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As a worldwide provider of welding and assembly equipment for automakers and first-tier suppliers, DCT Inc. in Sterling Heights, MI, must react quickly to frequent engineering changes. That’s the nature of the business in manufacturing industries where product innovation is a competitive necessity, production operations are continually being reconfigured, and response time is critical.

Brought into the firm to find ways to optimize DCT’s internal processes, vice president of eCommerce Mark Yadach immediately identified opportunities for improving ways the company dealt with engineering changes, particularly in managing the company’s 100,000-item bill of materials (BOM) that lists all engineering details of the components and sub-assemblies that comprise the complex manufacturing systems DCT produces. This extensive information base is affected whenever the manufacturing system is altered due to a customer’s product, process, or preferential change.

Recognizing the impact of improving this process, Yadach began an initiative to implement product data management (PDM) and collaborative workflow technology based on software from SmarTeam Inc. Based on pilot experiences, Yadach projects that within its first year of full implementation the streamlining effects of these tools will reduce the time to complete engineering changes by up to 85%. This reduction in turnaround time translates into substantial costs savings for DCT and its customers. As a result, the company is expanding the use of these tools throughout its organization and also using the technology to more effectively collaborate across the supply chain.

Yadach explains that the evolution of the bill of materials follows the course of DCT’s product development process, where projects progress from early concept to detailed design. As the BOM traverses between various individuals in marketing, estimating, finance, engineering, manufacturing and other departments, the information base grows as increasing levels of data are added. The information base thus evolves from a general listing of overall equipment to a specific tabulation of all components and relevant information on suppliers, part numbers, pricing, etc. Along the way, engineering changes to equipment design are supposed to be reflected as quickly as possible.

Complex, large scale installations such as this require efficient management at all levels in order to be competitive and effective.

According to Yadach, their former procedure of processing engineering changes and managing the BOM information base was prone to frequent delays as paper documents were passed between individuals, with folders many times misplaced, routed incorrectly, or otherwise held up along the way. Moreover, each department had its own way of maintaining the information, with change orders and related modifications to the bill of materials tracked manually on spreadsheets and other lists recreated at least eight times during their journey through the enterprise.

"Redundancy, duplication of effort and re-keying errors were a problem," explains Yadach. "There were too many opportunities for mistakes and miscommunication. Change orders came in so fast that we weren’t always able to do a great job of tracking time and materials. Things could easily fall through the cracks. These issues impacted the quality of products, consumed unnecessary resources, affected speed-to-market, and cost DCT money on the bottom line."

To improve efficiency and accuracy in its process, DCT implemented SmartFlow collaborative workflow technology from SmarTeam Inc., along with SmarTeam’s core PDM software for managing engineering files.

Craig McLeod, DCT Executive Manager of eCommerce, says that SmarTeam was selected because of the affordability and ease of use of the Windows-based software. Also, web-enabled capabilities were an extremely important consideration for DCT, since it wanted to make data readily accessible to various divisions in different locations as well as partner companies throughout the supply chain.

Diagram illustrating information flow through DCT and the organizations it shares information with.

McLeod says DCT was particularly impressed with the way SmartFlow automates the processes of initiating, reviewing, performing, and approving changes. Changes move faster toward completion because work is routed from one stage to the next automatically, while information about the status of the work itself is constantly available. By automating workflow, a document trail is maintained and tasks are assigned automatically so overall organizational efficiency is increased.

"The system gives an overview of where the project is in the process, who has completed each task, and how long it took to complete that task," says McLeod. "Moreover, the BOM and other critical information are maintained in a single database accessible to anyone in the enterprise who needs it, even over the Internet. With SmartFlow, you have a general repository for that information and a process for moving it through the organization."

According to McLeod, the greatest value the technology brings to his organization is increased visibility and accountability in the engineering change process. "SmartFlow gives us a real-time electronic record of where projects stand for all parties to see. There’s no escaping this accountability," says McLeod. "Also, the system provides a detailed historical record of activities, which is especially beneficial in long-term projects that last for years."

When fully implemented, the PDM system will support the efforts of 500 DCT professionals in engineering, manufacturing, procurement, marketing, and finance. Moreover, the same information will soon be available to customers, providing an electronic history to refer to when questions arise about specific change orders. Future plans call for implementing systems and processes for more closely collaborating with DCT’s partners and suppliers using web-based technology from SmarTeam.

In addition, DCT is developing a vortal (vertical portal) exchange to serve the automotive capital tooling and equipment industry. Plans are for the exchange to facilitate a wide range of on-line collaborative services including program management, interactive product/process reviews, document distribution/retrieval and storage, engineering change management, parts ordering, pricing, reverse auctioning, and executive performance reporting.

Such collaborative capabilities are especially useful in light of the trend among automakers and other manufacturers toward delegating increasing levels of design responsibility to subcontractors who once provided only manufacturing services. DCT projects potential savings of $20 to $40 per vehicle through such capabilities.

The planned vortal exchange will be based on mySmarTeam e-collaboration technology that provides tools for searching, viewing, extracting, and manipulating project data by remote users via the Internet. Users interact with the system via a web-based browser interface that allows for convenient two-way communication and access to authorized portions of the database. The technology is particularly useful in facilitating collaboration across supply chains, where companies are often geographically dispersed.

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