Tech-Clarity Insight: Engineering Reference Information in a PLM Strategy highlights the importance of efficiently providing engineering reference information to engineers in order to increase productivity. Describes how engineering information offers another tool in the PLM toolkit to improve design efficiency so engineers can spend more time on product innovation. Please enjoy the Executive Summary below,…
- Executive Overview
- Just the Answer I Need Please
- Building Reference Information into the Engineering Workflow
- Strategic Benefit: Efficiency
- Mitigating Corporate Risk
- Financial Justification: Cost
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
- References and Notes
Executive Overview
Manufacturers today compete on speed and innovation to drive product profitability and profitable growth. These companies have recently given a lot of attention to business process improvement, organizational design, and enabling software technology to improve engineering productivity. Little executive attention has been placed, however, on the importance of providing efficient access to engineering reference information. Streamlined, electronic access to engineering information is another tool in the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) toolkit that improves design efficiency so engineers can spend more time on innovation, create more new intellectual property, and accelerate time to market to capture market share and margin advantages. “Engineering reference information is an enabler,” says Spyro Kotsonis, EMS Global Mechanical Métier Manager at Schlumberger. “Engineering is made easier, more streamlined, and efficient by using electronic engineering reference information.” In essence, PLM focuses on improving product innovation, product development, and engineering performance. Reference information can play a significant role in these improvements. Too frequently, an engineer will have to pull away from their design work to look up a critical specification, formula, or other piece of information. To reduce the impact of this disruption and improve efficiency, the information they need should be:- Readily available
- Easily retrieved from a myriad of available information
- Provided from trusted, validated, and current sources
- Provided in the context needed (units of measure, etc.)
- Integrated into the engineer’s daily workflow
- Easy to reference for added credibility and risk management
Tech-Clarity Insight: Engineering's Role in Surviving a Down Economy - Designing Profitability through an Economic Downturn discusses strategies that Engineering can adopt to help their companies navigate difficult financial times. Explains how Engineering can help their companies survive during the downturn, but also invest for the future to thrive during the eventual economic recovery.
Please enjoy the free Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Note: Originally published in 2009
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- Holding the Top Line
- Delivering Customer Value at Reduced Cost
- Running a Lean Organization (as if you had a choice)
- Keeping an Optimistic Eye towards the Future
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Overview
Many manufacturers are feeling the impact of the global economic downturn. They are seeing already competitive, global markets tighten up and customer demand slipping. Revenues are falling, price points are weakening, and profits are sliding. To make matters worse, many Engineering departments are dealing with budget cuts, headcount freezes, early retirements, or even workforce reductions while still trying to develop the right products to keep the company competitive. Unfortunately, many of the product development challenges and inefficiencies they were already facing are brought further to the forefront as design capacity drops. Despite the urge to throw up their hands and give up, it is important for Engineering to recognize the role that they can play in keeping their company financially healthy in troubled economic times. There will surely be challenges and significant difficulty for many, particularly for those companies that must reduce the size of their workforce. Today, survival requires a combination of strategies and enabling technologies to help keep the business alive during the downturn, and ensure that it is in decent – if not very good – shape to take advantage of the eventual market turnaround. This paper is intended to provide guidance and insight to Engineers and Engineering Management as they develop their strategies for surviving the economic winter and preparing for the economic spring that will surely follow. These strategies include:- Pursuing product excellence to help sales hold the top line
- Implementing cost control to compete and save shrinking margins
- Investing for the future by continuing research and development and enhancing engineering capabilities
Tech-Clarity Insight: Equipment Service Management: Maximizing Profit and Customer Value over the Equipment Lifecycle explains that there are two fundamentals that service organizations must master to rise above the competition - operational control of service operations and equipment intelligence. The paper also introduces an Equipment Service Management Framework that companies can use to benchmark their service processes and technology against a world class approach.
Please enjoy the free Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download a PDF that overviews the report (free of charge, no registration required). For the full report, please visit the Lawson website (free of charge, registration required).
