automotive application industry to An Product lifecycle in management knowledge intensive collaborativeenvironments: International Journal of Information Management

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ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirect

International Journal of Information Management

j o u r n a l ho me p ag e:w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / lo c a t e / i j i n f o m g t

Product lifecycle management in knowledge intensive collaborative environments: An application to automotive industry

Filipe Ferreira

^b^,∗

, José Faria

^a^,^b

, Américo Azevedo

^a^,^b

, Ana Luisa Marques

^a^,^b

aFacultyofEngineering,UniversityofPorto,4200-465Porto,Portugal

bCentreforEnterpriseSystemsEngineering,INESCTEC,4200-465Porto,Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o

Articlehistory:

Received3February2016

Receivedinrevisedform23March2016 Accepted23April2016

Availableonline25May2016

Keywords:

Hybridprocessmanagement Knowledgebasedengineering Collaborativeengineering Productdesignanddevelopment Manufacturingplanning

a b s t r a c t

Today,manufacturingismovingtowardscustomer-drivenandknowledge-basedproactiveproduction.

Shorterproductlifecyclesleadtoincreasedcomplexityinareassuchasproductandprocessdesign,fac- torydeploymentandproductionoperations.Tohandlethiscomplexity,newknowledge-basedmethods andtechnologiesareneededtomodel,simulate,optimizeandmonitormanufacturingsystems.Prod- uctlifecyclemanagementresearchtendstofocusonsituationsthatareresponsivetoformalanalysis andmodelling.However,inseveraldomainssuchasknowledgeintensivecollaborativeenvironments, it’snotpossibletomodelprocessesusingformalnotations.Knowledgebasedandcollaborativeprocess managementinvolvesacombinationofstructuredandnon-structuredprocesses.Structuredprocesses managementcanbereducedtoasetoffully-definedrulesleadingtohighefficiencybutalsolowflexibility, whereasthemanagementofnon-structuredprocessesisnotpronetoafullformalization.Acombination ofbothstructuredandunstructuredmanagementapproachesisrequiredinordertoachieveasuccessful trade-offbetweenefficiency,flexibilityandcontrollability.Wecallaprocessassemi-structuredwhen itcontainsbothstructuredandnon-structuredsub-processesleadingtoaflexibleandefficienthybrid approach.Largeenterpriseinformationsystems,imposestructuredandpredictableworkflows,while knowledgebasedcollaborativeprocessesareunpredictabletosomeextent,involvinghighamountof human-decision.Moreover,largeenterpriseinformationsystemsarenotabletomanagethedailyadhoc communicationinherenttotheknowledge-basedprocessitself.Thispaperintroducesasetofconcepts, methodsandtoolsofaninnovativeHybridProcessManagementapproachvalidatedbyarealworld businesscaseintheautomotiveindustry.

1. Introduction

Today,manufacturing management is being re-shapedby a shiftfromthemassproduction paradigmtoa newondemand, personalised, customer-driven and knowledge-based proactive production paradigm. Shorter product life cycles, an increased number of product varieties, high performance processes and ﬂexiblemachinesandproductionsystemsresultinanincreased complexity in alldomains from product design, process development, factory and production planning to factory operation.

Tofacethesechallenges,companiesaremovingtointensiveuse ofmanufacturingknowledgeinearlyphasesof engineeringand manufacturing activities in order to increase the efﬁciency of manufacturingsystems.Newvalue-addedproducts,reassuredand

∗Correspondingauthor.

E-mailaddress:ﬁlipe.d.ferreira@inesctec.pt(F.Ferreira).

trustedplanningofprocessesandadaptionoffactorystructureare nowcriticalfactorsforbusinesssuccess,whichleadstotheneed ofacontinuousexchangeofknowledgeaswellasimprovements onthecommunicationbetweentheoperationandthedesignand planningdomains.

The current challenge in knowledge intensive collaborative environmentsistheintegrationoftheproduct,processandfactory worlds,inordertoreducetheplanningtimeandgiverealitytothe synchronisationandalignmentofproducts,processesandfactories lifecycleswiththeproductionoperations(Tolioetal.,2010).Fur- thermoreseveralcriticalaspectsliketheincreasingcomplexityof productandproductionsystemsandthesynchronisedcommuni- cationbetweenthefactoryleveldomains(productdesign,process development,factoryandproductionplanningandfactoryopera- tion)areothermajorchallengesinthemanagementofknowledge intensivecollaborativeenvironments.Referencemodelssupport- ingplannersandinterdisciplinaryteamscanbeusedtoovercome thesechallenges(Constantinescu,Hummel,&Westkämper,2006;

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Westkämper&Hummel,2006;Ferreira,Marques,Faria,&Azevedo, 2016).

Thisisnotamatteroftechnology,buthowtoﬁttheavailable technologiesinthebestwaytocapturetheknowledge,toembed contextinto theknowledge,touse/re-usetheknowledge inan intelligentwayandtosharetheknowledgeamongallmanufac- turingstakeholdersandtoinvolveandmotivatepeopleduringthe entireproduct,processandfactorylifecyclephases.

Currently,enterpriseinformationsystems,suchasProductLife- cycleManagement(PLM)platforms,areoftenlargeapplications encompassingmultiplefunctionalitiesthatareexpensive,difficult touseandhardtomaintain(Moody,Gruen,Muller,Tang,&Moran, 2006).Itisalsoobservedthatinmanycasesexistinginformation andcommunicationtechnologiestoolsarenotpronetomanage effectivelydailyactivitiesduetotheirlackofflexibilityregarding dynamic(Kammer,Bolcer,Taylor,Hitomi,&Bergman,2000)and changeableenvironmentsandprocesses(Lu,Sadiq,&Governatori, 2009;Mangan&Sadiq,2002).Largeenterpriseinformationsys- temsimposestructuredandpredictableworkflows,whereas“real world” processes, inparticular, those related withconcept and designofnewproductsandservicesarehardlypredictableonce theyinvolveseveralhumanbaseddecisionsandcollaboration(Hill, Yates,Jones,&Kogan,2006;Luetal.,2009).Moreover,manytimes, largeenterpriseinformationsystemsarenotabletomanagecom- municationandinformationtogetherwiththeknowledge-based processitself(Mangan&Sadiq,2002).

