“With SOLIDWORKS, we can develop products more professionally in terms of fit and function than many global manufacturers, and every year, we add three times as many products.” “We first realized how beneficial using SOLIDWORKS would be in 2012, when we built an entire milking center from scratch,” Bouwman adds. “The move to SOLIDWORKS has allowed us to go from designing a small number of products to support the equipment dealership to offering more than 100 different automation products,” Bouwman says. As a result, the company has tripled the number of products that it develops annually. Since standardizing on SOLIDWORKS, VDFA has developed equipment designs that are more innovative, elaborate, and complete, with fewer mistakes and errors.
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“Other SOLIDWORKS features that drove my decision included the software’s short learning curve, its industry-leading sheet-metal and weldment design tools, and the company’s commitment to continue to develop the software and listen to its users.” Today, VDFA relies on SOLIDWORKS Premium mechanical design and analysis software to develop its dairy automation systems and recently added SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D to develop associated electrical systems for its products.
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“The main reason that I chose SOLIDWORKS is that I wanted access to a large, supportive, online community of users that would help me figure out how to use the program,” Bouwman explains. That’s why I investigated 3D design solutions.” Bouwman used evaluation versions of the leading 3D CAD packages before deciding to standardize on the SOLIDWORKS 3D development platform. Roughly 40 percent of our products involve sheet metal, and because dairy applications require either stainless or hot-dip galvanized steel, design errors are costly. “Whenever I needed to make a design change, I had to make the change to multiple drawing views, which wasted time. “As business grew, designing and manufacturing in 2D became frustrating and limiting,” Bouwman recalls. Development of VDFA’s line of products emanated from its desire to do the best possible job for its customers, according to General Manager Kevin Bouwman, who began developing products in the early 2000s using the DesignCAD® 2D design package.
Demand for the company’s products has increased rapidly, leading to the establishment in 2015 of its Lyntech subsidiary, which designs and manufactures the firm’s extensive product offering.
Founded in 1982 as a dealer for Bou-Matic dairy equipment in northwest Iowa, southeast South Dakota, and southwest Minnesota-a service that the company still provides-Valley Dairy Farm Automation (VDFA) has grown to become a leading manufacturer of customized, innovative dairy farm automation products.