Clockwork A/S

Product Modelling
42451 Mass Customization - Application of Product Configuration 23-09-2011

Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 2 Problem Definition ....................................................................................................................................... 2 Development of Specification Processes ...................................................................................................... 3 Step 1: Identifying and characterizing the most important specification processes ................................... 3 Step 2: Analysis of requirements for the specification processes .............................................................. 6 Step 3: Designing the future specification process .................................................................................... 7 Scenario 1 ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Scenario 2 ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Scenario 3 ............................................................................................................................................ 9 Step 4: Evaluation and choice of solution ............................................................................................... 10 Step 5: Plan of action and organization of further work .......................................................................... 12 Product analysis ......................................................................................................................................... 13 Product Variant Master .......................................................................................................................... 13 Productions sequence ............................................................................................................................ 16 Object Oriented Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 17 Class diagram ......................................................................................................................................... 17 CRC card................................................................................................................................................. 18 Object Oriented Design .............................................................................................................................. 19

Introduction
The world today forces both big and small companies to think about optimization, reducing prices well still maintaining a level of customization to accommodate potential customers. There are so many companies today and thereby a lot of competition especially with the East, growing like it does, to threatening the life of a company. Companies are therefore forced to think in new ways and ease their workflow and work processes in order to reduce time, and thereby money, to e.g. make an offer to a customer. A way to do this, which is more and more used, is by creating a configuration system to maintain the standardized and trivial work. A configuration system is a way to ease the creation of e.g. an offer, by selecting different component by different rules and possibilities. By using such a configuration system a company can retrieve and keep the competitive edge since they are now faster and cheaper since both time and money are saved.

Problem Definition
This project will deal with a small clock company called Clockwork A/S with about 50 employees producing and selling clock in the European market. The company is selling around 21000 clocks a year divided between four different product families. The company has four main departments connected to the sales and engineering tasks: Sales, Design, Production preparation and Logistics. The company has various communication problems between these departments. In addition a lot of time is spent on unnecessary paper work, paper work often contains errors and throughput time is fairly high. An extern consultant has recommended that Clockwork A/S work in a more process-oriented manner to reduce these problems. She advised the company to focus on one product family for example product family D. Figure 1 shows the product family D:

Figure 1 - Product family D

The focus of this project will be on identifying and solve the problems that Clockwork A/S faces today by analyzing differing methods and possibilities to change the way the company is working today.

The goal of this project is to help Clockwork A/S to standardize about 80% of the product family D and it is these 80% that will be in focus. By standardizing product family D the company hopes to reduce the time spend on specifying an order.

Development of Specification Processes

In order to fully understand and investigate the Clockwork A/S specification process and hereafter give suggestions to identify the problems and room for improvement systematically, different steps will be followed in order to investigate possible changes in the specification process to be more a systematic approach. The different steps to analyze and investigate this will be: 1. Identifying and characterizing the most important specification processes 2. Analysis of requirements for the specification processes 3. Designing the future specification process 4. Evaluation and choice of solution 5. Plan of action and organization of further work

Step 1: Identifying and characterizing the most important specification processes

The first step when developing a new specification process is to analyze the current processes and specifications. Improvements cannot be made unless there is a clear understanding of what the current situation is. The current specification processes related to the production of offers have been analyzed and depicted in a flow diagram. Figure 2 show the sequence of events from the first time a customer inquires about a clock until production of the order begins. A flow diagram like the swimming lane diagram shown in figure 2 gives a clear pitcher of who is involved in the processes, in what order they take place as well as highlighting if any time is wasted in avoidable interaction. This kind of diagram can be a good first tool to recognizing what processes can be changed or eliminated to save both time and money. As value-adding and non-value adding activities can often be clearly identified with a flow diagram. Figure 2 shows that many different people and departments are involved in Clockworks A/S processes of taking orders and getting specifications ready before production ever starts. This means that responsibility of the order changes hands frequently which increase the likelihood of mistakes being made. In general it is presumed, when the amount of people handling an order increases the likelihood of errors increases. Errors need to be limited as much as possible as they increase costs.