Indeed,inthecontextofrelatedengineerprojectactivities,team membersareforcedtouseofficeproductivitytoolssuchasspread- sheetsandtexteditorsaswellassharedfoldersandinternalemail andphonetomanageprocessesinlargelyunpredictableworkenvi- ronments(Hilletal.,2006)(Jørgensen,2001).Thisisleadingtoa majorshiftintheEnterpriseInformationSystems(EIS)paradigm andtothedevelopmentofcrosslinkedandeasytouseinorder tosupporttheproductdesigners,processplanners,andshopfloor managersintheirdailyactivitieswithaspecialfocusonsupporting collaborationinflexibleworkenvironments.Toolsmustbesmooth, smart andfault tolerantin theinteraction withtheknowledge workers,andprovidetheintegrationoftheshopfloorlevelwith engineeringalongthewholeproductlifecycle(Hilletal.,2006;

Brockeetal.,2010).

Thispaperpresentsacompletesolutiontosupportproductlife- cyclemanagementinﬂexibleworkenvironmentsinthescopeof industrialequipmentengineering,planning,manufacturing,main- tenance, improvement and decommission, including integrated work,informationandcommunicationmanagement.Therestof thepaperisorganizedasfollows:sectiontwopresentsthemain phasesconsideredintheresearchmethodology.Then,insection threewehighlightthetheoreticalissuesrelatedtothisresearch work.Insectionfour,webrieﬂydescribetheconsideredbusiness caseandweexplorethemainprocesses,startingwiththediagno- sis,followedbyashortreferencetothedesignedsolution.Thenext sectionpresenttheimplementationsissuesaswellasthevalida- tionprocess.Finally,overallconclusionsarementionedinSection 7.

2. Researchmethodology

The work presented in this paper has followed a research methodology that encompassesfourmain phases, as described hereafter:

(i)Background and Literature Review, where topics such as processlifecyclemanagementandknowledgeintensivecollab- orativeenvironments,i.e.,ﬂexibleworksystemsareexplored.

(ii)Business Case Presentation and Analysis, where the current practices of process and product concept, modelling, implementation,utilization,improvementanddecommission, followedbyawide rangeofindustrialequipmentmanufac- turerswereanalysedandmappedusingaccuratetechniques forbusiness processanalysis.Severalworkshopswerecon- ducted,in ordertocollectqualitative andquantitativedata andrelevantinformation,takingintoaccounttheexpertiseof allteammembersandexperts.Afteranalysingtheas-issitua- tion,currentindustrialchallengesandissuesandconsequent improvementopportunitieswereidentiﬁed, theto-bebusi- nessprocessesweredesignedandvalidatedbytheindustrial partners,leadingtothedesign,speciﬁcationanddevelopment ofnewsuitableandaccuratesupportingmethodsandtools.

Industrialists,technologyprovidersandresearchersdidpar- ticipateinthistask,bringingtheirmulti-disciplinaryexpertise totheproject.

(iii) SolutionDesignandImplementation:whereacompletesolu- tion,foundedon collaborative platformswasspecified and designed taking intoaccount issues, challenges and poten- tialimprovementsidentifiedinpreviousphases.Thisincludes thefunctional and technical specification. Having specified thecompletesolution,acomprehensivesoftwarepackagewas developedusingthemostadvancedtechnologiesalignedto stakeholder’sneedsandconstraintssuchassecurity,main- tainability,usabilityandsustainability.Integrationwithlegacy systemsandopennesstocurrentadvancedmobiletechnolo- giesandcyberphysicalsystemswereconsideredandanopen APItowardsfullinteroperabilitywasdevelopedaswell.

(iv)Validation,wherethesolutionwastestedandvalidatedbythe endusersintheirdailywork.In ordertoguaranteeitssus- tainability,criteriaforthesolutionevaluationwereestablished andmeasured, pavingthewayfor asuccessfulexploitation andpointing outthestrongpointsaswellasaspectstobe improved.

ThenextSectionsaredirectlyrelatedtothefourstagesofthe methodology.

3. Foundationsandresearchtopics 3.1. Semi-structuredprocesses

Workﬂowmanagementresearchtendstofocusonsituations thatarepronetoformalanalysisandmodelling.However,insev- eralbusinessareas,therearedomains,suchasknowledgeintensive workenvironmentsandcollaborativeengineeringenvironments (Moodyetal.,2006;Faria,Silva,&Marques,2010;Faria&Nóvoa, 2015),inwhichitisnotpossibletofullystructureandmodelpro- cessesusingformalnotations(Kammeretal.,2000;Hilletal.,2006).

Theﬂowofsocalledsemi-structuredprocessesisnotknownapri- ori,andmanytimes,onlythemainphasesandbaselinesmaybe speciﬁedapriori(Luetal.,2009;Mangan&Sadiq,2002).Efforts havebeenmadetoclassifythiskindofprocessesbasedonformal approaches,buttheresultsachievedsofararelimited(PaolaSoto Rojas,Barros,deAzevedo,&Batocchio,2012).

The characteristics of a structured process include (Adams, Hofstede,Edmond,&VanDerAalst,2006):

•Thescopeistotallydeﬁnedandalltheactivitiesareknown;

•Itispossibletoidentifytheinitialstate,agoalstate,andallpoten- tialtransitions;

•ActivitiesandTransitionsarecomputationallypracticable.

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Fig.1.Flexibilityvs.EfﬁciencyinProcessManagement.

Despite theapparentsimplicityof the abovecharacteristics, manycompaniestrytoimplementworkflowsystemstomanage non-structuredprocesseswithnosuccessduetothefactthat a formaldefinitionofasemi-structuredprocessisnotpossible.This happensbecausethatthereisnoclearboundaryanditisnoteasy todifferentiatebetweenwhatcanbeclassifiedasstructuredand semi-structured(Rojas&Azevedo,2014;Swenson,2000;Fariaet al.,2010;Faria&Nóvoa,2015)

Manytimes,thelow-efficiencyconcernandthelackofknowl- edgeonthefieldleadbusinessanalystsfromdeterminingwhena processfitsforafullyautomatedworkflowsystemornot.Infact, humansarebetterthancomputersfornon-structuredandfuzzy situations:e.g.casemanagement(Shamsuzzoha,Ferreira,Azevedo, Faria,&Helo,2013;Almeida,Ferreira,Azevedo,&Caldas,2013).On theotherhand,workflowsystemstendtobebetterthanhumans fortotallystructuredprocesses.However,manybusinessprocesses fallinbetweenthetwoextremes,asshowninFig.1.Thisleads todifficultieswhencompanieshavetodecideifaprocessshould fully or partially automated, or not automated at all (Ferreira, Shamsuzzoha,Azevedo,&Helo,2015;Shamsuzzoha,Ferreira,Sven, Helo,2014;Azevedo,Faria,&Ferreira,2014)(Wiendahl,Wiendahl, Duffie,&Brieke,2007).