Note: This paper was originally published in 2008
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- Equipment Service Management: Opportunity and Challenge
- Stepping up to World Class Equipment Service Management
- Gaining Operational Control of Service
- Establishing Equipment Intelligence and Confidence in Service Knowledge
- Pulling it all Together for Proactive Service Management
- Pulling it all Together for Better Business Decisions
- The Equipment Service Management Framework
- Summary
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Summary
Profitability and margins in equipment service are at risk due to current market dynamics. Increased competition and slim margins in equipment sales and rental place a heavy burden on manufacturers, dealers, rental companies and service businesses to improve their service performance. Improving service in these conditions is critical to maintaining margins and growing profitability. In order to compete effectively, this paper suggests that there are two fundamentals that service organizations must master to rise above the competition. These two fundamentals, operational control of service operations and equipment intelligence, enable companies to move to proactive service approaches and make better business decisions. To instill these two fundamentals, world class service organizations are adopting Equipment Service Management (ESM) processes and tools. This approach provides an integrated view to their business so they can improve the value their customers derive from their equipment and subsequently improve their own profitability. This paper introduces the “Equipment Service Management Framework” to help companies compare their organizations to best practices, and offers tangible suggestions to help them reach world class levels of service performance, resulting in greatly enhanced financial performance and profitable growth. [post_title] => Equipment Service Management [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => equipment-service [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:24 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:24 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2384 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [4] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2378 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2011-08-23 08:44:20 [post_date_gmt] => 2011-08-23 12:44:20 [post_content] =>
Computer Aided Design for Formula-Based Industries: Formulating Higher Value from R&D Investments outlines the business value achieved by Revlon, Shiseido / Zotos, Pfizer and other leading companies utilizing "CAD" software for formula-based product development, and provides guidance for similar manufacturers. While "CAD" is usually a term reserved for computer-aided design of physical / mechanical or electrical products, similar enablers are available for chemists, flavorists, and others involved in formulation.
Please enjoy the free Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Note: Originally published in 2005
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- Why Computer Aided Design?
- Enabling the Chemist / Formulator
- Manipulating Formulas
- Documenting Findings – Digitizing the Lab Notebook
- Having the Right Information at Hand
- Enabling the R&D Team
- Sharing Information
- Managing the R&D Process
- Product Lifecycle Management – Profit from Innovation
- Collaborating Outside of R&D
- Protecting (and Leveraging) Intellectual Property
- Compliance
- CAD or PLM for Formulators?
- CAD and PLM for Formula-Based Industries
- Summary
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Overview
Software applications have drastically improved the productivity of design engineers in many industries, allowing them to achieve designs that were previously not possible with manual, paper-based processes. Today’s complex products were simply not within the reach of engineers prior to the advent of software tools that relieved them of the labor intensive, time-consuming activities required to develop and validate their designs. Computer Aided Design (CAD) has played a large part in stretching the frontiers of modern products. When many people think of CAD they immediately think of Mechanical CAD (MCAD). Today’s advanced computer chips, however, could not have been realized without Electrical CAD (ECAD) software that enables chip designers to focus on innovative designs instead of manually trudging through hundreds of time-consuming steps. The essence of CAD is to provide a “digital design environment” in which engineers can rapidly develop, iterate and improve designs while reducing the manual effort that creates a barrier to product innovation. Without the advantages of CAD tools implemented over the last decade, the current market leaders in the automotive, aerospace and electronics industries would find themselves at a severe competitive disadvantage in today’s market. If CAD tools have enabled such great achievements in mechanical and electrical design, why haven’t formulators been relieved of their design burdens? There is certainly a lot of low value effort involved in developing a formula. Formulating chemists should maintain detailed documentation of their design and discovery process in order to protect intellectual property. They must review and take into account detailed information about target product characteristics, raw material specifications, ingredient interactions, ingredient ratios, premixes, wet and dry weights, usage restrictions and formula cost. More importantly, the formulator must be able to quickly iterate their designs in order to manage the trade-offs among cost, product performance, formula stability and regulatory requirements. To support this process, chemists are often forced to piece together spreadsheets and other “homegrown” tools to help solve their problems. Without relieving the R&D formulator of the burden of manual or suboptimal processes, innovation will continue to be hampered, products will be released at a slower pace, and companies will fail to deliver fully optimized product designs. If R&D staff can be relieved of their design overhead, they can develop more iterations in a shorter time— resulting in faster development cycles and significantly more valuable products. The parallel CAD tools for formula-based product development are beginning to gain broader acceptance. Tools for formula-based R&D have matured to a level that provides the equivalent value to what CAD provides in other disciplines, allowing the designer to innovate without consuming significant time performing burdensome “grunt work.” CAD, however, is not the only tool used in successful R&D environments. The value of CAD increases significantly when integrated with Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) applications. PLM extends product information and business processes beyond the individual designer, allowing them to both collaborate and to leverage product innovation for corporate profits. PLM tools can also provide an infrastructure for companies to seamlessly enable downstream processes that translate the designer’s ingenuity into profitable products. The success of CAD and PLM solutions in discrete industries such as Automotive and Electronics points towards significant value for formula-based industries, including Consumer Packaged Goods, Cosmetics, Pharmaceuticals, Food & Beverage, Specialty Chemicals and Paints. This paper outlines the results achieved by Revlon, Shiseido / Zotos, Pfizer and other leading companies that have utilized CAD software for formula-based product development, and provides guidance for similar manufacturers to achieve their R&D goals. Specifically, we review the success that these innovators have achieved, and highlight—via real life examples—the business value that CAD and PLM solutions can offer to formula-based industries across several key functions:- To the formulator, chemist or product developer, PLM-enabled CAD provides an automated, electronic lab notebook, a set of useful design tools, a tool to collaborate with others, and a powerful information-finding tool.
