From parts lists
to flow:
this is how we build it.
A conversation with Mark Veenendaal, Technical Director at Bos Machines, about designing ‘Lego bricks’ once, the magic word keep it simple and a deliberate choice for Vault Basic, because the team wants to stay at the controls.
Made in Holland, since 1985.
From its base in Vianen, the Netherlands, Bos Machines has been building advanced machines and complete production lines for the woodworking industry since 1985, under its own brand BMH. The principle fits in a single image: a stack of timber goes in at one end, a ready-made window frame comes out at the other, fully automated by a single line.
Customers across Europe run a broad range of BMH equipment, from CNC machining centres to complete production lines, and satisfaction scores are high. What sets the company apart is the combination of mechanical engineering with its own software development: machine control and automation, including BMH 3D Master, are created entirely in-house.
- 01Own brand BMH. Design, production and software fully in-house.
- 02A broad range. From CNC machining centres to complete production lines.
- 03Customers across Europe. With high satisfaction scores.
- 04In-house software development. Including BMH 3D Master.
What we are most proud of is the high satisfaction among our customers. We build technically advanced machines that work reliably, and take as much work as possible off our customers’ hands.
We design our ‘Lego bricks’ once, as well as possible. But the parts list that comes with them: we got sick and tired of it.
All the data was in CAD. Yet it was retyped.
Bos Machines designs modularly. A small conveyor, a Z-axis or a machining motor is engineered properly once and then reused in dozens of machines. The parts list, the complete list of components that make up a machine, was another story: producing it took almost as much time as the 3D design itself.
The painful part was that every piece of data already existed in the CAD system, yet had to be retyped into Ridder iQ, the ERP system (the software that handles purchasing and production) used by Bos Machines. That frustration was the direct trigger to start an active search for a good CAD-to-ERP integration.
The annoying thing is that all the information is already in the CAD package. Colours, weights, dimensions, quantities. Retyping that into Ridder iQ is pure ballast.
- 01Parts lists compiled entirely by hand. On large machines that took up to half a working day per design.
- 02Engineers lost time to administration. Of the twenty hours an average design takes, almost half a working day went into compiling and checking parts lists.
- 03Data retyped from CAD into ERP. Everything already existed in CAD and still had to be entered again.
Deliberately Vault Basic. Against the advice.
Almost every party Bos Machines approached for an ERP integration gave the same advice: “First upgrade to Vault Professional.” Bos Machines saw it differently. The company had deliberately chosen Vault Basic, Autodesk’s system for managing CAD files, and wanted to stay at the controls itself rather than be pushed towards a heavier package.
We like to be able to turn the knobs ourselves. In Vault Professional the system runs you more than you run it.
Found via a recommendation, and it clicked.
A recommendation brought Bos Machines to Cadkunde. What appealed was a small, direct team that treats Vault Basic as the deliberate choice it is, instead of pushing towards a Professional licence.
The proposed approach and the way they think along appealed to us straight away.
One core improvement: the parts list straight into Ridder iQ.
A telling example: a complete timber processing line, delivered in early July, that takes in a stack of timber and delivers a fully machined product, including automatically sawn glazing beads. Parts receive a laser code along the way, keeping them traceable further down the production process.
The integration project itself was kept deliberately narrow: one core improvement, moving the parts list that is already fully known in the CAD system into Ridder iQ without intermediate steps such as Excel lists. The hard part sits in details that only show up in practice, for instance chains and hoses, where the right description depends on the context. Cadkunde worked out that fine-tuning together with Bos Machines.
Custom-built by Jaap.
Cadkunde specialist Jaap Flonk, co-owner of the company, is the engineer behind the project. He built the integration between Vault Basic and Ridder iQ fully custom, tailored to the way Bos Machines works. He also handled an update of thousands of drawings to a new house style, including purchased parts that the system normally protects against changes.
Jaap is remarkably skilled at finding solutions and has tremendous knowledge of the software. We are very happy with that.
The specialist behind this project at Bos Machines.
The clerical work is cut in half.
The complete ERP integration with Ridder iQ, including parts-list export, has been delivered and is working. Parts lists that used to be compiled by hand now travel directly from the CAD system into Ridder iQ. An average design takes twenty hours; almost half a working day of that used to be spent compiling, checking and double-checking parts lists. Mark estimates that half or more of that time disappears once the integration is a full part of the team’s daily way of working.
The magic word is: keep it simple. You are at the controls yourself, you know what is happening.
Nearly halved per typical machine project, once the integration is in use.
Automatically consistent data from CAD to Ridder iQ.
Engineers do what they are good at; the drudgery disappears.
At the company’s pace. Not the other way around.
Delivered is not the same as fully adopted, and Bos Machines is honest about that. The team is folding the new automation into its daily routine, one step at a time and at a pace that suits the company. Confidence to rely on the integration fully grows as it is used more.
We like what we can keep tabs on ourselves.
Installing an integration takes a week; unlearning ten years of processing parts lists through Excel takes longer. Looking ahead, Mark already knows how he wants to mark the finish line.
Once the system is fully up and running, it would be great to do a demo here one day. So we can shake hands and say: we fixed that nicely together.
Then let’s start a conversation.
Cadkunde helps manufacturing companies standardise, automate and connect their CAD environment to ERP. Even when that means the standard route is not the right one.