SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

NetSetup scope and objective

Pro

cess

le

vel

IT-l

evel

PRODUCT DEV.

Pro

cess

le

vel

ROSETTANET

PRODUCT DEV.

How to set up integration for product data management in a product development network as quickly and affordably as possible?

Integration levels: processes, IT systems, information

BOM, designdoc. metadata

Company 1 Company 2

Company 3

IT-l

evel

ROSETTANET

BOM, designdoc. metadata

Process maturity levels [CMM]

SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

NetSetup main vision

To enable efficient product development (PD) networks, we need to have

1. Defined and deployed inter-company processes for Design Change (DC) and Product Data Management (PDM) and guidelines how to use them

2. Integration in a Day concept that enables fast PDM system integration needed to support a particular networked project

3. Maximize the value of information to its recipients by ensuring that right information is delivered to right persons at the right time

Expected results for the companies include quicker, more controllable iterations, shorter

and more predictable lead-time of product programs, no more rework due to old/non-existing documents and easier, quicker and better targeted document deliveries, faster setting up of IT support for new partners and new projects, and better transparency thorough the companies of the PD network.

SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Design Change (DC) management 1/3

Problem: Poorly managed DCs cause remarkable amount of delay in networked product development projects

Assumption: Delay due to poor DC management can be improved by implementing better product data management processes in a company network. For example, processes that enable quicker responses to DC requests.

1. By defining inter-company processes (Partner Interface Processes, PIPs) for DC management

2. By defining a framework for DC management

The framework will describe how to synchronize internal processes of a company to standard inter-company processes (PIPs)

The framework advises the usage of PIPs: How to use them (e.g. timing, contents of DC templates…) in order to minimize unnecessary delay caused by design changes.

SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Design Change (DC) management 2/3 - Phases of the research

1. Current state of improvement potential in the pilot companies

Data from interviews: how much delay DCs are currently causing? -> X days improvement potential

How much of this delay is due to network & insufficient PDM & inter-company processes? -> Y % from the X days

2. What issues and mechanisms cause this Y % of delay?

Analysis from the interviews. E.g. not enough DC information, wrong timing of DC information etc.

-> most important concepts and their impact mechanisms for DC management

SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Design Change (DC) management 3/3

3. Develop PIPs further and their management framework, resulting

PIPs and the DC management framework.

Refine the results (PIPs & framework) and report results. IF we have time: to implement the results in the companies in order to measure their effect on DC management

Possibility: standardize the PIPs as a part of RosettaNet standard.

Afterwards, we should be at least on level 3

SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Integration in a day (IIAD) – Basic hypotheses – 1/3

PDM systems integration bring benefits to controllability of networked PD projects

The time it takes to integrate PDM systems is nowadays quite significant and in PD context not fully understood. The integration time for setting up IT support for PD project collaboration is nowadays too long.

The time needed can be shortened by creating tools/guidelines for the currently most time-consuming parts

Project-oriented integration differs from more traditional integration as projects start and end - and thus the setup needs to be quicker

Guidelines how to reuse existing integration work in new PD projects is one major aspect of IIAD

SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Integration in a day – The research questions – 2/3

How can implementation times for integration be significantly reduced introducing 1) new business process 2) new partner to existing business process and 3) new project between existing partners

The volume – number of projects, partners, network stability, information quantities (documents etc.) exchanged - answers basic motivation to PDM integration

Where does the time go & Who are the important stakeholders of setting up integration

Why it takes so long? (e.g. lack of common process)

Are there tools to reduce this time? What are the stakeholders suggestions for fixing this

SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Integration in a day – The expected results – 3/3

Possible results

Guidelines (process/checklist) for adding new PIP /new partner/new projects - minimizing the time to integrate

Implementation guidelines and how they should be used, Trading partner agreements

List of project-related, i.e. changes that are required on every new PD project, system integration parameters

– System architecture to solve project-related problems

SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Design Information Value 1/4

Problem: How to maximize the value of design information to its recipients in PD networks?

Assumption: Design information value can be maximized by defining

1. the components of information value (timing, targeting, etc.) and the methods for addressing these components

2. the information format and contents (e.g., document metadata) that needs to be shared in PD networks

SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Design Information Value - Research questions 2/4

1. What information needs to be shared in PD networks?

2. What are the components of information value?

3. How can the value of information be maximized?

4. How can the value maximization be supported with IT tools?

SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Design Information Value - Data collection 3/4

Literature review: Information value components, human aspects (e.g., information overload), communication theories

Data from interviews: Who needs the documents, when do they need them, what metadata of the documents is needed, how are document lifecycle and ownership managed, what tools are currently used for information exchange? Are these needs different in big companies and SMEs?

Data from PDM systems: What is the document metadata actually used, i.e. what information about a document (such as its name, version, creator, etc.) is needed to add a document to the PDM system so that it is also found from the system when needed

SoberITSoftware Business and Engineering Institute

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Design Information Value – Results 4/4

A framework for maximizing information value. The framework includes a guideline for the timing, targeting, format, and contents of the exchanged information

Demonstrate some of the concepts with a software prototype tool

If we have time and the case companies want: implement the results in the companies, measure the effects, and report the results