Cutting costs and time... for electrical design!

QM Systems Ltd, an innovative, multi-disciplined bespoke automation company, is one of the most recent adopters of EPLAN’s Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software package, which since its introduction to the UK market over 20 years ago, has been put to the test for a plethora of engineering projects by firms ranging from sole traders to multinationals, in industry sectors ranging from automotive and railway systems to oil and gas, and power engineering.

Multi-disciplinary design and manufacturing

QM Systems is a dynamic, multi-faceted business with a wide-ranging client base drawn from many industries including automotive, rail, food, aerospace, packaging and automation. The company prides itself in being the “go to” turnkey solutions provider for applications that involve the most demanding requirements. 

With a design and manufacturing pedigree spanning three decades, QM Systems and its team of more than 25 multi-disciplined permanent engineers has, over the years, used several different computer aided engineering (CAE) and computer aided design (CAD) packages. However, in recent times, customer demand for designs to be carried out using EPLAN software has led the company to shift its strategy and adopt EPLAN Electric P8 and the EPLAN Data Portal.

A versatile and capable electrical engineering design program

“We were very happy to go with this system because it allows us to work more quickly and efficiently, streamlining the design process and supporting the build process”, said Leigh Hollamby, Operations Director at QM Systems. “We also had several customers that specifically requested EPLAN designs and documentation. We switched to EPLAN in 2015 and this has completely updated the way we design and manufacture.”

As QM Systems manages the entire execution of projects from design to completion, the engineering team required a sustainable CAE system that can help increase productivity and provide designs to clients’ specifications. EPLAN Electric P8 is a versatile and capable electrical engineering design software program that offers an exceptionally wide range of options for planning, documentation, and management of automation projects.

Ken Christie, UK Director at EPLAN, says, “We believe that in order to meet our customers’ needs and requirements now and well into the future, we first need to understand their business processes and workflows so that we can offer exactly the right solutions for their business. By following this approach, EPLAN customers are guaranteed to profit from increased efficiency in the product development process through standardised procedures, automated sequences and consistent workflows.”

For QM Systems, EPLAN’s professional services consultants initially visited the company to find out what level of CAE software was needed to achieve its goals. It became evident that the first step to an optimised engineering process was the implementation of EPLAN Electric P8, together with an EPLAN Fluid add-on module.

Significantly reduce design time

“It’s all about the way EPLAN Electric P8 is structured – this is what makes it so easy to use. The way it produces drawings is very intuitive and it integrates seamlessly. As a result, we’re accelerating not only our electrical design work but also our purchasing and manufacturing processes”, explained Leigh Hollamby. “It has consistent libraries that we can use in our designs, which saves us so much time! Following EPLAN’s lead, we are now also creating our own bespoke libraries, which will further reduce design time as well as virtually eliminating the risk of human error.”

Building a library of design templates and creating robust design processes that work for specific projects is a challenge that all engineering companies face, however EPLAN provides users with an efficient pathway for implementing the most robust construction methods by creating a library of knowledge modules that will serve as an invaluable resource for future projects. By using proven and tested library modules, engineers can achieve error-free designs and enhance the quality of a product. In addition, by using these validated design paths, project managers can considerably shorten the time it takes to complete a project by minimising individual engineering.

According to QM Systems, EPLAN Electric P8 has halved the time spent on completing designs. And just as impressive, the clarity of information produced is second to none, which means that the manufacturing team is also reaping big benefits.

In the two years since QM Systems adopted EPLAN Electric P8, the company has seen a systematic improvement in its templates and schematics. Furthermore, the team has changed the way it designs projects in order to do as much as possible through EPLAN Electric P8, making the company’s processes integrate more easily.

The EPLAN Electric P8 CAE package supports schematic pages, macro variant technology with placeholders, wire numbering and device numbering. It also has additional modules producing single line drawings and for managing revisions. It has the ability to automatically connect, mend or break connections between devices and track changes made during the project cycle. All the data can then be passed to production and maintenance personnel in convenient formats.

"The more you use EPLAN, the more time and money you save!"

QM Systems also found that another key benefit of adopting EPLAN Electric P8 was the reduction of checking and vetting of designs, with the automation functions creating seamless design during the project, and saving time throughout the lifecycle of a job.

In addition to EPLAN Electric P8, QM Systems has full access to the EPLAN Data Portal – which is a great benefit to its team of engineers.  The newly enhanced EPLAN Data Portal is a collaborative web-based platform with major manufacturers of electrical, mechanical, fluidic and pneumatic components – the number of manufacturers is increasing constantly, but currently stands at over 180 and includes the likes of ABB, B&R, Mitsubishi Electric, Omron, Phoenix Contact, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Siemens and Weidmuller to name a few.

At present, the EPLAN Data Portal provides data for more than 750,000 devices and more than 1.2 million configurable variants, spanning electro-technical equipment ranging from drives and PLCs to emergency stop switches and circuit breakers as well as mechanical, fluidic and pneumatic devices. The portal provides dimensional data for the devices, which can be directly used via drag-and-drop in EPLAN software or imported into other CAE software in DXF format to produce layout drawings.

Using the EPLAN Data Portal, with its ready access to dependable data, significantly reduces project engineering time, resulting in consistent cost savings. Another key benefit is that the often costly and sometimes potentially dangerous problems that can occur when working with out-of-date component data are eliminated.

So it is no wonder that QM Systems is now thinking about adopting even more EPLAN solutions because, in Leigh Hollamby’s words: “The more you use EPLAN, the more money and time you save on your electrical design!”