The functional spec was completed by the consultants. They performed what is called a tier process; tier one, they reviewed the processes that were in current use; tier two, they reviewed and collaborated with each tool's company to align with the processes; tier three, a review of the functional spec with the company.
The consultants sat down with the different business owners and reviewed the process from beginning to end. Each step of the process a new business owner/s would come in and validate what they have written down was accurate. Then with each step of the process they would comment on how their tool would satisfy their needs and maybe more. I sat in on every one of these reviews and a majority of the people that sat in and helped on the validation were very impressed of the capabilities of Oracle and Teamcenter.
Author's Comments:
Just keep in mind I am only trying to get you up to speed on our current situation. We are a lot further than this right now.
Have a great New Years Day!
What goes where?
I have brought you up to speed on the PLM tool and the ERP tool...little fairy dust and this will all work right away. WRONG! The next thing that we had to do is sign a contract with both UGS and Oracle to lend some of their finest to come over and help us align the tools together. They started in the concept phase of our new product and worked their way through design, testing and through to production.
They then talked to the president, VPs and directors to find out more how things work together and the tools that they use to get their job done. The next question that they asked to everyone was, "What would you like to see different?" If a lean six sigma project has been completed on a process then they would disregard that process and concentrate on something else that would help the PLM system.
After all was said and done, the consultants presented a functional spec that consisted of the entire process from beginning to end. They would then have to verify that with a series of interviews with the different businesses and departments to make sure that what they have documented actually happens.
They then talked to the president, VPs and directors to find out more how things work together and the tools that they use to get their job done. The next question that they asked to everyone was, "What would you like to see different?" If a lean six sigma project has been completed on a process then they would disregard that process and concentrate on something else that would help the PLM system.
After all was said and done, the consultants presented a functional spec that consisted of the entire process from beginning to end. They would then have to verify that with a series of interviews with the different businesses and departments to make sure that what they have documented actually happens.
Now What?!
Now that we have an electronic tool selected to enforce this new way of thinking, we need an "Enterprise Resource Planning" (ERP) tool to financially guide ourselves to a better place in the market. Our old ERP system was custom made, so trying to get it to work with anything else would be a nightmare. What we saw here is a chance to get away from an old and outdated system and move up to bigger and better things. The tool that we looked at and have been reviewing for the last 10 years, was Oracle.
I know what you are thinking. Why didn't they go with it for their PDM and process manager? This tool is just starting out in the market place for the PLM title. We wanted something that has been tested and proven in the market place so that is why we chose Teamcenter.
Oracle is known to interface with Teamcenter very nicely and the reporting capability is endless. We currently have been testing Oracle with the new processes and slowly implementing them throughout the company. So far, I have been very impressed with the system for time control and expense reports. Everything else has not impressed me as far as its GUI is concerned, but that is probably what people in finance want. I am an engineer and like things to look clean and neat, that is my little jab at finance.
I know what you are thinking. Why didn't they go with it for their PDM and process manager? This tool is just starting out in the market place for the PLM title. We wanted something that has been tested and proven in the market place so that is why we chose Teamcenter.
Oracle is known to interface with Teamcenter very nicely and the reporting capability is endless. We currently have been testing Oracle with the new processes and slowly implementing them throughout the company. So far, I have been very impressed with the system for time control and expense reports. Everything else has not impressed me as far as its GUI is concerned, but that is probably what people in finance want. I am an engineer and like things to look clean and neat, that is my little jab at finance.
3rd Review - UGS' Teamcenter Suite
Our requirements for this new PLM system are:
- A product data management system with change control.
- A means to manage requirements for both the company and customer.
- The ability to plan out projects and allocate resources.
- The ability to collaborate with people inside and outside of the company with complete access restrictions.
- Bonus: A visualization software for our technical publications group.
After Oracle was thrown out of the review, we looked at a UGS product called Teamcenter. We went down to PLM World and attended as many presentations as we could. We tried the software and had them come to our company and give us a more thorough demonstration. After the several day demonstration, we were sold. We saw a huge possibility for improving the company and also improving the processes that have already been improved upon.
Teamcenter offers a variety of tracks:
- Teamcenter Engineering - Product Data Management system with process flows.
- Teamcenter Systems Engineering - A requirements management tool.
- Teamcenter Project - A project planning tool that mimics Microsoft Project.
- Teamcenter Community - A collaboration tool that can go outside the company and also allow App. Sharing Services free with the tool.
- Teamcenter Visualization - A visualization tool that is mostly used by technical publications and also for markups through drawing approval process.
