Focus on energy efficiency and digital innovations
For the development of the Hurricane we use the software iQUAVIS from Two Pillars GmbH. Daniel Ammer explains in an interview why our development team relies on systems engineering, among other things.
Hello Mr. Dr. Ammer! What does PlastiVation Machinery GmbH do and what is your goal?
PlastiVation is a mechanical engineering start-up from Munich. In a unique business model, we will develop an injection molding machine with the highest energy and cost efficiency. We want to offer our customers an innovative and high-quality production solution with our product. We are focusing in particular on digital innovations and energy efficiency as the cornerstones of our development. We want to support our customers in the best possible way to master the challenges of our time and contribute our share to prepare the industry for the future. As a sales agency we offer branded products of the Tederic ‘NEO series’ as well as services of modern injection molding technology.
Why is systems engineering so important to your goal?
The application of the (model based) system engineering approach offers us to map the increasingly complex injection molding machine system transparently and completely. Digital innovations mean that there are more and more interfaces and dependencies, both within the machine and externally. MBSE helps us to represent and fully understand them. On this basis, our development teams then plan the respective modules and building blocks and can carry out initial simulations and tests. Thus we manage to reduce our developmental periods and increase the efficiency of our internal processes.
Does company size matter for the use of systems engineering and related software tools?
From our point of view, the size of the company does not play a role. As a start-up, we made the intenional decision to use (Model Based) systems engineering and the associated tools, even though our R&D team is initially rather small. However, this is the only way to digitilize our thoughts and knowledge about our product and design them transparent. Thus, this knowledge is accessible to every employee and partner. This helps first with the cooperation, but also with expanding the team. The complexity of the product also plays a minor role. We use the methodology and the tool not only for product development but also to map our IT infrastructure.
What do you like about iQUAVIS so far?
I like the possibility to display our knowledge completely in a database and to find a presentation form for all dependencies. As development engineers, we have the knowledge about our product in many two-dimensional matrixes in our heads and with previous tools it was not possible to display all relationships correctly and fully. For us MBSE is with QUAVIS the backbone of our digital development efforts.
Interview by courtesy of Two Pillars GmbH. (https://www.two-pillars.de/)