Case study

Longveld: Inventor iLogic automation revolutionises business

A passion for innovation

Longveld has multi-award-winning expertise in custom metal fabrication. Since 1992 it has grown from a two-person company to a large and busy team, creating primary food-processing machinery, systems and equipment for the New Zealand and Australasian markets. Projects can include dairy storage tanks, platform structures, ducts and hoppers for milk driers and other projects related to casting, tooling and CNC machining. The company also deals with plastic components.

The journey has been underpinned by a passion for innovation, attention to detail and care for staff. They’re not just pioneering advanced methods on the shop floor, they’ve also implemented a four-day workweek – part of their quest to promote excellent work-life balance for the team.

Their thirst to stay one step ahead of the game has been supported by Cadpro and Autodesk products for ten years.

Project Location:
Hamilton

Software Used:

A double trailer milk tanker with Longveld tanks on the back

The challenge

Longveld has been working with Cadpro for almost a decade, which senior CAD engineer Amir Pakroo says is down to their “amazing, on-time support.”

“Their base training courses and workshops helped us a lot during our journey from early days and helped us use the Autodesk products at a more advanced level,” says Amir.

So when the company set out to improve efficiency and competitiveness even further, they enlisted Cadpro to help them get more from the software.“We were spending heaps of extra exhausting time recreating similar designs, and clients were waiting longer than necessary just for preliminary designs,” explains Amir.

With Cadpro’s help, Amir could see that Inventor’s iLogic tool would automate and streamline this longwinded, manual process.

The solution

Designs in days instead of weeks

Inventor reduces design time significantly, but Amir says his work using iLogic to automate large parts of the process has revolutionised his role. “It saves enormous amounts of time – by combining CAD and programming in Inventor we customised it for our specific design needs. This means we enter some key data, press a button and the whole design assembly is ready for fabrication.”

Wide-ranging benefits

Time-saving is the most obvious benefit, but automation is also paying dividends in other areas. “It lets us respond quickly to clients with initial quote drawings. A project including 50 or 60 different storage tanks or platforms can be created in a few days, rather than weeks. That’s a big success for us and also for our clients’ planning.”

Increasing productivity

Amir also believes it’s given them an edge over competitors. “Cutting time out of our design process enables us to price more competitively,” he says. “Even though our competitors are using Inventor too, we’ve opened its power and cleverness to give us an edge.”

The company focus on work-life balance is supported by that incredible speed and efficiency. “Now we can manage the busy days much better than in the past, and make work-life much easier and happier,” says Amir.

“We were spending heaps of extra exhausting time recreating similar designs, and clients were waiting longer than necessary just for preliminary designs. Inventor iLogic automation lets us respond quickly to clients with initial quote drawings. A project including 50 or 60 different storage tanks or platforms can be created in a few days, rather than months. That’s a big success for us and also for our clients’ planning.”

– Amir, Longveld

Business outcomes

Automation using the iLogic interface helped Longveld standardise their main products, unifying all components from design to fabrication. The productivity boost this gave the company has been immeasurable.

“We’re saving money and time while adding to client satisfaction – all because of Autodesk Inventor cleverness. It helped us to deliver better quality products on time for clients, to strengthen those relationships,” says Amir.

“Special thanks to Autodesk and the Cadpro team for making our life much easier and making us more advanced in the fabrication industry.”

Learn more about Longveld
A Longveld metal silo laying horizoontally on the back of a truck