- To R&D management, PLM-enabled CAD is a productivity enhancer, a window to view overall R&D activities, and a way to make business rules visible so formulators consider them early in the design process.
- To corporate management, PLM-enabled CAD is a way to ensure compliance and better manage IP assets at the source of corporate value.
Tech-Clarity Insight: Improving Portfolio Decision-Making - Marrying PPM Best Practice Processes and Technology to Drive ROI describes the ability for Product Portfolio Management (PPM) initiatives to improve portfolio decision-making and ultimately company profitability. It explains how companies can take a practical approach to achieve the value of PPM by utilizing readily available best practice processes and metrics, leveraging the right software technology, and starting small to provide rapid value without a large, academic exercise.
Please enjoy the free Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- The Purpose and Potential of PPM
- Applying Automation to PPM
- Putting Best Practice Processes to Work
- Taking the Practical Path to PPM
- Improving Portfolio Processes Over Time
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
- Importance of controlling product data
- Need to quickly find and reuse designs and data
- Value of sharing product knowledge across the enterprise
product management, and program management.
The main topics covered include:
- The advantages of mobile PLM to Engineering
- How mobile PLM helps in product and program management
- Key considerations every CIO should know when taking PLM mobile
- The value received from PDM by three companies interviewed for the report
- How these companies achieved the value quickly
- The characteristics of the solution that helped them implement their solutions (out of the box, pre0configured, best practices)
Issue in Focus: CAD Standardization Strategies - Considerations for Multi-CAD versus Standardization - discusses considerations for operating in a multi-CAD environment versus standardizing on a single solution. Helps companies develop a “CAD Standardization Strategy” based on a thorough understanding of the business drivers, constraints, and tradeoffs impacting their decision.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Introducing the Issue
- Considering the Business Drivers
- Making Tradeoffs
- Developing a Strategy
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Introducing the Issue
There are benefits to having a standard CAD package, as reported in the recently published research paper Tech-Clarity Insight: Consolidating CAD. These business benefits range from tactical cost savings to strategic advantages such as corporate flexibility. As that paper mentioned, however, “Not all businesses have the opportunity to unify their CAD solutions due to customer and supplier constraints, but there are multiple advantages for those that can.” This paper is intended to help companies develop a “CAD Standardization Strategy” based on a thorough understanding of the business drivers, constraints, and tradeoffs impacting their decision. This strategy can help determine the appropriate level of standardization to best meet the needs of the business. The paper offers a suggested list of business drivers to be used as a starting point for an industry and company tailored CAD strategy. [post_title] => CAD Standardization Strategies [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => cad-standardization [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:30 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:30 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2738 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 1 [filter] => raw ) [10] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2720 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2010-09-24 14:16:57 [post_date_gmt] => 2010-09-24 18:16:57 [post_content] =>
Issue in Focus: Product Portfolio Management in a PLM Strategy - Closing the Loop on Product Planning explores how engineering-centric businesses can take a more closed-loop approach between Product Portfolio Management (PPM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to extend the value of PPM. Discusses the benefits of closing the loop between theoretical plans and actual progress and results.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Introducing the Issue
- First Things First – Get the Portfolio Right
- Make it Feasible – Resource Planning
- Make it Happen – Project Execution
- Make it worth the Investment – Assess and Monitor Value
- Close the Loop between Planning and Reality
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Introducing the Issue
As reported in Tech-Clarity’s Issue in Focus: The ROI of Product Portfolio Management, effective portfolio management can improve both top-line performance and bottom-line profitability. For this reason, manufacturers are increasingly adopting Product Portfolio Management (PPM) solutions to help improve portfolio management and new product development (NPD) execution. A well developed PPM program consists of four primary processes:- Select and Maximize Product Portfolio
- Resource and Enable Pipeline
- Execute and Manage Project
- Determine and Monitor Product Value
Issue in Focus: Product Compliance – The Hidden Tax on Innovation: Enhancing Innovation in Formula-Based Companies through Real-time, Automated Compliance Monitoring discusses the need for early product compliance checking for formula- and recipe-based products. Explains how manual processes for compliance checking and documentation limit product innovation, and how PLM with compliance checking built in can help relieve this burden.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Introducing the Issue
- Real-Time Compliance Monitoring
- Digitizing Product Compliance Requirements
- Developing a Material Knowledge Base
- Know your Product and Formulas (at a Fundamental Level!)
