Global competition is forcing automotive OEMs and suppliers to focus on operational efficiency like never before. Innovative ways to increase productivity, reduce costs and continuously reach quality improvement goals are KPIs of industry leaders and shop floor supervisors worldwide.
With complete process and quality management, predictive analysis and analytical reporting capabilities, Pertinence Suite gives engineering, operations and QA unprecedented process control. Control needed to preserve quality and prevent recalls; to reduce time to design and time to market. Control that creates opportunity for innovation.
Globalization also means that important issues such as emergent events no longer need to be confined to one plant or one company—but can now be quickly and easily communicated throughout the supply chain. Intercim’s web-based technology allows seamless integration with legacy PLM, ERP and other manufacturing and enterprise systems, greatly enhancing decision-making and problem resolution activities.
You are asked to deliver an innovative and new style of car equipment that will condense three functions into one saving the cost and space of two other mechanisms. The design schedule is unusually tight and the new part must be ramped-up to full volume production in fewer than 18 months instead of the usual 30.
Detailed PLM designs, often transferred to paper, can be easily exported to Pertinence Suite’s Process Planning module where engineers are able to construct detailed process flows very early in the process. This flexible and intuitive system allows manufacturing specialists to prepare for ramp-up sooner, synchronize with the production system, and easily release work instructions to the shop floor. And because this web-based system is accessible anywhere in the enterprise, the time needed to review and approve plans is measurably reduced.
The Process Rules Discovery module is another time-to-market improvement, reducing the number of prototypes and production tests required, and analyzing the results in weeks instead of months.
Integration of Pertinence Suite into Dassault Systems® CATIA® v5 and Delmia® models provides the best of both virtual and real worlds. After each series of actual tests, virtual models are updated or enhanced providing even greater benefit to test performers viewing 3D models in their instructions.
Emergent work: not repeated.
The line is at full volume production when you are alerted to a quality issue. The immediate need is to find the right rework path, apply corrective action measures and close the nonconformance. But what about a long-term solution? How can we make sure this situation doesn’t happen again?
To help automotive QA managers meet their lean, six sigma or other continuous improvement efforts, Intercim created and coined the term Emergent Process Management (EPM). EPM is a configurable and extremely flexible variable flow process engine that allows engineers or QA managers to rapidly validate rework requirements and assign tasks without disrupting the production flow.
EPM collects and tracks all data relevant to the anomaly and stores it in the Suite’s Velocity™ Core server data warehouse. This data becomes part of the product’s as-built history needed for regulatory compliance as well as for use in Pertinence Suite’s pattern-matching recognition technology.
While quality is resolving the emergent event, the Process Rules Discovery (PRD) module is connecting recent process and quality data with predictive analysis tools. The goal is to develop simple explanations by identifying combinations of materials, equipment and processes that result in both good and poor results. When the root cause is determined and the combination of parameters is verified, a new rule, or Best Operational Practice, is created. The module is updated and will automatically detect this (or a similar) anomaly in the future.
Operations Advisor Dashboard utilizes these best practice rules when conducting risk assessments during production. At preconfigured checkpoints, this real-time dashboard analyzes process data and alerts supervisors and managers if a quality risk is detected--while there’s still time to act. The system not only identifies and assigns a level of risk, it proposes preventative action. Defect reduction is measurable and the risk of failing for recurring reasons is virtually eliminated, reducing cost of quality.
Adapting the process for lean improvements
Your lean manufacturing team is looking for process improvement and believes that unexpected variabilities in cycle time are good issues to target.
Using the Performance Tracker Data Store, the quality team can run and analyze reports to discover improvement opportunities. In investigating unexpected variabilities in cycle time, the system will analyze the patterns in manufacturing data as compared to best operational practices and historical lessons (created in the Process Rules Discovery module). The resulting analysis is easy to understand and quickly displays the issue’s key drivers. Armed with this information, QA can quickly issue a reengineering order requesting that a process designer propose improvements.
