CADVenture Success Story – Werner Co.
 Werner Co. is the world’s leading manufacturer of ladders, climbing equipment, and ladder accessories. Founded in 1922, Werner pioneered the extension ladder market and today develops a variety of climbing products for residential and commercial use. Backed by more than 50 years of product innovation, Werner leads the industry with its commitment to design and manufacture quality products that meet or exceed applicable Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) codes and standards for strength and structural integrity. Werner is headquartered in Greenville, Pennsylvania, and operates manufacturing facilities in Greenville; Chicago, Illinois; Anniston, Alabama; Carrollton, Kentucky; and Merced, California.
Helping the World’s Leading Ladder Manufacturer Energize Product Development
The Challenge
 Throughout its history, the Werner Co.’s commitment to innovation and quality — Werner introduced the very first extension ladder — has helped the company to grow into the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of ladders, climbing equipment, and ladder accessories. However, increasing competition and long lead times on the development of new products recently prompted Werner management to evaluate its product development processes to determine if upgrading its 2D CAD tools to a 3D solid modeling system could energize its product development efforts by reducing design cycles, slashing costs, enhancing innovation, and shortening time to market. “We wanted to jump-start new product development,” explains John Fiumefreddo, Vice President of Engineering and New Product Development. “In the past, we’ve gone as long as two years without releasing a new product. We wanted to turn that around and leverage the move to 3D design to release a new product every six to 18 months.” For assistance in transitioning to a new 3D design environment, Werner turned to CADVenture and the SolidWorks® solid modeling system.
The Solution
Werner benchmarked several leading CAD applications and value-added resellers (VARs), analyzing capabilities, cost, implementation strategies, and training and support services, before selecting CADVenture and the SolidWorks 3D modeling system. “We evaluated the logic of the investment and implementation against our needs as well as the quality of the VAR,” Fiumefreddo says. “Training and support are just as important as the software, and the quality of the people at CADVenture was a major part of our reasoning in choosing SolidWorks. Their implementation plan was on target and in line with our objectives. I’ve been really impressed with the people at CADVenture.”
Ron Burig, a product designer at Werner, says the CADVenture SolidWorks training was very effective. “We had people with no experience at all come through the class without any problems and immediately start to design parts. CADVenture modified the standardized training class to include examples of the types of products we develop. By the end of the training session, everyone knew how to design parts.”
Burig also had high marks for CADVenture support services. “CADVenture is very responsive when it comes to support. When we have a support issue, we typically get an answer back within a day. With other resellers, questions often go into a black hole, and you may get an answer whenever they find the time. There’s really no comparison to CADVenture. It’s a lot easer to get things done or find solutions when working with a reseller who responds so quickly to support issues,” Burig says.
“The feedback on the CAD training I’ve received has been excellent and their [CADVenture’s] support has been very good,” Fiumefreddo adds. “Compared to other VARs, CADVenture is really strong.”
In addition to providing services to support the Werner CAD transition, CADVenture is helping the company adjust its design processes and maximize its return on investment in SolidWorks. For example, Burig says Werner is leveraging the configuration capabilities in SolidWorks to produce entire product families from a single CAD model. “CADVenture helped us to capitalize on SolidWorks configurations by showing us how our ideas can be streamlined,” Burig says “They’ve also helped us to organize an on-site user’s group that will allow us to tap additional functionality in SolidWorks that can impact our design process in a positive manner.”
The Results
According to Fiumefreddo, CADVenture’s assistance in transitioning to the SolidWorks 3D modeling system is helping Werner to achieve its goals of energizing product development, reducing product design cycles, slashing design costs, enhancing design innovation, and shortening product time to market.
“We’re not only designing more sophisticated products,” Fiumefreddo says, “We’re able to move from concept to working prototype faster than ever before. For example, in just three months, we’ve designed 90 new components and 120 new assemblies. We’ve been able to reduce cycle time and increase productivity inside our research and development group. Since moving to SolidWorks, we’re able to do more with the same amount of people because we’re better and quicker. We’re able to optimize designs without a lot of trial and error. Our new product development is well on its way to achieving our ambitious goals.”
Burig says that in addition to substantial design cycle reductions, Werner has reduced prototype costs and turnaround time since transitioning to 3D. “The cost savings and improvement in turnaround for producing prototype parts have been dramatic. We’re able to turn prototypes around in a single day at less cost, which is helping us to meet our overall objectives.”
- Shortened design cycle dramatically.
- Increased productivity in research and development.
- Enhanced design innovation.
- Reduced prototype development costs and turnaround.
Werner Co.
93 Werner Road
Greenville, PA 16125-9499
Phone: 724-588-8600
www.wernerladder.com
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“The feedback on the CAD training I’ve received has been excellent and their [CADVenture’s] support has been very good. Compared to other VARs, CADVenture is really strong.”
John Fiumefreddo
Vice President of Engineering and New Product Development
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