PÖTTINGER Landtechnik GmbH, headquartered in Austria, has been family-run for over 150 years. Their highly innovative equipment for grassland and arable farming, including digital support through software, terminals and assistance systems, ensure a sustainable increase in the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of agricultural production. With a turnover of € 641 million in the 2022/23 financial year and almost 2,200 employees, PÖTTINGER is represented worldwide these days.
Centralizing projects
© PÖTTINGERDominik Huber working with Engineering Base at PÖTTINGER
One reason is certainly the focus on state-of-the-art planning and production. The development team therefore decided to switch its engineering, including documentation, to Aucotec's Engineering Base (EB) Cable cooperation platform. Because, according to Martin Follmer, Head of Product Digitization: "We wanted to standardize our overall documentation." Electrical and hydraulic diagrams were previously created and documented in separate systems. This meant data transfers and waiting times. "With EB, we now map the machines across the board in a central project that combines all relevant data and is always up to date," explains Follmer. Manual data transfers and the associated errors are a thing of the past; changes only need to be entered in one place in the digital model.
Relief times three
Three areas benefit from this: firstly, mechatronics, where the cable diagrams for increasingly complex machines are developed. The team also creates the hydraulic diagrams – now based on the same database thanks to EB. The design department is pleased about the connection to NX, which means that EB's data can be used consistently for 3D modeling. "This means that the segment lengths required for production are automatically available in an instant," says Follmer. There is also relief for the "central services" department because it saves considerably on interface and system maintenance by consolidating all relevant data in one platform.
Added synergy
© PÖTTINGERSENSOSAFE - Automated, sensor-based assistance system for animal recognition
"With EB, we achieve modern networking that makes us significantly more efficient and increases data quality. The 3D connection is still under construction, but it is already clear that the practical data exchange is proving to be relatively simple. When linking to our PLM system team center, it is already part of our daily routine," explains the divisional manager. Even if setting up the database requires a lot of effort in the initial phase, the synergy gained through central data storage is crucial. "EB makes it much easier to create standardized diagrams and documentation," Martin Follmer is convinced. In this way, the seed of modernization is thriving in engineering and ensure greater and, above all, sustainable yields.
