CPC SUPPORT SERVICES DEVELOPMENT AND PDM IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES IN INDUSTRIES

M.Elangovan.* G.Mahadevaiah.** R.Satyanarayanan .***and Vijay.A.R. ****.

*Dept. of Production., AITEC, Coimbatore, ** R&D, L&T-Demag Plastics Ltd., Chennai.
***Project Engineer, Paradigm Global Infoservices Ltd., Chennai **** M.E.(PD&C), School Of Mechanical Sciences, PSG TECH, Coimbatore. Abstract This paper presents CPC (Collaborative Product Commerce) deployment aspects from dual perspectives, which include issues from manufacturing industries adopting CPC as well as futuristic trends in third party software development for CPC. Partnering is the key for manufacturing industries worldwide. Automated renting of software services over the net is expected to be the next hierarchical development in IT sector. This paper explains the integration and e-enabling architectural details with case studies, which includes a legacy, built rapid prototyping software with adaptive slicing. Customized third party tools for standard CAD/CAM software solutions provides a large market for companies requiring reduced manufacturing overheads and shorter product lead times. Details of e-enabling architecture for a legacy built customized tool for gear development along with standard CAD software is explained along with a case study. Challenges faced by Indian industries in PDM (Product Data Management) implementation is presented through a brief case study done at L&T-Demag plant. A brief report on standardized product data implementation, the aspects and developments at Boeing is also presented. Keywords: Customized tools; Rapid Prototyping; Gear developer; International Partnering; STEP AP210; Product Data Exchange; Electronic assemblies. 1. INTRODUCTION Indian CAD/CAM companies are focussing towards growing CPC market with keen interests to increase their market share. The major challenging aspect to these companies is competing with their international counterparts include wide range of issues ranging from technical competence, resource for research to establishing the product goodwill among customers. This paper focuses on aiding these companies to carve out a commercial share in the market by focussing on to lesser competitive but profitable zones. One of the solutions is CPC enabling of legacy build software services, another is to reduce client's overheads through CPC enabled customized third party tools development. CPC enabling and automating of software services require special additions to be made to CPC architecture. Details of the requirements are discussed in subsequent topics. E-enabling details from legacy applications side is explained with a demonstration snapshots of developed Adaptive slicing software. Adaptive slicing provides highly flexible prototype development with reduced time and optimized accuracy and therefore a suitable candidate for development of integrated e-enabled solution. This paper emphasizes on the CPC tool (Adaptive slicer and gear generator) development styles rather than to focus on implementation aspects. Development of customized third party tools, which aid in reducing product development time, is a very suitable area for developing CPC enabled tools since CPC itself aims in time compression. This paper presents details of Gear developer software developed for Unigraphics solid modeler. E-enabling details are also presented. These tools aid in bringing down the product development time. The details of this software are presented with block diagrams and demonstration snapshots. Eenterprise model proposed by Rezayat[6] is the base for this development. Indian industries are beginning to see a new era of international partnering with the open market liberalized economy. CPC implementations are fast picking up in these industries due to global competitions and need for efficient information exchange with their geographically distributed partners. To understand the challenges faced by these companies a brief case study was done at L&T Demag, Chennai plant. Details of the summarized results obtained from interviews and questionnaire-filling sessions conducted in the company are also presented. Development of standards for product data is a challenging area and aids in developing efficient CPC architecture. Application Protocol 210 (AP 210) [1] is the Standard for Exchange of Product Model data (STEP) Application Protocol representing the design of electronic assemblies, their interconnections and packaging, Printed Wiring Assemblies (PWAs) and Printed Wiring Boards (PWBs). ISO voted to accept STEP AP210 as an international standard. Details about study done on the research and