Sinceanon-structuredprocessisnotnecessarilyconstrainedby well-deﬁnedrules,itmayhavepropertiesthatdiffersigniﬁcantly fromthoseofastructuredprocess.Someimportantimplications ofnon-structuredprocesses include(Azevedo&Almeida, 2011;

Carneiro,Almeida,LopesAzevedo,Kankaanpaa,&Shamsuzzoha, 2010;Kim,Chin,Kwon,&DarinEllis,2009):

•Inputsmaynotbecompletelydeﬁnable;

•Apriorioptimizationisnotdeﬁnablesinceoptimizationimplies theuseofrules;

•Increasedﬂexibility,sincea non-structuredprocesscannotbe fullydecomposed;

•Therearefewerknownconstraints.

A semi-Structured process consists of both structured sub processes and non-structured sub processes, which interact in a known way. It is believed that many decision processes are semi-structured, and that this concept can help tounderstand human-automationdecisionsystems.

Insummary,decisionmakinginvolvetwotypesofprocesses:a structuredprocessisaprocessthatcanbereducedtofully-defined rulesleadingtohighefficiencybutlowflexibility(typicalwork- flowmanagementsystems),whileanon-structuredprocessisnot reducibletofullydefinedrules,leadingtohighflexibilitybutlow

efficiencyand control(typicalad-hoc managedprocesses(Tolio etal.,2010)).Aprocessissemi-structuredwhenitcontainsboth structuredandnon-structuredsubprocessesthusrequiringhybrid approachprovidingtherightbalancebetweenefficiency,flexibilityandcontrollability(Fig.1)(Zelm,Kosanke,&Vernadat,1999;

Doumeingts,1984).Thisprocessdistinctionhasmanyimplications inprocessmanagementsystemsdesign,includingtheallocationof processestohumansandautomation(Kemppilä&Mettänen,2004;

Weber,Reichert,&Rinderle-Ma,2008).

3.2. Referencemodels

Thereareseveralmethodologiesforproductdesign.Theyenable asystematicengineeringofproducts.Themostimportantdocu- mentsintheﬁeldofmethodicalproductdesignistheguideline (VDI22211993)providedbytheAssociationofGermanEngineers (VDI). Moststandard works of engineering design refer to this guideline(Grote&Feldhusen,2007;Pahl,Beitz,&Wallace,2007).

Otherguidelinesrefinethedesignprocessintroducedinthebefore mentionedguidelinefromdifferentpointsofview.Forinstance, the(VDI22221997)refinesthedevelopmentofprinciplesolutions and(VDI22251997)focusesonthefinancialaspectofmethodical engineeringofproducts.Designprocesses,whichclaimtohavea model-basedapproach,arerare.

Eversheim(Eversheim,Rozenfeld,Bochtler,&Graessler,1995) introducedareferencemodelforconcurrentengineeringtopro- videamethodologyforanintegrateddesignandprocessplanning.

The“MünchnerVorgehensmodell”(MVM)pursuesanobjectori- entedstructure for theproductdesign process. State-of-the-art referencemodelsforProcessDevelopmentandFactoryPlanning providedeﬁned,structuredandstandardisedworkﬂowsfordiffer- entfactoryandprocessplanningactivitiestoovercomethecurrent challenges inManufacturing Engineering(Constantinescu etal., 2006;Westkämper&Hummel,2006).

Thepredeﬁned standardisedplanning activitiesimprovethe communication between planning partners, interdisciplinary teamsorstakeholders,whoparticipateindifferentphasesofafac- toryplanningactivity(Constantinescuetal.,2006;Westkämper&

Hummel,2006).Theﬁrstfactoryreferencemodelswereproposed asfactorystructurereferencemodels.Thesereferencemodelsare targetedtoaspeciﬁcindustrialsectorortheyareverygenericand describethestructureofafactorywithouttakingitslifecycleor processesintoaccount.Today’sreferencemodelsforProcessDevel- opmentandFactoryPlanningprovideavariouslevelofdetailfor eachplanningphaseandsupportdifferentphasesofthefactorylife cycle.Kettner,Aggteleky,GrundigandWiendahlconcentrateonthe factoryplanning(investment-,building-,layout-,logisticsplanning andramp-up)withoutconsideringthemanufacturingexecution planningandthedismantlingofthefactory(Wiendahletal.,2007).

A more holistic view on the factory planning life cycle is provided by the VDI and Westkämper. There the factory life cyclephase“manufacturingexecution”isadditionallytakeninto account. However, the dismantling is not considered in those approaches.Helbingprovidesafactoryandprocessplanningrefer- encemodel,whichconcentratesonthefactoryplanningphasesup tomanufacturingexecutioninahighlydetailedway.Aninnova- tivepointinHelbing’sapproachisthathealsotakestherelations andinterdependenciesbetweentheplanningphasesintoaccount.

Theapproach ofSchenk,Wirth andMüller concentrates onthe wholefactorylifecycleincludingmanufacturingexecutionandthe dismantlingofthefactory,alsotheinformationﬂowintheman- ufacturingexecutionphaseisconsideredbrieﬂy(Schenk,Wirth,

&Müller, 2010).The VFFreference modelfor Factory and Pro- cessPlanningisageneric,modular,openandextensiblereference modeltakingintoaccountthefactoryplanningphasesfrominvest- ment planning to ramp-up. Every planningphase is described

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through detailed, structured and standardised planning activities. Theinformation ﬂow betweentheplanningphases isalso considered(VFFNMP-4).Themethodologyandreferencemodels forProductandFactoryLifecycleManagementareimplemented in several existing commercial software applications, such as SIEMENSTeamcenterPLM,PTCWindChill;DassaultEnovia.

