Sometimes the universe just whacks you on the head and says “Pay attention!”. I was at SolidWorks World back in February, having lunch with a guy who designs robots that paint cars, cabinets, furniture – anything that moves slowly down a conveyor belt, or into and through an enclosed room, and is sprayed with paint. These robots, he explained to me, are complicated because of the viscosity of different types of finishes, the need to spray different size droplets very evenly over irregular surfaces, and the many different sizes and configurations he has to deliver to support manufacturers of very small to very large objects. He is a happy SolidWorks user but lamented the difficulty and cost involved in creating proposals for the semi-customized robots his company supplies to its customers. His wish: a way to automate the sales quotation process so he doesn’t spend a lot of time creating designs, determining costs and writing proposals for sales that may or may not close. And, for those that do close, some assurance that the costs used to determine the quote will lead to a profitable outcome.
That very same week, I met with the Siemens Rulestream team to learn about the new, revamped product for engineer-to-order manufacturers that does just that. Rulestream, explained Siemens’ Brian Grogan, expedites the sales process while removing risk. Creating a design that meets customer specification using rules derived from past, successful, projects leads to faster proposal response times, more accurate cost estimates and, he said, higher win rates. To me, it seems that the real benefits come after the contract is signed: the design work done in preparing the proposal is ready to be re-used to feed the manufacturing process, speeding overall delivery time.
What are engineer-to-order products? They’re not mass-produced, standard products but not quite custom, either. Engineer-to-order (ETO) products are typically customized to the buyer’s specifications from a catalog of possibilities — a turbine that must meet certain output requirements, size constraints and power utilization. Or an HVAC unit for the top of a building that must serve so many floors, meet noise pollution restrictions and fit into an assigned space. Or, perhaps my new friend’s painting robot. ETO products are typically built to order, too, meaning they’re produced to a very tight delivery schedule. Some of the components are purchased, some are manufactured in-house. Delays in sourcing the purchased components can, for example, lead to production delays, cost overruns and penalties — all to be avoided.
Babcock & Wilcox, a longtime Rulestream users, sees Rulestream as an integral part of their bid and proposal, design, engineering and manufacturing process. B&W’s Power Generation Division makes steam generators, boilers, nuclear components and other large, expensive parts of power plants; they are typically involved in very large, costly projects that can take years to complete. Kip Alexander, VP of Technology for Babcock & Wilcox’s Power Generation Group, says that B&W uses Rulestream to spec the “key components [boilers, generators, etc.] that drive the project. These may be small in comparison to the steel, concrete and other elements of the overall job, but are key to B&W’s value proposition to the customer”.
B&W has found that Rulestream has led to more predictable margins, fewer errors and more time for sourcing outside components. Mr. Alexander considers Rulestream “mission critical”, saying that it allows B&W to “vet out the risk with our management, and get the proposal back to our customer,” with a high degree of confidence in their design, enabling them to negotiate good pricing and schedules from subcontractors.
Rulestream, DriveWorks and other ETO enabling technologies have been available for years, so the idea is not new — but my meeting with the Siemens team came so perfectly on the heels of my lunch at SolidWorks World that I had to stop and think: The ability to connect sales, design, engineering and manufacturing is critical to making the enterprise as a whole more efficient and profitable. Even more important than just connecting these silos is creating a closed loop between the functions that enables improvement with each iteration, refining rules as the enterprise gains experience. ETO manufacturers need to develop proposals based on as much accurate information as possible — they need to close new deals quickly, but not sacrifice accurate cost estimating for speed.
Clearly, not everyone who could benefit knows these solutions exist. Are you an ETO manufacturer? Are you using Rulestream, DriveWorks or another ETO solution? Why? Why not? Please let me know!