implementation work at Boeing are presented so as to aid Indian Industries to aid in understanding and developing or adopting similar product standardization solutions in future. 2. CPC SUPPORT SERVICES - AUTOMATED RAPID PROTOTYPING SOFTWARE. 2.1 Details of Adaptive Slicer. Manufacturing worldwide is in the midst of unprecedented changes due to intensified market pressures and customer demand for complex and diversified products. Driven by accelerating evolution of information change, shrinkage of resources and proliferation of technology, the challenge faced by the manufacturers is to bring out products at an increased speed. Rapid prototyping is a tool to aid this need. Rapid Prototyping (RP) refers to a class of layer based manufacturing technologies. In contrast to traditional material removal process, the RP techniques build a part by gradually adding material layer by layer. A CAD model cannot be directly interfaced with RP machines. For prototyping process the models need to be sliced into a set of x-y intersection contours before it can be used to build a RP object. For the RP industry the most widely accepted data file is known as Stereolithography or STL file. The STL file format has become a defacto standard throughout the Rapid Prototyping industry. The reason for its popularity is simple, they are STL files are concise and easy to generate and it does not require sophisticated CAD system for its support. The STL file is generated from patchwork of facets are created using triangulation, which generates triangles to approximate the CAD model Ref [3]. The fabrication of cost effective parts through LM (layered Manufacturing) requires reconciling the desire for maximum throughput with the desire, or need for maximum accuracy. Fabricating the parts with the maximum available layer thickness generally maximizes the throughput, since building with the thick layers reduce the total number of layers required to fabricate the part. In addition, thick layers tend to
Model created in CAD software and exported in .S L format T Assigning the PDM attribute Attaching to part -

Receiving the file. Rotating /Scaling the mode l if needed

Contacting the Service Sourcing facility up linking through the browser from work flow. Generating NC codes -Calculating Time and Cost

Slicing the model (Adaptive or Uniform)

Return the data to host through the browser (e -mailing the downloadable link to work list) Fig 2.1 Data Flow Diagram.

reduce the surface accuracy in fabricated part due to the stair stepping effect that is inherent to LM.
CPC Visualization PDM Data Vault Other services CSM Services Sourcing Facility

Service Provider Browser Fig :2.3 Proposed Architecture

Fig :2.2 Interface

Reducing the thickness of each build layer commonly minimizes this effect. But this increases the part build time often to unacceptable level. The solution to this problem is automatic adaptive slicing. Rather than having a human operator to decide on slice thickness, an enhanced adaptive slicing algorithm which analyze the CAD model geometry to determine objectively an optimal layer thickness throughout the part in its vertical direction. Optimal build direction for fabrication of parts without support structure is also suggested based on the number of slices in the build direction. The work also concentrates in calculating the build time and build cost in the optimal direction with the generated NC codes. The main objective is to develop an enhanced adaptive slicing algorithm. Three main contributing factors for layer thickness generation during slicing process are cusp height, maximum deviation, and cord length [3]. A mathematical model is developed to generate variable slice thickness. Optimal build direction is selected based on the minimum height along the build direction. Build time and build cost generation facilities are also provided. Details are presented in the data flow diagram 2.1. 2.2 E-enabled Service At present the adoptive mesher can provide two types of functionality, one stand alone server detailed mode (behaves like an ordinary mesher software) another is the e-enabled mode which aids to serve a client through a browser link for input and output details.

Enterprise Product lifecycle

Work flow

Browser interfaced Adoptive mesher

T hird party Service provider

Fig:2.4 M echanism Explained

On CPC side, to aid in such third party services locating and inter linking facilities a separate module in addition to CSM (Component and Supplier Management) is needed (explained in diagram as Service Sourcing Facility). Such a facility should aid in locating the expert service portals. Then a whole range of issues should be taken care of including verifying service availability, provision for alternate sources, source ranking, input validation, output verification, message passing to service provider code access system and billing systems. A common widely accepted standard protocol to exchange information between portals (access codes, user levels) should have to be implemented. Since the focus of this paper is on tool building side for CPC and to aid industries with a different perspective. Details on changes required on CPC side were not detailed. However this brief overview would have explained the challenges to be faced in achieving this. Research on Agent based architecture is proposed in ref [2], this work aids in understanding details on agent technology for collaboration. From the enterprise workflow provision is made to contact adoptive mesher portal. Which contains user access control, since PDM systems have their own user access systems the proposed service sourcing facility automatically provides the required details and establishes a link to transmit STL data The mechanism of working is explained in the fig. Service sourcing factor inclusion is shown in fig[2.3]. 3.Customized Application Case study-Gear Generator. In the industrial application scenario, from today to future, standards and services will be prime on their development with focus on optimum time and cost. With time to manufacture being a significant criterion, the industrial activities can never overlook the quality of time, as the component progresses towards its

