Posted by Mike Bailey on Wed, Apr 08, 2009 @ 10:42 AM
Every manufacturer has developed, or more likely, "fallen into" a method for managing their manufacturing process as projects move from concept and design to manufacturing and documentation. While individual software components that make up this process may be evaluated and changed like CAD tools, Validation Software, Data Management, CAM software, or Technical Publications tools; rarely is the entire engineering process analyzed for possible improvements. To that end, Alignex has developed their vision for Collaborative Engineering and will be presenting this vision in an "Interactive Theater" format at live events this spring. Locations for these Theater events include Edina, Brainerd, Fargo, Sioux City and Cedar Falls, Iowa and in Eau Claire Wisconsin from mid April to early June.
To accomplish their goals, Alignex turned to one of their best customers, Vermeer Corporation, manufacturer of large industrial equipment, as inspiration. Alignex wanted to use a real life example of this process, including using actual customer data in their presentation. For this showcase, they chose Vermeer's HG8000 Horizontal Grinder (shown below). With a complex design and 5000 component parts, it provided a great example of a product requiring a great deal of collaboration to produce.
Specifically for the "Collaborative Engineering Interactive Theater", the Engineering team at Alignex developed a scenario whereby a significant component of the suspension system needed to be redesigned because the outsourced manufacturer of that component is going out of business. With production orders still coming and replacement part orders expected, Vermeer wanted to look at the viability of bringing the manufacturing of that component in-house. The Alignex Engineering Theater will present all of the steps that this Engineering Change Order (ECO) takes throughout the engineering process as well as the roles involved to make it all happen quickly and efficiently.
"From a Project Management standpoint, it is important to move the process along, while ensuring all of the necessary steps are taken and documented," Mack Rasmussen, Application Support Manager for Alignex said. "In addition, if you are going to re-create an existing part, why not try to improve it by making it lighter and able to withstand more punishment in the field. It is also important to develop field replacement documentation for service personnel that will have to install the new component. That is what we will incorporate into a single presentation, the engineering process from concept to implementation."
There will be many defined roles at play in this event, just like there are many roles involved in a process like this. The process begins with a Project Manager defining the process and assigning the tasks. From there, a Designer takes the existing design from a legacy system and begins converting it for use in an up to date CAD system. Next, the design is run past a Mechanical Engineer for Design Validation testing prior to prototyping. In between, design files move back and forth through various approvals and revisions, all of which are managed by a Product Data Management system. Moving on, the final design files are brought to a Manufacturing Engineer to produce the machining instructions needed for part production. Lastly, the technical publications for the updated manuals as well as the field replacement instructions need to be created before the new part can go into service. This entire process will be presented in a half-day, fast-paced presentation.
"In product development, speed and precision are imperative for success. In this economic market, tools that can provide these improvements need to be seriously considered and implemented quickly," said Al Switzer, Mechanical Sales Director at Alignex. "We wanted to get beyond the tools and the technology and focus on the engineering process and how the various roles that come into play are managed and interact."
The Alignex Collaborative Engineering Interactive Theater is open to anyone interested, provided they register in advance. More information can be found on the Alignex website or by following this link.
About Vermeer
Vermeer is a leading agricultural, construction, environmental and industrial equipment manufacturing company. Since its inception, Vermeer Corporation has grown from a one-person Iowa operation, to an international organization that manufactures agricultural, construction, environmental, and industrial equipment. Vermeer corporate offices and manufacturing facilities are located in Pella, Iowa, U.S.A., and have 150 dealerships located worldwide.
Posted by Mike Lamora on Fri, Oct 31, 2008 @ 02:58 PM
I meet with at least one or two customers a week in regards to Product Data Management. Each customer has unique goals or challenges important to them but some of the recurring topics I hear on a weekly basis include:
- Control - engineering information is complex/difficult to manage (parent/child relations, etc)
- Time - finding the right information quickly
- Error elimination - reducing mfg waste, working on the latest revision
- Enterprise connectivity - sharing of info with other business systems (ERP/MRP)
- Collaboration - communicating info to others and concurrent engineering
- Certification - assisting in standards to obtain/retain FDA/ISO/FAA/TQM certifications
PDM in brief
In today's business, companies generate many forms of product information from engineering documentation, CAD drawings, sales/marketing information, BOM's, technical manuals, product specifications, simulation studies, vendor information, digital photos, CAM files, etc. This intellectual property are some of the most valuable assets your business possesses.