TheCIRPworkinggroupSPECIES(2005)highlightedhowcritical theintegrationandevolutionofproducts,processesandproduc- tionsystemsalongtheirlifecyclesis.Tolioetal.(2010)addressed this evolution problem both from the industrial and academic point of view, by presenting industrial use cases and exten- sivelyanalysingthescientiﬁc literature,respectively. Moreover, theauthors presented a referencemodel to study theintegra- tionbetweenproducts,processandproductionsysteminterms ofrequirementstofaceaspeciﬁcindustrialproblem,constraints imposedbytheinternalandexternal FactoryEnvironment,and capabilitiesofferedbymethodologiesandtools.Finally,Tolioetal.

proposedalistoffutureresearchprioritiestobeaddressed:need oftechnicalstandardsfor evolvinginformation relatedtoprod- uct,process,productionsystems;developmentofco-evolutionary Design-for-Xmethodologies;newproductionsystemarchitectures tosupportthechangesinproductsandprocesses;reconﬁgurable processplans.

Likestated,thestate-of-the-artreferencemodelsaimmainlyat decreasingthecomplexityoftheplanningactivityandmodelling andmanagingallthenecessaryinformationandcommunication ﬂows.However,thesereferencemodelsarenot abletoconnect thedifferentplanninglifecyclesoftheproduct,theprocessand thefactoryinaknowledgebasedapproach.Anothercrucialaspect istheknowledge-drivencommunicationwithintheFactoryLevel.

Thisisnotsupportedbytheexistingreferencemodels.Finally,there isalackofknowledge-drivensupportingICTtechnologiestoenable aneffectiveandefﬁcientcommunicationanddataexchangewithin theproductdesign,processdevelopment,factoryandproduction planningandfactoryoperation

3.3. ICTforknowledgeintensiveknowledgeengineering

CurrentProductLifecycleManagementsystemsprovideaninte- gration of product data with theuse of conventional database approaches.TheERPsystemsarelessproduct-focusedandempha- sisemoreontheintegrationofthebusinessprocesses.Inthelast yearstwomodulesnamelytheCATIAV5Knowledgeawareand theSiemensTeamcenter haveemerged and are mainlyin sup- portofproductknowledgemanagement.Bothofthemodulesuse theconceptoftheso-calledtemplatesorarchetypesthatfocuson reusingparameterised,modularpartdesigns.BoththeEPRandthe PDM/PLMsystemsarestillconsideredweakinknowledgemanage- ment,especiallyfortheprocessrelatedknowledgemanagement;

whiletheintegrationofknowledgebasedtoolsintoPDM,suchas theDistributedOpenIntelligentPDMsystemarefew(Kimetal., 2009;Jiang,Peng,&Liu,2010).Anothersimilarapproachthatmay actcomplementarilytotheexistingPLM/PDMsystemsandmay reducetime and cost ofthe earlydesign phaseshasbeenpro- posedinChryssolouris,Mourtzis,Papakostas,Papachatzakis,and Xeromeritis (2008a). In particular, this work introduces a new theoreticalframework for analysing and classifyingknowledge, relatedtoexistingassemblyconfiguration,intermsofmanufac- turingattributes suchastime, costand flexibility.Productcost estimationduringtheearlydesignphaseoftheproductdevelop- mentisaprocessofgreatsignificancesinceitfacilitatesthecost controlandinfluencespositivelytheenterprise.Agreatobstacle ofestimatingtheproductcost,duringitsdesignphase,isthelack ofinformation.Knowledgebasedsystemsmostlyfollowingcase basedreasoningapproaches, attempttoovercomethis problem and providea firstestimation of theproduct cost.The DATUM

project(DesignAnalysisToolforUnit-costModeling(Kimetal., 2009))aimedatthedevelopmentofaknowledgebasedsystem, capableofestimatingthecostofanaircraft’sengineanditssubcom- ponentsandgeneratingaprocessplanforthemanufacturingofthe engine.Asimilarapplicationtotheautomotiveindustryhasbeen developedinthecontextoftheMyCarproject(Makrisetal.,2010).

Inparticular,aknowledgebasedsystemforsubassemblycostesti- mationhasbeenimplemented,followinga hybridmethodology utilisingcasebasedreasoningandregressionanalysis(Mourtzis, Efthymiou,&Papakostas,2011).

Intoday’sindustrialworld,anumberoftoolsareused,forcon- trolling andmonitoringproduction linesin variousareas.SAP’s PLMv7.0isconsideredtobeoneofthemoststableandmature platformsavailableforProductLifecycleManagement,integrating thebusiness(ERP)informationwiththeengineeringinformation inacommonplatform.TheSAPPLMenablesplanninganddeci- sionmakingsoastoconnectproductplanswithcorporategrowth strategies. Through the Productdevelopment and collaboration feature,peoplethatworkindifferentsectorsofa companycan shareinformationsuchasprojectplans,technicaldrawings,docu- mentationetc.Inmanufacturingthetoolallowsintegratedproduct andprocessengineeringbycollectingallthedatafortheproduct’s lifecycleinoneintegratedmodel,particularlyforproductswith manyvariantsandrepetitivemanufacturingprocesses.

AmoredetailedreviewofcommercialPLMsfollows.Awell- known system for the manufacturing process management is DassaultSystèmes’DELMIA.ByusingDELMIA’sProcessEngineer module,engineersare abletorecogniseprocessrisks orre-use provenprocessesthroughthecomprehensivetreatmentoftherela- tionshipsbetweenproduct,processandmanufacturingresource data.DELMIAusesaPPRHubtomap theplanningcontentand thusallowsallofitsuserstoworkwiththesameup-to-datedata.

DassaultSystèmes’collaborativelifecyclemanagementtoolcalled ENOVIAis usedfor productdesign orienteddecision makingby providingcollaborativeproductreviewingandsimulationfeatures whenusedwithotherproductsfromthecompanysuchasCATIA, DELMIAetc.In2010DassaultSystèmesintroduced3DLivewhich isanapplicationthatintroduceda3Dparadigmforon-linecollab- orativeintelligence,leveragingacompany’s3DandPLMdata.