- Design for Compliance: Pulling it all Together
- Automate Compliance Documentation and Registration
- Summary
- Recommendations
- About the Research
- About the Author
Introducing the Issue
Companies need to develop innovative products – the products that consumers “have to have” – and bring them to market quickly. This is the key to profitability in today’s challenging, global consumer markets. Those in highly-regulated industries not only have to innovate rapidly, but do so despite complex product compliance demands from around the world. Companies developing personal care, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and food products must meet challenging demands from global regulatory bodies concerned only with regulatory compliance – with no thought on how the new regulations will impact product performance, customer appeal or time to market. The implications of noncompliance can be severe – ranging from being blocked from releasing a product in a country or region, to products being pulled from shelves, fines, and significant damage to the brand. In this environment, the successful innovator has to design for both the consumer and to satisfy the various regulatory bodies. World-class product development companies begin to address compliance “day one” of the product development cycle by defining requirements based on global distribution plans. Companies have found that the further into the new product development (NPD) cycle they wait to check compliance, the greater the negative impact that identified issues have on time to market, product performance, cost, internal efficiency, and their ability to roll the product out in multiple markets globally. Leading companies are combating this by opting to “design compliance in” to get the product “right the first time.” Without checking compliance early in the lifecycle, products can get through stability and clinical testing before someone discovers they aren’t compliant, and designers have to go back to the beginning of the process, losing time and wasting money on testing that must be repeated once the formula is brought into compliance. Even more costly to the business, late compliance issues can put the product launch date in jeopardy. Early compliance checking helps identify compliance problems earlier, preventing late changes due to undiscovered compliance problems. Unfortunately, the critical resources that are the source of innovation – chemists, formulators, flavorists, food scientists, process engineers, etc. – are the same people being asked to “design for compliance.” By shifting these resources to ensure compliance through brute force, many companies have simply diverted critical resources away from product innovation by placing inefficient and time-consuming compliance demands on their key product innovators. This solves one problem (early compliance), but replaces it with another problem (inability for designers to focus on innovation). In essence, this serves as a “hidden tax” on their innovation resources. Instead of improving product development performance, a poorly implemented, manual compliance strategy reduces development efficiency and innovation capacity – and often results in the development of uninspiring, “me too” products. [post_title] => Product Compliance – The Hidden Tax on Innovation [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => compliance-tax [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:26 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:26 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2612 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [12] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2580 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2010-09-11 18:56:19 [post_date_gmt] => 2010-09-11 22:56:19 [post_content] =>
Insight: The Five Dimensions of Product Complexity - Managing Complexity across the Product Lifecycle highlights the trend toward increased product complexity and how it has made developing profitable products more difficult. Details the five dimensions and discusses how PLM software helps manage the complexity on an enterprise scale, helping manufacturers achieve greater efficiency and better products.
Please enjoy the Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- The Curse of Complexity
- 1st Dimension: Mechanics
- 2nd Dimension: Mechatronics
- 3rd Dimension: Global Markets
- 4th Dimension: Global Design and Manufacturing
- 5th Dimension: Lifecycle Profitability
- Managing the Complexity - PLM
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Overview
The simple reality is that today’s products are complex. They are complex to design, complex to produce, and complex to support. Across the manufacturing industries, the trend over the last ten years has been increased complexity. This challenge, whether it is inherent to the product itself or the difficult manufacturing landscape of the twenty-first century, has made the job of developing and delivering profitable products more difficult. One company facing increased complexity is Mercury Marine, a leading manufacturer of recreational marine propulsion engines. As Fred Bellio, Director or Processes, Systems and Global R&D for Mercury Marine explains, “People don’t recognize how much impact product complexity has on their cost and their business.” Effectively managing product complexity, in all of its forms, is an important business issue. This report examines how manufacturers address the five critical dimensions of product complexity to achieve maximum profitability, including:- Mechanical Complexity
- Mechatronics
- Global Markets
- Global Design and Manufacturing
- Lifecycle Profitability
Tech-Clarity Perspective: Product Environmental Compliance - Sustainable Processes to Reduce Compliance Cost and Risk discusses the key elements of a sustainable approach to developing and maintaining products that comply with environmental regulations such as RoHS and REACH while reducing compliance risk and cost. Draws conclusions from over 300 responses to a web-based survey and several in-depth interviews with leading manufacturers.
