Gebrüder Pfeiffer SE was founded over 150 years ago as an innovative engineering plant. The company now provides state-of-the-art processing technology mainly for the cement, lime, gypsum and ceramics industry. Gebrüder Pfeiffer technology is in use worldwide whether in terms of mills, dryers, fine sieves, lime slakers or gypsum kettles. The two largest cement mills in the world are Pfeiffer mills. In addition to the German head office in Kaiserslautern with over 450 employees, a network of its own branches and collaborative partnerships creates an international presence.
Long life cycle requires more consistency
The plant engineers specify, among other things, the latest technology, ample development capacities and high level of vertical manufacturing as key to the company's success. Operational safety, efficiency and a long product life cycle are also important to the company. This gave rise to the engineering experts' wish for a more consistent system for creating P&IDs and flow diagrams for plant design. The previous method of operation with simple CAD designing and separate lists in XLS was extremely time-consuming and prone to errors. "A customer drew our attention to AUCOTEC. Holcim uses the Engineering Base (EB) system not only in plant operation, but also for the tendering stage", says Wolfgang Fuhr, Head of Organisation and Data Processing at Gebr. Pfeiffer.
„With built-in Visio, we no longer need extra CAD tools“
New level of communication
Besides other references and Holcim's requirements, EB was impressive in its own right: "With built-in Visio, we no longer need extra CAD tools", reports Fuhr, "and linking the graphics with the database makes the resulting information extremely transparent and consistent". The improved standardisation due to EB's libraries also accelerates the plant development process. The Department Head praises the integrated, transparent change management in particular. "This elevates communication with our customers to another level!" This is because the convenient graphic selection of changes in diagrams creates an unprecedented overview and also contributes to faster processing.
Vision of the future industry standard
The IT specialists at Gebr. Pfeiffer have even more advanced future plans for EB. "We would also like to use the system for tender preparation, which can save days of work", says Wolfgang Fuhr. An ERP interface is another optimization option. Moreover, Fuhr thinks EB will become the industry standard in cement plant construction. "It would be desirable if it materialised."
Gebr. Pfeiffer