Figure 2 Flow diagram of current processes (THIS PITCHER WILL BE MADE MORE READABLE FOR FINAL REPORT)

As the current specification process is set up, both the Design- and Production departments take part in making offers for small standard clocks. Ideally these departments should not take part in the process until an order has been placed as that would decrease salary costs and time. Taking out the need for the Designand Production department to calculate offer could be achieved by setting up a configuration system. In addition when looking at the whole process it is clear that time is often spent on coordinating collaboration between many departments. This is both a waste of time and as before mentioned this increases the likelihood of errors. The time spent on coordinating communication can be decreased with a configuration system.

Step 2: Analysis of requirements for the specification processes

Clockwork A/S has identified a few weaknesses in its current processes e.g. too much time spent on making offers, a long delivery time and too many errors in offers. They have also identified a few goals for these problems that need to be met so they can be competitive in their marketplace. This information has been used to make a gap analysis, see table 1. Gap analysis depicts the difference between the current performance and the target performance. It shows the percentage of improvement that needs to be achieved to reduce the gap between the current performance and the ultimate goal. The performance in the gap analysis has to be quantifiable, this is necessary to keep track of if changes made to the process reduce the gap between current state and the goal.
Table 1: Gap analysis

Current performance Lead time for producing offers Delivery time Resource consumption for producing offer and lists of operations and parts Quality of offers Quality of list of parts and operations On average 7 days - large variations in lead time (2-20 days) 3-4 weeks 5 hours

Goal Lead time for producing offers max. 1 day after order 1-2 weeks 20-30 minutes

Gap Reduction of about 86 %

Reduction of 50-75% Reduction of about 90 %

Less than 75% correct 80% correct

99% correct 99% correct

Reduction of about 96 % Reduction of about 95 %

The gap analysis shows five main areas that need improvement, they all relate to either time or quality. For instance lead time for making an offer takes on average seven days but can take up to 20 days. Customers are very unsatisfied with this service and they expect to receive an offer no later than the day after they have made an enquiry. To reduce this gap Clockworks A/S needs to reduce this processing time by 85.7%. In addition to these operational goals, there is another factor that is relevant in relation to the development of Clockworks A/S specification processes, and that is accessibility of knowledge. Accessibility of knowledge is hard to give an operational goal but should nevertheless be considered when developing a specification process. This is of special concern for Clockwork A/S as in recent years a big turnover among staff has resulted in a good deal of resources being used for training new employees. Turnovers can also lead to loss of company knowledge. As can be seen in table 1 the difference between the current performance and the goal performance is quite significant. This table clearly shows that radical changes have to be made if Clockwork A/S is to achieve its goal of becoming more competitive. A configuration system could be a radical solution to decreasing these vast gaps.

Step 3: Designing the future specification process

The future specification process for Clockwork A/S has to meet the demands of step 2 as well as consider the problems that arose when examining the flow diagram in step 1. There are many different ways to improve the specification processes that meet some or all of the requirements of step 1 and 2. To sort out the best solution for the specification processes three scenarios were made with aim of picking the most efficient and profitable solution. Here below are the three scenarios as well as a flow diagram of each scenario. Scenario 1 Salesperson with configuration system This scenario has a configuration system to help the salesperson to give the correct information about the products that the company have. The configuration system is on the salesperson s computer and can therefore only be accessed by a salesperson from the company. The configuration system is like a catalogue on the computer. The normal procedure of the order, production and shipping could be as followed: The Customer The customer contacts the sales department of the company requesting that he want to buy some clocks. The sales department then arranges a meeting with the customer to help identify what kind of clock and in what style the customer want. The salesperson and the customer meet and start creating the clock desired by the customer. The salesperson The salesperson talks to the customer to identify the needs. The salesperson then checks the configuration system to find out if the request from the customer is a standard clock. If this is the case then the salesperson discuss with the customer to select the right clock by constantly consulting the configuration system. The salesperson makes an offer to the customer based on the quantity and model of the clocks using the configuration system. If the customer accepts the offer then the salesperson sends the specifications to the Production preparation team. Production preparation The production team then creates the bill of material and the operational card thereby estimating a total production time and delivering time for the finished products. They contact the salesperson to give this information to the customer. Then the order is handed over to the production department.

