TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Originally Printed in the June 2001 Issue of EP&P
Magazine
TCM SOFTWARE BINDS OEM COMMUNITIES
With the right software, today's OEM communities share information in a comprehensive
but simplified manner, without loosing contact with the manufacturing
floor.
Today’s
OEMs and the EMS providers servicing them are facing continual
challenges in communication and data management, as outsourcing remains
a competitive advantage. To maximize the benefits of outsourcing, OEMs
and CEMs are discovering the benefits of operating as if they are one
corporate entity. However, improving communications and the visibility
of information is critical to the achievement of this goal.
The need for sharing fully intelligent, comprehensive, and graphical
information beyond the simple data and file attachments of traditional
systems has become apparent. In this context, it is now necessary to
incorporate manufacturing software built on the latest web-centric DNA
for Manufacturing design model to seamlessly integrate the OEM
communities.
Contract manufacturers have a leading role within OEM communities.
Issues important to them are real-time information access, documentation
and shop floor management, change management, quality tracking, and WIP
tracking, as well as communicating this information to their OEM
customers, and throughout internal lines and departments. CEMs once
employed multiple tools to help in these endeavors, because a single
manufacturing information system had proven elusive. That has changed.
TransCollaborative Manufacturing (TCM) software now makes this massive
amount of information available throughout the OEM communities in a
controlled manner, allowing customers, suppliers, vendors, factories,
and departments to act upon the same information, simultaneously – to
create a virtually integrated enterprise using a singular software
system.
This article focuses on the benefits of centralized information to
Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) and the effort to make
process-critical information universally visible and centralized,
without requiring the physical exchange of data.
OUTSOURCING CHALLENGES
Identifying common issues faced by the OEM communities reveals the
impact TCM has on an extended enterprise and the methods it employs to
solve these issues.
The first problem encountered in communication between OEMs and CEMs
involves data preparation for a new product introduction or the
processing of an engineering change. Sometimes, the OEM is fully aware
of the configuration of the product they want outsourced, but does not
understand all the manufacturing issues. This lack of intimate
manufacturing knowledge in the OEM often causes inadequate or imperfect
data to arrive at the CEM, creating multiple corrections and lost time.
The CEM often resolves the issues in the data, makes recommendations,
and awaits approval of the final versions. This can also be a
time-consuming process since design information is highly graphical,
bills of materials are difficult to analyze, and OEM tools for such
activities, that offer the full depth of data required to conduct a
thorough check, have traditionally been unavailable.
When data is prepared and approved, the CEM then grapples with an
entirely new set of internal processing issues. Now, the process for the
manufacture of this product, rather than the BOM and data configuration,
must be prepared as quickly as possible. This processing involves
documentation development, pre-production validation setup, machine
programs, routing design, and logical decision paths within the routing
for event and rework control. Even if the preparation is assisted by CAM
or CIM tools, another stage of approval is required to ensure proper
revision control and customer approval. This cycle is often paper-based
and slow. Furthermore, the approval cycle requires control of both BOM
revision tracking and process deviation tracking —something even
expensive PDM systems don’t comprehensively address.
When the prepared information is approved and ready to disseminate to
the factory floor, the CEM often finds it difficult to convey prepared
information to operators and machines in a low-overhead manner that is
also being controlled and reliable. As the product is manufactured,
large volumes of data including progress tracking, quality data,
operator interaction, etc. must be collected and held in such a way as
to be useful in the future, and to others in the OEM community.
Now the OEM becomes involved once more in the process, requiring
real-time visibility to the process being used to produce their
products, plus quality data. They might need immediate recall of all
product and production data when a product returns as a failure or needs
to be retrofitted. In general, they wish to be intimately involved in
the manufacturing of their products as if they had continued building
them in-house rather than outsourcing. They typically want the control
benefits of in-house manufacturing without the problems inherent to
manufacturing. In many ways, it is the ideal OEM community they
envision. However, systems employed to create this community have fallen
short. Through a single system offering a set of capabilities spanning
data preparation, product and process data management, and web-centric
manufacturing execution, TCM has answered the need for this true OEM/CEM
integration.
