Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment
Is Your Company a Candidate for Industry 4.0?
Gain an understanding of how Industry 4.0 can apply to your company with a Free, No Obligation “Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment” tool that can help determine your “Current State” and help identify potential improvement areas.
Many people familiar with the term Industry 4.0 may not fully understand what the capabilities of Industry 4.0 are, nor where to begin with Industry 4.0. The basic definition of Industry 4.0 (The Fourth Industrial Revolution) is the ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices, using modern smart technology.
However, Industry 4.0 goes well beyond simply utilizing modern smart technology. Without the proper information feeding modern smart technology, Industry 4.0 can be defined as garbage in / garbage out technology. The key drivers of Industry 4.0 are reliant on providing meaningful information when and where needed. Our 30 plus years of experience with Industry 4.0 principals has taught us key to success with Industry 4.0 is the consolidation of information silos and the integration between key IT systems (ERP, CRM, CAD / PDM, MES and Legacy). This also includes the incorporation of automated workflow software to reduce and eliminate labor intensive quoting, engineering, and manufacturing workflow tasks.
To begin the process of approaching Industry 4.0 starts with an “Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment” that helps map out the “Current State” of your company to determine potential improvement areas with the Quoting, Engineering, Manufacturing, and Shop Floor workflow process. Logic Design Corporation (LDC) has devised an innovative spreadsheet to perform an “Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment” that is free of charge with no obligation to help your company effectively determine potential improvement areas that can be achieved with a variety of available consulting services and software tools. LDC will work with your company to navigate and complete the “Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment” process.
However, Industry 4.0 goes well beyond simply utilizing modern smart technology. Without the proper information feeding modern smart technology, Industry 4.0 can be defined as garbage in / garbage out technology. The key drivers of Industry 4.0 are reliant on providing meaningful information when and where needed. Our 30 plus years of experience with Industry 4.0 principals has taught us key to success with Industry 4.0 is the consolidation of information silos and the integration between key IT systems (ERP, CRM, CAD / PDM, MES and Legacy). This also includes the incorporation of automated workflow software to reduce and eliminate labor intensive quoting, engineering, and manufacturing workflow tasks.
To begin the process of approaching Industry 4.0 starts with an “Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment” that helps map out the “Current State” of your company to determine potential improvement areas with the Quoting, Engineering, Manufacturing, and Shop Floor workflow process. Logic Design Corporation (LDC) has devised an innovative spreadsheet to perform an “Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment” that is free of charge with no obligation to help your company effectively determine potential improvement areas that can be achieved with a variety of available consulting services and software tools. LDC will work with your company to navigate and complete the “Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment” process.
Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment Methodology
- The methodology behind the “Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment” is based on defining four areas of the quoting, engineering, and manufacturing workflow process that includes key Industry 4.0 information areas which include:
- Sales Quotes: Accurate quoting is the normal starting point in the engineering and manufacturing workflow process.
- Engineering / Sales Orders: The next step in the engineering and manufacturing workflow is the daily processing of sales orders, which are the same as engineering orders that need work done by the engineering department to process Engineering to Order (ETO), Configure to Order (CTO), and custom order.
- Job Orders / Scheduling: Once orders that are processed by engineering, including standard orders, the next step in the engineering and manufacturing workflow process is to prepare specific information required for production including job orders and scheduling.
- Production Orders / Data Collection: The major last step in the engineering and manufacturing workflow process is the actual execution of job orders, which we then refer to as Production Orders and the tracking and recording of actual production counts that drives real-time production dashboard capabilities.
Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Outline
When launching the "Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment" spreadsheet, the following Excel Worksheet is displayed with the following worksheet tabs:
Section 0: Dashboard
This section includes the cumulative results of the "Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Assessment" process and the potential savings that can be achieved by incorporating Industry 4.0 workflow automation components. To access the "Dashboard" worksheet, select the "0-Dashboard" tab:
0.00: Enterprise Dashboard
The following is the “Enterprise Engineering & Manufacturing Dashboard” which is the culmination of the four primary areas that include: "Sales Quote", "Engineering / Sales Order", "Job Order", "Production Order":
The above dashboard illustrates how a $10 Million dollar sheet metal fabrication company can reduce quoting, engineering, manufacturing, and shop floor labor costs by over $550,000 and by over 26 percent annually by incorporating Industry 4.0 software integration and workflow automation tools. Follow our example how this is achieved in each of the following areas.