Please enjoy the Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- The Changing Regulatory Landscape
- Barriers and Challenges
- Designing for Compliance
- Documenting and Communicating Compliance
- Collecting and Managing Supplier Data
- Enabling Sustainable Compliance
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Overview
Manufacturers today are under pressure to comply with an increasingly complex array of product-focused regulations. After exerting tremendous effort to comply with the European Union’s RoHS mandate, they now face additional environmental compliance requirements to address REACH, WEEE, numerous local versions of RoHS, customer-specific requirements, company “green” policies, and more. Manufacturers need to comply with this tangle of legislation to ensure business continuity and reduce risk. This helps the environment, but it’s also just good business because it protects revenue streams and mitigates potential losses from stopped shipments, fines, or brand damage. Manufacturers have to comply to keep their market share, but to maintain profitability they also have to do it in a cost effective way, particularly in current economic conditions. Previous compliance benchmarks uncovered wide ranges in the total cost for companies to comply with regulatory demands. To better understand how some companies are able to achieve compliance at a significantly lower cost than others, Tech-Clarity surveyed product environmental compliance leaders from over 300 companies and interviewed several leading manufacturers. The study found developing and supporting compliant products using sustainable processes and enterprise solutions significantly reduces the cost of compliance. RoHS has now been joined by REACH as the most commonly reported environmental regulation impacting products (79%). While some manufacturers took a project-based approach to RoHS, others chose a programmatic approach to address compliance across regulations. Those that took a project focus versus a process-oriented approach have learned that addressing regulations one by one consumes scarce resources that could be better put to use developing new, innovative products. Particularly today, as companies have to do more with less, leading companies are taking a more systematic approach to product compliance. Brute force is not the answer, particularly in obtaining supplier data which appears as the most common challenge in achieving product compliance (52%). The research concludes that the key elements of a sustainable approach include:- Compiling a common set of product environmental performance requirement
- Gaining a better understanding of the substances that make up components
- Automating the analysis and monitoring of product structures and composition against requirements
- Documenting proof of compliance electronically
reviews manufacturers' experiences in using Quality Risk Management (QRM) to proactively reduce risk in the Life Sciences industries. Explains how QRM software can be used to efficiently manage risk by sharing quality knowledge across the enterprise and closing the loop on product quality.
Please enjoy the Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- Mitigating Risk
- From Compliance to Quality Risk Management
- Sharing Quality Knowledge
- Closing the Loop on Quality
- Enabling QRM
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Overview
It is an undeniable truth that defects are inherent to manufacturing processes. Manufacturing is a risky business, and issues come up that can lead to product failure. In the Life Sciences industry, these failures can put patient health at stake. It is the responsibility of the manufacturers of these products to ensure product quality, and the implications are serious for both corporate executives and for patients. “Even the most harmless of medical devices can be fatal,” explains Andy Jobson, GM of Medical Operations for contract manufacturer Moll Industries. “People can end up in jail.” Life Sciences executives recognize the importance of quality, and that they are responsible and liable for ensuring safety. While patient health is the primary concern for all, product quality also has significant cost implications. Recalls and retrofits can be exceedingly expensive and drastically cut into profits. “Nobody wants to be responsible for a defect that results in a recall,” Mr. Jobson explains, “A device failure can put a lot of smaller companies out of business, one recall can wipe you out.” Due to the risk to patient and corporate health, manufacturers of all sizes need to be vigilant in preventing defects, but more importantly preventing the resulting impact a defect can result in. Because of the potential consequences, Life Sciences companies must aggressively pursue quality. The good news is that there are best practices available, including FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) and CAPA (Corrective Action and Preventative Action). Many companies, unfortunately, fail to leverage these tools to their fullest extent because they view these practices as compliance “checklists” instead of embracing a more proactive Quality Risk Management (QRM) approach. Wallace Torres is the Global Head of the Integrated Risk Management program for Pharma Technical Operations for global healthcare company F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. Mr. Torres explains the essence of QRM, “You must start thinking proactively to identify what can go wrong.” By systematically identifying what can go wrong, manufacturers can prevent issues from occurring in the first place. The first place to start for most companies should be leveraging the knowledge they have across their own organization. Most manufacturers can gain a lot of insight simply by “closing the loop” by communicating knowledge in Manufacturing, Quality, and other departments back to Engineering to design quality into products up front. In the same way, the information should be fed to Quality and Manufacturing to develop control plans to prevent issues from occurring in the first place. For this reason, QRM processes require sharing knowledge across the enterprise. Making information easy to search and reuse is critical to prevent defects and repetitive errors. Unfortunately, quality processes are often manual or rely on spreadsheets and are both poor at sharing information across the enterprise and inefficient. Increasing the efficiency of quality processes through an enterprise QRM infrastructure helps reduce cost, and can also allow Quality, Engineering, and Manufacturing personnel to focus on mitigating risk instead of filling out forms. More importantly, it can also prevent recalls. Most importantly, though, it can help fulfill the mission of protecting patient health and quality of life. As Moll Industries’ Jobson summarizes, “If you aren’t highly focused on risk management, you have no business being in this industry.” QRM, also known as Quality Lifecycle Management (QLM), is a systematic approach to proactively reduce risk and protect patient health. It is also a significant part of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) that is missing in many companies, as clearly quality and risk management are lifecycle issues. As Roche’s Mr. Torres states, “We are using QRM to evaluate the risk in the whole lifecycle of the molecule starting from clinical trials.” [post_title] => Quality Risk Management in Life Sciences [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => qrm-lifesciences [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:25 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:25 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2488 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [15] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 1366 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2009-10-09 12:07:36 [post_date_gmt] => 2009-10-09 16:07:36 [post_content] => A quick peek into some research on ... the use of digital prototyping techniques and technologies to design (and redesign) efficient manufacturing plants.
