Case Study
Optimizing and individualizing any ski in just one hour
Stoeckli Swiss Sports AG
With Solid Edge, skis are adapted to the style, proficiency and body of the skier – not the other way around
50,000 skis a year – all hand-made
Josef Stoeckli was a passionate skier who made his own skis out of solid ash wood. In 1935, he turned his hobby into his profession and founded the Stoeckli AG ski factory. At that time there were approximately 30 skimanufacturing companies in Switzerland, and some of the larger ones such as Schwendener, Attenhofer or Authier flourished for many years. Today, however, just a little more than 70 years later, there is only one ski manufacturer in the skiing nation of Switzerland and that is Stoeckli. From the former one-man company, an enterprise has expanded to workforce of 200.Over the last few years, Stoeckli has created 50 new jobs and increased its production to roughly 50,000 pairs of skis each year. Two fifths of the annual production is exported to 32 countries, including the USA and Austria.
Many things have changed since the company was founded, but one thing has stayed the same: the skis are still hand-made. Stoeckli uses a unique and complex sandwich design that is easy to see by looking at a ski from the side. At least seven layers are glued and pressed, layer by layer. The layers include a steel edge, rubber foil, Venol side panel, fiberglass belts, aluminum belts and a polyamide surface. The heart of any ski is the wooden or plastic core, which gives the ski its elasticity and pre-stress. Four or five production processes are required solely for the core, which is always hand-made.
Tradition and innovation do not contradict
Although Stoeckli’s ski designers have tradition in mind, they are still open to scientific progress. Thanks to the company’s cooperation with the Swiss Federal Snow and Avalanche Research Institute (Davos) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich), Stoeckli belongs to the most innovative of ski-making factories. This theoretical knowledge is complemented by a great deal of experience in ski racing. Since 1991, Stoeckli has been actively involved in theWorld Cup, repeatedly acting as David challenging the Goliaths of the ski industry. Tobias Grünenfelder, Andrej Jerman, Monika Dumermuth and Fabienne Suter are regularly placed among the top ten, with other promising talents from Switzerland and Slovenia poised to join them.
This success is no coincidence. Several test skiers, two of whom are permanently employed, test nearly 1,200 Stoeckli skis each year. Each pair is tested several times. Stoeckli performs as much testing as its biggest competitors, and all skiers benefit from this. It is comparable to Formula 1 racing, where numerous developments are first put through their paces under the most severe racing conditions before being put into everyday use on series vehicles.
From Excel to Solid Edge
Stoeckli’s development process is just as innovative as the company’s skis. Since 1999, ski designers have been using the Solid Edge® CAD program from Siemens PLM Software.“Before that we used to manage the data in an Excel file and generate our geometries from there,” says developer Guido Steffen, who is also responsible for Stoeckli’s operating technology. That process was time-consuming, troublesome and neither efficient nor effective.When Steffen met Gerhard Eimer, managing director of Quadrix AG at a trade fair, he asked him about these issues. “Mr. Eimer said we could transfer all of our Excel data to Solid Edge and continue working from there,” Steffen explains.“I was really enthusiastic and we shook hands on it immediately.” At present, Solid Edge is still the only program capable of directly importing Excel data.
Steffen has never had reason to regret the decision to implement Solid Edge.On the contrary.“I can’t imagine how we developed a ski before 1999,” he says.“It’s all so much easier and faster now, but also more precise. All shapes, from vertical to lateral geometry, are drawn in Solid Edge.”
The company appreciates the fact that although Solid Edge is a very sophisticated program, it is surprisingly easy to use.“Solid Edge is fast and precise and offers more functionality than we will ever need, yet is still intuitive to use, especially in the 3D modeling environment,” Steffen says.“I find the clearly structured and individually adaptable graphical user interface very powerful. Anyone with knowledge of Microsoft Office programs can productively work with Solid Edge within a very short time.” This is particularly important for a company such as Stoeckli that traditionally trains many young people. At the moment, Stoeckli has 34 apprentices.
A new variant in just one hour
Precision is one of the most significant advantages of Solid Edge.“In the past we were satisfied when the parameters made rough tangential paths. Today I only have to enter the radii, and each absolutely precise radius is automatically created,” Steffen explains. The ski developers predominantly work with wireframe geometries in 3D for the first five ski components, with the exception of the plastic tips, which are drawn in Solid Edge as 3D solid models.
Another advantage of Solid Edge is how easily and quickly design variants can be produced.“Each ski is as individual as the skier, which is why we adapt the ski to the skier,” explains Steffen, who is a passionate skier himself.“We optimize the ski to match the style, proficiency, height and weight of the skier.” Before the introduction of Solid Edge it used to take up to two days to individually adapt a ski. Today that is done in just under an hour.
Several years ago, so as not to be too dependent on the amount of snow in any given winter, Stoeckli diversified its product line to include bicycles. Some of the bicycle components are purchased abroad while others are developed by Stoeckli, using Solid Edge, of course.With Solid Edge, this traditional, innovative and still family-owned company is well positioned for the future.
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Herausforderungen:
- Develop new products
- Use knowledge in the company
- Manage data in the company
- Produce more efficiently
Schlüssel zum Erfolg:
- Use the running time of the machine more efficiently and effectively.
- Produce variants quickly and easily, as the skis are individually adapted.
- Higher productivity
- Shorter lead times
Ergebnisse:
- It used to take two days to produce a variant, nowadays just under an hour.
- All in all Stoeckli saves 70 percent of time – despite a lot of manual work.
Branche:
- Consumer Products
Hauptgeschäft des Kunden:
Stoeckli Swiss Sports is the last large Swiss ski-making factory
Unternehmensinitiativen:
- Knowledge & IP Management
- New Product Development
Lösungen/Services:
- Solid Edge
Kundenstandort:
Wolhusen
Switzerland
"Solid Edge is fast and precise and offers more functionality than we will ever need, yet it is still intuitive to use, especially in the 3D modeling environment. Anyone with knowledge of Microsoft Office programs can productively work with Solid Edge within a very short time."
Guido Steffen
Ski Designer and Technology Manager
Stoeckli Swiss Sports AG