Expanding its lighting-as-a-service business model into other countries, Deutsche Lichtmiete adopted the 3DEXPERIENCE platform so its designers could collaborate more effectively. Advanced configurations have reduced design time, prevented errors and helped with adherence to regulations resulting in shorter response times and an improved customer experience.
A LIGHTBULB MOMENT
When Alexander Hahn, CEO and founder of Deutsche Lichtmiete, was renovating his home back in 2008, he was shocked by the cost and quality of LED lighting solutions available to him. After studying the market, he realized that businesses across Germany faced the same problem – and so he made it his mission to address the situation. As a result, Deutsche Lichtmiete was born and with it its perpetual founding motive given by Hahn: “The reduction of CO2 emissions through the use of LED lighting is what drives us constantly.”
Deutsche Lichtmiete‘s approach was quite different to anything else on the market at the time. Hahn devised a unique lighting-as-a-service (LaaS) business model that would enable companies of all sizes, in any industry, to rent – rather than buy – bespoke, best-in-class lighting solutions. By making LED lighting more accessible and commercially attractive, Hahn aspired to help German industry organizations to become more sustainable.
“LED technology provides not only outstanding light, but is economical, environmentally sound and the most energy-efficient lighting on the market,” explained Stella Dreyer, R&D project manager at Deutsche Lichtmiete. “By removing the investment hurdle, we make it much easier for businesses to make the transition and profit from the conversion to LED. We’ve made that process very easy: We guarantee the functionality of our installation for the entire contract duration, so it offers complete peace of mind.”
THE PATH TOWARDS VIRTUAL SUCCESS
Over the course of the past thirteen years, the company has evolved and now plans to expand its business.
“We are looking to expand our business across and beyond Germany in the years ahead,” Dreyer said. “We hope to help businesses in other regions reap the same benefits that our local client base is enjoying.”
Developing in this way will see Deutsche Lichtmiete’s teams scale and grow further – and this meant it needed a reliable future-proof technology platform at its foundation.
“We quickly realized that in order to achieve our future vision, we needed our engineers to work flexibly, wherever they are based – whether that’s across Germany or beyond,” explained Stefan Bluhm, a product development engineer at Deutsche Lichtmiete. “We wanted to enable remote collaboration with a proven solution that is able to grow according to our ever-evolving needs.”
This meant a significant departure from Deutsche Lichtmiete’s existing way of working.
“Designers were working file-based using SOLIDWORKS,” Bluhm said. “Everything was stored locally and in silos, and there was a lot of switching between different systems since our design software did not connect with our ERP system.”
Deutsche Lichtmiete required a solution that could connect to its existing ERP system without the need for third party software. It also sought the benefits of a platform that offered advanced configuration and variant management, so that it could efficiently manage the different demands of its clients by minimizing the time for redesigning systems.
As part of a thorough review of the market, Deutsche Lichtmiete invited Dassault Systèmes’ business partner CCE Systems Engineering to demonstrate how the 3DEXPERIENCE platform could meet their needs. Based on a first call with Bluhm and his team, CCE prepared a holistic scenario on the platform with real design data from Deutsche Lichtmiete. The live presentation included the design and CAD capabilities, variant management, project management and the connection to ERP systems.
SHORT LEAD TIME
Thanks to the platform, Deutsche Lichtmiete now benefits from a much simpler product development process.
“Our designers are saving a huge amount of time,” Bluhm said. “We have a new methodology which means we work faster, have reliable data and much improved design processes. The configuration management capabilities, in particular, have been a game-changer. The first time I was able to build a 150% BOM I was amazed – this was unthinkable in our previous system to work effectively.”
Thanks to ENOVIA, users can now define a configured product structure that can be used as a template to generate families of product variants. This means they can easily scale bigger sizes of products, and share a single configured structure across multiple projects. This approach optimizes reuse, and ensures designers don’t have to start from scratch with every new project.
A STRONG FOUNDATION FOR GROWTH
Bluhm and his team can always be confident that, thanks to its platform approach, ENOVIA allows them to work on the latest iteration of a design – so versioning is no longer an issue. “It’s also really easy to look back on a previous design if we need to do that,” Bluhm explained.
With the integration of its ERP system, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform makes it easy for Deutsche Lichtmiete to create and maintain a bill of materials (BOM) for each project. This leads to reduced design and BOM errors and enables innovation through the automatic generation and update of data-driven, fully connected, multi-disciplined design and engineering product views.
“We can create the exact BOM for production, based on the CATIA design,” Bluhm said. “Not only does this reduce the chance of errors in assembly, and deliver cost savings as a result, but it also ensures we meet the increasingly stringent regulations that govern the different industries our customers operate within.”
It’s also easier than ever for Bluhm and his colleagues to assign work and manage projects between designers and other departments with ENOVIA – a capability that proved invaluable during the pandemic.
“When COVID-19 struck, we were able to operate business as usual, because our design teams were able to work from home easily. From wherever we are working, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform provides us the same experience. We can now collaborate far more effectively.”
Dreyer is confident that the advantages of the platform are helping Deutsche Lichtmiete to deliver a much better customer experience.
“It’s of paramount importance for us to be very responsive to our customers, from the moment of engagement to final delivery of a well-priced, high-quality solution that meets individual needs. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform helps with all of this – we can build better products; we can expedite decision-making and we can respond faster.”
To learn more about how Deutsche Lichtmiete is using simulation to shorten the time-to-bid, relying on the platform to put sustainability first and planning for a resilient future, read the full case study.