Most of the times I discuss "digital prototyping" it regards products. But the same concepts apply when using digital prototyping in the plant - namely using digital models to increase design efficiency and get designs right the first time. Today I am happy to share my new report with you, Digital Prototyping in the Plant: Improving Manufacturing Agility with the Digital Factory.
Why Digital Prototyping Now?
Clearly, the economy has been tough on manufacturers across the globe. Today, manufacturers are facing a series of demands to survive today and thrive during the economic recovery. I researched engineering's role in a survive and thrive strategy from a product perspective earlier this year, noting that Engineering can make short-term impacts on both the top and bottom lines in the near term while innovating to prepare for the future. But what impact does the economic downturn have on manufacturing and plant engineers? In the plant right now, you are probably facing:
- The need to cut cost
- The demand to improve efficiency
- The requirement to adjust to plant or line consolidations, volume/mix changes, and potentially new products
- Lean resources to accomplish all of the above
Tech-Clarity Insight: Innovating Through an Economic Downturn - A PLM Action Plan for Small to Mid-Size Manufacturers Facing Difficult Times describes how manufacturers can weather the current, global economic downturn. This paper is intended to help manufacturers develop a strategy to make it through tough times and come out ready to take advantage of the eventual recovery by innovating products and processes along with the inevitable drive to reduce cost.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Balancing Short and Long Term Innovation Needs
- Reductive Innovation (decreasing cost)
- Product Innovation
- Process Innovation
- Enabling Innovation
- Getting to PLM
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Summary
Manufacturers today are facing significantly stalled markets as a result of the current, global economic downturn. Many companies are experiencing weak demand and lower sales, and reacting with budget cuts and other efforts to reduce cost. This can have a particularly large impact on small to mid-size manufacturers that have to make difficult trade-offs between product innovation and cost control. During this time, it is important to recognize that despite the reality of reduced budgets, companies that continue to invest in innovation will fare better during the economic downturn and beyond. This paper is aimed at helping companies develop an action plan that both recognizes the difficult reality that most manufacturers face today, and allows them to continue to invest in the future. Keeping these two priorities in mind will help these smaller manufacturers weather the current economic storm but also be prepared to capitalize on emerging markets during the eventual recovery. Manufacturers with limited budgets and resources have turned to product innovation, product development and engineering process improvement to support this dual strategy and get the most out of existing resources. These leading companies have adopted a strategy that includes a combination of elements, including:- Product (and Market) Innovation
- Reductive Innovation (innovation to reduce cost)
- Process Innovation
Issue in Focus: Product Collaboration 2.0 - Using Social Computing Techniques to Create Corporate Social Networks explores the use of social computing and "Web 2.0" techniques to improve product collaboration. Explains how social computing in PLM allows manufacturers to discover new intellectual property and capture existing know-how for the future, increasing corporate product knowledge.
Please enjoy the Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Introducing the Issue
- The Future of Product Collaboration
- Turning Collaboration into Knowledge
- Collaboration beyond Engineering
- Enabling Corporate Social Networks
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Introducing the Issue
Product innovation has become a high priority for manufacturers today, topping the list of many corporate agendas over the last five years. While early innovation strategies gave top priority to driving growth, focus has turned to surviving the down economy and preparing to capitalize on the eventual recovery. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has been an important tool to help companies innovate, enhancing the top line at the same time as they reduce cost to maintain the bottom line. This has caused significant growth in the use of PLM, and the extension of PLM by early adopters. In this same timeframe, the use of social networking has exploded. People are using social networking and social media in their personal lives, adding a new dimension to the way that people interact within their network of friends. Now, companies are starting to embrace social computing and “Web 2.0” capabilities to take advantage of these collaborative techniques for business purposes, creating “corporate social networks” that tie together communities around a common business goal. The goal of each of these trends – PLM and social computing –is connecting people and providing a way to share content. How can manufacturers leverage these trends to improve product profitability? Clearly it is not signing the Engineering department up on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace. Instead, companies are applying the concepts and lessons learned from social networking to connect people and enhance business interaction. This shift towards corporate social networks promises significant business value, particularly as social computing technologies are applied to PLM. [post_title] => Product Collaboration 2.0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => collab-2dot0 [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:26 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:26 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2549 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [18] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2774 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2008-10-02 10:23:29 [post_date_gmt] => 2008-10-02 14:23:29 [post_content] =>
SLM for HVAC and Controls: Competition Heats up for Service Contracts discusses how convergence of the HVAC and Controls service markets has changed the rules of competition, highlighting the need for SLM to compete.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
NOTE: This paper is from the Tech-Clarity archives, it was originally published in 2004 but still has relevance today.
