Winkler & Dünnebier GmbH

Highlights

• Seamless engineering change processes and workflows are integrated in a single system
• Service requests by customers and change requests by employees are managed in one call
• The effort of implementing engineering changes is reduced to a minimum for all departments
• Customized views ensure full transparency in project management
• Comprehensive controlling tools are available

Highly Sophisticated Engineering Change Management

What might a machine that is 100 meters long produce? A gummy bear! Highly specialized plants are required to transform chocolate, fruit gum, jelly, fondant and marzipan into delicious sweets. Such plants can be found at Winkler und Dünnebier Süßwarenmaschinen (WDS). Together with its sister company Maschinenbau Runkel GmbH, WDS from Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the leading manufacturers of confectionery machines worldwide a real Hidden Champion. With the help of proALPHA, WDS has established a seamless process for implementing engineering changes that significantly reduces the effort for all departments involved. In 1913, Alfred Winkler and Max Dünnebier laid the foundation for a company that enjoys great international success today: Winkler und Dünnebier Süßwarenmaschinen. Having started off as a small handicraft business, WDS has become a state-of-the-art industrial company that operates all over the world. In modern administration and production facilities that extend over approx. 15,000 square meters at its headquarters in Rengsdorf, WDS has developed, engineered and manufactured confectionery machines since 1997.

All WDS plants are unique. They are composed of up to 50 different machines and 3,300 individual parts. Up to 45 percent of the parts installed in a machine have to be entered in the system as new records, while for at least half of the parts, records from previous projects can be used.