final stages. The design stage that too in an environment where component-variety is a phenomenon, should never be an hunk to production. And as the technology bears no barrier towards it, this module trumps a customized tool in designing gears. The software, developed in UG/OPEN API of Unigraphics, hold three phases, viz., 1. Input phase, where the gear parameters are fed into a database, 2. Solver manipulates the gear parameters from the database against the design functions 3. Output Phase, generates the 2d and 3d model of the component. Inputs: Gear parameter (viz., OD, ID, pitch, angles, and other details.) ref fig 3.1. Outputs: 3d-model generation, model generation (layout drawing the user specified format), Gear database. 3.1 Functionality: 1. The Gear details are stored in a database, on request by the user. (The Parameters are ascribed to the Gear Number as key) 2. The Stored in parameters are fetched by the Unigraphics Software to attribute the Gear design functions. 3. A 3d model of the Spiral Bevel gear is generated heeding to the parameters and functions. 4. An associative 2d drawing, showing different views of the Spiral Bevel Gear, is generated in a company prescribed template. 5.Emailin the downloadable link. 3.2.Specifications: 1. A Java Program providing the frame work for getting in Gear parameters. 2. Gear parameters entered in a user editable format 3, A UG/OPEN API Program reads the Java program generated Gear database. 4. A UG/OPEN API program employing design functions with the parameters to generate 3d model of Gear. 5. A UG/OPEN API Program generating associated Layout Drawing in the specified template. 6.E-Mail handling Module. 3.3.Developement Cycle:
Parameter database UG/OPEN API (a) access the parameter f or manipulation) (b) Solver ( design fn. & manipulation) Error & Debugging

Interface module.

3d model generation (in UG environment)

Layout Drawing. (in UG environment)

Delivery E -mailed

link

Fig:3.1 Gear Generator Mechanism

3.4.Advantages: 1. In Industry of component-variety, designing time can be reduced from man weeks to man hrs. 2. A single mouse click can generate a component and its class ( here, Spiral Bevel Gear and its family) 3. Needs just an artisan (data entry operator) to feed the Gear Parameters, once the stage is set up. 3.5.Challenges during Customisation: 1. In the design stage, the profile of the gear (spiral bevel) changes along its path, a complex phenomenon in modeling. 2. File handling of performance variables through the parameters. 3. Layout generation pertaining all the intelligent views in the template (program generated) as ascribed by the clients specification.

4. PDM IMPLEMENTATION IN INDUSTRIES-L&T-DEMAG -CASE STUDY. This section deals with CPC implementation aspects in industries. Since the focus is on Indian Industries, a casestudy was conducted at L&T-Demag chennai to understand the implementation issues. The recorded aspects are summarized in this section. L&T has a diversified business in India. L&T along with its German collaborator Demag lead a successful plastic processing machinery business worldwide. The company has its plants at Chennai (L&T) and Demag in Germany. The need for information exchange between two geographically distributed partners, a foresight in to future business has led L&T to invest in CPC. L&T is a forerunner in its business with a annul turnover exceeding 55 crores. The plant in Chennai is a mid sized shop floor with around 50 employees. L&T-Demag has secured a unique place in corporate world, well known for its closer cooperation between well experienced senior staff and energetic fresh engineers. Such a dynamic focus is the main aspect in implementing cutting edge technologies into their business. Though new to PDM with such a strong work force L&T sees a very rapid CPC implementation in their firm. Efficient Vendor management is one of the reasons identified by R&D engineers for CPC implementation. Company is at data collection and research stage in PDM implementation. At present company foresees an implementation time of 6 months with a commercial package including customization. L&T is a strong supporter for implementing novel technologies in to business and it can also be seen as a major reason in such a rapid implementation time. Obstacles foresighted by L&T engineers are (ranked in order). 1) Past data in to the proposed system - since data is vast and are from legacy systems. 2) Implementation issues (internal). 3) Integration within and outside the company. 4) Pre purchase planning 5) Cost issues-Return on investment prediction validity. 6) Internal convincing. Training. Major hurdles foresighted by engineers in R&D are (ranked). 1) Analyzing the requirements of business (Time) 2) Integrating with Indian vendors. 3) Indexing past data. 4) Training the users. Most Needed features as seen from analysis are (ranked) 1) MRP/ERP CAD integration. 2) Product structuring and Bill of materials. (Views) 3) Workflow management. 4) Product development 5) Configuration management. 6) Web interface.

Benefits as seen from proposed implementation at L&T by engineers are (ranked) 1) Reduction in time to market. 2) Data integrity and safeguard. 3) Improvement in design and manufacture 4) Improvement in design productivity 5) Better management of engineering changes. 6) Better control of product development. 7) Better use of creative team 8) Aiding in Total quality management.

