Krone establishes digitalisation strategy

“Establishing a PDM / PLM solution at Krone creates an important backbone for our overall digitalisation strategy,” said Dr. Goy-Hinrich Korn, CIO at Krone. “We have a vision and plan to enable the digitalisation of our company but without a solid base, these would not be sufficiently supported. We are confident that working with Siemens’ software will help solve both our existing issues as well as meet our new requirements.”

The Krone product portfolio ranges from simple agricultural machines, such as small mowers, to highly complex field choppers for interplant use. The market requires increasingly efficient industrial machines with new sensor technology and more sophisticated software functions. Along with the need to extend the product lifecycle for this equipment, manufacturers in this industry face many challenges, including global competition, multi-site manufacturing, compressed development cycles, total cost-of-ownership reductions, fuel economy, and regulatory emissions standards. Meeting these challenges is easier with an integrated set of design, simulation and manufacturing software tools that can be managed in a unified and integrated environment.

“A single-source data management system is an essential tool for heavy equipment manufacturers such as Krone, who need to manage the different forms and data created, while keeping focus on engineering, manufacturing and product lifecycle,” said Urban August, Senior Vice President and Managing Director for Siemens PLM Software, Germany. “Our solutions for the heavy equipment industry can help Krone excel in today’s challenging and dynamic environment and deliver innovative products while decreasing total cost of ownership.”

Krone has a multi-phase roll out planned to implement the software, beginning with a focus on CAD data migration including 150 seats of NX. Later phases of the implementation will shift the focus to product lifecycle management (PLM) software including 400 seats of Teamcenter. This initial install base will form the foundation for the strategy and allow room to build upon in the future, including various areas of expansion and interest such as quality management systems (QMS), IoT, simulation and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) solutions.