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- When Service Markets Collide
- Servicing the Facility
- Service Complexity
- Competition Demands Better Service
- Better Service – Without Losing Sight of Cost
- Never Ignore a Call for Help
- Reduce Waste in the Call Center and Office
- Avoid the Service Call (or at Least Reduce the Urgency)
- Make the Right Calls First
- Close the Call the First Time
- Keep Technicians Productive, not Just Busy
- Turn the Service Call into an Opportunity
- Turn Service into Cash – Rapidly
- Stop Revenue Leaks
- Enhance the Customer Relationship
- Grow Revenue by Restarting the Service Lifecycle
- Turn to Proactive Management
- Recommendations
- Summary
- About the Author
Executive Overview
The battle continues for service contracts in the HVAC and Controls markets. The rules of competition have changed for companies servicing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and related control systems over the last several years. The clean separation between installing and maintaining the mechanical components of the equipment—such as air handlers and chillers—and the control systems has dissolved. The customer now has more options for service. Mechanical contractors are competing with controls providers, controls technicians are competing with mechanical contractors, and increasingly everyone is competing with manufacturers who are beginning to capitalize on their product lines to offer service for their own equipment—and for equipment from others. The rules of competition have changed for companies servicing heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) and related control systems Increased competition is good for service customers, particularly for industrial customers and large chains. These larger customers can now benefit by consolidating their service spending to a smaller number of suppliers. By working with fewer suppliers, they can gain economies of scale and contract negotiating leverage. Beyond cost advantages, the customer can now expect to gain a more consolidated view of their operations and service needs by looking at service trends, spending and performance across multiple sites and types of equipment. These market changes can also be good for service organizations that are prepared to capitalize on the change. These companies can achieve greater revenue from each customer by servicing a broader range of equipment and leveraging technician visits to perform work on multiple types of hardware. To keep up with the changes—or better yet to profit from them—means adapting to a more complex, more competitive service environment. Service organizations—whether historically focused on mechanical service or controls—need to compete with equipment manufacturers by better sharing equipment knowledge and leveraging their independent status to service multi-vendor environments. Manufacturers need to continue to improve service organizations and processes as they transition service from an overhead operation to a profit center. All service companies need to address increased competition and complexity of the new service landscape by simultaneously providing higher levels of customer service while decreasing service costs. Service Lifecycle Management (SLM), coined by industry analyst firm AMR Research, is an approach that allows service organizations to better manage their servicerelated processes—resulting in both better service and reduced costs that are critical to profitable service in the changing HVAC and Controls industry. [post_title] => Service Lifecycle Management for HVAC and Controls [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => slm-hvac [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:31 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:31 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2774 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [19] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2763 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2008-10-02 10:12:51 [post_date_gmt] => 2008-10-02 14:12:51 [post_content] =>
SLM for Medical Devices: The Strategic Role of Service highlights the strategic role that service plays in the medical devices industry in ensuring customer satisfaction to enable future sales, while maintaining optimal costs to protect profitability.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
NOTE: This paper is from the Tech-Clarity archives, it was originally published in 2004 but still has relevance today.