OUTSOURCING IN THE TRANSCOLLABORATIVE ENTERPRISE
When introduced into an extended enterprise, TCM completely changes the
isolated, sequential, time-intensive, and minimally controlled process
previously discussed. TCM begins to impact the process with the loading
and checking of data at the OEM.
Rather than the OEM being in a position of simply assuming their data is
ready for the CEM, the TCM-enabled OEM can enter the system through
their own portal and pre-load and validate data. They will know on their
side of the relationship whether the CAD and BOM data are valid and
loadable and complete before incurring engineering changes from the CEM
for data corrections. The cleaning process is therefore much faster.
This interaction sends data into the central TCM system, but does not
approve the information for release.
The next speed enhancement involving engineering changes or new product
introductions comes from the collaborative nature of the TCM system.
Even though an OEM may have placed only CAD information into the system
and has not yet entered the BOM, or vice versa, the remaining work of
process development, documentation, routings, etc. can be conducted
independently and simultaneously by the CEM—on the same information.
This tandem, rather than sequential, operation allows information to
move to the floor as quickly as possible. It is key to efficient product
introductions and engineering changes.
The ultimate approval of this prepared data is expedited, it is
maintained under revision control, and the information regarding
approval cycles may be recalled in the future. TCM systems issue
user-configured notifications via the web for process, BOM, and
production readiness approval. These activities cycle electronically
with rejections, approvals, etc. until the product is ready for release.
Management can view, at any moment, the precise status of all approvals
to learn why certain projects might be bottlenecked on the way to
release.
TCM solves the next challenge facing CEMs involving pre-production setup
– the dissemination of rich operator instructions, the tracking and
routing of products, and the analysis of resultant data. All access to a
TCM system in production is via Internet applications operating in
browsers. Paperless information is displayed only where appropriate; the
system forces proper pre-production activities, controls routing, and
tracks progress—completely automatically.
TCM fulfills the OEM vision of access to their production and product
information while not being burdened with actual manufacturing. Through
the web and normal browsers, the OEM can see everything the CEM wishes
to make available, in real-time, while isolating them from other OEM
customer information. Tracking and job completion data, shipments,
specific product numbers, documents used during product production,
setup tasks conducted, quality data, etc., are all visible to the OEM.
TCM presents a volume and detail of controlled information through its
portals that prior combinations of tracking, PDM, ERP, and paperless
systems have been unable to provide as individual or even appended
solutions. Even auditors and suppliers can easily gain the information
they need through a secure web portal.
TCM binds the OEM/CEM community together as if it is one corporate
entity by allowing all parties to access and act upon a single data
source. It enables collaboration through advanced Internet software
technology, facilitating the joining of multiple companies across the
Net. The technology of TCM is unique and reveals a great deal about why
the system offers a unique combination of power and simplicity.
PRECURSORS TO TCM
Web-centric and collaborative software at the level of a TCM system
became viable following several key developments. The first were more
related to cultural and industry trends than a specific technology. The
proliferation of PC’s in the factory, the plummeting cost of computers,
and the almost universal adoption of Windows NT and now Windows 2000 as
the standard factory operating systems were prerequisites for the
introduction of TCM. As computing power and standards swept the factory,
the Internet backbone of both the operating systems and the network
infrastructure of these factories made web-centric solutions very
attractive from both a deployment and cost standpoint. These
developments laid the groundwork for TCM, but a new and advanced
technology made the software itself possible.
MICROSOFT DNA (Distributed interNet Application) FOR MANUFACTURING
Collaborative interoperability within the system’s own design as well as
with external or legacy systems is key to TCM theory. This has
traditionally been a very difficult goal to achieve. To address this
issue, and many other software development issues associated with
large-scale systems, Microsoft introduced an architecture to make system
development more efficient, deployment easier, and seamless multi-system
integration possible. They introduced the Component Object Model (COM)
and its use in the Windows DNA (Distributed interNet Application) for
Manufacturing concept. This DNA for Manufacturing uses COM software
technology as its foundation. Core to the operating system, COM acts as
a universal gateway within Microsoft Windows-based manufacturing
applications, bringing compatibility to various applications and
networks, as well as existing systems. The Windows DNA for Manufacturing
framework allows the construction of distributed, scalable, multi-tier
applications harnessing the full power of current operating systems. It
links the previously disconnected stores of information within a
manufacturing environment, integrating enterprise systems as well as
supply-chain partners. Leading enterprise software suppliers such as SAP
and J.D.Edwards have already opened their systems via COM and the DNA
for Manufacturing concept. Implemented even within a single system, it
lends software stability, scalability, and maintainability even in a
very large enterprise design. TCM systems are built entirely upon this
technology and are therefore completely open, interoperable with other
systems, and scalable.