SiemensTecnomatixisanotherpopularPLMsoftwareamong EuropeanindustriesincludingAerospaceandDefence,Hightech&

ElectronicsandAutomotive.Tecnomatixismainlyusedasatoolfor optimisingandcommissioningofroboticsandautomation,manual workplaceconﬁgurationandplacementofequipmentandmate- rialﬂow.Itincludesanumberofsimulationandvalidationtools formanufacturingprocesses.TheTeamcenterManufacturingPro- cessManagement(manufacturingprocessesmanagementtoolof Tecnomatix)providesparallelexecutionandcontrolbetweenengi- neeringandmanufacturingteamsandhasarchitecturebuiltwith opentechnologiestocooperatewithexistingITsoftware.Oracle’s AgileProductLifecycleManagementforProcesswhichincludesthe AgileProductDataManagementallowsdatadistributionbetween ERPsystemsandPLMtoolsthroughexternalintegrationsoftware.

ThroughtheirApplicationIntegrationArchitecture(AIA)pre- builtcontent,templatesandmethodologyfororchestratingagile user-centricbusinessprocessesacrossenterpriseapplicationscan beutilised.ThatarchitectureenablesOracleandnon-Oracleappli- cationstoworktogethersinceitisbuiltonFusionMiddleware’s Service-OrientedArchitecture (SOA) and BPM framework. Most commercialsystemsarestillnotconsideredmatureenoughwhen it comestothecooperationofteamsfrom differentcompanies whousedifferentapplicationsfortheoptimisationoftheman- ufacturing process, addressing themarket’sneeds in realtime.

Softwarearchitecturesandframeworkssupportingfastsetupof knowledgemanagementsystemswithinawholemanufacturing system,wouldmakealargeadvantage(Chryssolouris,Mourtzis,

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Papakostas, Papachatzakis, & Xeromeritis, 2008b). These tools representknowledgeaboutthemanufacturingprocessesonlypar- tially. They don’t support the systematic organisation of past experienceandknowledgeinawaythatitcanbeeasilyreusedin futureprojects.Theengineersoftenhavetorelyupontheirexpe- rienceandsearchforpastrelevantsolutionsintheircompanies’

databases.Thewayknowledgeisperceivedbyeachengineerand eachcompanyisusuallydifferentandthereforeitcannotbeused inacollaborativemannerbydifferentengineeringteams,who,by theway,maybeusingdifferentplatformsorapplications.

Themainweaknessesofexistingapproaches,systemsandmod- elsthatattempttoaddressknowledgebasedworkmanagement canbesummarisedinthefollowing.

•Focusingmainlyontheproductdesignknowledge.

•Rules,equationsandconstraintsareonlyavailableforproduct design.

•Processandresourcesrelatedknowledgeisnotaddressed.

•Itdoesnotofferthecapabilitiesofsemantictechnology.

•Lackofdeﬁning,retrievingandstoringbestpractices.

•Lackofgenericsimilaritymeasurements.

•Lackofassociating,product,processesandresourceswithKey PerformanceIndicators.

4. Businesscasepresentationandanalysis

Thebusinesscase consideredin thecontextofthis research projectaddressesaplantinautomotiveindustrythatproducessev- eralcarmodelsinasingleassemblyline.Itpresentsaveryhighly dynamicandﬂexible behaviour,achievedthroughqualiﬁed and motivatedpeople,continuousimprovementandinnovation.

Inthisautomotiveplant,aspeciﬁcBusinessUnity(BU),ded- icatedtodiesconstruction,togetherwithotherfourtoolshops, supports die constructionsas a core technical business world- wide.Withaworkforcearound230employeesandequippedwith modernmillingmachinesandtry-outpresses,thisBUisableto follow-upseveraldie-setsprojectsfromanalysisphasetillthepro- cessvalidationphase.

Everytimeanewcarmodelistobelaunched,asetofstamping dieshavetobedesigned,producedandvalidated.Thissetofdiesis managedbyadedicatedteamthathastohandleahugeamountof informationﬂowingthruthedifferentstakeholdersalongthefull projectlifecycle.Havingtherightinformationatrightmoment,to takefastandwellbaseddecisionsisamainchallengemanagers havetoface.

The die-set developmentprocess was split into three main stages: planning,machining and evaluation stages. In fact, the developmentofeach die-set maybesharedby theOEMand a supplier,ormanagedentirelybytheOEMorasupplier.Here,the decouplingpointdependsonthelevelofexpertiseofthebuyerto deployandcontrolthisprocess.

Theplanningisoneofthemostcriticalstageofthedie-set(DS) developmentprocess,since theoutcome oftheeach oneofthe activitiesoftheprocess−TeamDeﬁnition,Simulation&Feasibil- ityStudy,Capacity&ResourcesAllocation,DieConcept&Process SimulationandComponentsDesign−mayaffecttheperformance oftheoverallprocessexecution.

Thefollowingﬁgureshowsthemainstagesofthedie-setdevelopmentprocess(Fig.2).

Startingfromtheproject’steamdeﬁnition,eachtechnicianis responsiblefora seriesof die-sets,distributed toa smallnum- berof suppliers(oneortwomaximuminorder toenhancethe buyer-suppliersrelationship).Thenitisnecessarytoexecutethe rightsimulationsand feasibilitytests,in ordertounderstandif thetechnicalspeciﬁcationsofeachdiearecorrectfromaproduct

andmanufacturingpointofview.Aftervalidationofthetechnical speciﬁcationforeachdie-set,itisimportanttounderstandifthe plant,wherethedie-setisgoingtobeused,hastheresourcesnec- essarytoapplythedie-setsdesigned.Inotherwords,ifthefacilities haveenoughspacetostorethedie-sets,duringthe“homeline”try outandproduction,aswellasunderstandifthereisanyavailable presscapabletoapply,forinstance,theforcesandtorqueneces- sary.Knownandvalidatedthedie-sets,aswellasthenecessary resources,itispossibletobuilda3Dmodelofeachdie-set,aswell asplanthedie-setconstruction,intermsofbudget,timeandqual- ity.Hereitbecomescriticaltospecifythequalitystandardstobe validatedattheendoftheprocessexecution.

Thefollowingstage,themachining,iswherethesupplierhas totransformthedie-set3Dmodelintoaﬁnalandusabledie-set, capabletoproducethepartsasspeciﬁedbytheproductowner.

