decisions on procedures, standards, and best practices. The company’s designers and engineers would meet in person or online, discuss the options, and determine next steps. As the company’s team grew in size and experience level, coming to a consensus became more difficult. C2AE recognized the need to select one person to be the point person responsible for gathering and evaluating all the opinions and deciding which to select and implement.
Swinterton Delivers Value and Achieves ROI with Leica RTC360 Scanner
When renovating buildings, Swinerton starts with as-built measurements provided by clients. Because those drawings rarely include updates, Swinerton relied on their architects to manually measure spaces, put those measurements into Autodesk Revit, and provide PDFs of the information to the designers, who used them as the starting point for renovations. Swinerton started getting laser scans of structures at the beginning of renovation projects using external companies to perform the scanning. “The laser scanners led to great improvements,” said Matt Zwetzig, VD&C Manager, Swinerton. “Measurements were gathered in a fraction of the time, teams knew they were working with accurate information, plans were created faster, correct parts were ordered the first time, and the parts fit as expected.” With business growing and timelines shortening, Matt determined it was time to compare costs for hiring external providers versus purchasing a scanner and completing the work in house.
Massilly North America Automates Processes with Fusion 360 Manage
In 2015, Massilly North America reached out to Autodesk for support on their product lifecycle management (PLM) software, Fusion 360 Manage (previously known as Autodesk PLM 360), which is critical to the company’s day-to-day operations. Autodesk connected Massilly North America with IMAGINiT, and the IMAGINiT PLM team answered questions on specific issues, consulted on workflow improvements, and shared best practices.
Contact Partner Finder for help using the online search tool and more. The Autodesk Assistant can help with Autodesk products, answer questions, or send you to an agent.
Partner Finder Terms of Use
By accessing and using Partner Finder, you acknowledge and agree to the following Additional Terms as referenced in the Website Terms of Use: (i) Partner Finder may be modified, updated, interrupted, limited, suspended, or discontinued at any time without notice or liability; (ii) any query or request for information regarding a specific provider or provider services may be forwarded to that provider, however Autodesk in its discretion may retain a record to conduct business analytics to improve Partner Finder and other Autodesk products and services; (iii) Autodesk has no obligation to enforce any terms on your behalf against another user; and (iv) any feedback you provide in connection with a provider, including ratings or reviews, is a non-confidential “Submission” as defined in the Website Terms of Use. You are advised to conduct your own independent analysis and assessment of any information provided by or though Partner Finder, including whether a selected provider is appropriate for your particular circumstances. Without limiting the Website Terms of Use, Autodesk does not warrant, endorse, guarantee, or assume responsibility for any service advertised or offered by a provider through Partner Finder or any hyperlinked website or service. Autodesk is not liable for the content of this site, or for the consequences of any actions you may take based on information provided by, or through, this site. You release Autodesk and its affiliates and subsidiaries from all liability arising from your use of Partner Finder, including any hyperlinked website, service, or content.
Translation tool disclaimer
This page has been translated for your convenience using a machine translation service. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation; however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace human translators. As a result, this translation may contain errors and inaccuracies. Autodesk provides no warranties, either express or implied, about the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of the machine translation and disclaims all liability for any losses or damages caused by, or resulting from your reliance on, this translation. The English version of this website is the official version.