CAD/CAE PDM implementation is the foreseen area customization. Number of employee population involved include around 10 engineers, 10 support people, and five administrators A system level study show that Windows based system is preferred for implementation. Type of data to be managed by PDM system includes drawings (around 35 drawings per week), rework instructions, process documents, assemblies, market specification sheets and labels. Exact projected monetary benefits are appreciable and are being worked out. CPC implementation is a major step towards closer and efficient collaboration between L&T Chennai and Demag GmbH plant. 5.STEP -AP210 Indian industries always find a lag in technological competence when compared to international corporate giants a close study into the challenges faced by these communities will definitely aid in developing solutions for Indian industries. Product data standardization is a widely talked about area since it leads to many challenging factors. The most prevalent current requirement of industry is the need to exchange and/or share product information within and across enterprises. This activity becomes almost impossible without a standardized, computer processable method of representing and communicating the

data. STEP provides a common method of defining product data, so that it can be easily interpreted and used by any application, throughout the standardized exchange of product data through files and via sharing and archiving of product data in databases (e.g. relational, object oriented and knowledge based). Since major area of application of the STEP standard is extremely broad, it is issued in numerous sections, identified as Parts. There are several types or classification of parts. The Parts known as APs define the context, scope and information requirements of a designated application area and specify the portions of the total STEP standard, which satisfy those requirements. In addition, an AP specifies the conformance and testing requirements that must be met while validating and implementation of the AP. The scope of an AP is defined by the manufactured product, supported stages in the life cycle of the product, required types of product data, uses of product data and disciplines that use product data. PDES Inc consortium was formed with the sole focus on advancing the development and implementation of STEP in the industry. This Consortium is funded by membership of numerous companies in the computer, automobile, and aerospace and shipbuilding arenas, in addition to electronics and manufacturing sectors.[4] 5.1 Boeing-case study Boeing primarily designs PWAs (Printed Wiring Assemblies) using the Mentor Graphics platform. On the manufacturing side, Boeing operates numerous PWA manufacturing / assembly facilities with various capabilities in Texas, Georgia and California. Mentor neutral data files, GenCAD, PDD (an internally developed Product Data Definition format) and Gerber files are the PWA data formats utilized at these facilities. The process-manufacturing organization uses Mentor neutral files and GenCAD to feed CAM software. Mentor neutral files are also used by the ICT organization to create set-up files for test equipment. Gerber data is used for PWB (Printed Wiring Boards) artwork analysis software and sent on to board fabrication houses to support the manufacture of PWB. On the design side, EDIF is used to extract net lists for use with circuit analysis tools. IDF is used to extract board and components. Producibility guidelines, designers tip sheets and customized software aid designers in developing manufacturable PWA designs. This translation, extraction generation and, finally utilization of multiple data formats may not be state of the art but it is most certainly the state of current practice. At engineering release and control system ensures that all of the formats were indeed created from the correct, previously released, PWA design. Boeing, like most other companies that perform in house PWA design, has designs that were captured on CAD systems that are no longer supported and/or are in drawing form only. In talking with other companies, this is not a problem unique to Boeing. These designs are recaptured into current Mentor environment, as design change need to be incorporated. Six Boeing Vice Presidents have signed an internal memorandum of agreement that states Boeing will use STEP, SGML and CGM for product data exchange with all our customers and subcontractors. The referenced memorandum is indeed a strong statement supporting and driving the use of STEP in the company. In mechanical zone STEP AP 203 is already being successfully used in exchange aircraft data between numerous contractors [5]. In the electronics area only a small amount of PWA data is exchanged with Boeing customers. Although the initial release of Mentor Board Station-AP210 translator was available on the market for Cadence and Zuken Redacc. As such, the exchange of electronic data between Boeing customers via AP 210 is not presently feasible. However Rockwell Collins, Lockheed-Martin and Northrup-Grumman (all Boeing contractors) have expressed their intention to exchange PWA data with Boeing, when feasible. To this end, Rockwell and Boeing have initiated an internal pilot project to determine the feasibility of transferring AP210 between two companies. 5.1.1 AP 210 translators Third party vendors were developing and marketing translators for CAD vendors for many years. Boeing along with Delphi-Delco Electronics Systems has contracted with international Techne Group, Incorporated (ITI) to develop a Mentor Graphics Board Station to AP210 bi-directional translator. Both Boeing and Delco were receiving interim translators from ITI. Boeing was using interim releases to provide data for their durability and producibility analysis projects. It is conceivable that within a year or so the major CAD vendors could have a bi-directional STEP translation capability. In addition translation between AP210, IDF, Gerber, GenCAM and EDIF should also be readily available. 5.1.2. Usage of AP210 The AP210 data extracted using the translators was used to support several ongoing PWA/PWB projects at Boeing including producibility analysis, durability analysis and electro mechanical interface. Using AP210 for these tools reduce Boeings dependency on proprietary data and formats. 5.1.3 Producibility analysis The goal of producibility analysis is to provide automated environment to examine a PWA design and provide a feedback on possible violations of producibility rules and guidelines. AP210 is extracted

