With continuous growth in the manufacturing process, the KROHNE Group has developed a growing data volume with more than 250,000 items and approximately 550,000 project or design-relevant documents and information. „It is not easy to manage this quantity organizationally, especially since the data is not only managed by us but also managed, edited or documented across departments and locations,“ said CAD/PLM administrator Jürgen Schmidetzki.

The centerpiece of international engineering at this specialist in industrial process instru-mentation is the product lifecycle manage-ment solution keytech PLM, which is used at more than ten KROHNE production plants and makes the complex and cross-site data management easy, reliable and transparent and guarantees permanent high data security and quality.

Customer Report

keytech PLM at KROHNE: The Heart of International Engineering“Measure the facts“

„keytech already offers a comprehensive portfolio of functions for product data and product life cycle management“ says Jürgen Schmidetzki

KROHNE: Solutions for Industrial Process InstrumentationWhether flow, level, pressure and tempera-ture measurement or liquid analysis, from the chemical, mining or water industry, through power plant construction and oil production to food production, KROHNE‘s measuring technology is used worldwide. Since the founding of the company more than 100 years ago the KROHNE Group has become a worldwide leading producer and supplier of solutions for industrial process instrumen-tation. The family-run company with head-quarters in Duisburg has 17 production sites in 12 countries - 45 operating subsidiaries and joint ventures as well as 55 exclusive

representatives support customers all over the world. A total of over 3,600 employees are employed. “Both the absolute reliability of the measured values and the exact process diagnostics contribute to an impro-ved process management and thus enable our customers to increase efficiency in process and product technology processes,“ explains Claudia Kontny, team leader for IT applications at KROHNE. At the same time, however, this also means ever more complex requirements for the development, design and production of measurement products as well as a constantly increasing range of items through the further development and improvement of the product portfolio.

Data Management of 250,000 Items and 550,000 DocumentsWith continuous growth in the manufacturing process, the KROHNE Group has developed a growing data volume with more than 250,000 items and approximately 550,000 project or design-relevant documents and information. „It is not easy to manage this amount organizationally and it is a major challenge with regard to data quality and security, redundancy, continuity of processes and structures, or standardization of inter-national release and reporting processes. And last but not least, the amount of work for our employees was tremendous, especially since the data are not only managed by us, but also managed, modified or documented in different departments and locations, „says Jürgen Schmidetzki, who is responsible for CAD/PLM at KROHNE, Administration.

KROHNE Group: Milestones, Company, Products

• 1921 Ludwig Krohne starts manufacturing variable area flowmeters in Duisburg.

• The rise to one of the leading companies in flow measuring devices

• Specialist in solutions for industrial process instrumentation• More than 3,600 employees, turnover around € 512 million

(2015) worldwide more than 17 production facilities in 12 countries, 45 KROHNE-operated subsidiaries and joint ventures

• Products: Process instrumentation, services and complete solutions for flow, level, temperature and pressure measure-ment, gas and steam measurement as well as analysis measurement technology

• Main sectors: oil and gas, water and wastewater, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages as well as mining and shipping

In addition to a CAD and ERP system, professional document management soft-ware has long been one of the components of the IT landscape at this specialist for industrial process instrumentation technology.

International User Group decides on the Selection of a PLM SolutionOver the years, however, this system has increasingly reached the limits of its functio-nality, so in Duisburg the decision has been made to reevaluate the area of PDM (product data management). An international circle of users from KROHNE Group locations in Germany, France, England and the

Netherlands analyzed the market together - with the main selection criteria being:

• Operability, stability, data security, multi-location capability

• Deep integration into M-CAD and E-CAD as well as the ERP system

• Item-based data organization, mapping of cross-departmental work-flows (for example, in change manage-ment)

• Storage of 2D/3D design data as well as any other documents

• Seamless transfer of the entire legacy database

Jürgen Schmidetzki on making the decision to go with the PLM system of keytech Software GmbH from Recklinghausen: „In direct comparison with the competitor‘s solutions together with the test runs, keytech PLM emerged as a clear favorite with reference to the all essential selection points as the optimal software for our company: Standard functional scope and the high flexibility for company-specific adaptations through the user-friendliness of the product up to the industry and project competence as well as the dialog capability of keytech employees.“ keytech PLM was first intro-duced at the head office in Duisburg with a clearly defined plan following training and transfer of data, documents and parts lists from the old system and subsequently it was introduced at the international production facilities of the KROHNE Group in Dordrecht (NL), Romans (F) and Malmö (S). keytech is currently being implemented in Wellingborough (GB).

Coriolis flowmeters are versatile for liquids and gases and measure directly the mass of the flowing fluid

keytech PLM as The Heart of KROHNE International EngineeringAccess to technical, design and project- relevant data or documents in a globally operating company such as the KROHNE Group with production sites spread around the world challenged those responsible in the implementation phase with a difficult task: „This was not just about the central management or organization of information from the numerous IT systems such as CAD, CAM, CAE or ERP/PPS into the new PLM system. Different languages had to be taken into account when setting up a com-plete workflow as well as country-specific nuances and processes. At the same time, it was crucial for quick acceptance of the soft-ware by the employees that, for example, site-specific structures in the production lines

and complex design or release processes could be depicted or adapted in keytech,“ said Christoph Olschewski, CAD/PLM administrator at KROHNE.

