The Medium Voltage Switchgear Configurator
Siemens Mobility is one of the most important infrastructure providers for rail and metro networks in Europe.
In business since 1989 with headquarters in Munich
Challenges
Procurement decisions based on cost and product configuration
Siemens Mobility produces, among others, Medium Voltage Switchgear (MVS) to serve their customers engaged in railway electrification lines. Projects vary from supplying just panels for replacement to large amounts of MVS.
Usually, MVS is designed to customize and offer unique features to their customers, which Siemens’s designers configure first as electric equipment and then as mechanical parts.
Because of their complex products, Siemens needs to speed up the procurement phases and calculate costs with a high level of accuracy to send the request for Proposal to their most convenient suppliers as soon as possible.
Solution
Precise cost calculation through an assisted Configuration System
Siemens Mobility engineers, supported by Siemens PLM and Configuratori, created an assisted configuration system that helps designers design and configure panels, switchgear cabinets, cabinet lines, and rooms.
For each magnitude level, costs are calculated correctly because the prices of all the standard parts from every supplier are stored in a database and, therefore, easy to roll up. In addition, special items have a proper room in the evaluation process.
The system outputs are the BOM list, the offer document, CAD models, Visio graphs for the single line diagrams, and the switchgear arrangement in a room layout.
In addition, the system simulates the costs from every supplier to identify the most convenient one, given a particular configuration of the entire switchgear system.
