PROSTEP coordinates Data Migration for BENTELER's Automotive Divisions

BENTELER is an internationally active corporate group with around 90 locations in 24 countries, specializing in metal processing for customers in the automotive industry as well as the energy and mechanical engineering sectors. With more than 20,000 employees, the company generated almost 8.2 billion euros in revenue in the 2024 fiscal year, with the lion’s share coming from the divisions BENTELER Automotive Components and BENTELER Automotive Modules. They supply components and ready to install modules for chassis, body, engine, and exhaust systems, as well as battery systems for e mobility.

“The parts we produce cannot be seen from the outside because they sit under the body or the hood,” says Timo Ruschin, Manager Global PDP Excellence at BENTELER, who, together with his team, is responsible for the product development process in automotive engineering. Key challenges in digitizing the PDP include requirements management — i.e., traceability from customer requirements to implementation — and digital continuity right into the plants, as Ruschin explains. “Modernizing our IT solutions was intended to provide the foundation for this. In addition, we wanted to increase the maturity level in engineering by switching from a document centric to a part centric approach.” In the part centric approach, the component and its attributes take precedence over the document.

Decision for a Best of Breed Approach

In the automotive division, BENTELER had been using an older SAP version combined with CAD Desktop for managing 2D drawings and 3D models. The CAD systems CATIAv5, Siemens NX, and PTC Creo were integrated directly into SAP via interfaces. The division also used the SAP based 4PEP add on from ILC for managing customer projects. Over the years, the solution had been heavily customized, making the planned transition to SAP S/4 HANA difficult. “Additionally, we reached technical limits with the document centric approach,” says Volker Brödling, Team Leader PLM/SCM/Logistics. “Since CATIAv5 is our leading CAD authoring system, we initially decided to switch to the Enovia platform.” With PROSTEP’s support, a large portion of the CATIAv5 data was migrated into the new environment.

When it became apparent that the new PLM system could not meet expectations, the company conducted another benchmark with all leading PLM vendors. The result was clear: PTC and its PLM platform Windchill emerged as the winner. It also became evident that dedicated systems would still be needed for customer project management and customer relationship management (CRM) to avoid over customizing the PLM system — a key factor for future flexibility. For example, the sales department required the ability to calculate scenarios for customer inquiries based on locations and transport costs, which was not possible with the existing solutions. Ultimately, BENTELER opted for a Best of Breed approach with three independent systems: PTC Windchill for PLM, Planisware for project management, and AutomotiveONE/MS Dynamics for CRM.

Big Bang Migration in two Phases

Originally, the project team had planned to migrate all product data in one go, but that proved too ambitious. Instead, in the first phase, only the frequently used CATIAv5 data was migrated to PTC Windchill, while designers working with NX or Creo continued managing their CAD data in SAP. Additionally, all customer projects along with sales relevant information from SAP/4PEP and Enovia were transferred to Planisware and MS Dynamics.

NX and Creo users had to work in both the old and new environments for some time. Their product data was migrated only in the second phase, completed in October of 2025. One challenge was migrating Creo family tables — generic CAD designs controlled via such tables. Initially, the assumption was that no family tables were being used; however, analysis showed otherwise, as key user Dirk Rosenberger explains. “We didn’t want to modify the existing data but migrate it 1:1. Therefore, some additional effort is required when designers continue working with the migrated data.”

Essentially, BENTELER carried out two Big Bang migrations — with some overlap due to hybrid products containing both CATIAv5 and NX or Creo parts. These needed to be maintained simultaneously in the old and new systems. “We considered a step by step migration by customer lines, but our staff are involved in so many projects simultaneously that they would have had to work in both worlds in parallel,” says Ruschin. Brandstetter adds: “A gradual migration would also have been more complex from an IT standpoint because there are always parts used in multiple product lines.”