Logo Swissfactory Group

Engi­neer­ing division

ENGI­NEER­ING

As a lead­ing indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion part­ner, the SwissFactory.Group offers pro­duc­tion-related engi­neer­ing ser­vices so that it can sup­port its cus­tomers from devel­op­ment to series production.

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Photo: Com­plex com­po­nent for a ser­ial tech­ni­cal laser device.

Engineering-10

The engi­neer­ing com­pe­ten­cies of the SwissFactory.Group lie in the devel­op­ment and indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion of B2B prod­ucts.

The SwissFactory.Group offers its pro­duc­tion-related engi­neer­ing ser­vices for high-tech indus­tries such as MedTech, semi­con­duc­tors, vac­uum, optics, metrol­ogy or aero­space, but also for clas­sic indus­tries such as the mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing, power gen­er­a­tion or auto­mo­tive industries.

Prod­uct development

In order to elim­i­nate the dis­ad­van­tages of the clas­sic devel­op­ment and indus­tri­al­iza­tion process, the SwssFactory.Group, together with part­ners, has defined an effi­cient prod­uct devel­op­ment process, which is sup­ple­mented by three dynamic pil­lars, among others:

The spec­i­fi­ca­tion is and remains one of the most impor­tant doc­u­ments, which should guide but not chan­nel the development.

By means of mar­ket test­ing, the cur­rent sta­tus is reg­u­larly dis­cussed with the cus­tomer or even with the end cus­tomer. Risks but also oppor­tu­ni­ties are thus iden­ti­fied at an early stage. Due to the prox­im­ity to pro­duc­tion, func­tional sam­ples are also quickly cre­ated and tested dur­ing devel­op­ment. This can fur­ther min­i­mize the risk of faulty development.

Value Engi­neer­ing 360° ensures that the design devel­oped not only meets the spec­i­fi­ca­tions but also rep­re­sents the opti­mum solu­tion in terms of cost-effec­tive­ness and reliability.

Graphic: Dynamic prod­uct development

Reg­u­lar updat­ing of the spec­i­fi­ca­tions, sys­tem­atic mar­ket test­ing, and Value Engi­neer­ing360°help to develop prod­ucts in line with mar­ket requirements.

product development concept swissfactory group

“Clas­sic” engineering

The SwissFactory.Group engi­neer­ing team con­sists of employ­ees with many years of expe­ri­ence in demand­ing devel­op­ment projects. The prox­im­ity to pro­duc­tion is par­tic­u­larly pro­nounced — lit­er­ally, but also figuratively.

Parts are designed in such a way that they can be man­u­fac­tured at min­i­mal cost. To make this pos­si­ble, the opti­mal pro­duc­tion tech­nol­ogy is first selected and then the design is opti­mized accord­ingly. Feed­back from fac­tory employ­ees nat­u­rally helps with this decision.

Dur­ing inter­nal design reviews, the design is also exam­ined by employ­ees from pro­duc­tion and assem­bly and eval­u­ated with regard to producibility.

In addi­tion to the impor­tant expe­ri­ence and input from pro­duc­tion, the lat­est design tools are also used. In the CAD area, the SwissFactory.Group works with Solid­Works and Siemens NX. Pow­er­ful FEM tools are also used.

Var­i­ous options are avail­able for cov­er­ing engi­neer­ing expenses. In the case of an exist­ing prod­uct, for exam­ple, the engi­neer­ing effort can be financed by a cer­tain pro­por­tion of future cost sav­ings.

Graphic: In addi­tion to the impor­tant expe­ri­ence and input from pro­duc­tion, state-of-the-art design tools are also used. In the CAD area, the SwissFactory.Group works with Solid­Works and Siemens NX. Pow­er­ful FEM tools are also used.

archipiece 3
Engineering-20

Pro­to­types

Func­tional sam­ples, bread­boards and com­plete pro­to­types can be built and tested in the imme­di­ate vicin­ity of development.

The pro­duc­tion of the pro­to­types is closely accom­pa­nied by the devel­op­ment depart­ment, so that all prod­uct knowl­edge flows together in one place. In the pro­duc­tion depart­ment, there is a spe­cial depart­ment for pro­to­type orders.

If desired, a com­plete qual­i­fi­ca­tion pro­gram can be cre­ated and imple­mented for the customer.

Prototype_Spacetec

Value
Engi­neer­ing

A prod­uct is suc­cess­fully devel­oped when it can be suc­cess­fully posi­tioned in the mar­ket- and not when it func­tions per­fectly from a tech­ni­cal point of view. With a sys­tem­atic value engi­neer­ing process, the chances of a suc­cess­ful mar­ket posi­tion­ing can be greatly increased.

For this rea­son, Züh­lke Engi­neer­ing and the SwissFactory.Group has decided to estab­lish a com­pe­tence cen­ter for value engi­neer­ing. Zühlke’s many years of in-depth engi­neer­ing know-how, cou­pled with Stoppani’s exten­sive pro­duc­tion exper­tise, make it pos­si­ble to develop prod­ucts that are opti­mally pre­pared for mar­ket entry. Thanks to the wide range of pro­duc­tion tech­nolo­gies, func­tional sam­ples, pro­to­types or pre-series can be pro­duced and tested at any time.

In view of this com­pe­tence cen­ter for value engi­neer­ing, Züh­lke Engi­neer­ing, and the SwissFactory.Group has also devel­oped a new type of process — Value Engi­neer­ing 360°!

What is Value Engi­neer­ing 360°?

