Indusvent Case Study- Desktop

Leading the Way In Dust Ventilation

Leading the Way In Dust Ventilation

Leading the Way - Continuous Improvement for Leading Dust Extraction Manufacturer

Indusvent is a specialist dust extraction systems and equipment supplier, operating nationally from three strategic locations across the UK. Their aim is to provide the most energy efficient dust extraction equipment in the marketplace, setting new standards of performance while conserving energy
consumption for the end user.

Indusvent has a history of over 50 years in the dust extraction business and has been drawing in 2D AutoCAD® for around 25 of those years. While
delighted with the ease of use and reliability of the AutoCAD software, Indusvent wanted to move away from drawing pieces of ducting and equipment line by line, as well as having to complete multiple iterations of elevations. They wanted a software solution that was 3D-based and would deliver a rapid return on investment (RoI). To facilitate this, Indusvent approached their IT solutions partner of around 15 years, Quadra Solutions.

Gary approached the Quadra team for guidance, who asked for a recent dataset and suggested coming onsite to discover how they operated, understand the business objectives, the challenges and make recommendations to move forward. Using Indusvent’s dataset, Quadra demonstrated proof of concept in achieving those objectives and advised investing in Autodesk Inventor®, which provides professional-grade 3D mechanical design, documentation and product simulation tools.

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"Even though investing in Inventor was quite costly, I believed we would quickly be able to prove the return on investment"
Gary Madden, Regional Account Manager

Putting Autodesk Inventor to work

Today, Autodesk Inventor is used across the full spectrum of Indusvent’s D&M workflow. Everything from a simple ducting modification, through to the modelling of a full £500,000 system. These projects can include retro-fitting a new filter system, fans and ducting across a whole new factory. Indusvent can leverage Inventor across all of this work. Indusvent also uses Inventor to quickly design lengths of ducting or fans in 3D, to provide quick and clear visuals to prospective clients on what the final result will look like, based on a rough sketch that the prospect has drawn. The solution has dramatically improved Indusvent’s bid-response times, as well as accuracy.

During lockdown, Indusvent has also used Inventor to model parts and sub-assemblies to support its library of some 1,500 components. With the help of Inventor, Indusvent was able to keep its senior CAD coordinator in full employment throughout the pandemic, with his sole focus being library part creation and ensuring that every item was correctly catalogued and modelled in the right way. In addition to Inventor, Indusvent has also implemented Autodesk Vault from the outset, to automate the management of their CAD data and associated document files, to drive further workflow improvements.
Throughout this process, Quadra Solutions has always been on hand to provide support and consultancy on the Autodesk software. As Gary explains: “Quadra has always been there for Indusvent. They have never taken a hard sales approach. They understand our business and which tools are right for us. They provide support when it is needed, especially during the recent library build, for example.”

Harnessing the benefits of Autodesk software:
The main benefit Indusvent has achieved since introducing Autodesk Inventor is enhanced quality of workmanship across the projects it conducts. According to Gary : “To take a typical example of a ducting modification, before we had Inventor, we would have only had the plan and an elevation to work from. We used to have to go through every single joint, listing out what we needed, and then try to do the work from several elevations, without doing it twice and without missing anything. “It was a long process get it 100% right every time. By using Inventor the process is simplified mainly because we are working from a library of parts and once we have finished, we have a ‘bill of materials’. This process provides us with the correct information, in order to produce that piece, so there is no second guessing. There is also a cost saving as well but for us cost has never been a driver. It is all about the customer experience, getting it right first time in one visit. That’s what customers expect at the premium end of dust extraction.

Another driver is capacity. Previously drawing a system ‘line by line’ may have taken Indusvent three or four days. Now they have Inventor they can complete this task in under a day. Indusvent also achieves time savings from the use of Autodesk Inventor software. “For a small dust extraction system, which is quite a common job, completion can be achieved in two or three hours compared to the 2-3 days it would have previously taken, especially where we have standard components in place” says Gary. The use of Autodesk Vault has also brought Indusvent significant benefits, especially with many employees still working from home. “We have large numbers of ‘desktop savers’” says Gary. “It is important that we get the message across to these people that if their laptop or PC goes down, we will effectively lose all the data stored on there and that could equate potentially, to many months, if not years of work. Implementing Autodesk Vault helps encourage and enforce better file management
good-practice.“

Looking ahead

Autodesk software has helped advance Indusvent’s design processes, but they have lots of plans in terms of evolving how they use the software in the future. “We are keen to bring in the more of the ducting environment into the designs”. “Moving forwards, the first phase,” he continued, “is to enhance how we design our systems. Then we would like to optimise what we could do from a marketing point of view. We will look for guidance from Quadra Solutions across the whole process though. They understand our business and will help us see where we could make improvements. Together with Quadra and with the help of Autodesk software, we are confident we can continue to innovate and improve how we operate in the future.”

"Implementing Autodesk Vault helps encourage and enforce better file management good-practice.“
Gary Madden, Regional Account Manager

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