Wednesday, 13 January 2010

The recession has left everybody looking for new efficiencies – but data management is still being overlooked says Colin Watson, director Symetri

It often seems as if the manufacturing industry has learnt – and applied – every trick in the book. Supply chain optimisation, just-in-time, lean manufacturing, process automation; design, business and operational gurus have been paring the age-old production process down to its sinews.

But no sooner do the pioneers adopt a new strategy than everybody has to do it – just to keep up. Consequently, many manufacturers – especially those already using digital design and prototyping - have felt this current recession has left them with very few places to go to sharpen their competitive edge.

But there is one area still ripe for improvement. Last month, two of Autodesk’s leading manufacturing design resellers, Imass Design Solutions and Trionics joined forces to form Symetri. Between us we have far more years of experience than we care to mention. But talking to my new colleagues from Trionics, I gather they see the same as I do; opportunities for savings and efficiencies left unchecked because of a lack of design data management.

The importance of sound design data management is often neglected, for several reasons. The sudden abundance of valuable data made available by 3D digital design is a relatively new phenomena and often designers are too busy finessing their 3D design skills to recognise the value of this true intellectual property.

They may also be alarmed at the thought of a huge, enterprise-wide IT implementation involving management consultants, downtime and the kind of investment no longer possible in the current financial climate. Alternatively, they may already be using a non-specialist tool such as Windows Explorer, Excel spreadsheets or their own ad hoc methods which are often in the form of hand-written notes or log books.

But the main issue is that CAD specialists are not necessarily process management experts and may need the help of a consultant – preferably from a reseller who is experienced and knowledgeable about both CAD and data management and has a wide market view of products available.

But isn’t data management just a form of good housekeeping? And why is it so important now, when there are other priorities such as getting new products to market faster?

While business process automation and other streamlining exercises can reduce operating expenses, they do nothing to help generate revenue. This only comes about through innovation.

Research has shown that a design of a product determines as much as 75 per cent of its cost over its lifetime. And it is estimated that more than ten people use the data that each design generates.

Put these figures together with another – the evidence that over 60% of product designs are re-used in some form and you can see that it is easier to be both innovative and targeted if you don’t keep re-inventing the wheel. Put simply, many manufacturers use the same part or assembly in different products and these designs can be re-used time after time, saving both time and money.

At Symetri we always specialised in both CAD and data management and for a long time predicted the convergence of the two. However, it is only relatively recently that vendors have begun to “democratise” these solutions so that they can be introduced by the design office themselves without major enterprise-wide decisions.

But even though solutions such as Autodesk Vault are relatively straightforward to implement and use, there are a few issues to take into account when considering implementation:

• Now’s a good time for a Design Process Review – some firms such as Symetri offer this as a free service, so take advantage. It enables us to develop a thorough understanding of processes and how data currently flows through an organsation and what information is needed by which departments.

• Deal with problem data. A thorough clean-up and consistency check, making sure information has all the right properties attached and has a regular structure will be time well spent.

• A hardware audit is needed; the main prerequisite is an application server – although solutions can run on a PC, it’s not an ideal set-up. Do some of your engineers operate outside the firewall? Is there a back-up procedure in place?

• Decide on your team – a small group of users who will analyse requirements and put together a project blueprint. I emphasise small here. Experience has shown me that the larger the group the fewer the number of decisions reached.

• Kicking off with a pilot scheme at first is a good idea - but, don’t yet pull the plug on your existing system. It’s safer to let the two run in parallel during this trial period. Use this time to gather valuable feedback and a chance to make small but vital refinements.

• Don’t forget to factor in training time. First the system administrator and then several key users, followed by the rest.

• Make sure your reseller is prepared to spend a few days on site when the system eventually goes live. You may need to ask questions and to give staff confidence in using the systems. After that, arrange for them to be accessible by phone before returning to your normal support arrangements.

If it’s straightforward, this first stage should take around three months and we would always advise clients to make sure this has bedded down before extending the system. After this, you can begin to build bridges with your MRP or other enterprise systems, enabling a seamless transfer of design data across your entire operation.

But my main advice to manufacturers considering design data management is to make sure your reseller partner has project management training and qualifications plus consultancy experience. A relatively simple implementation such as this is a great opportunity to take a step back and examine your operations. With the right advice and help it could give you that much needed boost and competitive advantage to be more efficient – and more innovative and creative too.