Beyond Faster Drawings: How Eplan Automated Engineering Helps Machine Builders Scale Customization

Customers rarely order a "standard" machine. This customization can often be both a competitive advantage and a bottleneck for machine builders. Customers want specific safety systems, unique conveyor layouts, custom drives, additional sensors, different PLC platforms, regional electrical requirements, and countless other options. A machine platform that may have hundreds or thousands of possible configurations still requires accurate schematics, BOMs, panel layouts, PLC documentation, and manufacturing information for every order.

The challenge is that many engineering teams are still creating these custom designs using largely manual processes; engineers copy an old project, modify it, update documentation, check for errors, and repeat the process for every order.

The Problem with Traditional Engineering Workflows

Typically, machine design begins with an existing project, where a previous machine is copied, modified, and adapted to meet new customer requirements. While this approach may seem efficient, it often leads to:

• Repetitive engineering tasks
• Inconsistencies between projects
• Increased risk of documentation errors
• Longer project lead times
• Reliance on a small number of highly experienced engineers

As machine complexity and customization grow, these challenges become increasingly difficult to manage. Automated engineering eliminates much of this manual effort by using predefined rules, reusable engineering knowledge, and automated project generation.

Eplan Automated Engineering changes that model entirely. It is a framework that combines solutions like Eplan eBuild (cloud-based) and Eplan Engineering Configuration (for complex, enterprise-scale needs) that share a common approach: engineers encode their design expertise once into a library of reusable macros and rule sets, and the system uses that knowledge to automatically generate complete, standards-compliant project documentation for every new machine configuration.

Instead of redesigning the same machine repeatedly, machine builders can capture their engineering expertise once and automatically generate project documentation for every future configuration. Let’s get into how this works.

Automating Schematic Generation

The most significant opportunity for efficiency gains comes from automated schematic creation.

Using Eplan's automated engineering approach, engineers create a library of reusable macros that represent standardized electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, and automation functions. These macros are combined with rule sets that define how machine options interact and how components should be configured.

When a new machine order is received, users simply select the desired machine functions and configuration options through a guided interface. Based on the predefined rules, Eplan automatically generates the complete project documentation.

Rather than spending days manually creating schematics, engineering teams can generate complete projects in hours or even minutes.

The system is designed to be accessible to both experienced engineers and non-specialists. No programming knowledge is required to configure or generate projects.

What Does Automated Engineering Look Like in the Real World?

The value of automated engineering goes beyond simply generating schematics faster. For machine builders that manage dozens—or even thousands—of possible machine configurations, automation can address some of the most common operational challenges: repetitive engineering work, growing order volumes, inconsistent design standards, and the loss of critical engineering knowledge.

The following real-world scenarios illustrate how Eplan Automated Engineering helps electrical and automation engineering teams work more efficiently, improve consistency, and scale their operations without sacrificing quality.

Scenario 1: Eliminating Endless "Copy and Modify" Projects

Many machine builders operate with a project archive filled with previous designs.

When a new order arrives, an engineer searches for a similar machine and begins making edits. This process creates several problems:

• Legacy mistakes get copied forward
• Engineers may overlook required changes
• Different engineers implement standards differently
• Documentation becomes inconsistent

An Example with Automated Engineering

Imagine a machine builder that offers optional robotic loading systems.

Without automation:

• The engineer copies a previous project
• Adds robot I/O
• Adds servo drives
• Updates safety circuitry
• Updates BOM
• Updates PLC documentation
• Verifies everything manually

With Eplan eBuild or Cogineer:

• User selects "Robot Loader = Yes"
• The rule set automatically inserts required schematics
• Safety circuits are added automatically
• Associated devices appear automatically
• Documentation updates automatically

What once took hours becomes a guided configuration process measured in minutes.

Scenario 2: Supporting Sales Growth Without Hiring More Engineers

A common challenge for growing firms is that the machine engineering process becomes the production bottleneck. Sales could successfully increase order volume, but engineering capacity does not grow with it. This leads to growing design queues, increased lead times, and slipping delivery dates. Adding engineers could help, but experienced automation engineers are increasingly difficult to find.

With Automated Engineering

Instead of increasing engineering labor proportionally with order volume, machine builders can automate the generation of standard machine variants.

For example:

Consider a conveyor systems manufacturer that receives 40 orders per month.

Historically:

• Every order requires 12-16 hours of engineering work
• Engineers spend much of their time repeating known designs

Using Eplan Automated Engineering:

• Common configurations are generated automatically
• Engineers only review exceptions
• Documentation is generated instantly

The result is the ability to process significantly more orders using the same design team. Engineering effort shifts from producing documentation to solving genuinely new technical challenges, without adding workforce.

Scenario 3: Capturing the Knowledge of Senior Engineers

Many machine builders often have a few engineers who have an excellent grasp of specific design knowledge, such as which motor sizes work best, which safety circuits are required, which PLC modules should be selected, and which customer-specific rules must be followed.

The problem is that this expertise often exists only in their heads; if they retire, leave the company, or are unavailable, projects slow down.

With Automated Engineering

A senior controls engineer can encode that expertise into:

• Macro libraries
• Design standards
• Configuration rules
• Automatic selection logic

For example:

If a machine exceeds a certain horsepower range:

• The correct drive package is selected automatically
• Required protection devices are automatically added
• Correct cable sizing is automatically applied
• Appropriate panel space is automatically reserved

Instead of relying on tribal knowledge, design intelligence becomes part of the engineering system itself. New engineers can immediately produce projects that follow established company standards.

The Strategic Benefit: Engineering Innovation Instead of Engineering Administration

Perhaps the greatest benefit of automated engineering is allowing engineers to spend more time engineering. Too many experienced controls and electrical engineers spend their days:

• Renumbering devices
• Updating BOMs
• Revising documentation
• Copying standard circuits
• Checking repetitive design work

These activities are necessary, but they create very little competitive advantage.

With Eplan Automated Engineering, those tasks become largely automated. Instead, engineers can focus on:

• Machine performance improvements
• Energy efficiency
• New automation technologies
• Advanced motion control
• Digitalization initiatives
• New machine platform development

In other words, engineering effort shifts from creating documentation to creating innovation.

The Bottom Line

For machine builders with highly configurable products, Eplan Automated Engineering is much more than a tool for generating schematics faster.

It creates a framework for transforming engineering into a scalable, repeatable process. Machine builders can handle more customized orders with fewer errors and shorter lead times thanks to captured expert knowledge, automated project generation, connected sales and engineering workflows, and the extension of digital data into manufacturing.

The result is a business that can support greater customization, increase throughput, and grow without engineering becoming the limiting factor.

Ready to engineer custom machines faster?

Give your engineering team more time to innovate. Talk with an Eplan systems consultant to learn how Automated Engineering can help you manage growing machine complexity without growing your engineering headcount.