Evolution and ambition

Planit's Global Reseller Conference – the gathering of 48 Planit software resellers (out of 93), drawn from some 30 countries, in Manchester in May – represented the culmination of effort put in to bring multiple products, brands and people together since Planit acquired, Alphacam, Edgecam, Jobshop and Radan software products. The message is, says group director, sales and services Patrick Love: "That we are a team. It used to be that Edgecam was in Reading, Radan in Bath, Alphacam in Coventry, and so on, but it's not like that any more; now we're Planit, a team of people working together for the benefit of our customers." And this first-of-its-kind event was intended to bring the various elements closer together: "as a unified power to help us continue to be a strong player in the CAM market". The event allowed some 120 individuals to network, create relationships and exchange ideas, he further explains. An official breaking of the barriers between the acquired, separate CAM/ERP companies occurred last year, in fact. On 1 September 2008, Planit Holdings established Planit Software Ltd, the umbrella for all operational business matters either sourced from, or relating to, UK activities. Accordingly, all the previous companies (legal entities) of Radan Computational Ltd, Pathtrace Ltd, Licom Systems Ltd and Huckerby Royall Systems Ltd have been superseded – with the well-known product names of Radan, Edgecam, Alphacam and Jobshop - now brands under the operation of Planit Software Ltd. Image: ZF Passau is a recent convert to Edgecam, using the package alongside its corporate CAD system, Pro/E Speaking at the Manchester conference, regional director Raf Lobato explained that one of the company's resellers in the Czech Republic recently secured an order for Alphacam, Edgecam and Radan software all on the same day. "The first time an independent reseller has ever done that, although we had done this internally, of course. This is the culmination of the effort put in over the last 18 months to relay information to our resellers and now we are seeing the fruits of that. Events like this help with the convergence of the various parts of Planit." Planit CEO Bryan Pryce takes up the story: "We have all come from a number of different companies and we have tried to evolve a single entity; we have been successful in this over the past two years; it's not been a big bang, but an evolution." He adds that, having acquired several companies already, Planit is looking to acquire more in the CAM market. Indeed, the company, which boasts some 34,000 customers, aims to become the largest CAM-focused provider in the world next year, says the CEO. Mr Pryce offers that Planit is increasingly successful with larger companies that would previously have gone for an integrated CADCAM solution. "Planit's work with corporate accounts has paid dividends overall", says Mr Pryce, adding that: "such companies are more inclined to look at specialist packages now, rather than go for the all-in-one solution from a large non-CAM focused vendor". Patrick Love explains further: "This is certainly happening with our 5-axis products; these are technically demanding and the larger CADCAM companies, with a wider spread of product and R&D effort, won't be able to keep up with us." On the subject of 5-axis technology, Raf Lobato admits that Planit, with Edgecam, hides its light under a bushel. "We are working with very well-known 5-axis machine tool companies in Europe, but we haven't blown our own trumpet – that will change." Last year, for example, the company won over Germany's ZF (a major automotive component maker) to its CAM solution, against many other packages, while ProE was chosen as the CAD solution. "As for mould making, we own that sector in the Czech Republic, but people don't necessarily think of Edgecam as a mould and die package. We have great vertical strengths, but we need to tell people more often," Mr Lobato agrees. But it's not only high-end packages; Planit's products are also aimed at the general sub-contractor, "allowing them to get from screen to machine as efficiently as possible", taking in such elements as feature-based machining, he underlines. Planit's Radan sheetmetal software also automates program creation to a high degree, while Cabinet Vision is the extreme here, where the part is designed and the machining program "pops out the other end". Moving to Alphacam – a combined wood, stone and metal product – its strength is easy customisation. "If Alphacam doesn't have the functionality as standard, then it can be customised via its API (Application Programming Interface). Interestingly, in Switzerland, it dominates sliding-head machine programming, because the reseller has, through the API, turned it into a powerful system for this," Mr Lobato explains. And underpinning all Planit's software products are certain shared modules, such as nesting, which might previously have been separately developed by multiple teams, but which is now developed by a single distributed team of developers across not just the UK, but also the US and elsewhere. If there is one word to sum up what is happening at Planit, it is convergence. "We were eight companies, then we were two, now we are one, together with our resellers – this unity provides great strength to Planit, added benefits to our product development and, ultimately, this benefits our customers," concludes Mr Pryce. Image: Resellers celebrate at the Awards evening, part of the May event ZF chooses Edgecam for 3D machining With the introduction of Edgecam, ZF Passau GmbH has extended its use of 3D-enabled technology throughout its production planning. In 2007, ZF purchased 50 Edgecam licences worth around €800,000. By interfacing with the company's existing CAD system and 3D CAD models, the software is generating efficient NC tool paths, it is reported. With annual sales of around €12 billion and 120 manufacturing plants in 25 countries, ZF is a significant global supplier to the world's automotive industry. The prestigious ZF brand is synonymous with the supply of high quality drive train and chassis technology to domestic, commercial, construction and agricultural vehicle manufacturers around the world. Part of ZF Friedrichshafen AG, ZF Passau GmbH manufactures transmission systems and axles for agricultural and off-highway vehicles, as well as forklift trucks. Factories1 and 2 at Passau produce low volumes, with just-in-time batches of 1 to about 250 units, matching the capacities of its customers. A total of 600 CNC machine tools are available for production and, due to product variation, about 800 set-ups occur daily, with changes of workpieces, tools, equipment and NC programs. This represents a formidable logistical challenge for the local production planning unit, which aims for efficient production. Peter Robl, team manager, production services, says: "Edgecam is the only system that delivers the process automation tools we demanded during our evaluation of 10 CAM solutions. The degree of integration and interoperability we achieve between Edgecam and our corporate CAD solution Pro/Engineer enables us to take component designs and automatically generate and apply optimised tool paths. Another key aspect of Edgecam is its seamless compatibility with the FaSys tool database system. The productivity efficiencies we achieve with Edgecam give us a significant return on our investment." Ultimately, the plan is for all 3D programming for the CNC lathes and machining centres to be completed by 2010. A FATool resource management system, from FASys GmbH, will simultaneously be expanded for 3D tool management. The use of a 3D NC simulation program completes the process chain and will be used to ensure collision-free, production-safe NC programs. First published in Machinery July 2009