Digital twin revolutionizes industrial device manufacturer’s sales and after-sales

-  Etteplan and Mevea developed a digital twin for Sleipner’s product, which helps to digitalize after-sales functions and creates a competitive advantage.

Engineering company Etteplan Oyj and Mevea Oy, specialized in simulation software, have developed a digital twin for Sleipner Finland Ltd.’s product, which Sleipner will use in digitalizing its marketing and after-sales processes.

Sleipner Finland Ltd. is a company based in Jyväskylä that manufactures and markets globally innovative and safe transport systems for tracked equipment for customers in the mining, quarrying and earth moving sectors, for example. Using Sleipner’s transport system, excavators can be transported from one place to another cost-effectively and sustainably.

In the application developed by Etteplan and Mevea, an excavator and Sleipner’s transport system can be used in a simulation model whose functional characteristics and performance correspond fully with the physical machines. The simulation model also includes an entirely real-life mining environment. The simulation model provides end users with the required training without disturbing the customer’s production.

Sleipner’s goal is to develop a digital platform, or portal, that will bring all of the customer’s after-sales services under one user interface. The digital twin is part of Sleipner’s digital package, which initially serves the training of end customers and dealers. The concept is familiar from the mining industry, but Sleipner is the first in the world to bring the digital twin into mining equipment transport logistics. Through the digital twin, Sleipner is seeking increased customer satisfaction and market differentiation.

Working together on digital twins, Etteplan and Mevea jointly developed the solution for Sleipner utilizing Mevea’s software. Etteplan and Sleipner are long-term partners in the mechanical engineering and technical documentation of Sleipner’s products.

The digitalization of customers’ businesses is one of Etteplan’s strategic growth areas. Etteplan has invested considerably in the development and roll-out of digital twins and other new technologies supporting the digitalization of customers’ businesses.

-  The digital twin holds a key role in developing our user training services based on customer needs. By simulation based training we ensure that the users’ have a high skill level and that they are able to use the solution in a safe and efficient way. In future, it will also generate new ways to sell and market our product. Etteplan’s and Mevea’s comprehensive expertise in the technology and the development opportunities it offers our business has been paramount for us. Our collaboration has made it possible for us to focus on developing our core business, says Tomi Korhonen, Sleipner Finland’s Managing Director.

Digital twins are simulation models of a product, machine or production line. They are identical in terms of their characteristics and functions, including their environment, to their physical siblings. A twin can be used at all stages of a product’s lifecycle, such as in product development, production planning or after-sales. It can be used to simulate a device’s or production line’s operations virtually before making the decision to start manufacturing. For industrial device manufacturers, digital twins are particularly well-suited for use in training because they do away with the need to transport machines or take them out of production for the duration of training.

Sleipner Finland will present its solution at the FinnMateria trade fair in Jyväskylä from November 21 to 22, 2018.

For more information, please contact:

Riku Riikonen
Senior Vice President, Engineering Services, Etteplan Oyj
Tel. +358 50 522 8255

Outi Torniainen
Senior Vice President, Communications & Marketing, Etteplan Oyj
Tel. +358 10 307 3302

Raimo Nikkilä
Director, Sales, Marketing and Business Development, Mevea Ltd.
Tel. +358 400 249 213

Tomi Korhonen
Managing Director, Sleipner Finland Ltd.
Tel. +358 400 817 693

Etteplan in brief

Etteplan provides industrial equipment and plant engineering, embedded systems, IoT (Internet of Things), and technical documentation solutions to the world’s leading companies in the manufacturing industry. Our services are geared to improve the competitiveness of our customers' products and engineering processes throughout the product life cycle. The results of Etteplan’s innovative engineering can be seen in numerous industrial solutions and everyday products.

In 2017, Etteplan had a turnover of approximately EUR 215 million. The company currently has over 3 000 professionals in Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and China. Etteplan's shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd under the ETTE ticker. www.etteplan.com

Mevea in brief

Mevea Ltd.’s software solutions are designed for real-time simulation and they enable Digital Twin, which is a physics-based virtual twin of a physical product, able to simulate in real-time its behaviour and use. Digital Twin can be used throughout the whole product lifecycle - from product development, sales/marketing and training to product in operation support - and by that achieve cost savings and create new business opportunities. Mevea’s customers include several of the world’s leading machine manufacturers. For more information, visit www.mevea.com

Sleipner in brief

Sleipner Finland Oy develops, manufactures and markets innovative and safe transporting systems for tracked equipment. Our customers operate globally in the fields of mining, quarrying and earth moving. Sleipner transport systems generate significant savings for customers by increasing productivity, as well as decreasing maintenance costs and fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, by a minimum of 85 % during transport. www.sleipner.fi