According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average American person will produce about 5.91 pounds of trash, with about 1.51 pounds being recycled. Considering there are over 325 million people living in America, that’s a lot of trash. Luckily, we have companies like CP Manufacturing, who has established itself as the world leader in manufacturing advanced systems and equipment for the recycling and waste industries. This includes the design, building, and installation of hundreds of waste recycling facilities and related material separation machinery and equipment worldwide, including the design of the first aluminum-can flatteners and densifiers.
As a leading innovator, CP Manufacturing is known for its superior engineering and technology. As demand for CP’s custom-engineered plants and equipment continues to grow, the need to streamline processes, increase throughput, and expand product development has become critically important for supporting rapid, ongoing growth.
Supporting Rapid Growth
CP Manufacturing’s initial migration from 2D to SOLIDWORKS 3D design resulted in 200 percent faster development cycles. CP’s implementation of SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional and automation achieved via SOLIDWORKS’ Application Programming Interface (API) produced 400 percent faster development cycles, helping support and sustain dramatic growth by the recycling systems manufacturer.
According to Engineering Manager Jason Kerns, “We’ve had to move into a new facility that’s three times as large, we doubled the size of our engineering department, and we dramatically increased product development throughput. With SOLIDWORKS integrated solutions, we’ve been able to support rapid, sustainable growth without missing a beat, primarily because of our ability to automate sales, marketing, design, and production.”
Automating Processes
SOLIDWORKS PDM API has enabled CP Manufacturing to automate many of its product development and manufacturing workflows and tasks. CP has also integrated SOLIDWORKS PDM with its Epicor® enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, for example, to automatically:
- Create SOLIDWORKS models, associated visuals, and equipment lists from data in a sales layout
- Generate DXF® files to drive CP’s laser cutters, press brakes, and water-jet cutters
- Notify electrical engineering whenever BOM changes require motor horsepower modifications
- Upload BOM information directly into CP’s ERP system to drive preproduction planning without manual intervention
Kerns notes, “The flexibility that we enjoy automating processes with the SOLIDWORKS API saves us a ton of time and money.”
Gaining a Competitive Edge
Using both SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional and SOLIDWORKS Composer™ with the Demo3DVR virtual reality (VR) plug-in for SOLIDWORKS enables CP to create compelling photo-realistic visuals and immersive VR-based representations of the company’s recycling facilities for customers and prospects.
This gives CP a clear competitive edge: “The combination of all of our SOLIDWORKS visualization solutions really helps to set us apart,” Kerns notes.
To read more details about using SOLIDWORKS to support rapid, sustained growth, go to https://www.solidworks.com/story/cp-manufacturing-inc.
Have questions about how SOLIDWORKS can help your company increase product development cycle times? Click here and an expert from The SolidExperts will be happy to help!
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