Manitou teams with Siemens Digital Industries Software

Manitou Group has teamed up with Siemens Digital Industries Software to develop a global solution for managing the lifecycle of its products. As part of the Group’s digital transformation, the implementation of this tool aims to standardise its design processes.

Manitou Group has chosen Teamcenter software for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) from the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of software and services. Dedicated in particular to the management of the machine database, the elements linked to the various components and their nomenclature, Teamcenter will be implemented to streamline and simplify product design on all of the Group’s 10 production sites in the United States, India, Italy and France. In addition to this innovative tool, Siemens’ NX software for product engineering has been chosen as the CAD (Computer-Aided Design) tool.

This sizeable project is fully in line with the Group’s desire to make its digital transformation one of the pillars of its strategic roadmap. Julien Waechter, vice president of R&D at Manitou Group, explains, “This major investment will allow us to modernise our tools, particularly through virtual reality, to enhance our performance and to achieve the same design across several sites without having to rework the data. In practice, we will have unique data for each product for all Group employees. The advantage of the Siemens solution is also its ability to connect to our existing tools, including our ERP. Siemens’ reputation and the expertise of the support teams convinced us that we were making the right decision.”

By implementing this global solution, the Group anticipates that it will be able to optimise the time spent on its product development, while working on a single tool that allows the entire product life cycle to be centralised. Some 1600 users will be impacted by this change. They primarily work in the design and R&D offices, in the methods, technical documentation and after-sales departments, and in the marketing teams, and will be given training within the Group over the next three years.

The first stage of this implementation, up to 2024, concerns definition of the core model and preparation for deployment. The Group’s goal is to implement the solution in the United States by the end of 2024, with roll-out in Europe and India estimated for 2025. To help the project run smoothly, the team from Siemens is working closely with the Manitou Group project team. “We are delighted that Manitou Group has selected the open and interoperable Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of software and services and we are fully committed to supporting Manitou during its journey to achieving its digital transformation goals,” said Jean Marie Saint-Paul, CEO of Siemens Digital Industries Software France. “It’s another great example of how industry pioneers are choosing our solutions to help them build the products of the future and we look forward to helping Manitou Group across the globe.”