Digital Transformation is Eating Your Engineers’ Productivity

Introduction:

Engineering Productivity gains made by Computer Aided Design Software (MCAD, ECAD, and Embedded Systems) over the past 25 years are being eaten away by poorly configured Digital Transformation Platforms.

These hard-fought gains are being squandered by dragging Engineers into PLM, ERP, and MES Digital Transformation Pillars (aka Golden Triangle) that are not “Fit for Purpose” and into processes that are configured with little concern for the Engineer’s day-to-day user experience and ease of use.

The result is that Digital Transformation is consuming Engineers’ Productivity, and increasing their day-to-day Pain, Stress, and Anxiety.

• It is not unusual to see a poorly deployed Digital Transformation Initiative consume as much as 50% of an engineer’s time, just “Feeding the PLM, ERP, and MES Beasts".

There are three (3) major reasons why Digital Transformation initiatives “suck” the productivity out of your Engineering Organization:

#1 - Your Digital Transformation Platform(s) are not “Fit for Purpose”:

The Digital Transformation Pillars you select (PLM, ERP, and MES) to run your business are not “Fit for Your Operational Purposes” or your manufacturing mode(s) of operation.?

#2 - Your Digital Transformation Dev and Deployment Teams lack “Ease of Use” Empathy:

The digital transformation processes that your development and deployment teams “configure” lack the rigor, attention to detail, and empathy required to eliminate unnecessary “wasted steps” and confusing user interfaces.?

• This happens because your Dev and Deployment teams are “Creating the Dog Food”, not “Eating the Dog Food” that your Engineers must “eat” every day.

#3 - Your Digital Transformation Team Ignores the importance of Fixing the “Corner Cases”:

Once deployed, your development and deployment teams fail to proactively seek and fix the corner cases (unexpected anomalies) that your engineers encounter, which results in user friction (unnecessary steps and confusion), pain, and loss of productivity.

This article will highlight the first of these three (3) Engineering Productivity “sinkholes” and will explain what you should do in advance to prevent them from happening to your Engineering Teams.

1)???Your Digital Transformation Platform(s) are not “Fit for Purpose”:

When selecting digital transformation technology pillars (PLM, ERP, and MES) many company executives believe that the leading vendor’s platforms can (or can be made to) support the important processes that are unique to their business.?Those processes that are considered critical and competitive (the secret sauce) to how they do business.

• The truth is that despite what the vendors say about having implemented “Best Practices” in your industry, most PLM, ERP, and MES systems were originally developed to support one form (or mode) of manufacturing, and they put most of their development effort into supporting that manufacturing mode.?

If you do not carefully select the platform that best supports your specific manufacturing mode of operation, you will find yourself forever creating patches, workarounds, and customizations to make this “square peg” fit into your ”round hole”.??

A.????Understanding the Manufacturing Mode(s) of Operation:

Before selecting a PLM, ERP, or MES Platform, you need to understand what type of manufacturing company you are in now and what type you want to become in the future.?

Each manufacturing mode requires that specific and many times unique PLM, ERP, and MES processes be supported.?Your company will likely include some unique combination of these modes.

For example:

• Discrete Manufacturing: Needs well-defined processes for BOMs (Bill of Materials) and Routing, Production Orders, and real-time reports for production execution.
• Process Manufacturing: Needs a recipe base process (not a BOM) and does not use “production orders” since this type of manufacturing can have continually running processes and may create products 24 hours a day.
• Batch Manufacturing: Is like a combination of Discrete and Process manufacturing. For example, you may bake a large batch of cookies with a recipe, but you need to package them with a BOM.
• Repetitive Manufacturing: Makes discrete items but runs continually. For example, producing airbags for upwards of a million Ford F150 trucks each year. This type of manufacturing uses BOMs and Routings like Discrete but schedules batches of production like Process Manufacturing.
• Job Shop Manufacturing: Is like Discrete manufacturing except each product is custom-made. Each product has its unique BOM and Routing. However, you may start with a defined BOM and Routing, but many times the Design, Manufacturing, and Technician teams need to use wildly different parts and manufacturing processes than originally identified in the routing to make the product work.?

Job Shop Manufacturing typically creates custom products (or prototypes) that are made by a team of “Craftsmen”. These products have probably never been built before, at least not in this specific configuration or with these unique capabilities.

• Project-Based Manufacturing: In Project manufacturing, production is typically controlled by a well-documented and communicated Project Plan.?Typically broken into major tasks, each with its own Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and WBS codes. Many times, these complex builds take multiple production orders to build parts, subsystems, subsystem tests, and final assembly and are executed over multiple years.

B.????Identifying Your Manufacturing Mode(s) of Operation:

It is important that you identify your unique manufacturing modes of operation before you select your Digital Transformation Pillars (PLM, ERP, MES).

For Example: You may be the provider of Complex - High Mix, Low Volume (HMLV), Project Based Manufactured End items typical of the Space and Machine Design Industries.?

?These types of companies typically produce:?