Value Engi­neer­ing 360° is a holis­tic prod­uct view that illu­mi­nates all aspects of a prod­uct. Aspects such as effi­cient pro­duc­tion & assem­bly, reli­a­bil­ity, pack­ag­ing & logis­tics, but also sus­tain­abil­ity are eval­u­ated at a very early stage and the prod­uct is designed accordingly.

Graphic: Value Engi­neer­ing 360°

“Value Engi­neer­ing 360° cre­ates prod­ucts, which are bet­terser are adopted.»

value engineering 360 concept by swissfactory group

Cost opti­mi­sa­tion at all lev­els is of cen­tral impor­tance. Require­ments are eval­u­ated quan­ti­ta­tively and, if nec­es­sary, crit­i­cally scru­ti­nized. The most suit­able pro­duc­tion tech­nol­ogy is deter­mined and the prod­uct design is opti­mized accord­ingly. In this process, engi­neer­ing works hand in hand with pro­duc­tion and procurement.

How­ever, the cost opti­mi­sa­tion process is far from com­plete with the launch of the prod­uct on the mar­ket. In the course of its life cycle, the aim is to fur­ther opti­mize the prod­uct and adapt it to the next, more suit­able pro­duc­tion tech­nol­ogy so that it can also be man­u­fac­tured effi­ciently in larger quantities.

Graphic:Value Engi­neer­ing 360°

With VE 360, devel­op­ment time can be short­ened, devel­op­ment and man­u­fac­tur­ing costs reduced, and prod­uct life extended.

value engineering 360 benefits by swissfactory group

The great­est ben­e­fit is achieved when devel­op­ment projects are imple­mented using value engi­neer­ing meth­ods right from the start. But value engi­neer­ing also makes sense for prod­ucts that are already on the mar­ket. On the one hand, man­u­fac­tur­ing costs can be reduced, on the other hand, addi­tional per­for­mance or func­tion­al­ity can be imple­mented into the prod­uct, which increases the chances for a longer prod­uct life cycle, among other things. For this pur­pose, the SwissFactory.Group offers the
VE Plus process.

Graphic: Value Engi­neer­ing Plus

Cus­tomer added value can also be gen­er­ated within the scope of a reengi­neer­ing thanks to the VE Plus process of the SwissFactory.Group.

value engineering 360 vs value engineering plus by swissfactory group

For the imple­men­ta­tion of the value engi­neer­ing processes, a des­ig­nated expert(value engi­neer) is avail­able in each case, who accom­pa­nies the devel­op­ment team dur­ing prod­uct devel­op­ment and indus­tri­al­iza­tion as a spar­ring part­ner. As “god­fa­ther or god­mother” of the prod­uct, he feels pri­mar­ily respon­si­ble for a suc­cess­ful mar­ket posi­tion­ing. He asks the right ques­tions, points out alter­na­tives and ensures that pro­duc­tion-rel­e­vant aspects are fully con­sid­ered. He has the nec­es­sary net­work to bring the appro­pri­ate exter­nal resources to the table when­ever needed. It is financed by a monthly flat rate defined at the start of the project.

Graphic: Value Engi­neer­ing — a prag­matic imple­men­ta­tion approach

The Value Engi­neer ensures that the right ques­tions are asked at the right time.

productdevelopment by swissfactory group
Form­ing simulation

By means of spe­cific soft­ware, we are able to sim­u­late the deep draw­ing process — con­ven­tional as well as hydromechanical.

This is how we achieve:

  • Reduc­tion of devel­op­ment costs
  • Safety of the cor­rect tool design
  • Shorter prototype/realization phase
  • Sup­port in the selec­tion of materials
  • No risk of cracks and wrinkles

Graph­ics: Ther­mo­form­ing simulation

By means of spe­cific soft­ware, con­ven­tional or hydro­me­chan­i­cal deep draw­ing processes are sim­u­lated within the frame­work of value engineering.

Forming simulation software deep drawing process conventional or hydromechanical

Spe­cial machine construction

We design and build com­plete spe­cial machines from spec­i­fi­ca­tions, includ­ing elec­tronic and hydraulic com­po­nents — e.g. for automa­tion devices.

With expe­ri­enced teams of engi­neers and design­ers, project man­agers with exten­sive expe­ri­ence and spe­cial­ist weld­ing engi­neers, we can also han­dle com­plex projects as a total or gen­eral con­trac­tor.

We also offer mod­ern­iza­tion or repair of machines and equipment.

We also develop our own prod­ucts, such as

  • Bunorm Hydraulic Presses
  • Bunorm tun­nel assem­bly machine. Weigh­ing 50 tons, it dries and cleans tun­nel walls, lays and welds seal­ing foils on radii of up to 16 metres. This instal­la­tion, unique in Europe, is easy to oper­ate and moves itself in a tunnel.

Auto­mated guided vehi­cles FTS

We con­nect your value-added/pro­duc­tion islands through state-of-the-art goods han­dling or trans­port and thus enable you to take an inte­grated approachto the dig­i­tal factory.

In addi­tion to our many years of expe­ri­ence in the use of AGVs, we also address the require­ments for the col­lab­o­ra­tive use of vehi­cles — vehi­cles with an attached robot as an “Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR)”.

As a sys­tem inte­gra­tor we offer you

  • The inter­faces to your ERP / MIS respec­tively your pro­duc­tion cell
  • Tra­di­tional vans equipped with our nav­i­ga­tion fleet man­age­ment system

If required, weof­fer­our vehi­cle con­struc­tion as OEM-FTF.