Figure 3: Flow diagram of scenario 1 (Pitcher will be clearer in final report)

Scenario 2 Web based order service with configuration system. This scenario is a web based configuration system. This means that the company has a webpage where the customer can make an order of the desired clocks. Furthermore is it possible for the customer to design its own clock from the configuration system. The normal procedure of the order, production and shipping could be as followed: The customer The customer logs on to the webpage of the company to find a user interface that allows the customer to design its own clock by going through different steps to choose the different desired parts according to the underlying configuration system. The configuration system makes sure that no unfeasible combinations of parts are made by the customer, thereby avoiding that a customer creates a nonstandard clock . As soon as the customer has designed a clock and chosen the required quantity, he can see the price of the order. This enables the customer to make the decision of whether or not he wants to proceed and confirm the order. The customer immediately receives an order confirmation by e-mail which also includes an estimate of when he can expect the arrival of the order. Production preparation As soon as a customer has confirmed an order the production team gets a notification that a new order has arrived. The configuration system creates all the required paperwork (bill of material, list of operations, CAD drawing etc.) that the production needs in order to process the order. The configuration system also automatically checks if enough parts are on stock and if not notifying the production that new orders have to be made. If no further parts are needed than what is on stock, the production can begin the order as soon as production capacity is free. When the order is done it can be handed over to the logistics department ready to ship to the customer.

Figure 4: Flow diagram of Scenario 2

Scenario 3 Configuration system supporting salespersons and production

This scenario has a configuration system that helps the salesperson whit the process of creating an offer to the customer. It also creates all the necessary documentation needed in order to start the production. The configuration system can only be accessed by an employee at the company. The normal
procedure of the order, production and shipping could be as followed: The customer The customer contacts the sales department of the company regarding the possibility of buying clocks. The initial contact is usually by phone and the customer can decide if he likes to place an order direct or if he likes to have a meeting arranged whit a salesperson. The sales person The salesperson discusses the customer s need with the customer to determine if the desired clock is standardized. If that is the case the salesperson select the desired parts in the configuration system. The system ensures that the selected parts are compatible with each other and that the parts are in stock. When the desired parts have been selected in the configuration system it automatically calculates an estimated price and production time. The salesperson then makes an offer to the customer based on the price estimate and delivery time calculated by the configuration system. If the customer accepts the offer the salesperson confirm the order in the configuration system. Production preparation When the order has been confirmed the configuration system generates all necessary documentation, such as bills of materials, list of operations and assembly drawings, needed in the production process. As soon as enough production capacity is free the production starts automatically. When the order is finalized the clocks is handed over to the logistics department to be transported to the customer.

Figure 5: Flow diagram for Scenario 3

In step 4 these three scenarios will be evaluated and one scenario will be chosen to implement.

Table 6 shows a large configuration system that includes offer making, planning, production, purchasing, assembly, delivery etc. The configuration system that Clockwork plans, only relates to offer making and a few specifications that are needed before production starts e.g. parts list and list of operations. The thin black lines in table 6 indicate the framework which is included in the configuration system of scenario two and three. (REMBER TO ASK LARS ABOUT TABLE 2)
Table 2: Content of the configuration system

Property models Internal and external properti es Rules for calculati ng price and . Functional properties

Product structure model Solution Part model principl es

Models of the products meeting with life cycle systems Factory Process Assembly Transport model model model model

Generic level

Rules for calculating battery consumpti on and the clocks mechanical life span Functional description of the mechanism used

Rules of selection and dimensioni ng of the clocks component s List of parts, drawings of parts, CRCcards

Rules for calculating time consumpti on

Rules for describing the individual productio n processes

Rules for selecting assembly equipmen t and calculating assembly time Assembly instruction s, list of assembly equipmen t, assembly time etc.

Instance level

Table of price for parts to be used, wage costs and overhea d costs

List of operations, production layout, description of production equipment etc.

Process descriptio n, descriptio n of tools, etc.

Rules for selecting form of transport and calculatin g transport price List of transport options, transport price, descriptio n of packaging transport document s, etc.