• Complex assemblies (End Items) which include many MCAD, ECAD, and Embedded Software components within their Bills of Material.?
• Produce a unique End Item for a variety of different Programs (or customers), perhaps hundreds of special programs (known as High Mix Manufacturing).
• Where the quantity delivered on any given program is Low (3-5) to very low - perhaps only 1 (known as Low Volume Manufacturing) over a long period of performance (perhaps 12 months to multiple years).
• These types of Programs are becoming typical of the Civil, Military, and Commercial Space Industry through more streamlined Federal Government procurement contracts known as “Other Transaction Agreements (Authority) – OTAs”.

C.????Picking a Digital Transformation Platform that is Fit for Your Manufacturing Purpose:

Each of your manufacturing modes of operation will require unique “critical” and “competitive” processes which must be supported by the Digital Transformation Platforms you select.

For the example above -?Complex, High Mix, Low Volume (HMLV) Manufacturing typical of Space & Machine Design, will require PLM, ERP, and MES platforms to be configured and integrated in as frictionless a manner as possible to support these unique critical and competitive processes:

Streamlined Concurrent Engineering, Design Reviews, Engineering Release, and Engineering Change processes.?

• It is likely that these products have never been made before and timely iterative collaboration must be possible as the Design, Manufacturing, Technicians, Supply Channel, and Customer teams figure out how to make the first end item deliverable work.

Lightweight and visible Engineering Release and Engineering Change Authorization workflows.

• Because of the rapid (perhaps daily) changes inherent in this type of manufacturing; Design and Manufacturing Engineers must be able to easily see and track exactly where a required component, subassembly and final assembly are in the Engineering Release, Engineering Change, Procurement, Inventory, Manufacturing, Test, and Final Assembly processes.

Rapid and Easy Authoring of Work Instruction for Assembly, Test, and Quality Assurance.

• Since this prototype end item has never been produced before, creating a detailed process plan, and set of work instructions upfront is not possible.
• ?In a sense, engineering and manufacturing are learning how to make the product “on the fly”.
• Rapidly and easily creating work instructions (not burdened with a lot of Digital Transformation overhead) is critical to frictionless operations.

Easy and seamless digital “Redlining” of these Work Instructions (the equivalent of a Digital Traveler) as the product matures.

• Many times knowledge of what it actually took to make this first (prototype) end item work is captured in the “Craftsman’s” mind or written down on “Paper Travelers” while the product is being made.
• It is important to easily capture and retrieve this tribal knowledge so that when a similar (but different) product is ordered (perhaps 5-10 years later) this knowledge can be retrieved so that the new team does not need to “reinvent the wheel”.
• This knowledge capture and retrieval is one of the most significant capabilities in making an HMLV manufacturing company competitive.

Readily visible Engineering, Manufacturing, Inventory, and Supply Chain Process Information:

• Typically, many members of the Engineering, Manufacturing, Technician, and Supply Chain team need real-time, accurate and easy access to much of the information stored within the PLM, ERP, and MES Systems.
• Accessible and easily understood status and location of materials required to create, test, and assemble systems and sub-systems.

2)???You May have Selected the wrong Digital Transformation Platform if:

• You find it difficult or impossible to enable your “standard” and “critical” processes using “Out of the Box” (OOTB) or naturally “Configurable” functionality (that is functionality that does not require an IT expert or Systems Integrator to develop new code).?
• The vendor or systems integrator suggests you create “Custom” (Customized Software) for these processes.?

Creating customized software is usually a bad idea since it will create “technical debt” (unsupported code) that your Engineering teams must live with forever and your IT teams must “rewire” (port) into every new release and version of the Digital Transformation Platforms that you hope to deploy in the future.?

Resulting in an inability to adopt new digital transformation capabilities quickly (if at all) and typically adding 12-24 months of reconfiguration, testing, and redeployment time. All wasted time which may be critical to your competitive future.

• The vendor or systems integrator suggests you make a compromise and modify your “critical” and “competitive” (secret sauce) processes so you can adopt their OOTB “Best Practices”.?

Making "big" compromises to your critical and competitive processes is a bad idea since the vendor’s definition of “Best Practice” and your definition of “Best Practice” could be dramatically different.?Particularly if your modes of manufacturing are not well supported by their platform.

Forcing process compromises on your critical and competitive processes will many times add unnecessary steps to your Design, Manufacturing, and Shop Floor processes (more friction and pain) or make your processes no longer “competitive”.

Process compromises are OK (and smart) for your “Commodity” Processes like standard Engineering Release, Engineering Change, or BOM authoring.?

• Your Designers, Manufactures, Technicians, and Supply Channel end users rightfully complain about:?

1. Too many screens, dropdowns, LOVs (List of Values), and Attribute inputs (metadata) required to “Feed the Beast”.
2. Too many unused software options (functions) that are exposed to users that are not actually part of the processes they are running.?Note- This often happens when you have a mismatch between the vendor’s definition of “Best Practice” and your definition of “Best Practice”.
3. PLM, ERP, and MES screens that are not intuitive, not easily reachable, or not obvious for the process inputs required.
4. Approval Workflows that are overbearing, confusing, and difficult to track.
5. Poor First Pass Yields of Engineering Releases and ECNs that suffer from multiple rejections and resubmittal for the lack of proper "Feed the Beast" data not related to the Fit, Form, and Function of the product being produced.
6. Overwhelming attribute inputs, not necessary, obsolete or better provided by other people in the process chain.