0.01: Dashboard (Sales Quote) / Improvements
After the setup for the "Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Dashboard", you can view the dashboard results that have been defined for the "Sales Quote" components:
The above chart allows you to enter potential "Sales Quote Improvement" percentages for each of the Sales Quote Steps by entering values in each of the red cells. The far right-hand column allows you to select the appropriate "Workflow Automation Plug-In" solution that can help achieve the specific workflow improvement.
Workflow Improvements Achieved
In our example we illustrate a savings of 7.590 hours per week. This is achieved by incorporating "Automated CAD Part Analysis" software technology that automatically reduces to amount of time required to analyze customer CAD drawings with capabilities that automatically read CAD part parameters that are included in a report and stored in a database for easy reference. This also includes the incorporation of "Configuration Engine" software technology for the automated generation of bill of materials and routings including time and material cost rollups for the automated generation of accurate and timely sales quotes. This also includes the incorporation of an "ERP Interface" that automatically integrates Sales Quote information with your ERP and CRM systems.
0.02: Dashboard (Engineering / Sales Order) / Improvements
After the setup for the "Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Dashboard", you can view the dashboard results that have been defined for the "Engineering / Sales Order" components:
The above chart allows you to enter potential "Engineering / Sales Order Improvement" percentages for each of the Engineering Sales Order Steps by entering values in each of the red cells. The far right-hand column allows you to select the appropriate "Workflow Automation Plug-In" solution that can help achieve the specific workflow improvement.
Workflow Improvements Achieved
In our example we illustrate a savings of 6.183 hours per week. This is achieved by establishing an "Engineering & Manufacturing Data Warehouse" that provides the ability to search for CAD drawings and 3D CAD models by CAD part parameters that are automatically linked with the Data Warehouse making them easily searchable. Our illustration improves this search time to provide a 40 percent productivity improvement. Other productivity improvements are achieved by incorporating a "Configuration Engine" that can automatically configure products, generate smart part numbers, generate a complete engineering and manufacturing bill of materials including optimal routings. This workflow improvement process is completed with an "ERP Interface" that provides a two-way dynamic link between CAD and engineering directly with ERP to eliminate the manual retyping of information between systems.
0.03: Dashboard (Job Order / Scheduling) / Improvements
After the setup for the "Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Dashboard", you can view the dashboard results that have been defined for the "Job Order / Scheduling" components:
The above chart allows you to enter potential "Job Order / Scheduling" percentages for each of the Job Order / Scheduling Steps by entering values in each of the red cells. The far right-hand column allows you to select the appropriate "Workflow Automation Plug-In" solution that can help achieve the specific workflow improvement.
Workflow Improvements AchievedIn our example we illustrate a savings of 12.865 hours per week. This is achieved with the incorporation of "Configuration Engine" software technology for the automated generation of bill of materials and routings specifically for a job order. This also includes the incorporation of "Automated Job Build / Scheduler" software technology that automatically builds a Job Order utilizing bill of materials and routing information based on CAD part and machine tool parameters for optimal scheduling. This workflow improvement process is completed with an ERP Interface that provides a two-way dynamic link between MES and ERP to eliminate the manual retyping of information between systems.
0.04: Dashboard (Production Order / Data Collection) / Improvements
After the setup for the "Engineering & Manufacturing Workflow Dashboard", you can view the dashboard results that have been defined for the "Production Order / Data Collection" components:
The above chart allows you to enter potential "Production Order / Data Collection" percentages for each of the Production Order / Data Collection Steps by entering values in each of the red cells. The far right-hand column allows you to select the appropriate "Workflow Automation Plug-In" solution that can help achieve the specific workflow improvement.
Workflow Improvements Achieved
In our example we illustrate a savings of 15.116 hours per week. This is achieved with the incorporation of "Workstation" software technology that brings together all of the necessary information components to effectively manage production and the shop floor. This includes the necessary integration with third-party software smart software and hardware technology to achieve an integrated factory environment. This workflow improvement process is completed with an ERP Interface that provides a two-way dynamic link between the Shop Floor, MES and ERP to eliminate the manual retyping of information between systems.