Management and Control of the Entire Product Life CycleFrank Schlupp, keytech sales manager: „With keytech PLM, the users at KROHNE manage and control all the workflows of the entire product life cycle - from the first product idea and prototyping through the design with the exchange of E-CAD and M-CAD data, production planning and manufacturing through to testing phases and the creation of documentation or manage-ment manuals for the customer: Cross-site, continuous and deeply integrated into the company-wide CAD or ERP systems.“ There are now around 900 users working in more than ten KROHNE production plants with keytech PLM. The central keytech database with all design and project-relevant data, for example of items and parts lists, is installed at the headquarters in Duisburg. Related files such as 3D models or 2D drawings and documents such as PDF, TIFF, Microsoft Office or email messages are replicated between sites and are always visible in the current version.

Change Management affects the Value ChainThe continuous development and improve-ment of process measurement technology products in the KROHNE Group not only places high demands on data management and organization, but also directly affects process and data security.

CAD/PLM Administrators at KROHNE: Christoph Olschewski (l) and Jürgen Schmidetzki (r).

Contact AddressesAuthor

Matthias Holzapfel Johannesstrasse 51 78056 Villingen-SchwenningenGermanyTel.: + 49 7720-959096 Email: redaktion@maxximum-pr.de

KROHNE Messtechnik GmbH

Jürgen Schmidetzki Ludwig-Krohne-Strasse 547058 DuisburgGermanyTel.: + 49 203-3010 Email: info.de@krohne.comInternet: www.krohne.de

keytech Software GmbHDaniela GalikSuderwichstrasse 68 45665 RecklinghausenGermanyTel.: +49 2361 985 80 0Email: info@keytech.deInternet: www.keytechplm.com

According to Jürgen Schmidetzki: „Who, what, when and why: Any change to an item has to be comprehensively documented and assigned without a doubt. With the mapping of our own process chain in keytech, we have now established an automated workflow system in change management. As a result, we were able to significantly reduce the previously customary high organizational time and financial costs while increasing the transparency and security of data, structures and processes.“

Basis for the Company-Wide Optimization of all Business ProcessesMulti-CAD support, ERP integration, geo-metric search, office/email integration, project management, BOM management, classification, configuration management, distributed sites or fully integrated document management (DMS) - keytech PLM already offers a comprehensive portfolio of functions for product data and product life cycle management. With regard to the company slogan of the KROHNE Group ‚Measure the Facts’; Jürgen Schmidetzki concludes „keytech is the right solution for us as an overall package of standard function-ality and adaptability of the software, service competence and readiness of the manufac-turer as well as cost aspects. The PLM soft-ware makes our complex and cross-site data management easy, reliable and transparent and guarantees consistently high data secu-rity and quality. keytech PLM has therefore quickly become the heart of our international engineering as the basis for company-wide process and structural optimization.“

KROHNE GroupIn 1921, Ludwig Krohne began production of variable area flowmeters in his workshop in Duisburg - Duisburg is still the main headquarters of the worldwide KROHNE Group. The rise to one of the leading and most innovative companies in flow measu-ring devices began in 1949 when the grandson of the company founder, Kristian Rademacher-Dubbick, joined the company founded the first international branches, The product portfolio was also continuously expanded. Under the leadership of Michael Rademacher-Dubbick and Stephan Neuburger, the KROHNE Group has deve-loped into a manufacturer and supplier of industrial process instrumentation solutions. The family-owned company has 17 produc-tion facilities in 12 countries as well as over 45 KROHNE-operated subsidiaries and joint ventures - employing more than 3,600 people worldwide, the turnover achieved in 2015 was around € 512 million.

keytech Software GmbHkeytech Software GmbH was founded in 1993 and specializes in the optimization of business process within the product lifecycle. With more than 1,000 successful implementations worldwide and more than 30 years experience in software develop-ment, keytech is a leader in the German-speaking PLM market. keytech works with their customers as they integrate their PLM ideas in their company and take into account existing processes during implementation.

As one of only few independent PLM vendors keytech offers a large number of interfaces with well-known CAD programs such as SOLIDWORKS, CATIA, Inventor, Solid Edge, AutoCAD, EPLAN and others. keytech’s years of experience with many ERP connections is the basis for success-fully linking systems. In the past keytech has implemented several interfaces to well-known ERP systems such as SAP, PSI, Microsoft Dynamics, NAV, SIVAS, ABAS and ISSOS. At the beginning of 2010 keytech expanded their portfolio to become a full-value DMS system that enables real-time, interdepartmental access to revision-safe data. With this expansion keytech unified the two worlds of PLM and DMS into one system.

keytech Software GmbHSuderwichstrasse 6845665 RecklinghausenGermanyTel.: +49 2361 985 80 0Fax: +49 2361 985 80 23Email: info@keytech.deInternet: www.keytechplm.com

KROHNE Messtechnik GmbHLudwig-Krohne-Strasse 547058 DuisburgGermanyTel.: +49 203 301 0Fax.: +49 203 301 389Email: info.de@krohne.comInternet: www.krohne.de