3)???How to Avoid Picking the Wrong Digital Transformation Platform:

Follow these 10-Steps before you select the main pillars of your Digital Transformation Platform (PLM, ERP, and MES):

1. Know your current and future (desired) Manufacturing Mode(s).
2. Define (write down) your current and future Critical and Competitive business processes and high-level data flow requirements (the inputs and outputs of your digital thread process steps).
3. Perform Technical Due Diligence (through vendor demos, Proof of Concepts, and capability walk-throughs) using your Critical and Competitive business processes as the requirements "litmus test".
4. Perform Customer Due Diligence (talk to the vendor’s customers) to make sure the vendor’s platform can support your Critical and Competitive processes.
5. Run your Technical and Customer Due Diligence against the few pre-selected Best of Platform providers that are known to support your type of manufacturing mode(s).
6. Match the Best of Platform PLM that supports your Engineering Critical and Competitive Processes with the Best of Platform ERP that supports your Supply Channel Critical and Competitive Processes, with the Best of Platform MES that supports your Manufacturing Critical and Competitive processes.

• Successfully deploying an integrated PLM, ERP, and MES Technology stack from a Single Vendor Source (while ideal) is not likely. A single platform vendor will not have the necessary technology (in all process cases and all pillars) that fit your critical and competitive business processes aligned with your manufacturing mode(s) of operation.
• Said another way, while a vendor’s PLM platform may be “fit for your Engineering propose”, their ERP and MES systems will likely not be.

1. Tie these three (3) Best of Platform Digital Transformation technology stacks (the Golden Triangle) together with a well-defined Master Data Management (MDM) Strategy (a Digital Transformation Data Ontology-Dictionary), Data Governance, and technology backbone which will become the heart of your Digital Thread.
2. Run several Digital Thread “end-to-end” “thread-tests” between your selected PLM, ERP, and MES systems (using your MDM strategy and Digital Thread Technology) before you make a commitment to purchase anything.?
3. Make sure your Critical and Competitive Processes can be supported “end to end” before launching into the major (and expensive) portions of your Digital Transformation Development and Deployment activities.
4. Run several short-run Proofs of Concepts involving your Key Stakeholders and Informal Leaders (the people who will be required to “eat the dog food”), to make sure you are improving their processes, fixing their current pain points, and not imposing unnecessary additional friction.

4)???Conclusion:

Successful Digital Transformation of your Engineering, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain processes (PLM, ERP & MES - the Golden Triangle) is essential for your future competitiveness.

However, if done poorly:

• With a lack of attention towards matching your Manufacturing Mode(s) of operation with the Best of Platform Digital Transformation technologies (PLM, ERP, and MES) and
• With a lack of concern for introducing to your Engineering Teams unnecessary friction (unnecessary steps and confusion) into your Digital Transformation processes...

Will result in a Digital Transformation Platform which is not “Fit for Purpose”, riddled with productivity losses, and full of real-life pain, stress, and anxiety for the very Engineering teams that made you successful in the first place.

Do your Digital Transformation Technical and Customer due diligence upfront (before you purchase anything) and do your development and deployment with empathy for your Engineer's user experience and ease of use.

By doing so you will establish a world-class (frictionless) set of Digital Transformation Pillars and you will not force your Engineering, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain Teams to Feed the Digital Transformation Beast for the rest of their foreseeable futures.

About Chris Garcia:

I have been in the digital transformation business for most of my adult career.?Having founded two (2) digital technology start-up companies focused on engineering and manufacturing automation in discrete part industries like Aerospace & Defense, Civil and Military Space, Automotive, and Heavy Industry.

I have helped Define and lead Enterprise Digital Transformations Strategies and Deployment Initiatives for Lockheed Martin Space, Sierra Space, and Ball Aerospace.

I have led Digital Transformation Engineering Software Development for Dassault - SolidWorks, Manufacturing Software Development for Siemens PLM, and Quality & Inspection Software Development for Hexagon AG.

During the first half of my career, I helped Digital Transformation Software Vendors (like Dassault, Siemens, and Hexagon) “Create the Dog Food”.

Now (to make amends) I am helping Digital Transformation Customers (like LM Space, Sierra Space, and Ball Aerospace) avoid the productivity land minds that result in real-life Engineering Pain, Stress and Anxiety…as they attempt to… “Eat the Dog Food” while minimizing the need to "Feed the Digital Transformation Beast".

Your thoughts, comments, and likes (dislikes) are welcome through my LinkedIn account or by email

www.dhirubhai.net/in/chrisgarciaMBAIIoT

[email protected]

Please Visit my website for more articles and if you would like the PDF version of this article: https://www.christopherjgarcia.com/

Cheers and Thank you for your interest…

Chris Garcia