Thefinalstageisfocusedontheevaluationandimprovement ofthedie-setmodelbuilt,towardsthesuccessfulproductionof theidealizedparts.Here,bothcompanyrequirementsandqual- itystandardsdefinedduringtheplanningstagemustbetakeninto account.Thus,asfirstaction,techniciansmustbuildsomeproto- typepartsinordertovalidateifthediesarefulfillingtheexpected qualitystandards.Afterallproductrequirementsbeingvalidated themanufacturingprocessistestedthoughtapre-seriesevalua- tion.Ifminorproblemsareidentified,thencorrectionactionmust betakeninbuyer’shouse,followinganiterativeapproach.

Afteranalysingtheas-isprocesses,itwaspossibletoassertthat thecontinuousupdatesoneachdie-set(DS)statuswereconsuming aconsiderableamountoftimeandresourcesmakingthedecision makingprocess morereactiveinsteadof thedesiredpro-active approach.Itwasalsopossibletoseethattheinformationisspread bynumerousdepartmentsandspecialistsandcanbeinpaperfor- mat,PDF/Wordformatorevenplaintextine-mails.Thisapproach inthedatagatheringrepresentsasevereconcernsinceitcanbe thecauseofwrongorslowdecisionsduetomisinformationina processthatisverytimedependent.

Apracticalexampleistheonewheretwotasksrevealingimpor- tantupdatesintheprocessaremade.Iftheprocessrunsperfectly andeverythingisconsideredcorrectintheﬁrstexecution,theinfor- mationalongthisprocesscanbesinglesetofdocumentspertask:

Otherwise,whentheprocessstepsthroughmultipleinteractions toreachavalidresult,multipleversionsofthedocumentswillbe generatedandarchived.

Therefore,theprocessforasingledie-setmaygenerateanhigh amountofdataanddocumentsthatneedtobesearched,organized, reported,kept,trackedandstoredforfutureprojectsposingseri- ousrequirementsregardingthereactiontimesandreliabilityof information.

Infact,weknowthataninitialplanisexpectedfortheprocess (Fig.3).However,basedonthenatureofthecase,everyinstance mayﬂowadifferentﬂow,assometaskastostepoverseveralinter- actionsorexecutedina differentthantheoneinitiallyplanned (Fig.4).

Thecurrentstateoftheprocessweaknessescanbesummarised andidentiﬁedinthefollowinglist:

•Humanintensiveprocesseswithhighlevelofimprovementand feedbackloops;

•Transversalandhierarchicalprojectsinvolvingseveraldepart- mentsandobjectiveswithintheorganization;

•Managementbasedonindividualtrust;

•Lowcapacityforknowledgecaptureandreuse;

•Thenumberofpeopleinvolvedandinformation’sstorageformats areincompatiblewithapro-activeapproach;

•Ad-hoccommunicationﬂow;

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Fig.2.Mainstagesofthedie-setdevelopmentprocess.

Fig.3.ExpectedProcessFlow.

Fig.4. Expectedvs.RealProcessFlow.

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Fig.5.Maininteractioninsidethecollaborativeprocess.

•Thereliabilityofthedataiscompromisedbecauseofthecom- municationmethodsanddataformats;

•Thecurrent storagemethodfordatamakesitdifﬁculttogain accesstoit;

•Timedependentprocessesthatdonotallowon-time/onlinemon- itoring;

•Lackof standardized knowledge based databases fed by past experienceandpersonnelknowledge;

•Processesdependentonindividualexpertise;

•Processesdonotincorporateabestpracticesrepositoryorpast experiences;

•Highriskofmisinformation.

Anotherimportantcharacteristicofthiskindofprocessesstays onthefactthatthecardinalityofthetaskschangesalongthelife cycle.AswecanseeinFig.5,activitiesmaybetackledtogetheror separately,dependingonitsnatureand/orcorrespondingactor(s).

Forinstance,thedeﬁnitionof teamisdoneonceforallprocess instancesatthemasterprocesslevel,whilefeasibilitystudiesare realizedpersupplierandthepressallocationdependsonthenum- berofpartsthateachplannerisresponsiblefor.

Having analysed the as-is statein detail by consideringthe BPMNprocessmappingitwaspossibletounderstandthatmanyof theweaknessesoftheexistingmanagementsystemthatwereiden- tiﬁedcouldbeeliminatedor,atleast,minimizedbyapro-active managementapproachforthedie-setdevelopmentprocess,asit willbediscussedinthenextsection.

Giventhisscenario,itisclearthatmanagingadie-setprogram foranewcarmodelorvariantrequiresaholisticviewofmanag- ingseveralhundredsofindividualinstancesdependingeachone ontheothers.Whensomedecisionsarebeingmadeindividually

itcanaffectotherrunningprojects.Forexampleadecisioninthe developmentofoneDScanhaveindirectconsequencesinother runningDSdevelopmentprojects.Additionally,itrequiresmanag- ingseveralsuppliers,stakeholdersanddocumentsthatarebeing continuouslyupdatedintonewversionsduetoimprovementsor unpredictablechangesintheproductdevelopment.Thechallenge is howto manageeffectively theproduct developmentprocess whentheinformationcollectedisdynamic,comesfrommultiple sources(stakeholdersandsoftwaretools)andhasdependences.

Ouranalysisofthedie-setdevelopmentprocessshowedthat itsmanagementmakesuseofintensivehumanknowledge(only highly skilledresources basedon experienceand expertise are chosen).It hasa step-by-stepmethodologywithahighlevelof improvementsand feedbackloops, throughthe lifecycle ofthe product development,demandinga very ﬂexible and real time monitoringprocess.

Moreover,thecomplexityofthedie-setdevelopmentprocess increasesbecauseeachstepcanbeperformedbyadifferentexpert teamwithdifferentgoals.Theexistinginterdependenciesmustbe takenintoaccounttoavoidlackofconsistency.Additionally,there isahugeamountofinformationandcommunicationﬂowbeing managed.

