Mastering the Product Process Equation

Life Cycle Solutions, Inc.

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Common Product Definition

CAD Designer, "Why can't I just find the Part I need. I know we've designed this exact one before!"

Lead Engineer, "I wish everyone would just leave me alone to get my job done instead of always asking for information that should be on-line."

Manufacturing Engineer, "There's no reason why I should be building to an out-of-rev Drawing. The most recent revision should be sent to me immediately."

Engineering VP, "I need our Engineers to be more productive. They spend too much time looking and not enough time designing. This has to change."

Life Cycle Solutions knows that for a company to be successful it must establish a universally available Common Product Definition. This means establishing a solution that unifies a company's product information from concept through to its manufacture and support.

LCS has assisted companies from all industries in developing this form of solution based Common Product Definition. Some examples of the kinds of solutions that have been developed by LCS for its customers using Product Data Management based commercial offerings include:

• Discrete Parts and Assemblies — Revision controlled and characterized using key information such as Part Numbers, detailed descriptions, costing, reference designators, and material composition.
• Comprehensive Part Classifications — Enabling detailed characteristics specific to each Electronic or Mechanical Part Class, such as thread size, diameter, capacitance or voltage.
• Document Vaulting — Establishing direct association between Part and Assemblies and the corresponding MCAD/ECAD Designs, Drawings, Engineering and Materials Specifications.
• Flexible Configuration Management — Supporting representations of As-Designed, As-Built and As-Maintained Bill of Materials with effectivity at the Part and Assembly level.
• Product Configurations — Defining the variations of Part and Assembly participation to support Product Features and predefined Optionality.

To yield the benefits of a PDM based solution requires that all of the information used to define the products a company designs and manufactures be on-line and available. LCS works to develop this type of comprehensive solution for our customers as one of the first steps in its evolving PDM initiative.

Workflow/Process Management

Engineering Change Manager, "The delays in getting changes reviewed and approved is killing us. We need to make this an automated process."

Change Control Board member, "We are so often forced to delay change approval due to lack of information at our weekly CCB meetings."

Engineering Manager, "I need something to help me schedule my group's activities. There is so much wasted time, it's a wonder we get anything done."

Manufacturing Director, "We are at the end of the whip. We need earlier visibility to design changes."

After establishing a Common Product Definition, it is possible to advance the benefits of a PDM based solution by automating the processes that are at the very core of a company's business.

LCS provides expert consulting on how to move your current manual (AS IS) processes to a fully automated (TO BE) solution. The following are examples of the types of workflow and process management automation that LCS has delivered as an active member of the PDM initiatives of our customers:

• New Part Request — In establishing new Parts, a broad range of groups must be rallied to ensure non-duplicates, ensure internal standards compliance, approve suppliers and establish Part cost and lead times.
• NewMaterials Approval — As with NPR, formalizing the use of a Material requires the review and approval of numerous groups, often requiring access to complex materials specifications and engineering standards documents.
• NewDrawing/Design Review — Formalizing this review process often varies based on the type of product being reviewed, while requiring the integration of View & Mark-up tools to ensure clarity and traceability of all review comments.
• NewEngineering Change Order/Notice — Facilitating a common ECO/N process while supporting the unique processing of specific product lines is key to providing efficiency and versatility.
• NewDrawing/Design Release — Promoting Drawings/Designs often includes publishing documents and Bill of Materials information to Manufacturing and Services in a viewable format.

By automating the manual procedures that have been established to manage and control the development and manufacture of a company's product, major benefits can be achieved. LCS works closely with its customers to leverage the benefits of automation without compromising data management or control.

Total Enterprise Integration

CAD Manager, "It's discouraging to know that everything my group enters {Parts, BOM} nto our CAD tool has to be reentered into the ERP system."

Component Engineer, "If I had a dime for every time I had to access the Engineering system and the ERP system to get new Parts entered, I'd be rich."

Purchasing Manager, "There has got to be a better way to notify Engineering when a vendor's price changes than using this useless form."

Manufacturing Manager, "I can't count how many times the BOM has been misentered into ERP."

Though it is clear that establishing a Common Product Definition and initiating Workflow/Process Management will yield major benefits, it is the goal of PDM to link all systems that contain or affect a company's product data. Total Enterprise Integration is achieved through the direct transfer of select product data from authoring tools, such as CAD/CAE, as well as transferring relevant data to manufacturing support system, such as ERP systems.

