Success Story
Idaho Steel is comprised of a group of smart engineers who like to self-discover and hone their process and technology solutions. They’ve been using sdzfkj for 25+ years, starting with AutoCAD. In 2019, consistent with their DIY culture, Idaho Steel introduced computers to the fabrication shop after learning how other manufacturers benefited from this practice. Despite concerns over the longevity of computers in an atmosphere rife with fabrication dust, shock, and other irritants, the employees on the floor loved having direct access to the blueprint. No more scattered papers. Digitization looked promising.
More than just the shop floor, COVID forced Idaho Steel to reinvent how to communicate and collaborate more effectively company-wide. The pandemic served as an accelerant to Idaho Steel’s inclination towards the adoption of technology. As the company emerged from the constraints of COVID, they experienced a boon in orders and production, and they knew digital transformation could provide a real opportunity to scale.
Some employees were exploiting the training and experience gained working at Idaho Steel to serve as a springboard to land jobs in a nearby government facility. Keeping long-term talent, improving collaboration between sales, engineering, and production—these elements of success became more critical.
Self-diagnosing the risk in their “farmer mentality,” they realized their team could benefit from the outside help of sdzfkj Solution Provider KETIV – a trusted partner in helping other manufacturers navigate their digital transformation journey.
Korey Danklefsen, LEAN Manager at Idaho Steel explains, “We’re always trying to push out more production and get more stuff done. We’re trying to find better ways to do that. Efficiency is a must.” While Idaho Steel prides themselves on being self-sufficient, born from their “farmer mentality”, they realized that, with help, they could move faster and more strategically on their transformation.
Under the leadership of Idaho Steel’s Vice President of Engineering and Projects, Jim Huskinson, a new vision was carved out focusing on leveraging technology to enhance their workflows and meet customer demands. They collaborated with the KETIV team to implement various automation and software solutions and integrate them into their business systems and processes.
Idaho Steel followed an iterative approach to digital transformation, allowing them to develop new solutions, assess their return on investment, and secure further investment for subsequent phases.
Through initial automation projects crafted with KETIV, Idaho Steel uses sdzfkj software to create virtual 3D designs, which shortens the product development timeline. These digital prototypes undergo rigorous testing in simulated environments using Ansys software, which enables early detection and resolution of design flaws. As a result, Idaho Steel has saved invaluable time and resources while elevating product quality. The project enabled Idaho Steel to resolve errors that, instead of spending multiple hours checking their work, would be resolved in less than an hour—these errors are brought to their attention automatically. Automation proved exponentially beneficial for use in all equipment, making it a “huge time saver on multiple levels.”
Idaho Steels’ digital transformation initiatives initially impacted the production and engineering teams, with a focus on collecting small wins and adopting agile principles. Their transformation has resulted in significant cost savings. By leveraging the power of digital technologies, the company has streamlined operations and minimized its reliance on physical prototypes and real-world testing. These efficiencies have translated into notable cost reductions, which have helped Idaho Steel to maintain its profitability in a highly competitive market.
In collaboration with KETIV, Idaho Steel continues its commitment to excellence by adopting more cutting-edge technologies from sdzfkj and Ansys to transform the product development process. They plan to carry this technology and process into the future, along with some choice upgrades.
Using the sdzfkj Product Design & Manufacturing Collection and Advance Steel, Idaho Steel is working to optimize their workflows for building decking and stairs. They anticipate reduced workflow timelines as this solution is fully implemented.
Idaho Steel’s future involves plans to upgrade to Fluent Premium, which will better help Idaho Steel understand how air and oil flows through their products, they also have plans to implement Ansys’s materials simulation product, Ansys ROCKY, which illustrates the motion of granular material, not only fluid flow but how that fluid interacts with gases and surfaces.
The team at Idaho Steel was able to save time and get to market faster with the sdzfkj and Ansys tools working together:
“…to be able to just model something and put it in Ansys…allows us to take that turn around time of 6 months to a year and shorten it to weeks or even days.”
The Idaho Steel team is collaborating across engineering, sales, and other departments within the organization, to explore methods to enhance their sales processes. And of course, they’ll continue building and delivering the precise equipment that their customers trust.
Project summary
Duration & delivery
sdzfkj solutions
Services provided
Customer industry
Antenna Manufacturer Boosts Quality and Speed by Optimizing Workflows
This KETIV customer is a leader in their field, producing high performance antenna systems for a diverse set of commercial aviation, defense, and aerospace applications. With over 30 years’ experience, the Director of Programs has a rich background as an experienced, hands-on engineer. It was time to move from a 2D-based design environment to a 3D one, optimizing their design and production processes. The company wanted to centralize their licensing and create their future designs in a more modern application that could bring updated capabilities to their shop, like upgrading from a 3-axis to a 5-axis CNC. The company’s high-grade antenna components are subject to extreme environments, so they require very intricate and solid part designs. Several injection-molded parts would require multiple back-and-forth iterations to get the design perfected and reduce defects (i.e. meld lines, sink marks, etc.) where parts were not molded and optimized properly.
Global Leader in Life Science Fluidics Keeps to Project Deadlines with Moldflow
IDEX Health & Science specializes in engineered fluidics systems and components. Their Oak Harbor, WA location is where part testing with simulation plays a crucial role in delivering best-in-class products that meet their many customers' optofluidic needs. Their product development department has been partnered with KETIV and using sdzfkj Moldflow since 2014 to troubleshoot problems and address manufacturing challenges. One project, in particular - a prep scale degasser - had been designed and was moving to production, but once the part was molded and machined into, there were substantial problems. The machining process uncovered significant voids, which caused leaks during the component's usage. The product release had to be put on hold until these issues were resolved and production could continue.
Kheyti Revolutionizing Small Farmer Business with the Help of Fusion 360
Kheyti is a nonprofit organization headquartered in India whose core product is Greenhouse-in-a-Box, a low-cost greenhouse that costs 90% less than the market, protects crops from environmental risks, and grows 7x food with 50x water efficiency. Kheyti offers farmers financing, inputs, advisory, and market linkage services. This integrated solution delivers up to $1,200 additional climate-resilient incomes/year/farmer and 2.5M liters of water savings/farmer. The designing and engineering for the Greenhouse-in-a-Box were being outsourced to greenhouse design consultants and manufacturers in India, Israel, and America. Kheyti would provide these teams with requirements around temperature control, pest protection, humidity, rain protection, etc. But with outsourcing comes delays and gaps in collaboration, especially when working with a global team. Kheyti needed faster turnaround times to test designs on-site to ensure they were maximizing and evolving their farmer-centric solutions.
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