Theneedtocontrolthisflexibilityduetoproductdevelopment timeconstrainsledtothedevelopmentoftheHybridProcessMan- ager(HPM)applicationthatishelpingtocontroltheseveralsteps andsub-steps,tasksandactivitiesoftheprocessintermsoftime, informationandcommunicationflow.Moreover,informationgen- eratedalong the differentactivitiesof the process lifecycle, is classifiedandachievedaccordingtoitsrelevanceforprocessexe- cution,reducingthetimeandeffortneedtoundertakedecisions.

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Fig.6. SolutionDomainModel.

Thefollowing ﬁgureshows themain entities ofthedomain beinganalysed(Fig.6).

Communicationinsidetheconcurrentdieprojectswasemploy- ing traditional paper or e-mail messages, which were easily forgotten,lostorignoredwhentheworkenvironmentbecomes overloaded.Thecommunicationtoolsthatweredevelopedallow connectingallstakeholdersandinterdisciplinaryteamsthatare involvedintheproductdevelopment,guaranteeingreal-timeinfor- mationregardingupdateddocuments,problemsandotherrelevant issues(Tickets),thussavingtimeandimprovingthedecisionmak- ingprocesses.

Asstatedbefore,theproductdevelopmentprocessofbuilding anewdie,requiresalotofexpertise,experienceandknowledge thatarevaluableonsolvingproblemsandwhich werenotcap- tured,storedorre-used.Theknowledgereuseprocesswillbemade throughticketingfunctionalitieswheretheusercandocumentin detail the problemof thepart beingdeveloped, listof actions, method,solution,andveriﬁcationandactionplan.Thisinformation canbere-usedwhenneededthroughadatabasewithaproblem- solution-resultrepository.

Theproductdevelopmentprocess,asstatedbefore,isverycom- plexandrequiresthemanagementofahighquantityoftaskswith theirproblemsandconstrains.Inordertokeeptrackonthestatus ofthetasksitwillbemonitoredbyanapplicationwhichwillallow theusertoidentifyifataskhasadelay.

Traditional projectmanagement is mostly seen as a mono- causalandnon-dynamicworksystemwithalinearstructurethat isunsuitabletosolvetheabovechallenges.Theﬂexibilitydesired due tothedynamic systemof product developmentrequires a newapproachthatwillallowtobreakdownthecommunication andcollaborationbarriersbetweentheproduct-process-factory- productionlevels.Theadoptionofthedevelopedtoolsupportsthe companyinfacingthischallengeandenablesafasterandamore efﬁcientproductdevelopmentprocess.

Fig.7. MainfunctionalitiesofthehybridprocessmanagementapplicationSolution DesignandImplementation.

Forexample,incasehereconsidered,whenanewcarproject starts,thetopmanagementdeﬁnesonlysomemilestonesthatare controlledin anautomaticway. However,theworkthat needs tobedonebetweeneachmilestonecannotbeautomatedonceit reliesonhumanintensiveknowledgeanddecisiontasks,evenifthe ﬁnalresultsareknown.Thecombinationofthesestructuredand unstructuredactivitiesareequallyimportantintermsofleading theprojecttoitssuccess(Sharp&McDermott,2001;vanderAalst, 2004;Andersson,Bider,&Perjons,2005).

Inorderimplementthehybridprocessmanagementapproach acomputerapplicationwasdevelopedencompassingthreemain groups of functionalities (Fig. 7): work management, informa- tionmanagementandcommunicationmanagementasitwillbe describedinthenextsection.

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Fig.8. Dashboardforholisticviewofprojectstatus.

Fig.9.Realtimemonitoringandcontroloftheongoingworkactivities.

Theaimof theproposedsolutionis tofacilitate theflow of informationamongpartners,makingitmorereliableandactual, allowingaclosercontrolandfastreaction.Workingincooperation withotherdepartmentsorexternalpartners,tracktheflowpath, schedule,definemilestones,handleprojectchanges,evaluaterisks anddefineactions,aswellascontrolcostsandcapacitiesalongthe projectdevelopment.

Inordertosuccessfullyaccomplishthismission,foreachproject this department need to collect and manage huge amount of informationand knowledge,comingfrominside andoutside of

thefactory.Indeed, managingallthis collaborativeprocess and itsinformationnot onlyisintensively timeconsuming,slowing downdecision-makingprocess,butalsohindersprojectreliability, increasingitsuncertainty.

Speciﬁcally,theaimofthesolutionistomanagetheproduct developmentprocess.Currentlytheseactionshavebeendoneman- uallyusingnumerousphysical,electronicﬁlesandcalls.Therefore alltheinformationneededandusedintheprocessisspreadaround severaldepartments,reducingthereliabilityoftheentireprocess toaminimum.Tosolvethis,anewapproachandsolutionisneeded.

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HPMsolutionaddressesthemain challengesthat aretypicalin thiskindofsemi-structuredandknowledgeintensivecollaborative environmentsbyimplementingthefollowingfunctionalities.

•Dashboardforholisticviewofprojectstatus(Fig.8);

•Realtimemonitoringandcontroloftheongoingworkactivities (Fig.9);

•Totally integrated knowledge and documents management (Fig.10);

•TechnicalintegrationwithWindowsandofﬁcetools,whichare widelyusedbyprojectteams(Fig.12);

•Integratedcommunication/messagingalong theprocess activ- itiesinthescopeofeach project/phase/to-do,eliminatingthe internalandprojectrelatedemail(Fig.13);

•Problem solving support,including ticketsmanagement inte- gratedwithallentities(Fig.14).

TheprocessmanagersolutionreliesonanASP.NETwebappli- cationandtakingadvantageofMicrosoftSharePointfoundation services,asdepictedintheglobalarchitectureshowninFig.11.The applicationrunsonMicrosoftWindowsServerontopofMicrosoft SharePointFoundationServeranditsdatamodelisimplementedin SQLServerRDBMSystem.LINQ-TO-SQLisusedtoenhancethecon- nectionbetweenserversideC#programminganddatabase.Several librariesareusedinordertointegratetheapplicationwithnative windowsfunctionalitiesaswellasMicrosoftOfﬁcetools,whichare widelyusedbyknowledgeintensiveworkers.Theprocessman- agerUIisatotallyweb-basedHTML5andJavaScripttechnologies enabled.SeveralcontrollibrariessuchasTelerikforAJAX.netand HighchartsJSwerealsoemployedinordertohavearichandhigh usableandﬂexibleinterface.

