KOMPAN is the leading  manufacturer  of playground equipment in Europe. The KOMPAN Group products are sold in more than 40 countries. Worldwide the KOMPAN Group employs about 500 people.

KOMPAN Elements is the name of KOMPAN's new product line.  The concept of this product  line  is to build playgrounds from standard components.  These components are connected with respect to a  set  of rules, for example system and safety rules.

This  concept enables KOMPAN to change business from selling standard playgrounds to  selling full scale customized playgrounds,  and transform knowledge of building playgrounds into a visual configuration system.

Decrease Sales Proposal Time

The competitive situation for KOMPAN was to  increase the emphasis on individual solutions for the individual  customers. With  traditional design methods, the cost of sales would have increased without the implementation of the configuration solution.

Show Customers the Product Before Production

At the point of sale, the  customer  is working  together with the sales person on building the playground.  The  visualization of  the playground during this process improves the customer's  confidence,  as well as the confidence of the sales person, who  can feel assured that the solution being presented on the screen  will  be identical to the solution delivered.

Improve Order Accuracy

As  the  proposal turns into an order, the accuracy  of  the order becomes critical to satisfy the customer's expectations.  The solution cannot be tested at the factory, thus it is essential that all  the  individual bits and pieces are in  the  shipment,  and that they are followed by a  detailed assembly instruction.

Based on the output from the configurator, KOMPAN automatically creates these assembly instructions, together with packaging checklists.

ROI Focus

From a business management perspective the requirement to the solution, was to be focused on investment calculations.

Goals were identified to:

•  100 % correct bill-of-material

•  Reduce sales cycles and support

•  Lower sales service training costs

•  Faster time-to-market for  their new product

These goals have been  achieved successfully.

Integration

An important requirement was to integrate the  configurator  to KOMPAN's existing IT systems.

The  existing ERP system generates the detailed BOM (bill-of-material) with input from the configurator.

By integrating the configurator  and  the CAD system, the CAD system is able to automatically generate accurate  CAD drawings and assembly instructions.