What is PDM? Back in my early days when I was designing equipment we had a Reprographics Department. This area was a huge room in the building which contained all the master drawings in drawers that Judy was the gatekeeper of. To make a change to a drawing we needed to check out the drawing, make our changes and have Judy update the record in a hard copy book.
Today, the challenge is to maximize the time-to-market benefits of concurrent engineering while maintaining control of your data and making it accessible to the people who need it - when they need it. The way PDM systems cope with this challenge is that master data is secured in a 'vault' where its integrity can be assured and all changes to it monitored, controlled and recorded.
Reference copies of the master data, on the other hand, can be distributed freely, to users in various departments for design, analysis and approval. The new data is then released back into the vault. When a 'change' is made to data, what actually happens is that a modified copy of the data, signed and dated, is stored in the vault alongside the old data which remains in its original form as permanent record.
This is the simple principle behind more advanced PDM systems. To understand it more fully, let us look separately at how these systems control raw product data (Data Management and Process Management).
What is Data Management?
Manufacturing companies are usually good at systematically recording component and assembly drawings, but often do not keep comprehensive records of attributes such as 'size', 'weight', 'where used' etc. As a result, engineers often have problems accessing the information they need. This leaves an unfortunate gap in their ability to manage their product data effectively. Data management systems are able to manage both attribute and documentary product data, as well as relationships between them, through a relational database system.
With so much information being generated, a technique to classify this information easily and quickly needs to be established.
Classification is a fundamental capability of a PDM system. Information of similar types should be capable of being grouped together in named classes. More detailed classification would be possible by using 'attributes' to describe the essential characteristics of each component in a given class. Think of attributes as Google keyword searches you can use in your vault.
Common ways of classifying this data include: Classification of Components, Classification of Documents, and Customer
Product Structure. Having your data structured this way in a database will allow you to search by a combination of attributes. In addition, this data can be shared with external business systems such as ERP/MRP systems. (More on this later)
Who uses PDM?
In earlier years, PDM systems were expensive, complex and hard to use. Typically these systems were reserved to just the engineering staff. Today PDM is just as important as the engineering tool because many people in the company will leverage that data. Some departments include, but not limited to:
- Engineering
- Manufacturing
- Quality
- Sales and Marketing
- Purchasing
- Technical Publications
- Document Control
- Regulatory Compliance
- Project Managers
- Vendors
Workflow Management
Today, companies have multiple workflow processes important for their day to day business. Back in the days when I had to check the drawing out of the Reprographics Department, we had to create an Engineering Change Order (ECO). An ECO for us back than was a hand written document describing the change and had multiple people on a distribution list for approvals. This also contained copies of the documents that needed to be changed and was all crammed in a nice manila folder. This folder was often "lost in translation" or importance diminished because it was a manual process and time required to complete the task.
Some PDM systems allow you to take the manual process and map it electronically. We can have documents routed through different people/departments for electronic approval and automate tasks that were once done manually. For example, checking a document back into the vault and bumping the revision can also generate a Bill of Materials to be shared with an ERP system or automatically generate a PDF.
Enterprise Integration
Most companies are utilizing some form of ERP/MRP system. Typically information generated from engineering is shared with these systems. For example, if you are not utilizing a PDM system today, chances are you have redundant tasks of someone manually typing in BOM information into downstream applications multiple times.
Often times, that person is someone in engineering who isn't the best at data entry, they'd rather be doing some nifty engineering work and it's expensive to have them spend time punching BOM data into ERP system. Most PDM systems have the capabilities to share information and automate the exchange of this data.
What are the Benefits of implementing a PDM solution?
- Reduced Time-to-Market
- Improved Design Productivity/Collaboration
- Improved Design and Manufacturing Accuracy
- Better use of Creative Team Skills
- Data Integrity Safeguarded
- Better Control of Projects
- Better Management of Engineering Change
- A Major Step Toward Total Quality Management (ISO9000, FDA, FAA, etc.)
In earlier years, PDM systems were complex and hard to use. Typically these systems were reserved to just the engineering staff. Today PDM is now mainstream and a tool just as important as the CAD tool because almost everyone in the company will utilize the information.
At Alignex, we have in-house experts to deploy a solution tailored to your business. If you would like to learn more about how PDM can benefit you, contact me for the first step in the discovery process. Let us know how we can help your organization develop a comprehensive and easy to use Product Data Management implementation. Fill out the form linked here to learn more.
Mike Lamora (mlam@alignex.com)
Sales Consultant
Alignex, Inc.