Laser sharp focus speeds engineering

The term 'collaborative engineering' has come in for some stick, notably from those many of us tired of the hype and price tags. So has 'product lifecycle management' (PLM). But here's a company that's making sense of it all, hasn't spent a fortune, has radically improved its operations – and is still looking to take it further. The company is Micronic Laser Systems, based just outside Stockholm, and Johan Bergquist, who manages mechanical development, says: "We just couldn't do our work in the short cycle times we need without it." He's not just referring to engineering design either: information sharing and automation are now company-wide, and about to go out to the firm's agents and maintenance engineers around the world. Micronic designs and builds the world's largest, most advanced laser writers for generating photomasks used by the electronics giants for making CRT, TFT, PCP and similar TV screens and flat panel displays. This is specialist, multi-disciplinary engineering: we're talking about complex machines typically 3.3m wide by 6m long and 2.5m high, weighing up to nine tonnes, much of that weight in specially selected granite blocks designed to ensure ultra-stability for the machines' precision electro-optical components. Yet the organisation works in an industry that is anything but stable: every machine is customised – and this is the high tech semiconductor sector, so the technology is changing fast too. And just to add to the fun, competition is fierce, so time to market, agility, customer service and visibility are all also absolutely key. Back around 2000, managing all that was a problem: "We only build 10 to 20 machines every year," says Bergquist, "but every one is customer-specific so it's very important to keep track. But every system contains thousands of parts, which generates a mountain of product information that was difficult to maintain, and very time consuming to access and organise." Revisioning system An initial solution presented itself in 2000, when the company needed to move from 2D drafting to 3D solid modelling. "We looked at mid range and high end 3D modelling systems," he says, "and found the high end CAD systems had version control and revision handling built in – which we needed – but were also expensive and provided geometry functions we didn't need. So we were looking at SolidWorks, which unfortunately didn't have those facilities. And that was when our local reseller, Solid Engineer, suggested Smarteam PLM could handle our version control problems. We knew we couldn't sell the idea of PLM to the board because they would expect that to cost millions. So we called it a revision and version handling system for our 3D CAD files." It soon became apparent that Smarteam could ease data management across much more of Micronic's business than the mechanical engineering department. Says Bergquist: "Our product information is stored in more ways than simply as CAD data, and that needs to be accessed by a range of users too, both within Micronic and at our customers. So when we started using Smarteam we began to see how it could benefit more people than just our engineers." Then in 2001, Micronic upgraded its ERP system, changing to an IBS AWS system, and decided to use the opportunity to deal with what it saw as the shortcomings of any MRPII/MPS system in handling complex engineering projects. Rather than run with the overheads of managing multiple and very deep production BoMs (bills of materials) in ERP, it looked to its 'CAD version handling system' to do the BoM archiving and management job. Bergquist explains: "A common problem with MPS is that only the present revision of an item is available, and it is not possible to work with past revisions – or future ones… Also, we couldn't use a rules-driven configurator add-on because there are too many customer variables and the technologies are changing too fast… Smarteam changed all that by allowing us to track the changes of any past or proposed iteration of our products." But with subsequent integration of the ERP and PLM systems, Micronic has been able to take that idea much further, and start sharing information much more widely – and to start automating and speeding up hitherto manual and paper-driven processes. Now, for example, the ERP and PLM systems update one another iteratively as a machine design is underway, so that purchasing, production, electronic design, marketing and so on can all work with the information they need. They can pull up all the information from Smarteam, on documents that are automatically linked to all relevant components and subassemblies. "That's very important for us: we can't wait for the whole design to be complete because some of the materials, like the granite, are on very long lead times," he adds. "Similarly, in production, all the information they need is in Smarteam for building and assembling the machines – from the specifications to testing, the test results and verification, data sheets... They don't just have to go on parts and assembly drawings from the CAD system. And we store all the documents and drawings in PDF format, so they don't need SolidWorks loaded on their PCs to view them either." Self build data Micronic has also since developed some niceties that further simplify processes. Bergquist: "For example, if we have specific requirements for quality control of incoming goods – like the granite parts or the glass – on the system we can say 'according to documentation'. Then if those tests change, it's all on the information in Smarteam: we don't have to change that on all of the drawings." So design documentation builds up and self-maintains automatically. Meanwhile, for the electronics side of the business, Micronic has now created a virtual work space within Smarteam for PCB and cable development. "The electronics design team works within the mechanical space we provide," explains Bergquist. "And again, when the designers are ready, the data is transferred automatically to MRP ready for procurement and production." It's all about speed, automation and working concurrently and smarter. "For example, with a new optical head, as soon as the mechanical structure is there it starts building in Smarteam, and we can take the project specification, and very quickly design appropriate test processes." Beat that. Incidentally, it's also worth noting that the system automates production of perfect match machines. "We can re-use all the data," says Bergquist. "If a system is qualified by a customer and he wants another one exactly the same, right down to every bolt, we can make a perfect copy." Hidden in that statement is the fact of inbuilt traceability. All documents for every aspect of every machine are available immediately from a maintenance structure held in Smarteam. All very good, but last summer, Micronic went even further by implementing Smarteam's web-enabled viewer. "We implemented Smart Viewer when we moved up to Smarteam Release 12 and SolidWorks 2004," he says. "It means that all development and project personnel can use their local standard PC browser screens to take parts out, turn them around, look at subassembly trees – it's all far more interactive." In fact, the Web Editor also enables users to perform searches and create, edit, view, control and annotate engineering and office documents so they can track and manage revisions. And he adds: "Next year, service personnel around the world will also be able to access all the documentation they need as well, and have the same level of visibility, just by using the web application – as soon as we have dealt with the security issues." Bergquist puts it all into perspective: "For us, it was a very big leap just to get into 3D, and to get this ability to track our revisions… We just couldn't do the work we do in the short cycle times we have for these projects without our collaborative system. The time for a whole project from concept to delivery is less than a year, and we're talking about the world's largest laser writer for producing big flat panel plasma PDP TV screens."