Ventilex with Cadac on the road to Configure to Order

Ventilex develops and manufactures drying systems for customers all over the world. To cope with the expected growth, the company will make substantial investments in the coming years. The premises in Heerde in the province of Gelderland will be substantially expanded, modernised and made more sustainable. The first phase in further automation has already been completed together with Cadac. Vault Professional PDM Best Practice has been running since the beginning of this year. 'It is crucial to keep a full grip on the information flow around engineering and production,' says operational director Ernst Dijkstra.

With over 100 employees and a broad customer base in Europe, Asia and the US, Ventilex is one of the larger manufacturers of specialised drying equipment. 'We have an excellent reputation,' says Ernst Dijkstra, brought in a year ago to prepare the company for a growth spurt. 'We design and build to order, quality and service are our trademark. To maintain and further strengthen our position, we will make the necessary changes. Eventually, we will make the shift from Engineering to Order to Configure to Order. Now we design every installation from scratch, so to speak. This process needs to be designed more efficiently. With a configurator, we can act much faster.'

That configurator is still in the future, but an important first step has already been taken with Vault Professional PDM. 'That process had already been started before my arrival,' Ernst Dijkstra stresses, 'but progress was affected by customer projects. Customer projects and tenders were, understandably, frequently given priority. Drawing was still done in 2D, revision management was, besides planning, a big challenge. Naturally, this also translated to procurement and the shop floor. In consultation with the people at Cadac, we therefore created a tight work plan and prioritised the installation of PDM.'

Ventilex freed up a project manager to work with Cadac consultant Justin Belt. 'We approached this job according to our Best Practice approach,' explains Mischa Mulder, account manager at Cadac. 'Together we mapped out exactly what needed to be done, made a proposal and discussed it with the management. After agreement, we then familiarised a team of key users with the new software and set-up of PDM for Ventilex. Concrete customer use cases serve as a guideline for this. It then immediately becomes clear where certain bottlenecks and issues lie and what the working method is. We then trained the other engineers and work planners. In January, within schedule and budget, we went live'.

The main changes are the switch from 2D to 3D engineering and the digital storage of all documents. In fact, only one version of each drawing exists. A relief,' says Ernst Dijkstra. 'Everyone works with the same programmes and has access to the same information. If an engineer is absent, someone else takes over effortlessly. We can already see that we are getting a better grip on the processes.

By engineering in 3D, you can immediately see which components and parts we need. After final approval of a design or part thereof, the parts lists are sent to our ERP system, Ridder IQ, which we have linked to Vault. Buyers can then get straight down to work and we make contact with our suppliers. It is important that they also anticipate orders. This gives us more control over the overall process and production planning and a much better insight into ongoing projects.

In the future, we want to optimise the workflow, improve efficiency and plan more tightly. We steer strongly towards predictability. More stability is nice for us and the customer. With PDM, we have taken a first important step.' 

Follow-up steps are being discussed with Cadac. 'There are several options,' says Mischa Mulder, 'including in the area of CPQ. Both in industry and construction, digital developments are moving very fast. Our job is to come up with solutions, together with the customer. That is more than supplying software, we help customers realise their digitalisation strategy. We have been working at Ventilex for over ten years. First with CAD and Organice, now one step further with PDM; a working method to secure knowledge and information. We encapsulated this in a project that was manageable for Ventilex, which we then brought to a successful conclusion together with Ventilex. We are happy to support with new steps. Of course, we are then happy to cooperate with other parties such as, in this case, Ridder.'

Ventilex has the wind at its back, although uncertainty about developments anno 2022 in Ukraine is also causing unrest in Heerde. In the workshop, two installations for Ukraine happen to be finalised. Two more Russian orders are also in production. 'Yes, we are definitely worried,' says Ernst Dijkstra. 'Eastern Europe is a big sales market. Let's hope it doesn't really escalate. Apart from that, we need to innovate. The market is changing, speed is becoming more and more of an issue. That is why we need to grow towards Configure to Order. A system that allows us to make faster quotations, quotations that we know we can fulfil with existing components. In addition, there will always be part customisation.' For this, a well-managed, underlying library with the various combination options and available components is indispensable. 'With this, we can work modularly and lay the basis for standardisation with a configurator. This allows us to compile installations together with the customer and quickly produce realistic quotations and better planning. That is what we want: to do more with the current workforce and spend less time on document management and planning. With this PDM system, we are taking an important step. Of course, certain customisation remains possible. Our own lab with test centre is dedicated to testing special installations. We will continue to do so.