By implementing SOLIDWORKS Premium design software, in conjunction with the COUNTERPART enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from SOLIDWORKS Certified Solution Partner Smooth Logics, Corson Distilling Systems has streamlined its order-to-design-to-production processes, dramatically shortening development time for its custom-configured systems while increasing throughput. CORSON DISTILLING SYSTEMS, INC. BOOSTING DISTILLERY EQUIPMENT DEVELOPMENT WITH SOLIDWORKS AND SMOOTH LOGICS SOLUTIONS
Transcript
By implementing SOLIDWORKS Premium design software, in conjunction with the COUNTERPART enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from SOLIDWORKS Certified Solution Partner Smooth Logics, Corson Distilling Systems has streamlined its order-to-design-to-production processes, dramatically shortening development time for its custom-configured systems while increasing throughput.
CORSON DISTILLING SYSTEMS, INC.BOOSTING DISTILLERY EQUIPMENT DEVELOPMENT WITH
SOLIDWORKS AND SMOOTH LOGICS SOLUTIONS
Challenge:Increase the throughput of custom, engineered-to-order distillery systems and equipment to support increasing demand related to the growth of craft distilleries.
Solution:Implement SOLIDWORKS Premium design and analysis software in conjunction with the COUNTERPART enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from Certifi ed Solution Partner Smooth Logics.
Results:• Increased throughput by 75 percent• Cut development time from four to six weeks to
fi ve days• Confi gured custom designs in two days versus fi ve weeks• Eliminated 25 percent of drafting workload
“When we receive an order,
COUNTERPART opens SOLIDWORKS
and directly synchronizes the parts
required for the specifi c confi guration with our
other functions, including procurement,
inventory management, and manufacturing
operations. It generates purchase orders, work
orders for our plasma table, and cut lengths for
piping. A majority of our employees use the
system daily and have their own task lists to
perform. The SOLIDWORKS/COUNTERPART
solution is helping us grow the company by
keeping everyone in sync.”
— Josh Corson, Founder and President
Josh Corson began designing distillation equipment in 2012 for a friend who wanted to open a craft distillery. But when the friend decided that he didn’t want to go into that business, Corson was left with a bunch of distilling equipment. Working with his brother, Tory, Corson built a website and put the distillation equipment that he had built up for sale. Little did he know that he was in the midst of a craft distillery boom, that the sale of his initial equipment would be followed by many additional orders, and that he would soon have a growing manufacturing business with more orders than he could fi ll.
Today, Corson Distilling Systems, Inc. is a leading family-run commercial distillery equipment manufacturer located in Boise, Idaho. Rather than assembling systems from outsourced parts, the company designed and built the machines necessary to forge its distillery equipment from raw stainless steel and copper, and hand-builds each system with care. While the growing company develops a standard line of equipment, it also specializes in custom, engineered-to-order systems.
Although Corson Distilling initially used AutoCAD® 2D design software, it soon found those tools to be inadequate for supporting growth, according to founder and President Josh Corson. “When we started building more custom equipment, it became clear that we would not be able to meet our delivery dates without automating design, production, and assembly,” Corson stresses. “A couple of our engineers suggested moving to SOLIDWORKS® Premium 3D design software to boost throughput, which we did in early 2016. While designing in SOLIDWORKS was an improvement, we were still not fast enough to meet growing demand. We were looking into ERP solutions to further automate our processes when we discovered the COUNTERPART® system from Smooth Logics.”
When Corson saw a COUNTERPART ERP system demo from SOLIDWORKS Certifi ed Solution Partner Smooth Logics, what impressed him was the way that the system worked directly with SOLIDWORKS Premium software and its SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard product data management capabilities. “The other ERP systems that we evaluated required a lot of manual data entry,” Corson recalls.
“The combination of SOLIDWORKS Premium and COUNTERPART software automated many of the functions directly from SOLIDWORKS,” Corson continues. “The COUNTERPART system, which works with all versions of SOLIDWORKS, grabs model and drawing fi les directly from our SOLIDWORKS PDM vault to support procurement and manufacturing and also supports automated confi guration of our equipment designs inside SOLIDWORKS. The two solutions immediately relieved our draftsmen, who spent a lot of time creating DXF™ fi les, of about 25 percent of their workload and streamlined our processes.”
SIZING STILLS WITH EQUATIONSWith SOLIDWORKS Premium and COUNTERPART software installed, Corson has not only streamlined its order-to-design-to-production processes, it has also automated the confi guration of equipment designs using SOLIDWORKS design confi guration and equation tools. “Based on a single design, we can now leverage SOLIDWORKS and COUNTERPART to automatically create models and drawings for stills of infi nite sizes by just using equations,” Corson notes.
“We no longer have to put in the time and effort to separately design and prepare each custom piece for production,” Corson adds. “We enter the dimensions in an equation, and the system automatically generates the newly confi gured design and mates all the parts together. This has enabled us to reduce the time to create a custom confi guration from fi ve weeks to two days. Now, engineering is outpacing production, which is the opposite of what happened previously.”
MEETING GROWING DEMAND WITH FASTER THROUGHPUTWith the SOLIDWORKS/COUNTERPART automated solution, Corson Distilling has increased its development and production throughput by 75 percent, helping the company grow to meet burgeoning demand. “We’re always trying to get faster to satisfy demand,” Corson stresses.
“It used to take us four to six weeks to confi gure and produce an order,” Corson explains. “With SOLIDWORKS and COUNTERPART, we can now produce a system every week. Production and resource utilization is up because we now have full process automation.”
MANAGING THE ENTERPRISEIn addition to integrating with SOLIDWORKS to streamline design and production, the COUNTERPART ERP implementation is providing productivity gains throughout Corson Distilling’s operations. “What really sets COUNTERPART apart is its complete integration with SOLIDWORKS,” Corson points out.
“When we receive an order, COUNTERPART opens SOLIDWORKS and directly synchronizes the parts required for the specifi c confi guration with our other functions, including procurement, inventory management, and manufacturing operations,” Corson says. “It generates purchase orders, work orders for our plasma table, and cut lengths for piping. A majority of our employees use the system daily and have their own task lists to perform. The SOLIDWORKS/COUNTERPART solution is helping us grow the company by keeping everyone in sync.”
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With SOLIDWORKS Premium design and COUNTERPART ERP solutions, Corson has realized the increased product development and fabrication effi ciencies that it needs to meet growing demand for its engineered-to-order distillation systems.
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