The crossbase PIM, MAM and cross-media solution in use at Zimmer Group
Ettlingen, 2014-03-26: Zimmer Group was founded in Rheinau, Germany in 1980 by brothers Martin and Günther Zimmer. The company bundled its decades of expertise into six effective areas of technology: Handling technology, damping technology, linear technology, process engineering, mould technology and machine technology. Products develop in these technology areas that are at the forefront of the industry and are operated under the established brands Zimmer, Sommer-automatic and Benz. Zimmer Group is a global player with subsidiaries and sales partners in 28 countries. It employs just under 1,000 employees worldwide and generates revenue of EUR 150 million.
To automate print publications and online catalogs, Zimmer Group opted for the PIM, MAM and cross-media solution from crossbase. The print publications primarily include over 950 pages of comprehensive handling technology, damping technology and linear technology catalogs. These catalogs were produced initially in German and English and other language changes followed, including French, Italian, Spanish and Slovakian.
Central functions of the solution
Smart automation of catalogs
A great deal of thought went into the layout template - as a result three rule-based layout templates can be used to produce all product pages and the user guidance and quality of the catalogs have been improved.
Ideal launch of production in a record time of 2 months
After production of the PIM system started in July 2013, the first 3 catalogs were already in print in September - on time for the Motek trade fair, the international trade fair in automation for production and assembly. This extremely short production time for initial production was possible thanks to the tightly linked teamwork of project employees at Zimmer and crossbase.
Reusable text modules reduce modification expenses.
To do so, a module was configured in which texts can be organised according to defined criteria. Users can help themselves from a rich pool including hundreds of texts and reuse them at various points. For example, as automatically generated list texts for products or drawing texts for Illustrator production. Particularly in regards to the data maintenance process, the translation and modification costs were reduced more than 50% due to the frequent reuse of these modules.
Fully automated production of language-specific Illustrator graphics
All language-specific graphics, such as the grip force diagram, have been produced using the Illustrator module. Here, drawing messages linked to the graphic are positioned in specified placeholders of the Illustrator file. All language variants of the graphics can be created by pressing a button. Changes to the message texts are also integrated very quickly and the graphics can be reproduced by pressing a button. Thus, the previous manual expense can be avoided completely.
Solution details
The application modules and further information
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