Engineering at the heart of your business?

When I think about some engineering and manufacturing software vendors I’m reminded of a scene from the film Pretty Woman where Richard Gere says, “What’s your name?” and Julia Roberts replies, “I can be anyone you want me to be.” Actually, it’s unhelpful, and especially to smaller manufacturers (SMEs) contemplating dipping their toes into the enterprise data management whirlpool. It’s a generalisation, but recently we’ve seen examples of front-running CAD companies risking their business to pursue enterprise software where they have limited experience. And the reverse is true, with manufacturing ERP vendors moving into the specialised territory of product data management (PDM) and, heaven forbid, product lifecycle management (PLM). It’s a bit like turning to PeopleSoft for CAD software: the PLM acronym bandwagon isn’t helping anyone. Celebrated industry analyst and president of Collaborative Visions, Dave Burdick, said in a keynote address to this year’s European Catia (IBM/Dassault CAD) Forum in Paris: “There is a huge disconnect in the amount and focus of IT spending today, and its linkage with the key business issues. Almost 80% of IT spending in durable goods industries is targeted at lowering indirect costs (like order management, inventory management, supply chain management, etc). Only 20% of spending is targeted at the most pressing issues of revenue enhancement and direct-cost control. “Much of this dilemma is due to the mistaken idea that operational systems, such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), SCM (supply chain management) and CRM (customer relationship management), can positively impact the revenue and direct-cost areas. In most cases, this is a false premise.” Given the current economic conditions, companies should be shifting IT investment priority towards initiatives that will yield substantial cost reductions, particularly in the area of direct product costs since these account for 60—70% of total. Burdick again: “The key to fundamentally lowering direct-costs is to address the real source of the product cost in the first place – namely the early decisions that are made on how a product should be developed.” From British Aerospace we learned that 85% of a product’s direct cost is locked in after only 15% of the operational development funds are spent. Decisions made early in the process have the greatest impact on direct cost. “Issues pertaining to decisions on modular design, component reuse, and outsourcing will have a much more far-reaching and significant impact on product costs than inventory management and supplier logistics programmes,” said Burdick. The case for computer automation in design and manufacturing has been proven for years, but SMEs need not follow the example of the major corporations in a sheep like fashion, and go for expensive enterprise systems. If you analyse your requirements and do some informed research you can save considerable funds. Horses for courses According to Alan Griffiths, managing director of engineering data firm QIC Solutions: “PDM, PLM, document management, etc are all forms of information management. The essential differences are in the type and ‘granularity’ of the data they manage, the extent to which complex relationships can be handled, and the time period looked after. “A car producer (OEM) needs to manage all aspects of product data throughout the life of the product. They also need to know about relationships between the components, as they can affect the release status of different versions and variants. This requires full PLM capability, including what was historically known as PDM and also some document management. “However, a supplier to that OEM needs to manage the initial information provided to it by the OEM throughout its design and manufacturing process, until the time it’s delivered back to, and accepted by, the OEM. The supplier may not need full PLM capability as they are not responsible for (or in control of) the full product lifecycle. Their systems need not be as sophisticated.” Or, for that matter, as expensive. “Document management in some form is usually a requirement, and certainly management of the CAD and CAE (computer aided engineering) data. An element of PDM may be useful, and certain advantages of CPC can be achieved using web-based systems, such as Delcam’s PS-Team for task management and document control. The key is to get the appropriate amount of functionality for a reasonable cost without introducing too much complexity into the organisation.” Gary Smith, managing director at Mould Teknik Tools in Oldham, agrees and says it amounts to horses for courses. “PS-Team is used to help us keep visibility, traceability and control of all jobs throughout the production process. Each product team has a ‘work area’ to keep all team members informed and up-to-speed with work in progress. Management has a clear picture of the work in real time at every stage. Because PS-Team uses our existing email system to update and provide access, once the software was rolled out, the learning curve was very easy. The investment was a fraction of the cost of a typical PDM system.” What you really really need An interesting local development comes from content management software developer Pragmax. “Pragmax was developed to address issues in electronics companies where engineers have to manage lots of information and deliver it quickly for use elsewhere,” says managing director Steve Hodge. “Typically, ERP and MRP systems are not selected with engineering in mind and, as a result, they don’t usually deliver what an engineer needs for product data management, change management or document control. In addition, engineers tend to be disdainful of ERP systems.” His system provides a product content solution for engineering firms, with links from the drawing office, through operations, all the way to contract manufacturing and the supply chain. It automates many of the administrative tasks, like researching component data, handling changes and sign-offs, seeking approvals, creating accurate bills of materials, revision and issue control and managing engineering documents. It also keeps track of time. Every change to every type of entity is recorded in an audit trail. And that’s not just about being able to point the finger of blame – it means the system can automatically show the differences between revisions. It also links to corporate databases (ERP) so that costs data and the rest can be made available to engineers, and information exported to manufacturing. “One principle which has proved very valuable is that while engineers are the main users, personnel in other departments have access to the database [at low cost] and typically will participate in authorisations and signoff loops,” says Hodge. Ultimately, the approach you take towards making engineering data the centre of your universe depends on your own environment and legacy. If you are ERP-centric, then these kinds of applications will tend to dominate. However, if you accept Burdick’s reasoning, revenue and direct-costs are directly proportional to product competitiveness. And that is a function of design, design for manufacture and collaboration from that starting point.