ADVANTAGES OF TRANSCOLLABORATIVE DESIGN
TCM design offers many advantages not possible through traditional
software architectures. TCM design is fundamentally web-centric and
therefore assures simplified system access and data visibility both
within the OEM and between the OEM and its CEMs, auditors, and
suppliers. COM architecture allows third-party integration in a safe and
seamless manner. Upgrades to client access points are automated as
opposed to traditional systems requiring tremendous overhead from IT
services to upgrade applications. Deployment is simplified via
browser-based access points. Most important, the DNA for Manufacturing
model upon which TCM is built facilitates effective scaling to meet
demand as server-side components can be increasingly distributed as
required.
WEB–CENTRIC TCM VS. "WEB–ENABLED" TECHNOLOGY
The popularity of anything involving Internet technology in recent years
has compelled many software providers to use terms such as
“web-enabled”, “Internet-ready”, and even to stretch the use of the term
“collaborative.” Unfortunately the aforementioned terms are generally
rather vague. For example, almost any software application can
technically claim “Internet readiness” if it is 32 bit Windows.
“Web-enabled” often merely means a tool can generate HTML reports or
files—something anyone can do with an off-the-shelf report-writing tool
and a database. Collaborative is often used to describe systems merely
sending files from one person to another. One can see that the glamour
of these terms fade quickly when the real functions behind them are
revealed. However, TCM software legitimately offers the benefits these
terms suggest.
TCM systems are web-centric in design, and truly collaborative in
function. Web-centric design dictates that the mechanism for data
transfer from the main database to the client is via HTTP, and that the
interaction with the system, or “presentation layer,” is via a web
browser. This interaction with the system is at the level most people
are accustomed to experiencing in a normal application operating
client-side—far more sophisticated than we are accustomed to when
browsing the web. TCM portals are true Internet Applications, a
technology both new and still quite rare. It is a system with the power
and capability of a traditional application, but enjoying the benefits
of browser access over the Internet. TCM portals interact with the
system rather than simply displaying server-prepared data, such as HTML
outputs.
TCM is also truly collaborative. TCM does not simply move files from one
person or portal to another. It administrates access for many persons to
a central repository of data simultaneously in their effort to transform
data, under control, into useful information as quickly as possible.
DATA EXCHANGE VS. DATA VISIBILITY
Technology for sharing data between factories, departments, or persons
can be categorized as “exchange” methods or “visibility” methods. Data
exchange via files from an OEM to a CEM via the Internet was certainly a
large step forward. However, TCM offers the functionality of exchange
systems, while offering significantly more benefits.
TCM offers all parties visibility to a common database of information,
rather than shuttling copies of information. Data copies are not
transferred from one portal to another and therefore are never
disconnected from the “golden” repository of data, thereby eliminating
synchronization issues. Collaborative users dynamically change the state
of information and can see the results of others’ activities in a
dynamic fashion. TCM also employs secure and compressed formats for the
actual data visibility mechanism, ensuring security to sensitive
information during transfer over the Internet, while satisfying the need
for minimum consumption of bandwidth. Traditional exchange-based systems
utilize formats specifically intended for easy decryption and are
subsequently less secure. TCM encrypts transmitted data whenever
traveling along an Internet pathway, only decrypting the information
when it arrives at a user’s portal.
CONCLUSION
Distributing design, marketing, manufacturing, etc. across multiple
companies possessing only their specific core competency can offer great
efficiency and competitive advantage. This goal, however, can only be
achieved if these companies can operate as if they were one.
TransCollaborative Manufacturing software utilizes the latest software
technology to ultimately bind these communities of competency together
into a single competitive force.
Author Information:
Jason Spera, Chief Executive Officer
Aegis Industrial Software Corporation
220 Gibraltar Road, Suite 100
Horsham, PA 19044