EDRMedeso’s Productivity Tools Enable Time Savings & Growth at POJI

Engineering company POJI approached EDRMedeso for help with the design process for a newly developed building system. They were looking for a more efficient way to design and verify structural stability and integrity without compromising build quality. This became the starting point for a collaboration between POJI and EDRMedeso to develop a tailored toolkit for Ansys, called the “POJI toolkit”, that was able to streamline the design process by sizing, dimension constructions, test and verify designs. This made a big difference to the once manual work that is now an automatic and optimized process. As a result, POJI has become a leader in their field and is able to deliver great value to their clients.

The Story of POJI

POJI is a company founded in 2012 with a background in the mechanical industry. Realizing that the construction industry has great potential of an increased automation POJI shifted and started applying its knowledge from mechanical to construction. Today they offer an automated calculation system to simplify the design and calculation process for Off-site modular buildings. POJI has refined their tool through partnerships with research institutes and companies specialized in Off-site construction, with the goal of making it easier for builders to streamline the design process.

When Per-Olof Hulthe (former Jansson), CEO and founder of POJI approached EDRMedeso in 2016, he was already an established user of Ansys simulation solutions. In the same timeframe, EDRMedeso had developed Productivity Tools to improve structural simulation solutions for Ansys. The CEO wanted to replicate those automations to strengthen POJI’s position as a design partner for its clients. The goal was to automate the entire design process for structures, including sizing, dimensions, testing, and verification. It was determined that using a tailored POJI toolkit would be beneficial as it could save time and remove technical limitations. Instead of using traditional, time-consuming hand calculations and formulas for design verification, the POJI toolkit allowed for much faster calculations.

How POJI Have Used the Toolkit

The simulation process starts by populate a simple spreadsheet with parameters that generate a geometry to which project-specific loads are then added. With this ‘standard’ information, the entire core design of the construction system is complete – in a matter of hours, delivering the required data and freeing up time to focus on other priorities. The predefined settings within the POJI toolkit allow for a mix of different materials – hybrids, wood, concrete, steel – and can easily calculate complex nonlinear contact. Importantly, all Eurocode standards are met through automations within the toolkit, designs can push the boundaries and still maintain that critical compliance.

We fill out an Excel sheet with all parameters, which when inputted, generate the full geometry; we then apply each load and the boundary conditions. The following day we will have finalized a complete report of the whole framework and generated all necessary data, for the entire construction!

Non-technical limitations are a thing of the past which allows POJI to respond to markets and customer situations with a ‘can-do’ attitude. Inputs are not reliant on specific expertise, hence focus can be put into other priorities that do call for specialist intervention, such as interpretation of results when validating the designs. Thanks to the POJI toolkit, the company could increase the throughput of projects and needed to recruit additional engineering resource.

The Productivity Tools Enabled a New Business Model

POJI has been able to resolve any technical issues upfront and coupled with the final report, any human error is avoided, thereby resulting in a quality assured process. The investment in the POJI toolkit immediately paid off and the new embedded process is so reliable there are more ideas to develop the app and simulation process even further.

The toolkit is an enabler; it gives the process a quality assurance stamp and ensures all necessary design regulations are met.

Since repetitive calculations are taken care of, engineers can put their energy into other elements that influence designs. Other possible enhancements to the complete solution include embedding analyses such as CFD for wind load or other flow induced phenomena, acoustic evaluation, fire and smoke modelling.

Whereas the conventional design consultancy model is to charge per hour for project time, with the POJI toolkit, POJI can bill the agreed value of the project. Hence, spend time on effective methodology development rather than repetitive inputs. This delivers actual customer value and gives motivation to experiment and further develop processes and methods. The flexibility of these complete design checks means no matter what the building system, the POJI toolkit can be applied. Currently used when analyzing building complex and industries, there is no reason the same process cannot be applied to other structures going forward.

The possibilities are seemingly endless. The future is one of complete design control, regardless of the building system, from inception to delivery of the finished project, all as part of a fully digitalized process, fully compliant with Eurocode.

What Does the End User Say?

The feedback from POJI’s customer MOKO is indicative of the benefits that can be gained, not just by the consultancy but by the ‘end user’. Patrik Jensen, CEO at MOKO explains:

With standardized output from architects 3D-models, POJI can maintain the throughput, at speed, of analyzing building statics suitable for the highly efficient work rate we expect at MOKO. Output from FE-analyses is imported back into MOKO to generate the documents and drawings required for production and granting of building permits. The automated workflow at POJI cuts the time for analyses by at least half.

Wondering how we can help you realize your visions with simulation where your product knowledge and our application expertise can merge? Please contact us to find out more. EDRMedeso continuously works with customer-driven innovation for automation and optimization of processes, and our Apps experts are always open for discussions about new projects and ideas to work on.

Learn more about Productivity Tools