At Hermann's, Sovelia PLM is the core of all data management around the company's products and projects, which enables high-quality deliveries and helps the company meet deadlines even in projects with many continuous changes throughout the project's life cycle.

Hermann's Finland Oy is located in Finnish Reso and specialises in advanced interior design solutions for the shipping industry and modular construction. As the company's operations have increasingly shifted to interior design solutions for luxury cruisers and yachts where the level of requirements is extremely high, it is of the utmost importance that the technology Hermann's uses is always up to date - and preferably one step ahead. Hermann's has its own production facility that delivers and completes projects for its customers. The production facility handles the most advanced deliveries that are too complicated to outsource.

Sovelia PLM is a flexible solution that meets the requirements of fast-moving projects in the shipping industry.

When Hermann's current construction manager Kalle Karjalainen was hired as the company's Design Manager, he was commissioned to be responsible for the PLM project. The choice fell on Symetri's Sovelia PLM because it can be handled and used throughout the product life cycle. The solution could be optimised for use in project-based deliveries. Companies often create and manufacture products based on standard modules, but each project is unique at Hermann's. 

Sovelia PLM is the core of the company's operations and that all other systems are built around.

Karjalainen emphasises the importance of identifying system requirements at an early stage of implementing the PLM project. The goal was to find a system that could streamline the company's processes and reduce the workload throughout the product's life cycle. Hermann's wanted the user to be in focus throughout the implementation. As a first step, they carefully defined what information was most important to collect and what would be the best and most effective way for the company to apply Sovelia PLM. One of the most important aspects was that the system would be integrated with the user processes so that users do not even notice that they are producing information in PLM as part of their process. Sovelia PLM acts as the very core of all information in Hermann's operations and other systems, such as the ERP system, with Sovelia PLM, it cannot go wrong.

Luxury cruisers that are constantly on the move and whose public spaces are used by thousands of passengers around the clock are exposed to a lot of wear and tear on the interior that requires both maintenance and spare parts. In the past, it was a challenge to find the information you needed, as it was stored in different places, but now every order is carefully described in Sovelia PLM, which makes it easy to find information about necessary spare parts and maintenance measures.

Since Hermann's implemented Sovelia PLM, the company's production costs for quality assurance have decreased significantly. By letting the entire workflow go via Sovelia PLM, the quality deficiencies have become minimal, and if they have arisen, it has been due to ignoring the system.

"If we follow the system, it is practically impossible to make mistakes,"

 Mattila points out.

By using Sovelia PLM, the work is streamlined. Once the drawings have been added to the system, the designer can feel confident that the production process will receive the correct and updated information without any follow-up or monitoring. According to Karjalainen, who previously worked as Design Manager, the review and approval of the drawings take place efficiently in Sovelia PLM, which reduces the risk of errors.

Digital twins will be used in the future.

In the future, Hermann's also intends to take the step over to information modelling, and the next step is to integrate Autodesk Revit in Sovelia PLM. One of the advantages of Autodesk Revit is that it can be used to digitally create models across different spaces and visualise the various interior elements that are integrated. The collaboration and communication with the customer is deepened thanks to the fact that you can show a 3D model in a digital environment, created based on exact geometries and information about the object - a so-called digital twin.