directly from the Mentor dataset using the ITI translator. AP 210 data is then fed to a producibility analysis expert system. The expert system generates possible rule/guideline violations. The identified violations are automatically fed to an issue tracking facility that allows users to identify them as nonproblems or issues. Any issues created by the users are immediately emailed to members of the Integrated Product Development Team (IPD). IPD members access the issue facility and interactively resolve outstanding issues with other team members. Since the system facilitates the capturing of violations issues resolutions and user comments, this information can be made available to future PWA analyzes, with the intention of eliminating problems from propagating from design to design. Benefits from automated producibility analysis system include an elimination of slow paper flow time, less rework and fewer design iterations. These benefits will in turn provide an improvement in PWA quality and reduction in PWA cost due to reduction in first-design release rejections through identification of producibility issues earlier in PWA development cycle. Expected savings are in the area of 3000 hours per year. 5.1.4 Durability analysis The objective of durability analysis project is to integrate the electrical PWA design and durability analysis process to improve quality and reduce flow time. Additional, methods are being developed for predicting fatigue life due to vibration and acoustic pressure field environments. Capabilities are incorporated to access durability of PWAs by physics-of-failure method. Metrics is being developed to identify a failure mechanism and predict the time to failure. The integrated process will be available from the designers desktop. Benefits from the program include error reduction, elimination of duplicate entry improved quality and flow time and reduced design iterations due to errors. The program will support concurrent engineering by allowing flow of data between electrical and analytical modules. Expected savings when implemented on target applications are in the area of 3000 engineering hours per year. 5.1.5 In work Design repository One concept to resolve some of the concern with the present PWA environment is that of an in work design repository. An in work repository would store a single neutral, non-proprietary representation of the PWA data, STEP AP 210, as a superset of GenCAM, Gerber, ODB++, EDIF, IDF and Mentor proprietary data is a good match for this representation of data in repository. In open discussions IBM, DELCO, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed-Martin and Rockwell each of the companies (along with Boeing) has plans to integrate STEP AP 210 into their PWA process activities. In addition to these companies plan to use STEP for PWA design repositories (either inwork or release) Ref [8]. The creation of this repository will provide a ready access to inwork designs by all interested parties. Past design can easily be reused in future projects. An attribute level PDM will control the repository. The PDM will supply on the fly extraction of data in formats to design analysis manufacturing and assembly activities. As stated earlier, software exists to take an AP210 schema (EXRESS model) and automatically build the attributes required for design repository [1]. Tools that produce or consume AP 210 (as they become available) would be able to read and write directly to or from the repository. Autonomous agents that would automatically extract the appropriate data and performance various analyses could augment the repository. Thermal, vibration, testability, producibility etc can be performed with the results automatically returned to the appropriate reviewer or Integrated Product Development Team (IPT) members. 6. Discussions This paper is a result of a special interest group formed from members of industry and academic zones. The major emphasis is on two factors. To aid Indian CAD/CAM developers to lead business in CPC market with a different perspective. This paper presents demonstration snapshots of two custom build application tools focusing on the architecture of this issue. CPC implementation is picking up in industries due to the realization of need to change business models. Challenges faced by such industries are explained through a case study conducted at L&T Demag plant. Focusing on the solution developments on international corporate would aid in developing solutions in domestic environment in future so a case study of standardization at Boeing is presented. References [1]Conformics ,www.conformics.com [ 2]Huang G, Mak K 2002. Agent-Based Workflow Management in CPD,Computer Aided Design 32,133-144 [3] Krishnakumar.P et.all, 2002 Development of enhanced Adoptive Slicing algorithm Dept of production Engineering AITEC, Coimbatore. [4] PDES Inc www.pdesinc.aticorp.org

[5]PDES Inc www.pdesinc.anticorp.org/pilots/boeing_10_00.html [6 ]Rezayat.M.2000,The Enterprise Web portal Computer Aided Design 32,85-96 [7 ]Tolone.w,2000Virtual situation rooms Computer Aided Design 32,109-117 [8]Utlization of STEP 210 at Boeing Company. Acknowledgements We would like to thank our guide Dr.Prakasan.K Asst. Prof..PSG TECH. We would also like to thank all those involved in this project at L&T Demag plant.