KoAssist vs. simus systems.

Data with a profile, or sentences with a source.

simus systems frames its own task as data transparency: structuring master and CAD data so that calculations can be run on them. The benefit arises wherever a number comes out, that is manufacturing cost, work plans, material masters and customs tariff numbers. The tool sits between ERP, CAD and PLM and translates between them.

KoAssist has no numerical result. What comes out is a sentence and a source. That sounds more modest, but it concerns the larger part of the working day: most time is not lost calculating but searching for which rule applies to the case at hand.

That is why the two rarely compete for the same budget. Introducing classmate solves a problem in work preparation and purchasing. Introducing KoAssist solves one in engineering and technical documentation. The only real overlap is the search for similar parts, and there classmate FINDER is ahead today because our similar-part search is still in development.

They also differ in rollout effort. classmate lives on master and CAD data being classified; the company describes exactly that as its task. Preparing it is the part of the project that takes most of the time. KoAssist builds on the archives as they are today and delivers the first sourced answer in under two weeks. That is not a quality judgement but a difference in when the benefit starts.

When is simus systems the better choice?

When manufacturing cost is known too late. classmate calculates from the 3D model, that is at a point when a design decision can still be changed. That is a measurable lever, and KoAssist has nothing for it.

When work plans and material masters are maintained by hand. Generating them automatically from the design saves work in work preparation, not in engineering. Anyone with that problem buys the wrong solution in a document assistant.

When master data is the actual chaos. A tool that classifies data and gives it a profile is the foundation for much else. Without that order even good answers help little, because the question then becomes which of the four records is the right one.

When is KoAssist the better choice?

When time is lost searching rather than calculating. classmate calculates, we look things up. In most engineering departments the second item is the larger one, even though it appears in no key figure.

When the sources are documents. Standards, specifications, project files and email are not what classmate is about, working as it does on master and CAD data. Questions put to those documents have no place there.

When you want to start without preparing the data. classmate lives on data being classified; the company describes exactly that as its task. Here, less than two weeks lie between onboarding and the first sourced answer.

One quote, two bottlenecks

A special machinery builder is costing a quote. Two things hold it up. First, nobody knows what the welded frame will cost in production as long as no work plan exists. Second, it is unclear what the customer requires in terms of documentation and whether the company has delivered such a thing before.

simus classmate solves the first bottleneck. Costing and a work plan emerge from the 3D model without work preparation having to take a draft apart first. That is exactly the benefit the product is built for, and KoAssist contributes nothing to it.

KoAssist solves the second. The question about documentation requirements leads into the customer specification, into the supply agreement of the last comparable project and into the standard both refer to, each with a page number.

In this company both tools end up side by side, and that is not an excuse but the usual division: one calculates, the other looks things up.