Case Study Van Beek Page 1 of 2

Explicit Modeling in Use at Van Beek Conveys

Quality and Flexibility

Van Beek, Drunen, Netherlands

Superior quality and very short lead times are essential in Van Beek’s
business. The company’s stainless steel screw conveyors, which link
production stages together, are an indispensable part of manufactur-
ing lines. When assembling production lines, companies generally
order custom conveyor systems last. That in turn creates immense
pressure on Van Beek to deliver high-quality products within tight
lead times. As such, the company uses a highly automated logistical
process to produce efficient quotations, optimal customer support,
and an aligned supplier network.
Dutch-based Van Beek further improved performance by introducing
3D CAD and PDM to its environment. To remain ahead of the
competition it was necessary to improve product designs, raise
quality, and cut lead times and costs. This involved driving product
development from conception to completion by working flexibly and
fast on evolving design specifications. Moreover, Van Beek needed
an approach to product design that helped them to excel in speed.
The ability to quickly show design concepts to their clients was
considered to be very important.
Van Beek has some 70 years of experience and employs 30 people of
which 8 engineers manage around 1200 customer projects each year.
Each project consists of several screw conveyors.

The Challenge:
• Derive 3D representations of design projects quickly
• Effectively work on evolving design specifications
• Reduce lead times with better efficiency and factory performance
• Increase quality for best competitive advantage

The Solution:
• CoCreate Modeling
• CoCreate Model Manager

The Results: “The explicit modeling approach has proven to

• 50% faster design and 90% cut in data size in explorative design
projects.
• Unforeseen changes are easily incorporated late in the design
process
• Explicit modeling approach can quickly change existing geometry
to reflect the new specs of the new project.
• Error-free customer designs and better products by moving to 3D
• Increased control of business process - availability of the right
data at the right time
be very fast for us. Even after many iterations of
design changes the models can be handled by
anybody in the team. All our unexpected changes
could easily be incorporated into the models”
Marten Verhoeven
Head of ICT
Van Beek BV
Case Study Van Beek Page 2 of 2

Van Beek focuses its production entirely on producing high-quality

products within short lead times. Its ERP system is a home-built
solution that supports rapid production of quotes, provides direct
insight into order status, facilitates purchasing, and controls produc-
tion. In fact, the ERP system unifies all the company’s business data,
no matter the actual source.

To cut lead time further and assure quality, Van Beek migrated its
customized 2D software to 3D explicit CAD and PDM. With 3D CAD,
the company hoped to increase response times with the customer,
handle unforeseen changes at each stage of product development,
and with increased speed and flexibility produce error-free designs.
As a result, the company reasoned, 3D CAD would streamline
engineering and limit production stops in the factory.

“We started our search with 3D looking at PDM at the same time,”
says Marten Verhoeven, Head of ICT at Van Beek BV. “PDM-evalua-
tion followed immediately so implementation could be done
simultaneously.”

Verhoeven looked closely at the practical usability of a parametric
based application as well as the explicit modeling approach to 3D
product development.
Verhoeven quickly found that the CoCreate explicit modeling ap-
proach to 3D product development was better suited to their needs,
as the company is primarily interested in deriving a design quickly
without creating or maintaining a recipe of parametric design fea-
tures that produce that geometry. “Since we have to cope with con-
stantly changing input from our clients we needed a system that
supports our need to incorporate a huge amount of unforeseeable
changes,” says Verhoeven.
Verhoeven and his team spent quite some time to evaluate the com-
peting modeling approaches. “In a pilot–project, we started to proc-
ess customer orders, which is the best way to evaluate an engineer-
ing application,” explains Verhoeven. “The explicit modeling ap-
proach has proven to be very fast for us. Even after many iterations
of design changes the models can be handled by anybody in the
team. All our unexpected changes could easily be incorporated into
the models”, summarizes Verhoeven. Needless to say, the engineers
at Van Beek did not have to spend any time to think about building
intelligent models – they simply explored their various design alter-
natives by freely interacting with the geometry directly.
The final implementation is so well integrated, engineers do every-
thing from quotation to delivery using only the CoCreate Modeling
interface. They add metadata and CoCreate Model Manager adds
production-specific data from CoCreate Modeling.
The company’s ERP system can fully access the data. Bills of material
are fully synchronized including support for long lead items. “Pur-
chase orders for our supply network are based on the bills of mate-
rial,” says Verhoeven. “The system automatically provides the right
data from CoCreate Model Manager.”
Drawings are generated automatically, including all annotation, DXF,
and PDF files.
“CoCreate Modeling and CoCreate Model Manager streamline the
Van Beek business process and meet the demands for improved
quality and reduced lead times while keeping personnel happy. “Our
engineers are very fast and highly flexible in evolving their 3D based
designs.”

Van Beek also found that CoCreate Modeling was an ideal choice
when an existing design was to be the starting point for a new crea-
tive design project. The explicit modeling approach allowed them to
quickly change the existing geometry to reflect the new specs of the
new project.

Van Beek decided to invest in CoCreate Modeling. “We implemented

CoCreate Model Manager along with CoCreate Modeling to be sure
of accurate data management.” says Verhoeven. “This is important
to Van Beek’s processes because the ERP-system relies on the avail-
ability of the right data at the right time.”

© 2008 Parametric Technology GmbH (a subsidiary of Parametric Technology Corporation), All Rights
Reserved. Information described herein is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without
notice, and should not be construed as a guarantee, commitment, condition or offer by PTC. PTC, the PTC
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