International growth demands an advanced design solution

Larsen & Toubro Limited, Heavy Engineering Division

Substantial labor savings come from drawing automation and knowledge re-use

Indian leader goes international

Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) is a technology-driven engineering and construction organization and one of the largest companies in India’s private sector. While the company’s Heavy Engineering Division (HED) accounts for approximately 35 percent of its sales, L&T has additional interests in construction and information technology. L&T’s international customers include Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, QAFCO, RASGAS, Halliburton, UHDE, KBR, Petronaz, Bechtel etc.

A strong, customer-focused approach and a constant quest for top-class quality have enabled L&T to attain and sustain leadership in its major lines of business for seven decades. L&T has an international presence with a global network of offices. A focus on international business over the last few years has seen overseas earnings growing to 18 percent of total revenue. The goal is to increase that amount to 30 percent.

Hindered by 2D

Previously L&T used AutoCAD to create 2D assembly and detail drawings for proposals and manufacturing. In the company’s Heat Exchanger Division, it used to take on average15 days for two people to generate and check a set of six manufacturing drawings. The limitation of the 2D process was that the design flaws were detected only when detailed drafting was done.

The shortcomings of the 2D process prompted L&T to look at other options for drawing generation. The company made a few initial attempts to address the issue but the solution could not be adapted to L&T’s requirements. In addition to automating the drawing process, L&T wanted to capture and reuse the design knowledge of senior engineers.

Liberated by knowledge-based 3D

L&T undertook an extensive and thorough evaluation process to adopt suitable software for automating its engineering processes. The evaluation and benchmarking took about seven months, after which L&T decided to implement NX® software for all knowledge-based engineering projects across HED.

NX was the software of choice for L&T because of its inherent ability to embed engineering knowledge in 3D CAD models. This is done by means of functionality such as Knowledge Fusion, Design Logic, equations and expressions. Having design knowledge embedded in the models reduces checking time and enables senior engineers to address more serious development work.

A pilot project was established to improve a special type of L&T high-pressure exchanger under the guidance of A.K. Modi, head of project management for L&T’s Fertilizer Petrochemical Equipment and Heat Exchangers group. Team members included Amit Karambelkar and Mohan Iyer, both of L&T and Amit Bhatia of Siemens. The team worked for six months on the pilot project, automating the process of creating 2D manufacturing drawings and bill of materials (BOM) from intelligent 3D models using NX knowledge-based engineering capabilities.

Verified by the business impact

By automating the process of creating assembly drawings, the cycle time has been reduced from three to four days to two to three hours. This translates in savings of four man-days on every project. For the Heat Exchanger Division, this adds up to a savings of approximately 120 man-days in a year.

The automation of manufacturing drawings has been similarly effective. Sets of drawings that formerly took one man-month are now done in two to three days, saving one man-month on every project. In the Heat Exchanger Division, there were 16 such projects last year. This process has been tested on five live projects and has come out with a 100 percent success rate.

This success has prompted L&T to expand its use of Siemens software. According to L&T’s Heavy Engineering Division, NX is the software of choice for all of its future CAD needs.

Download the PDF:

Larsen & Toubro Limited, Heavy Engineering Division

Challenges:

• Increase revenues from international sales to 30 percent
• Ensure timely delivery of orders

Keys To Success:

• Creating 3D assembly models using knowledge-based engineering capabilities
• Performing design checks in software earlier in the product cycle
• Exploiting knowledge capture and re-use

Results:

• Assembly drawings that took three days are now done in two hours
• Sets of manufacturing drawings that formerly took one month are done in two days
• In one calendar year, the company now saves 16 man-months of labor while working on its manufacturing drawings

Industry:

• Machinery & Industrial

Client's Primary Business:

Larsen & Toubro Limited is India's largest engineering and construction company.

Visit Website

Business Initiatives:

• Knowledge & IP Management

Solutions/Services:

• NX

Client Location:

Mumbai
India