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A step forward in
the Change Management

Most of their clients already use PTC Windchill and Creo. That made it natural for Finnish MSK Cabins to join forces. R&D Director Juha-Matti Heikkinen feels confident with the choice of PLM system. 

It is a pleasure to see that there is always a solution available in PTC Windchill”

R&D Director at MSK Group

Juha-Matti Heikkinen

MSK Cabins is the leading European manufacturer of complete, tailor-made cabins for different agricultural, construction and mining equipment. MSK offers plug-and-play cabins, ready to be “dropped” on the machine. These cabins are complex constructions and may contain up to 1 500 different items.

A unique selling point of MSK is the ability to develop and manage many variants and options, all based on the client’s requirements and needs. Therefore, the importance of an accurate change management process is a matter of course for MSK Cabins. By digitalizing the PLM system, MSK harmonizes and makes the product lifecycle management more efficient.

“During the years, our business has grown, and we have gone from serving one major customer to several different. This led to a bit fragmented way of handling customer data and changes, which is not an optimal situation. We came to a point where it was almost mandatory for us to have a common system to handle changes and CAD data,”
Juha-Matti Heikkinen explains. 

“For our change management, this has been a step forward,” says Group CEO Timo Lehtioja. 

Digitalized PLM support growth ambitions 

MSK has yet implemented Windchill in the operations in Finland. The ambition is to continue with its other manufacturing sites in Germany and Slovakia. 

“Digitalizing our PLM will support our growth ambitions. We need to establish a standard with the same processes for all our sites. We will benefit from harmonizing the change management and how we handle CAD data,” Timo Lehtioja says.  

Windchill gives us visibility to all items and CAD-data, that is an important benefit. It also forces everyone to follow a clear structure and process,” says Juha-Matti Heikkinen.

R&D Director at MSK Group

Juha-Matti Heikkinen

Different change management routines 

The company’s own product, the complete cabin Varia, can be tailored according to each customer’s needs. But MSK also manufactures cabins engineered by its customers. In these cases, MSK engineering usually work in the customer’s PLM system, most often Windchill. This means different change management routines, depending on the product.

“When we engineer our own product, of course, we work in our own system. It starts with the Engineering BOM, where we create the change notice. Then it is transferred to the manufacturing change notice and the Manufacturing BOM. All data is distributed to different departments, with tasks of their own to fulfill. After each department has fulfilled its tasks, we audit, approve, and finally implement the changes.”

When changing customer engineered products, the routine differs slightly.

“In these cases, all data goes to the customer’s PLM system and the engineering change notices are created there. Then our change management gets the change notice from the customer’s system. From there, the process is similar.”

More efficient engineering 

As MSK has worked in several customers’ Windchill systems for many years, their engineers are familiar with it. However, to implement a new PLM platform is something different. According to Juha-Matti Heikkinen, it all went smoothly. 

“You can easily modify the system and build the structure from your requirements and needs, without having to create something totally new,” he says. 

“It helps us to combine our engineering resources in three different countries, and that way supporting a shorter time to market. Simply put, our engineering gets more efficient,” Timo Lehtioja states. 

Avoid doing all at once

The project started with a joint proof of concept with �����ܹ�ͼ at the end of 2021. During the study, MSK Group evaluated �����ܹ�ͼ. 

“We looked at how active and cooperative they were and reviewed their ability to help us. It turned out well, and we partnered up with �����ܹ�ͼ,” Juha-Matti Heikkinen says. 

In April 2022, they launched the project, divided into different phases to avoid doing all at once. 

“In the first phase we created the core of the system by implementing our existing item data, establishing a BOM-structure, and integrating our ERP system and CAD tool,” Juha-Matti Heikkinen explains. 

The second phase focused on change management, for instance by defining rules for engineering change notices, audits and approval. 

“Now we will start the third phase, where we implement Engineering Problem Reports. Then we have a next phase, where we will integrate our Manufacturing and Service BOMs as well, but that is yet to be decided,” Juha-Matti Heikkinen states.

The Digital Thread around the corner 

The next step is to extend Windchill to embrace the sites in Germany and Slovakia.  

“Now we study how big that project will be,” Juha-Matti Heikkinen says. 

Around the corner, the digital thread looms, with an extended PLM in terms of Smart Manufacturing that involves even more digitalization. 

“We can develop our engineering and manufacturing processes with extended digital tools as Augmented Reality. This could, for example, help us in the induction process or ramp up our new product introduction.” 

Both Juha-Matti and Timo Lehtioja are surprised that implementing Windchill and Creo has progressed smooth and more or less on time and budget. 

We still follow the original plan well. There are always delays in IT projects, but here it has been less than expected. I would say the project has been a success,”

CEO at MSK Group

Timo Lehtioja

To know more about Change Management, visit: pdsvision.com/technologies/plm/change-configuration-management/