Step 4: Evaluation and choice of solution

To be able to assess which of the scenarios stated above is most suitable for Clockwork A/S, an evaluation was conducted. To ensure that the needs of the company have been met in most efficient way each scenario has been evaluated against the gap analysis and compared to one another. It is estimated that all the scenarios meets all the goals stated in the gap analysis. However scenario one and three takes a bit more resources in demand concerning production of offers and lists of operations etc. compared to scenario two. At the same time entails scenario two a flawless configuration system to meet the goals concerning quality of offers, lists of parts and operations because there is no third part involved to check the order before it is confirmed. This can affect both offer lead time and delivery time for the desired product. But if the size of the configuration system required at Clockwork A/S is taken in to consideration a flawless system should not be impossible to obtain.

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Scenario one is an improvement of the old process if you look at the number of steps in the process. This will decrease the time for producing offers as well as delivery time for the product. At the same time both the salesperson and production team has a chance to check the order for errors before the productions starts, this will ensure a low error rate and high quality of both offers and productions plans. Even though this is an improvement from the old system the salesperson and production team will have to spend a lot of time using the system and communicate with one another, which is cost both time and money. In scenario one the configuration system is only used by the salesperson and production team which means that the user interface of the system does not have to be advanced. The employees can be trained in how to use the program and the company does not have to consider how the interface reflects the company to the customers, which will save a lot of money. But consideration has to be taken to the additional cost for training the employees and the time the salespersons and production team spend using the system, compared to if the customers would use the system themselves. A more advanced system, which means more costly user interference, can pay off in the long run. Scenario two makes the customer do all the work and at the same time gives the customer the freedom to place the order whenever he/she has time. This process model will reduce the man-hours put in by the employees and shorten the lead time of producing an order as well as delivery time of the product. To make this process work optimally the configuration system has to be flawless to en sure a high quality of the orders and production plans produced by the system. But as stated above the size of the configuration system needed makes this possible. The fact that the customer uses the system on its own makes great demands on the user interface of the system. To ensure that the customer can understand the system immediately and reduce the number of people calling the sale support a lot of time and money needs to be spent on the development of suitable interface. It is also necessary that the interface reflects the right image to the costumer as well as stops the customer gaining too much information from the company and its products. The investment in this kind of system must be compared to the reduced cost for personnel and possible increased sales. Another benefit gained from using a system of this kind is that it can easily keep track of stock and facilitate the purchasing group of the company. This will contribute to a more efficient purchasing as well as the warehousing of parts in the company, which in turn will increase profit and contribute to a more efficient organization. The third scenario is an improvement of scenario one concerning lead time for offers and delivery time for products. The salesperson sends the order to strait to production without consulting someone from the production team, which saves time and money. Just as in scenario one the salesperson interacts with the configuration system so there is no need for an advanced user interface. The company only has to take notice to the cost for education of the employees in the sales department and integration of the system in the production process. Even though the cost for personnel most likely would decrease when using this kind of system this process necessitates that the customer have the time to contact a salesperson at the company and that the salesperson have the time to service the customer, which naturally limits the room for the company to grow.

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All these scenarios put pressure on the implementation process of the configuration system. A change like this can make the employees feel replaceable and unwanted, a scenario which must be prevented. It is most important that the employees feel involved in the process and that they understand the new work routine, regardless of which of the scenarios is to be implemented. The company must also be aware that it might take some time before the goals in the gap analysis are fulfilled. Especially in the second scenario it might take some time to reach out to the customers and to get them used to the new way of placing an order. But with a good interface and well planned advertising campaign the time to reach the goal time and sales numbers can be considerably decreased. Considering all the advantages and disadvantages stated above the second scenario is probably the most profitable in the long run. Even though there is a large initial cost, the system will pay of due to reduced cost for personnel and more accurate orders and production plans. To ensure that the configuration system is flawless regarding errors in offers and assembly plans for the product the implementation can be done in two faces. First a trial period where the salesperson makes the order in the system so he at the same time can check for errors and lacks in the system and the production team can make sure that the system interacts with the production process as planned. When the configuration system works satisfactory an online version can be launched for the customers to use.

