Cadalyst - October 2007 - (Page 44)

plmstrategies Manufacturing across Time Zones Managing overseas production processes with PLM. By Kenneth Wong Change Is Imminent So are the change orders. ColdWatt has learned that the better control it has over its own engineering changes, the more efficient and profitable its transactions with the contract manufacturers are. There’s a direct correlation between the design data that leaves the Shenzen facility and the invoices that are received later (figure 1). “Let’s say we’ve determined we want to change a source,” Lamoreux said. “Maybe we’re unhappy with a capacitor supplier because of price or quality. So we decide to change to another qualified source.” The change order will then go through the chain of command and the affected departments: “engineering, procurement, and — if already in production — sales, then the customers [the original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, who will eventually incorporate the ColdWatt devices into theirs],” Lamoreux said. Then the order is sent to the contract manufacturer, who happily complies. But, Lamoreux pointed out, you might not be so happy if later you receive an invoice with a charge-off for the cost of 10,000 unused capacitors from the old production run because they’re no longer returnable. By the same token, if you’re operating on a PLM platform that keeps you updated about the ongoing productions and the associated costs at all times, you might be able to take those 10,000 outstanding capacitors into consideration before you sign off on the source change. A s far as Joe Lamoreux is concerned, Shenzen, China, is the end of the road. Once a fishing village but now a thriving commercial port, the city also happens to be a corporate outpost of ColdWatt, the power supply design company that Lamoreux oversees as its CEO. The company maintains design centers in Dallas, Texas, and Bangalore, India. It also has global sales and support across the United States in San Jose, California, and in Austin and Houston, Texas. A one-person office in Taiwan augments the other branches. In China, however, the industrial boomtown Shenzen marks ColdWatt’s operational boundaries. But ColdWatt products — the turnkey 1U power subsystems — are completely outsourced; they’re built beyond the company’s physical confines. The management team relies on various contract manufacturers to make the product’s components. So the design data has to leave the company’s physical cement walls and virtual firewalls. The Shenzen Exchange “Shenzen is where we do the day-to-day interfacing with our contract manufacturing partners’ management staffs. That includes managing production, quality, and people interaction,” said Lamoreux. “Here, we generate all of the files for the contract manufacturing partners from Arena Solutions then deliver those files in e-mails and in person.” In the Pearl River delta, the information flows from ColdWatt to its contract manufacturers, all of whom will make the parts and products ColdWatt needs and then return to deliver those products at a mutually agreed upon time. Lamoreux’s engineers depend on Arena Solutions’ on-demand PLM modules to help gather all the necessary product specs — the complete bill of materials, the schematics (all the way to the last nut, washer, and resistor), and the compliance and sourcing requirements — for handoff to the manufacturing partners. At some point in the future, Lamoreux might consider giving the contract manufacturers direct access to ColdWatt’s Arena PLM system. For the time being, “the handoff is done in the conventional way,” he said. 44 October 2007 | cadalyst | www.cadalyst.com Know Your Sources It’s a principle that journalists live by, but Lamoreux pointed out it could apply to engineers as well. For the litigation- In this article Arena Solutions www.arenasolutions.com ColdWatt www.coldwatt.com Manufacturing Insights www.manufacturing-insights.com SchuF www.schuf.de Synergis Software www.synergis-adept.com http://www.arenasolutions.com http://www.coldwatt.com http://www.manufacturing-insights.com http://www.schuf.de http://www.synergis-adept.com http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - October 2007

Contents Editor's Window Cad Central Tech Trends: First-Hand Architecture in Second Life Rev It Up — Graphics Cards Pack Power for Today’s Hottest Designs TurboCAD Pro 14 — 3D Modeling Software SimEnterprise R2 — Design Simulation Software CADopia 6.2 SP3 Professional Edition — 2D and 3D Modeling Software Cad Manager: Programming Resources for CAD Managers MCAD Modeling: Customer Service Horror Stories PLM Strategies: Manufacturing Across Time Zones AEC in Focus: Digital-Asset Management in AEC/O Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes Cadfidential

Cadalyst - October 2007

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