Fall is just around the corner, and with the changing season comes a familiar sight: Great Plains crop harvesting. Every farm needs various tools to ensure that they can harvest efficiently and sufficiently. Whether it’s looking for a hay wagon for sale or a new plower, equipment and tools are incredibly useful.

Using high-tech farming equipment from Great Plains Manufacturing allows Wayne Miller, a Kansas farmer, to place seed and fertilizer in precise locations and quantities, even when the terrain is unpredictable. This increases his yields, improves soil conservation, and creates more reliable results. He’s got 8,000 acres to cover – and every one is valuable. Speaking of farming, equipment like 100 horsepower tractors could be just as useful as the most expensive pieces that some companies invest in. This depends on the budget.

If the success of your business relies on owning the latest agricultural equipment, then you might be interested in learning about how equipment financing could be the game-changing solution your operation needs. For further information regarding equipment financing, visit Equify for more.

Feeding the world, ethically.

Great Plains Manufacturing develops agricultural equipment for seedbed preparation, nutrient application, and seeding placement – and they understand farmers’ need for maximum yield. Ask their employees, and they’ll proudly tell you they’re helping farmers feed the world while maintaining strict environmental sustainability standards.

Centered in Salina, Kansas, their primary focus is staying ahead of the curve – even when the competition is big.

A 50-foot wide marvel.

Great Plains Manufacturing’s 3S-5000 is a 50-foot wide marvel with over 4,000 component parts. Its six subframes follow the contours of rolling small grain fields with ease.

Of course, products like the 3S-5000 wouldn’t get anywhere without innovation early in the design process. “If innovation and quality are not built at the engineering stage,” says COO Linda Salem, “there is nothing our manufacturing process can do to make that better.”

A prime example is their vertical tillage feature. By using PTC Creo in their design process, Great Plains was able to design machinery that tills the ground to allow roots to spread more vertically, allowing them to reach a greater amount of soil nutrients.

Collaborating across continents.

With a team of engineers that spans both Europe and the US, Great Plains Manufacturing relies on PTC’s collaboration features to help their teams produce quality work. The tight integration of Creo and Windchill increases both their productivity and the speed with which they share designs. “An engineer in England can be working on one part, and an engineer in Kansas can see those updates and the latest changes,” says Great Plains System Administrator Randy Jones.

Their team can also fully test designs with PTC Creo in simulations that mimic real-world environments. This reduces the amount of time spent in design by nearly 70% compared to their previous solution.

Best of all, PTC Creo has kick-started the efficiency of Great Plains’ design process. Their teams complete work faster, share designs instantly, and can incorporate feedback from the sales and marketing team earlier than ever before. Thanks to Creo, customers can visualize the product and see its capabilities with just a laptop in front of them.

The end results: efficiency and scale.

The results speak for themselves:

  • An 18-month concept-to-production process for the 3S-5000, a decrease of nearly 70%
  • A design with the latest innovations, including vertical tillage, improved nutrient application, seed placing accuracy that’s 35% higher than most competitors, and twin row spacing that yields plants with biggest stalks and larger root mass
  • Equipment that fulfill customers’ requirements at 40% less weight than traditional solutions
  • A 1000% increase in second year sales, exceeding all expectations

To learn more about how Great Plains Manufacturing gets the most out of Creo, read their customer story on the PTC website.

Interested in learning more about PTC Creo and its 3D CAD capabilities? NxRev offers a variety of seminars, tutorials, and customer service to help users get the most out of the PTC suite. Give us a call at 408-986-0200 to find out more.