A small South African engineering firm, keeping it local which is there biggest draw card.

Bolt Engineering is a small South African engineering firm that specialises in the design and manufacturing of custom tools, jigs and fixtures for the manufacturing industry.

Founded in 2010, the business started with a single computer in an old sewing room doing CAD design for companies in the automotive and trucking industries. By designing prototypes, production components, moulds and dies, Bolt Engineering built a reputation on offering the best service levels with the fastest lead times possible.

At first, the company outsourced its manufacturing requirements but eventually, the workflow started lagging due to manufacture constraints and limitations. This led to the decision to expand the business and include in-house manufacturing in its service offering.

Today, Bolt Engineering services a range of clients across various industries including, Henred Freuhauf and L&J tools and Engineering as well as numerous manufacturers that form part of Toyota’s supply chain.

At Modena Design Centres we pride ourselves on building strong and meaningful relationships with our customers. Our highly consultative approach ensures we achieve a far deeper understanding of our customers businesses, and the day to day challenges they face. With the knowledge gained our sales team is then able to recommend the appropriate Autodesk technology that Best-fit’s our customer’s requirements.

Equipped with this heightened level of understanding, our knowledgeable and experienced application engineers deliver quality training and implementation solutions. This ensures the customers have the best possible outcome in their adoption of the chosen Autodesk Software Solution.

Our relationship with Bolt Engineering is built firmly on these principles. Our understanding of Bolt’s business conditions and technical requirements allowed us to make a recommendation that satisfied both their financial requirements as well as technical requirements.

The business relationship between Modena and Bolt has developed to a point where we receive numerous qualified social leads. More often than not, these leads result in successful sales.

Designing the machines that build the products around us is a complicated and intricate process. The vehicle manufacturing industry demands an incredibly high level of standards with strict guidelines to adhere to. There is no room for error in any part of its process from design to manufacture.

By utilising the sophisticated CAD and CAM capabilities of Autodesk Fusion 360, Bolt Engineering can now compete in an industry that often looks internationally for cheaper solutions.

“It’s easy for companies to look globally as you can get anything made anywhere” says Richard Hansen, [Managing Member]. “For us it’s about keeping it local and that is our biggest draw card, lead time. The faster we can make something, the more desirable we are to our clients.” By owning the entire process, Bolt Engineering was able to offer a one-stop solution with quick turn-around times.

In such tough global economic conditions, businesses across the board are searching out greater value for the money they spend. “Having the competitive advantage locally, means we can ultimately compete globally,” adds Hansen. “When it comes to manufacturing, we are seeing that our clients prefer to have their suppliers on the ground and close by. It just makes sense for them logistically.”

The cost savings for Bolt Engineering was quite significant compared to the licenses required for the software from which they migrated. When migrating to Autodesk, the company’s annual license fees dropped by a factor of 10x which meant that additional seats could be acquired, thus improving their productivity.

Furthermore, Autodesk’s Fusion 360 featured integration with both the CAD and CAM components the company needs. The cloud-based features of Autodesk Fusion 360 also mean that the company is secured against hardware theft.

With the automatic backup of all project files, the engineers can be up and running from anywhere in the world, they just need a connection to the Internet. By having all of their data in place, the company has saved over 6-man hours per month.

Interestingly, the company has also reduced their printing output by 30% as a result of their improved workflow environment. Another major cost saving for Bolt Engineering was that they no longer needed to purchase costly third-party file readers to import the various file formats sent to them by clients.