Versatility with Autodesk Inventor Helps Molins Tobacco Machinery Get Closer to Customers
Digital prototypes shared across the globe help designers respond to user demand
“All designers dream of being inventors,” says engineering manager, Edward Salter of Molins Tobacco Machinery. “However, they sometimes have to be reined in by the practicalities of making something work in the real world. In the case of designing machinery, it’s easy to become remote from the operators on the factory floor.”
Salter is talking about the advantages of Molins’ latest investments – Autodesk Inventor manufacturing design software and Autodesk Productstream design data management solution. Using Inventor images in DWF format, digital prototypes of Molins’ machines can be shared with colleagues, partners and clients across the globe for their input and comments.
“For example” he continues, “we have engineers out in customers’ factories servicing our machines. They are really experienced in what works on a day-to-day basis and what doesn’t. It’s great to be able to send them the design in progress and ask ‘what do you think?’. “This process has been employed successfully on the development of our new cigarette maker ‘Octave.’ The service engineers had some great feedback and as result, we end up with a machine that’s a lot better because of it,” he says.
Global expansion
Not many companies have a history as long and colourful as Molins. It began in Cuba in 1874, when Jose S Molins began making cigars and hand-rolling cigarettes in Havana. He first moved to the US and then to London and in 1911, his two sons began to make packaging machines and then, ten years later, patented the first cigarette making machine. Among the company’s inventions was the hinge-lid cigarette pack which stopped the contents being damaged as they often were with soft packs.
After experiencing periods of great success and global expansion, followed by times of diversification, acquisition and consolidation, today Molins retains major positions in a number of market areas. Through the businesses that make up its three divisions, packaging machinery, tobacco machinery and scientific services, it continues to provide leading engineering solutions and service to a wide range of multi-national and local customers.
As Paul Lewis, systems and resources administrator, explains, the tobacco machinery site previously only used Pro/Engineer for design, but a few years ago decided to invest in 14 seats of Inventor and one of Inventor Professional to use alongside its existing software. “Inventor has really matured over the past few years and it now has most of the functionality we need – yet it is quicker to learn and easier to use and at a far more realistic price.”
“One of the advantages of using it is that since Autodesk’s alliance with PTC, we can import Pro/E models into Inventor – so, although we have two separate systems, it’s no problem.
“We’re an international company with complex partnerships and relationships. For example, we work closely with a partner, TMQS based in Germany and our machines and parts are now produced in the Czech Republic – so it’s vital to use software that is interoperable with others. We also find it works well with Solid Works too, which I used at our Brazilian office.”
As he describes, over the years market demands have changed. “Our latest machine is only the second or third we’ve designed completely from scratch in CAD and the first machine to be designed solely in Inventor.
“The machine we are replacing had around 15,000 components, but the trend these days is for simplification and designing machines with fewer parts to go wrong. The latest one, Octave, has around 5,500 parts – so it’s still a complex machine.”
As Engineering Manager, Salter is personally more involved with the business benefits of using Inventor than the day to day efficiencies. “But, I have particularly noticed Inventor’s simulation capabilities which enable designers to replicate the motion of the machine in real life,” he says.
“This enables them to test the mechanical aspects of the machinery, as well as check for design clashes.”
But it is really Inventor’s cross-disciplinary use that impresses him the most. “Our salesmen have DWF viewers so they can download the Inventor model and show it to the client and get direct feedback – ‘I don’t like this, but I do like that’ and so on. Customers can react directly with the digital prototype.
“We’re getting feedback straight from, say, a production facility in Egypt, which can go directly to the engineer who designed the machine or part. You don’t get much more responsive than that.”
In order to improve workflow efficiencies further, Molins has recently also invested in Autodesk’s incremental data management solution Productstream.
“We like the idea that we can share data in real time. For example, the team at TMQS in Germany producing 30% of the Octave machine. Once the data they need is ready they can pick it up off from Productstream and off they go with it. Likewise, our production facility in the Czech Republic.
“It’s going to improve communication between the various departments, enabling concurrent design and better integration of parts and assemblies. I think this is going to be a really powerful tool.”
“Molins has previously been a multi-solution organisation – using what it considers to be the best tool for the job in hand,” says John Jervis of Midas Technology, the Autodesk reseller working with Molins. “Now, having experienced the versatility of the latest version of Inventor – and how it enables users to create and share digital prototypes, they tell me this could change.
“Once Productstream is fully implemented, these benefits will increase further.”
“Our new strategy is all about efficiencies and doing things the cleverest and most innovative way possible, rather than the most involved and complicated,” says Salter. “Inventor suits this way of working perfectly.”
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