We have purchased more of the other tracks not mentioned and I will talk about those at a later date.
2nd Review - Oracle's "Product Lifecycle Management"
The second tool that we looked at was Oracle's "Product Lifecycle Management" tool. That is what the named the tool, how bold. Within this tool, they suited many of their other tools which covered some of our requirements for collaboration, planning, and product data management. The one missing aspect was a tool to help manage our requirements. We could have disregarded a requirement managing tool but when we got into the suite from Oracle, we wanted something with a better GUI. Oracle seems to much of a "next step up from dos" than a next step up from Microsoft. The interface was very poor and the user community wanted something better.
The one nice thing though, was their ability to tie seemlessly with the Oracle ERP system. This was one aspect we needed to keep in mind for the future. Our main concentration was on the other four requirements and we felt that we could work the company to help improve or develop an ERP system.
The one nice thing though, was their ability to tie seemlessly with the Oracle ERP system. This was one aspect we needed to keep in mind for the future. Our main concentration was on the other four requirements and we felt that we could work the company to help improve or develop an ERP system.
1st Review - PTC's Windchill System
As I stated before, processes needed to be improved upon first. After you have the majority of the processes completed, we then needed to find a tool that will enforce the new processes and also accomplish our needs for being able to follow a product from cradle to grave.
We started investigating software that has been designed for product lifecycle management. Because we are a Pro/E house, we wanted to stay with PTC software, hoping that would save us money. They offer a tool called Windchill which connects their cad data manager to the cad modeler. This tool also enforces processes so information will be less likely to fall in the cracks. Other advantages of this tool is it's ability to publish designs quickly for technical publications.
The problem that we found with this software is it inability to offer a better communication method for collaborating at different sites. We wanted a tool that will help collaborate with different sites, help plan projects, control and manage of requirements, and manage our product data. PTC could offer only one aspect of our requirements. So we have to keep looking.
We started investigating software that has been designed for product lifecycle management. Because we are a Pro/E house, we wanted to stay with PTC software, hoping that would save us money. They offer a tool called Windchill which connects their cad data manager to the cad modeler. This tool also enforces processes so information will be less likely to fall in the cracks. Other advantages of this tool is it's ability to publish designs quickly for technical publications.
The problem that we found with this software is it inability to offer a better communication method for collaborating at different sites. We wanted a tool that will help collaborate with different sites, help plan projects, control and manage of requirements, and manage our product data. PTC could offer only one aspect of our requirements. So we have to keep looking.
Getting Started with Product Lifecycle Management
I work for a company that has been using the same tools and processes to bring their products to production for the last 60+ years . Within the last 5 years we have noticed that our competition has been nipping at our heals as far as market shares are concerned. We have always had this mind set that we are the best and no one can touch us, so why improve ourselves. As the market closes in on us and materials are increasing in price, we felt a need to improve our Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system.
The product lifecycle management system consists of processes, personnel, and tools. Processes were the first to be improved upon. A few departments within our manufacturing were currently using Lean Six Sigma to help improve the assembly-lines. Needless to say, we had them give us a more understanding of the methodology. After we saw the improvements that were a result of these methods, we knew we needed to get more individuals trained on the tools. Our president of the company gave the business a goal to have so-many individuals trained on these tools. After the first year went by and the number was met, he placed another goal that would keep increasing every year. The goal was to have so-many projects created and completed each year. This was a factor also of how many "Champions," "Green Belts," "Black Belts," and "Master Black Belts" that we have already trained or still need to train.
Later on, we implemented Team Leads to manage the overall Lean Six Sigma initiative and continuously seek processes to improve. Now that we had that portion under control, we had to then look at a PLM tool to help enforce these newly created processes.
The product lifecycle management system consists of processes, personnel, and tools. Processes were the first to be improved upon. A few departments within our manufacturing were currently using Lean Six Sigma to help improve the assembly-lines. Needless to say, we had them give us a more understanding of the methodology. After we saw the improvements that were a result of these methods, we knew we needed to get more individuals trained on the tools. Our president of the company gave the business a goal to have so-many individuals trained on these tools. After the first year went by and the number was met, he placed another goal that would keep increasing every year. The goal was to have so-many projects created and completed each year. This was a factor also of how many "Champions," "Green Belts," "Black Belts," and "Master Black Belts" that we have already trained or still need to train.
Later on, we implemented Team Leads to manage the overall Lean Six Sigma initiative and continuously seek processes to improve. Now that we had that portion under control, we had to then look at a PLM tool to help enforce these newly created processes.
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