Step 5: Plan of action and organization of further work

The last step in planning a future specification process is to work out a plan of action for the development of scenario 2. A plan of action describes what activities are needed to implement scenario 2 and in what order they are to be implemented, from analyzing and modeling the product range to definition of work processes in the further specification process. The action plan for Clockwork A/S can be seen in table 3. The table shows the activities for scenario 2, which employees are to perform the individual activities, the expected time consumption and the start and finishing times.
Table 3: Plan of action of scenario 2

Activity Analysis and modelling of product range

Resource people Preformed by project leader (form design department), consultant and one sales staff member Preformed by programmer with input from project leader and consultant Programmer and project leader will train sales staff Programmer and project leader, together with all members of sales staff Preformed by programmer

Person responsible

Expected time consumption

Start

End

3 man weeks

1.1

7.1

Programming of configuration system Training of the systems users in the configuration system Face 1 of implementation: Test of configuration system Face 2 of implementation: Launch internet site

3 man weeks 1 man week

7.1 28.1

28.1 30.1

4 man week 1 man day

1.2 1.3

1.3 1.3

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Definition of work processes in the future specification process

Project leader and consultant

2 man weeks

26.2

3.3

Table 3 shows that the main participants in the action plan are an external consultant, an external programmer, the sales staff and the project manager. The project manager will be an in-house employee for the Design department. Table 3 shows that Clockwork A/S could start their first face of implementation after one month, with the sales staff working with the configuration system to resolve any problem that might come up. In two months time the configuration system should be ready to launch on the internet.

Product analysis
To obtain an overview of the product range in product family D at Clockwork A/S a product variant master (PVM) has been drawn up, see figure 6 below. This was conducted by using the program Product Model Manager.

Product Variant Master

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Figure 6: Product Variant Master for family D

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The aim of a product variant master is to create an overview of the product range at the company. The overview is used to simplify the evaluation of the product range in aspects such as variation in the product range, if the product range is sufficient to the target market etc. It is also used to detect new combination possibilities and identify unnecessary variations in the product range. There are different ways to approach the structuring of a product variant master depending on what the goal is and for whom the product variant master is made. In general there are three different approaches: The customers view The engineers view The production view In this case the salespersons place the most central role in the company and see the product from both the customers and the engineers point of view. With that in mind the product variant master is constructed after how the salesperson works when he/she selects the parts that are to be included in a specific customized clock. To be create a product variant master for the product the first step is to identify the part-of modules or parts of the product, i.e. the parts or modules that appears in all the products in the product family that is been analyzed. In the product family analyzed in this assignment the following seven parts have been identified: Mount Foot Dial Pivot Mechanism Hands Plastic Film All the different variation (also called kind-of ) of the pars are then specified and can be inserted in a generic structure in to the product variant master. When making the generic structure all the important connection between the different parts and their variation is stated and rules of how different parts and modules can be combined is described. An example of the generic structure of the clocks pivot is presented in the figure 7 below.

Figure 7: Generic structure of the pivot

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So in this case the product variant master describes which parts in the product family D can be combined and all the variations of the different parts.

Productions sequence
To be able to analyze the production of the clocks in product family D a master for the production sequence has been drawn up. A graphic overview of the sequence is presented in figure 8. The overview of the production sequence is divided into the different processes conducted during the production of clocks. The production process has been divided into two major processes; the making of the mount and the making of the foot. These processes have then been divided into three different groups connect to the three different types of mounts/feet. The time in minutes for each operation is stated below the name of the operation.

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Figure 8: Production sequence

Object Oriented Analysis

Object oriented analysis (OOA) is a way of visualizing the different steps a product has to go through in order to be finished. The OOA can help structuring a complex system, because it gives a good overview of the processes and parts. Another good reason to use the OOA is that it makes it easier to see which components and processes are dependent on which thereby making it easier to distribute the different task between the departments. This helps reducing the total finishing time since more departments can work on the same time instead of waiting for each other for no reason when the system is not clear to all departments. The system can be visualized in different ways: the class diagram and with the use of Class, Responsibly and Collaboration (CRC) card.