Duringtherequirementselicitationprocess,itwasclearthat allstakeholderswereusingMicrosoftproductivitytoolsintheir dailywork.Thus,itbecameclearthataseamlesslyintegrationwith MicrosoftproductivitytoolssuchasWindowsExplorerandOutlook wascritical.

Givingthiscontext,iswasdecidedtodeveloptheapplication ontopof.NETandSharePointfoundationframeworksinorderto takeadvantageofitsfunctionalities.Thus,theeAppisdesigned to run on windows server IIS using Microsoft SQL server and SharePointFoundationservices.Nevertheless,aWindowsCommu- nicationFoundation(WCF)RESTfulAPIwasdevelopedinorderto haveanintegrationendpointwithanykindofapplicationsuchas javaEE,android,iOSandothers.Moreover,MVCFrameworkssuch asAngularJScanbeemployedtodevelopcustomizedGUIsforspe- ciﬁcdeviceslikesmartphonesortablets.Severalrequiredservices andrespectiveendpointsfordatainteroperabilityweredeveloped usingWCFRESTfulwebservices.RepresentationalStateTransfer (REST)and JavaScriptObjectNotation(JSON)technologieswere chosenduetoitssimplicityandproveneffectiveness.

Table1

SavingsafterHPMintroduction.

KPIAcronym Units AS-ISResult ActualResult Savings(%)

TACD minutes 30 5 83,0%

ORLT hours 3 0.5 83,0%

ORR persons 9 2 77,8%

RTCS hours 20 5 75,0%

PLT months 4 3.5 12,5%

PSV % 10 5 50,0%

5. Validation

Duringtheprocessanalysisandre-definition,asetofKeyPer- formanceIndicators(KPIs)wasdefinedinordertomeasurethe impactofthesolution.Thus,forthesuccessfulimplementationof thesolution,thefollowingKPIsweredefined:

(ReportTime−requestTime) reports

KPIname Description Formula

ORT−OverallReportLeadTime Requiredtimenecessarytocreateanoverallreport inhours

(ReportTime−requestTime) reports ORR−OverallReportResources Requiredresourcesnecessarytocreateanoverall

reportinpersons

(numberOfResources) reports RTCS-ReactionTimeonCriticalStatus measuresthemeanelapsedtimebetweenthe

problemsraisemomenttillitsclosing,when they’resolved

(issueSolvedTime−issueRaisedTime) issues

PLT−PhaseLeadTime TheMeantimebetweenthestartofaprojecttype phaseandtheeffectiveclosingofthatphase

(EndPhaseTime−StarPhaseTime) phaseInstances PSV−ProjectScheduleVariance Thevariancebetweentheprojectscheduleandits

realexecutiontime

(RealEndPhaseTime−RealStarPhaseTime) (EstimatedEndPhaseTime−EstimatedStarPhaseTime) Thesolutionwasevaluated inrealengineering environment insidethecompany,bythestampingplanningteam,whichinvolves eightplannersandamanagerforeachproject.Duringthiseval- uationphase,aspeciﬁcprojecthasbeenusedtotestandverify thefunctionalities implemented.Eachstakeholderhasaspeciﬁc credentialtoaccess,testand validatethefunctionalities,giving feedbackforcontinuousimprovement.

Atthemoment,byusingacomprehensivePerformanceMea- surementEngine,itwaspossibletomeasureandcalculatetheKPIs previouslydeﬁnedandcomparetheresults,leadtothesavingsthat arepresentedinthefollowingtable(Table1).

6. Conclusionsandfurtherdevelopments

Theintroductionofthesolutiondevelopedintheknowledge intensivecollaborativeenvironmentprovetobeveryeffectiveand efﬁcient,leadingtogoodresultsintermsofsavings.Theintroduc- tionofthesolutionmadepossiblethatmanagersavoidaskingfor reportsandalotoftimeandpaperworkisnowsaved.Thesolution allowedstakeholderstoconcentrateinimportantissuesimprov- ingproductsandprocessesavoidingnon-valueaddedeffortsand time oncollateral activities.Otheradvantageis thedatacollec- tionbuiltinthesolutionstoringhistoricandexperienceretrieval modules,allowaccesstoexpertise,knowledgeandbestpractices collectedfrompreviousactivitiesandavailabletoincorporatein futureasafactorofknowledgesustainability.Thecomprehensive dashboardallowstherealtimereportoftheprocessstatus,leading tosavingsinreportingtimeandresources.Duetointegrateddoc- umentationandinformation management,engineeringproject’s teammembershavenowinstantaccesstotherightinformationat therightplaceandintherightmoment,leadingtoareductionof timetoaccesscriticaldata.Thecommunicationandissuestracking functionalities,allowskeyplayerstoparticipatemoreactivelyin processmanagementandimprovement,thusenforcingteamspirit.

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Fig.10.Totallyintegratedknowledgeanddocumentsmanagemen.

Fig.11. Overviewofthearchitectureofthesolution.

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Fig.12.TechnicalintegrationwithWindowsandofﬁcetools,whicharewidelyusedbyprojectteams.

Fig.13.Integratedcommunication/messagingalongtheprocessactivitiesinthescopeofeachproject/phase/to-do,eliminatingtheinternalandprojectrelatedemail.

Thissolutionhasproventobeveryeffectiveandefﬁcientwhen appliedinhybridworksystemsand inparticularinthemecha- tronicsengineeringcollaborativeprocesses.

Insummary,theprojecthasimprovedthecommunication,the cooperationandtrusttheexchangedinformation,whicharekey factorsforasuccessfulproject.Infuture,withtheintegrationof suppliers,thesolutionaimstoallowachainreactionandahuge

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Fig.14. Problemsolvingsupport,includingticketsmanagementintegratedwithallentities.

impactonspeedinguptheproductdevelopmentandtimetomar- ketallowingalsoafasterresponsetoexternalchanges.

Acknowledgements

Theresearchleadingtotheseresultshasreceivedfundingfrom theEuropeanUnionSeventhFrameworkProgramme(FP7/2007- 2013)undergrantagreementn^◦314156.Thisworkisco-ﬁnanced byNationalFundsthroughtheFCT−Fundac¸ãoparaaCiênciaea Tecnologia.TheauthorswouldalsoliketothankINESCTECfortheir support.

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