WHEN ENGINEERING IS PART OF THE PROCESS
<P>文章来自APICS e-NEWS Vol. 5, No. 14</P><P>有冲突就会有妥协性的解决方案，就会有方法、技术、工具和资源的应用和再分配。处于现在的市场压力下，设计失败的事例不胜枚举，因此市场压力-时间压力和精心的设计-测试之间的平衡，市场失败风险的考虑等等，或许应有严肃一贯的方法和工具来控制。</P>
<P>产品要有生命周期的管理软件，其实大到项目管理小到任务或事务的处理亦应如此。许多事情只有积累了很多数据，并连贯起来观察和思考，才能看出一定的趋势和得出正确的结论。</P>
<P>强调专业化的分工和强调纵向的职能集成，看似是两个完全不同的方向，其实是两级相通。</P>
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A ship-from-stock manufacturer completes the design and production process before receiving customers’ orders. Make-to-order and assemble-to-order producers are ready to go and can start production or assembly as soon as the order comes in. For engineer-to-order (ETO) companies, however, design is part of the process—often a significant part of the order cycle time. Production and even procurement must wait for the engineers to complete their efforts, at least to some level, before they can begin buying materials and making product. </P>
<P>This situation places inordinate pressure on engineering to complete the design work quickly and completely. Often, production and procurement pressure engineering to release pieces of the design before it’s complete so they can get started sooner. This can result in rework, scrap, and quality issues. When a design is released in increments, a series of engineering changes inevitably follows, which hurts efficiency and timely completion of production. </P>
<P>When engineering takes up a significant amount of the available lead time, it also puts pressure on procurement and production. Procurement has less time to find appropriate suppliers, compare capabilities, and negotiate price and delivery. Production, of course, also has less time to complete its work.</P>
<P>Savvy ETO firms use technology to shorten the design process and better coordinate engineering activities with procurement and production. Engineering information management systems, once called engineering change control or engineering release systems and later known as product life-cycle management (PLM) systems, provide a framework for managing part and product data; bills of materials; routings; and the tools that enable engineers to refine the design and coordinate with the rest of the company, including marketing, finance, planning, and procurement as well as production and customer service. </P>
<P>A fully implemented PLM system can track product information from initial engineering and prototyping to development, production, and on through sales, shipping, service, and eventual disposal. On the preproduction side, the primary capabilities include vaulting, workflow, and interfaces with related systems.</P>
<P>Initial design information is stored in the PLM system’s vault, where it is accessible by all interested parties with library-like access and version control. Designers can call up existing designs, test the reuse of existing parts, and store work in process. Workflow electronically distributes and tracks the engineering package through all phases of design and approval, keeping all departments in the loop and working together. Interfaces allow the PLM system to import designs from other engineering systems, such as computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing, and populate the product database in enterprise resources planning and plant-floor systems when the design is released.</P>
<P>It’s all about saving time and increasing the efficiency of design and engineering. For an ETO manufacturer, reducing the time spent in engineering can make a huge difference in responsiveness and the quality of the product produced. More of the available lead time can be dedicated to procurement, production, and faster delivery. Either way, engineering systems can improve competitiveness.</P>
<P><I>Dave Turbide, CFPIM, CIRM, an independent consultant, can be reached via e-mail at </I>dave@daveturbide.com.</P> 喜欢读专业文章，也喜欢把胡思乱想随手记下来，若有同好者相和，不亦乐乎！
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