Class diagram
The class diagram is based on the results from the analysis made in the previous chapters, of the product families. This class diagram is way of expand this information and create a more object oriented view of the system focusing on development of the new configuration system software. First the system is being visualized in the class diagram illustration the different classes and their relationship with each other in figure 9. Second a CRC card is made for each of the different classes and those can be seen in appendix A. The class diagram is more or less the same as what has been created in the PVM, but the class diagram is more visualized and therefore they serve different purposes. The PVM is more for the engineers while the class diagram is more for the programmers. On each of the classes there will be some number telling how many of this kind of child class is used to make one of the parent class. There are different kinds of classes that can be present I a system, at it is therefore important to distinguish between them in order for the programmer to do the job fast, efficient and correct. The different classes that can be used are: 1. Generalization describes the structure where classes inherits the different properties from each other 2. Aggregation describes the structure where child classes are used to complete parent classes 3. Association describes the structure where classes are associated with each other but without inheriting anything or is being used in the parent class. In the class diagram below of product family D is the aggregation structure being used, showing the different parts inheriting the properties and which, and how many, are used to complete the clock.

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Figure 9: Class diagram of product family D

CRC card
The class diagram is an overview of the classes and their relationships, but it does not tell anything about the different classes e.g. attributes, this is where the CRC card can be helpful. One CRC card is made for each of the classes and it describes everything that is relevant for the specified class. An example of a CRC card of the dial is presented in figure 10 and the rest of the CRC cards can be seen in appendix A. Class name Date Author Dial 22/09/11 Group 2 Responsibilities: Describes the different dial possibilities the customers can choose from. It also describes the different properties and rules of the dial. Aggregation Superparts: Mount Module Subparts: Type 1, Type 2 Sketch: Generalization Superclass: Subclass:

Knows/Does Knows: Width(75;95) RoundedCorners(Yes;No) Does: Dial.Width < Mount.Width If Mount = 3 Then Type3.RoundedCorners = Dial.RoundedCorners

Collaboration

Mount Mount

Figure 10: CRC Card for dial

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The CRC cards describe the properties of relevant item. The different kinds of properties that are used in the CRC cards are described below: y Attributes the Knows , also known as the attributes, describes different properties that describe all objects in the class. Attributes are used as guideline for the programmers when the system has to be build Methods the Does , also known as the methods, describes how the different objects and classes interact and are connected with each other. Methods describes in which way the programmer should get the different classes to work together.

Object Oriented Design

The purpose of object-oriented design is to use a set of objects that have specifications from the Object Oriented Analysis and then, using these specifications, piece the objects together to form a larger object as a whole. These specifications must also take into account any restrictions that may be involved with the different objects. A user/customer usually has some preferences or desired specifications for any product. In the case of Clockwork A/S, when working with scenario 1 and 2, the user interface involves interaction on a computer, from either the customer or salesperson. The user/customer is then always connected to the system, and would get a constant update of any restraints based on specifications, comments or remarks from the manufacturer, and an updated price based on choices made for the specifications. The user/customer is also constantly updated on the appearance of the product. This would be done as the specifications are made. Every time an input into the system is made, an image of the final product is updated, giving the user/customer a feel of seeing the finished product come to life . The experience would however be different depending on whether the customer is doing the process from home/office, or if it were a salesperson at the store. However, the process in which this is done would be the same. In Scenario 1, where the salesperson is present, he would see much more information about the different parts that are included, and the general layout of his program would be different. When it comes to scenario 2, where the customer is going through the process from home or at the office, they would see a very simple and flowing design of the process. This would be done through Clockworks A/S s website, and it would be created so as to make sure the customer does not get confused or sees information that is not relevant to them (part numbers, etc). Scenario 3 involves most of the same steps in scenario 1, except the customer is not on location. While the customer may have certain requirements to the product, they cannot always be filled due to restrictions on the objects that are involved. They will specify these requirements to the system/salesperson, and, if there are no restraints, the system will create a model for the customer.

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The following diagrams depict the first two steps of the process, seen from a customer s view, and if dial type 1 is chosen:

Figure 11: The first step of the user interface for selecting a clock

Figure 12: The second step of the user interface for selecting a clock

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