http://fiatech.org/images/stories/events/techconference/2005/carr

Challenges and Rewards in Automating the Engineering and Design Process A Case Study: Robertson Ceco Robert Carr - VP Tech Services

Who is Robertson Ceco? ► Part

of the Heico Corporation -2.7 Billion ► Sales over 400 Million 2004 ► 7 Manufacturing Facilities 6 USA, 1 Canada ► 3 Competing Brand Names ► #3 supplier of “Pre-Engineered” Metal Buildings in the US today.

Who is Robertson Ceco? ► Star

Building Systems – Oklahoma City, OK

Plants in Iowa, Tennessee, and California ► Ceco

Building Systems – Columbus, MS

Plants in Mississippi, Iowa, and North Carolina ► Robertson

Building Systems – Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Plant in Hamilton, CS Office in Edmonton and Hamilton

What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal Building? ► In

the 60’s and 70’s – Pre Engineered, stocked buildings – 17 widths, 6 heights ► In the 80’s and 90’s– more customized work ► “The winner will be the company that can process a custom building as fast and as efficiently as a standard building” ► Now – approximately 7,000 unique buildings/year

What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal Building?

What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal Building?

What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal Building?

What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal Building?

What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal Building?

What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal Building?

What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal Building?

What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal Building?

Why Automate Design? ► Reduce

effects of staff turnover ► Improve consistency of design and detailing ► Minimize repetitive monotonous procedures ► Reduce errors and omissions – quality and $ ► Reduce processing time -> increase sales ► Reduce processing costs -> increase sales ► Allow time to be spent on refining processes and products requiring innovation

Why Automate Design? ► Price

and delivery are Primary Customer

goals ► Quality and technology are our niches ► Long learning curve ► Volume is seasonal and unpredictable ► Complexity is unpredictable ► Computer Automated Design versus Computer Aided Design – You can do both

Why Not Automate? ► Automation

leads to lost knowledge and dependency on systems Remedy: Strong continuing in-house involvement

► Who

knows how it was designed

Remedy: Separate legible domain rules from cryptic software engineering

What is automated? â–ş The

fundamental, repetitive, design and detailing decisions that are common place and second nature. â–ş The time consuming, detail oriented, well documented procedures that are less common. â–ş The high confusion details that repetitively produce errors.

What is automated? ► Goals….

Reduce time… Front door to shop floor ►(time

to money)

≤ Achieved

Reduce back charges ►(keep

the money)

≤ Achieved

Reduce staff learning curve ►(save

the money)

≤ Achieved

Minimize impact of complex work ►(make

more money)

≤ Achieved

What is Product of Automation? ► Engineering

Fully loaded, totally optimized design for all components, including design reports, pricing, 3D model and data for Drafting ► Drafting

Complete set of Erection Drawings, Bill of Materials (by plant), Fabrication Drawings, 3D model, Data for Manufacturing

How was it Automated? ► With

a Knowledge Based 3D Engineering (KBE) model from Design Power, Inc. ► With AutoCAD for graphics and drawing creation. ► Developed by Domain Experts to process work like they think, and incrementally capture their design rules into Design++. ► Done using logical Objects that represent real concepts and tangible parts.

How was it Automated? ► This

Design++ tool is a design automation platform ► Design++ provided us with Object representation for real concepts and tangible parts in a “Bill-of-Material” like model Platform for knowledge capture with design rules averaging only 20 line per rule Built-in dependency mechanism that provides rule execution coordination and change management Interfaces to legacy and other software Options for graphic display of 3D model

How was it Automated? ► Our

vision…

One person – one job ≤ Achieved One system – all complexities ≤ Achieved One system – all inputs and outputs ≤ Achieved Automate 90% of all product knowledge ≤ Achieved All design work in 3D ≤ Achieved

Is it Feasible? ► In

our case, most definitely YES! ► Before: 20% of Product Automated, Î1 million lines of code ► After: 95% of Product, ν million lines ► Business volume (tons) has increased 50% along with complexity – Drafting and Engineering departments are 10% larger.

Challenges ► ROI

– Getting commitments for higher production or lower costs ► Change – why? ► Schedule – 11 man year project ► Speed of system for low complexity ► Politics ► History of AI (KBE) projects in general

Solutions ► ROI

– Developers are Domain experts – let them speak for production departments ► Change – eventually sold on benefits ► Schedule – 3 people team – partial implementation at 14 months ► Speed – faster hardware ► Politics – Corporate management support ► History – Departmental successes – total solution that covered entire departmental needs

Our Rewards‌ Complexity (1-10) Total number of parts

2 300 30

Unique parts Old Way

Drafting Time 2 days Complexity (1-10)

Now

1 day 10

Total number of parts 13,000 Unique parts

450 Old Way

Now

Drafting Time 45 days 25 days

Our Rewards‌ Pre-Privatization RCC Design 1997-2000

1997 Base Year = 100

120.00%

110.00%

Jobs Per Year Hours Per Job

100.00%

Tons Per Job MH/T Avg Complexity

90.00%

80.00% 1997

1998

1999

2000

Training time cut 20% Back-charges cut by 60%

Our Rewards‌ Pre-Privatization

60 50 40 30 20 10 0

1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 1

2 1999 $

3

4 2000 $

5

6

7

1999 Jobs

8

9

10

2000 Jobs

COMPLEX JOBS 6 - 10

Job count up 33% year-to-year Revenue up 50% year-to-year

Job Count

$ Million

Job Complexity Distribution - Total Company

Our Rewards …Today ► #3

supplier of “Pre-Engineered” Metal Buildings – We used to be #4 ► #1 – Indebted and sold to Australian Steel Company ► #2 – Bankrupt and sold to Mexican Steel Company ► #3 – Bankrupt and operating as smaller, separate companies ► #4 – RCC – Record Profits & Market Share

Our Advantage Michael E. Porter: Cost OR Differentiation Leadership to achieve Sustainable Competitive Advantage Our Advantage: Cost AND Differentiation Leadership • Cost Leadership => man hours/ton • Differentiation Leadership => increased focus on complex

Thank You