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- Compliance is Critical
- Enabling Compliance with Automation
- Service is Strategic to Customer Satisfaction – and Future Sales
- Making Best Service Practices Standard Operating Procedure
- The Good and Bad of Servicing a Captive Audience
- SLM Drives Superior Service at Optimal Cost
- Never Ignore a Call for Help
- Reduce Waste in the Call Center and Office
- Avoid the Service Call (or at Least Reduce the Urgency
- Make the Right Calls First
- Close the Call the First Time
- Keep Technicians Productive, not Just Busy
- Turn the Service Call into an Opportunity
- Turn Service into Cash – Rapidly
- Stop Revenue Leaks
- Enhance the Customer Relationship
- Grow Revenue by Restarting the Service Lifecycle
- Turn to Proactive Management
- Summary
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Overview
Ask an outsider about what makes servicing medical devices challenging. They will probably tell you that—beyond all of the regular challenges in servicing equipment—you probably have to face a lot of extra red tape and regulatory complications. Of course, they will have guessed right. But outsiders don’t service medical devices, and managing regulatory requirements is not the whole story about servicing medical equipment. Servicing medical devices is not the same as servicing a consumer item like a television, a computer, or an entertainment system. Manufacturers in consumer industries can sell their products and then move on to the next piece of business. This is also true for industrial equipment, although often to a lesser extent. Manufacturers in those industries can draw a hard line between manufacturing and service, or even choose to leave service to third parties that they have no relationship with. Although many of these companies are trying to capture the revenue potential available from servicing their own equipment, it is generally a decision that is based on growing the top line. Service in the medical devices industry, however, is not optional. Service is integral to the relationship with the customer and very tightly tied with the success or failure of the company. In the medical devices industry, services are strategic and manufacturers of equipment used in the medical field are held to a higher level of responsibility by their customers. There are advantages and disadvantages of the closer relationship between medical device vendors and customers. On one hand, companies typically don’t have to compete for service contracts with competitors. Because of the complexity of their products and the highly regulated environment, it is often very difficult for uninvited third parties to maintain a manufacturer’s equipment. Our outsider might guess that the lack of competition for the service contract means that the cost of maintaining equipment is not an important issue. On the contrary, it means that managing the cost of servicing equipment is frequently more important to the bottom line than in other industries. This contradiction is a result of the lack of competition, and the buyers’ knowledge that they don’t have flexibility to shop around a service contract. To compensate, the buyers may negotiate the service costs well in advance, often as a part of the equipment purchase. In these cases, service revenue is fixed. Therefore, services profitability can only be impacted by attacking the other side of the profitability equation— cost. Service Lifecycle Management (SLM), coined by industry analyst firm AMR Research, is an approach that allows service organizations to better manage their service-related processes. SLM results in both better service and reduced costs. For medical device companies, it is critical to take advantage of the opportunities that SLM offers to simultaneously enhance the relationship with the customer and keep service costs in control. And yes, compliance is critical to all aspects of the business and shouldn’t be minimized in the least. [post_title] => Service Lifecycle Management for Medical Devices [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => slm-med-device [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:31 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:31 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2763 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) ) [post_count] => 20 [current_post] => -1 [before_loop] => 1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2422 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2011-08-23 15:56:43 [post_date_gmt] => 2011-08-23 19:56:43 [post_content] =>
Tech-Clarity Insight: Engineering Reference Information in a PLM Strategy highlights the importance of efficiently providing engineering reference information to engineers in order to increase productivity. Describes how engineering information offers another tool in the PLM toolkit to improve design efficiency so engineers can spend more time on product innovation.
Please enjoy the Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Note: Originally published in 2009
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- Just the Answer I Need Please
- Building Reference Information into the Engineering Workflow
- Strategic Benefit: Efficiency
- Mitigating Corporate Risk
- Financial Justification: Cost
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
- References and Notes
Executive Overview
Manufacturers today compete on speed and innovation to drive product profitability and profitable growth. These companies have recently given a lot of attention to business process improvement, organizational design, and enabling software technology to improve engineering productivity. Little executive attention has been placed, however, on the importance of providing efficient access to engineering reference information. Streamlined, electronic access to engineering information is another tool in the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) toolkit that improves design efficiency so engineers can spend more time on innovation, create more new intellectual property, and accelerate time to market to capture market share and margin advantages. “Engineering reference information is an enabler,” says Spyro Kotsonis, EMS Global Mechanical Métier Manager at Schlumberger. “Engineering is made easier, more streamlined, and efficient by using electronic engineering reference information.” In essence, PLM focuses on improving product innovation, product development, and engineering performance. Reference information can play a significant role in these improvements. Too frequently, an engineer will have to pull away from their design work to look up a critical specification, formula, or other piece of information. To reduce the impact of this disruption and improve efficiency, the information they need should be:- Readily available
- Easily retrieved from a myriad of available information
- Provided from trusted, validated, and current sources
- Provided in the context needed (units of measure, etc.)
- Integrated into the engineer’s daily workflow
- Easy to reference for added credibility and risk management
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SLM for HVAC and Controls: Competition Heats up for Service Contracts discusses how convergence of the HVAC and Controls service markets has changed the rules of competition, highlighting the need for SLM to compete. Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration…
Service Lifecycle Management for Medical Devices
SLM for Medical Devices: The Strategic Role of Service highlights the strategic role that service plays in the medical devices industry in ensuring customer satisfaction to enable future sales, while maintaining optimal costs to protect profitability. Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge,…
