{"id":40002,"date":"2019-02-27T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/?p=40002"},"modified":"2019-02-26T15:34:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T20:34:47","slug":"getman-mines-for-greater-efficiency-and-profitability-with-solidworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2019\/02\/getman-mines-for-greater-efficiency-and-profitability-with-solidworks.html","title":{"rendered":"Getman Mines for Greater Efficiency and Profitability with SOLIDWORKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1954, Getman Brothers Construction Company entered the mining industry with the design and production of the Scoot-Crete. The small motorized wheelbarrow was used to transport concrete in municipal construction works ranging from parking ramps to roadworks. Perhaps its most famous use was in the effort to connect the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan during the construction of the Mackinac Bridge between 1954-1957.<\/p>\n

Today, Getman Corporation<\/strong><\/a> is headquartered in Bangor, Michigan and is a global supplier of mobile equipment to the mining industry, offering customer-specific solutions to underground mines in the production and production support classes of equipment. All Getman equipment is designed with extensive research and development and supported with over sixty years of experience serving the underground mining industry.<\/p>\n

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Ensuring Miners Work Safely and Efficiently<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a competitive global market, competing on price is paramount. For Getman, this could be a challenge when miner safety is the number-one priority. \u201cWhen in doubt, build it stout,\u201d is an engineering approach that helped Getman design for optimum safety, but it could lead to excess material use, which may unnecessarily raise the customer price. Getman needed a better product development process that could meet all of their business and quality requirements, while helping the company evolve and grow with market demands.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Getman switched to SOLIDWORKS CAD<\/strong><\/a> as its primary 3D design and modeling software. The company also adopted SOLIDWORKS Simulation as a virtual testing environment. With SOLIDWORKS Simulation<\/strong><\/a>, Getman\u2019s engineers were able to use FEA and motion analysis to reduce prototype costs, decrease design iterations, and bring material costs down without compromising miner safety. \u201cSOLIDWORKS Simulation gives us confidence that what we\u2019re predicting is what we\u2019re seeing,\u201d said Daren DiStefano, Product Configuration Engineer at Getman Corporation.<\/p>\n

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Improving Collaboration Across Departments<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Getman grew in size, the need to improve collaboration and communication between departments became apparent. For the complex mechatronic solutions that Getman produces, multiple groups, including sales and marketing, industrial designers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and manufacturing engineers, need to provide input throughout the design phase. This collaboration can often span over numerous revisions and prototypes. Once a design is accepted, purchased parts need to be ordered and manufactured parts need to be fabricated. From there, everything needs to be received, assembled, and tested prior to fulfillment.<\/p>\n

Without a product data management (PDM) solution it was extremely time-consuming, error-prone and frustrating to manage revision control, collaborate between departments, and support existing product lines. To solve these challenges, in 2010 Getman implemented SOLIDWORKS PDM<\/strong><\/a>. This helped them achieve a standardized release process, automation of redundant tasks, and overall a streamlined product development process.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you realize the awesome power you have with SOLIDWORKS PDM workflows, it\u2019s hard not to get excited about it,\u201d said DiStefano. With the ability to automate almost any redundant task, DiStefano views SOLIDWORKS PDM as a huge time-saver. \u201cOur product data accuracy has gone up tremendously, and our engineering throughput is up quite a bit as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Faster Mechatronic Product Development Cycles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Continuing with its efforts to streamline product development processes, Getman implemented SOLIDWORKS Electrical<\/strong><\/a> in 2015 to integrate its electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical design process. Prior to using SOLIDWORKS Electrical, Getman used 2D CAD tools to lay out its schematics. The manual nature of this older methodology led to inefficiencies with documentation, consistency, and design lead times.<\/p>\n

Attributing the automated and customizable wire lists in SOLIDWORKS Electrical, Caleb Youker, Electrical Engineer at Getman, said, \u201cThree days of work is done in literally five seconds.\u201d Youker also values the ability to leverage macros for common electrical designs. \u201cBrake systems are going to be pretty much the same for 12 different truck designs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Regarding how SOLIDWORKS Electrical has impacted Getman\u2019s business, Youker said, \u201cNot only do we have the same detail we had before, but with the same amount of time, we can create 3D dashboard assemblies and provide nice assembly drawings that make the assemblers\u2019 jobs easier. All while driving more consistency throughout the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advice to Other Manufacturing Companies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking to an audience of manufacturing companies at Fisher Unitech<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s SOLIDWORKS 2019 Design to Manufacturing event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, DiStefano and Youker shared Getman\u2019s product development process improvement journey and lessons learned. Their advice to the group:<\/p>\n