LCS has been extremely successful in developing integrations for our customers between PDM systems and authoring tools, in-house legacy systems and commercial ERP systems. Examples of the types of integrations provided include:

• Workgroup MCAD Management — This integration is between local data management products that are used to provide local control of Part and BOM data for Engineering groups. It is required to transfer/synchronize Part and BOM data between the Workgroup MCAD Management tool and the PDM system.
• ECAD Authoring Tools — This form of integration is a bit more difficult, and involves interfacing with select ECAD exporting facilities and ensuring that all PCB information is transferred and reflected in the PDM system, including component detailing such as Reference Designators.
• ERP Publishing — When a product's data is ready for publishing to a company's ERP, the integration requires transferring of Part, BOM and ECO details. This has often included specifics on effectivity as well as filtering based on manufacturing facility.

When a company is able to leverage the technology of a PDM based solution to automatically transfer product data between major systems, there are significant benefits from eliminating data reentry or misentry. LCS provides expert assistance in working with product vendors to develop necessary integrations, as well as assisting in commercializing these integrations.

Complete Product Collaboration

Engineering Director, "Our design partners need a better way to share product data than using email and FedEx."

Purchasing Manager, "We've wasted an enormous amount of time and money working with suppliers that aren't able to keep current with our design changes."

CEO, "I know that we could increase our competitive positioning if
we could link directly to our customers. We need to stay current with their design efforts and give them rapid response — no delays."

Complete Product Collaboration is the final frontier of PDM based solutions. To achieve this level of sophistication, you need Common Product Definition, Workflow/Process Management as well as some level of Enterprise Integration. Product Collaboration requires a very clear definition of what can be pushed to your partners, customers or suppliers and what must be held under lock and key without compromise.

LCS has worked with many companies to enhance their positioning toward Complete Product Collaboration. Though efforts continue towards this goal, there are many examples of how collaboration has resulted in corporate benefits, including:

• Partner Collaboration — Forming a direct collaborative solution with partner companies often requires a direct interfacing between PDM systems. Partners become a integral participant in a company's product development process and are expected to use compatible design tools.
• Supplier Collaboration — Collaborating with Suppliers requires the release of MCAD/ECAD product data necessary to enable production readiness. The conversion of product data to a format acceptable to the Supplier is often required and any changes or updates to Drawings/Designs require immediate notification to Suppliers.
• Customer Collaboration — Providing collaborative interfacing to a customer enables companies to share production status, or Drawing/Design review in the instance where the company is providing design or design/manufacturing services.

Collaboration between companies increases the technical complexity and cultural impact of the PDM based solution. LCS works closely with all collaboration partners to design solutions that will work on all fronts. This often requires changing business processes, as well as developing further integrations to ensure product data exchange at key phases of the product development and manufacture process.

PDM Implementation Success

PDM Manager, "Education is key. Management is just plain reluctant to listen. It's a shame."

CFO, "I've seen nothing of the PDM project proposal that shows a positive impact to the bottom line."

Engineering VP, "This project [PDM] is crucial to reducing our time to market. We need to get our lead Engineers behind this or it will fail."

Program Director, "Management commitment is not strong, placing our budget and the overall initiative in jeopardy."

Life Cycle Solutions has identified a series of steps that are required to be successful in implementing PDM. It starts with a high level of education and understanding of the benefits of PDM at all levels of the corporation. Each organization finds different benefit from PDM, and it is critical to define and quantify this benefit to ensure overall buy-in and participation.

LCS has assisted its customers in being successful in their PDM initiatives through the use of tools and techniques that have become standards in the industry. These tools and techniques include:

• 7 Key Acceptance Factors — By analyzing a companies "vitals", it can be determined if a company is prepared to undergo a PDM initiative. These factors are Financial, Technology, Understanding, Culture, Competitive Quality, Scheduling and Image. If specific areas are low in readiness (such as Understanding), then specific steps are initiated to better the chances for success (such as a PDM workshop}.
• Cost Justification Toolkit — This toolkit ensures a formal agreement on the financial benefits of a PDM based solution. It provides benefit definition, implementation cost modeling, return on investment analysis and will outline the specifics a CFO requires, such as the internal rate of return and cost of money.
• PDM System Evaluation Toolkit — With over 200 selection criteria, this toolkit has been used by hundreds of companies to successfully evaluate and select commercial PDM products.
• On site Workshops — Using a 1-3 day workshop, many companies have been able to unify their PDM initiative and focus their planning on what would assure success.

A successful PDM implementation can provide major benefits to a company in productivity and competitive position. LCS provides years of developed expertise in all aspects of PDM project management and implementation support.