Autodesk Milbank
2016-06-08
: Guides Milbank milbank success pdf asi
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“What impresses me most about our Autodesk
manufacturing solution is its ability to capture
the knowledge of a designer and put 95% of it
into the program. This means training time goes
down, errors are virtually eliminated, and we
no longer have to manually check drawings
for accuracy.”
David Costin
Group Design Manager
Milbank Floors
Building Foundation for Growth
Milbank Floors Doubles Production with Existing Staff
using Autodesk Intent
Project Summary
Milbank Floors, a U.K. based manufacturer
of high-quality, precast concrete products,
is using a manufacturing solution based on
Autodesk Intent™ and AutoCAD® to increase
effi ciencies, reduce errors, and dramatically boost
production. The solution has reliably replaced
error-prone manual processes that once cost the
company thousands of pounds a week. With new
effi ciencies in its engineer-to-order (ETO) process,
Milbank has easily expanded its production
capacity, enabling the company to grow
signifi cantly over the past several years. Using its
Autodesk manufacturing solution, Milbank has
been able to:
• Double production capacity without increasing
headcount
• Complete processes that once took nearly a day
in just a few minutes
• Eliminate errors that previously cost several
thousands of pounds a week
• Train new staff 85% faster
• Enhance revenue by over 35%
The Challenge: Speed ETO Process,
Reduce Training
When Milbank set its sights on increasing capacity
and growing operations, it knew that it had
to update its ETO process. The company was
performing many tasks manually—such as using
a pen and paper to dimension the hollowcore
units Milbank produces. These manual processes
could lead to errors and required highly trained
personnel to execute. “Our previous processes
were very cumbersome and error-prone,” says
David Costin, Group Design Manager for Milbank.
“We needed to eradicate errors and institute a
more seamless design process.”
Achieving growth without increasing its staff
was also a high priority for Milbank—one that
presented its own set of problems. “Few people
know how to make hollowcore fl oor planks—and
it’s rare that we ever have two planks that
are identical. Each one has to be individually
engineered for a specifi c job,” adds Costin. “We
have to train all of our engineers from scratch. It
took us six months to make newly hired engineers
reasonably competent and eighteen months to
make them good.”
Milbank Floors
Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions
Customer Success Story
Autodesk Intent™
AutoCAD®
The Solution: Engineering Intelligence
Streamlines Design, Reduces Errors
Milbank had almost given up hope of addressing
its software challenges when Design Automation
Systems (DAS), an Autodesk reseller, proposed
an Autodesk Intent/AutoCAD-based solution.
AutoCAD, the industry’s standard CAD tool,
provides the ease of learning and use that Milbank
needs, while Autodesk Intent captures Milbank’s
expert engineering knowledge. DAS provided
customization services as part of its solution
specifi cation, giving Milbank the exact solution it
needed. By integrating engineering specifi cations,
design intelligence, and rules upfront, the
Autodesk manufacturing solution is easier for
less trained personnel to use. “The Autodesk
Intent/AutoCAD solution has enabled us to put
our accumulated wisdom about what you can and
cannot do in a design into the software,” says
Jeremy Milbank, Technical Director for Milbank.
“As a result, designers with less training and
experience are more productive.”
With its Autodesk Intent/AutoCAD solution,
Milbank is creating all drawings for its fl oors,
producing delivery tickets, splitting orders into
loads, and providing sequences for loading an
installation. In addition, the company uses the
solution to lay the mould out as well as output
delivery labels, loading tickets, and mould plans.
Bills of materials are automated and the factory
fl oor gets the drawings it needs to manufacture
quickly.
Rather than manually drawing every single
element on a plank—such as the marks for service
pipes and columns—Milbank’s engineers create a
single drawing, push a button, and get individual,
easy-to-read drawings of all elements. “A
complete drawing set used to take three-quarters
of a day and another two to three hours to add the
dimensions,” says Costin. “Now, it takes minutes.”
Another major goal for Milbank was reducing
errors. “Every week, we would have at least two
or three errors that would cost a few thousand
pounds,” says Costin. “We had to employ several
people to check drawings. Each one was checked
three times before it hit the manufacturing fl oor.
Even so, we’d still get errors.” Now, AutoCAD
makes the measuring process fully accurate, while
Autodesk Intent prevents mistaken calculations.
Explains Costin, “Before, we’d have to write
manual calculations for each plank, and each job
might have fi fty different planks in it. Now, all the
engineering is written into the Autodesk Intent
software, so the units we’re designing aren’t just
rectangles on the screen, they are engineering
elements. The software will tell you if a drawing
will fail.”
The Result: Doubling Capacity with
Existing Staff
By decreasing training time, reducing errors,
and streamlining the ETO process, Milbank
has been able to grow faster than it thought
possible. “In the last few years, we’ve doubled
production twice,” says Milbank. “Our Autodesk
manufacturing solution was pivotal in the fi rst
doubling, and greatly eased the second doubling.
When we doubled production the fi rst time, we
didn’t even need to increase our staff.” When
Milbank does add engineers now, it takes just
three to four months to train them, rather than
the eighteen months it once took—a reduction
of 85%. Since implementing Autodesk Intent
with AutoCAD, Milbank’s revenue has also
increased 35%.
Concludes Costin, “What impresses me most
about our Autodesk manufacturing solution is
its ability to capture the knowledge of a designer
and put 95% of it into the program. This means
training time goes down, errors are virtually
eliminated, and we no longer have to manually
check drawings for accuracy. Our engineer-to-
order cycle has been dramatically reduced since
we started using Autodesk Intent with AutoCAD.”
Autodesk Intent and AutoCAD are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand
names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifi cations at
any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
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© 2007 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved
Milbank Floors
Customer Success Story
“In the last few years, we’ve doubled production
twice. Our Autodesk manufacturing solution
was pivotal in the fi rst doubling, and greatly
eased the second doubling. When we doubled
production the fi rst time, we didn’t even need to
increase our staff.”
Jeremy Milbank
Technical Director
Milbank Floors
