Challenges and Rewards in
Automating the Engineering
and Design Process
A Case Study: Robertson Ceco
Robert Carr - VP Tech Services
Who is Robertson Ceco?
► Part
of the Heico Corporation -2.7 Billion
► Sales over 400 Million 2004
► 7 Manufacturing Facilities 6 USA, 1 Canada
► 3 Competing Brand Names
► #3 supplier of “Pre-Engineered” Metal
Buildings in the US today.
Who is Robertson Ceco?
► Star
Building Systems – Oklahoma City, OK
 Plants in Iowa, Tennessee, and California
► Ceco
Building Systems – Columbus, MS
 Plants in Mississippi, Iowa, and North Carolina
► Robertson
Building Systems – Hamilton,
Ontario, Canada
 Plant in Hamilton, CS Office in Edmonton and
Hamilton
What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal
Building?
► In
the 60’s and 70’s – Pre Engineered,
stocked buildings – 17 widths, 6 heights
► In the 80’s and 90’s– more customized work
► “The winner will be the company that can
process a custom building as fast and as
efficiently as a standard building”
► Now – approximately 7,000 unique
buildings/year
What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal
Building?
What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal
Building?
What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal
Building?
What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal
Building?
What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal
Building?
What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal
Building?
What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal
Building?
What is a “Pre-Engineered” Metal
Building?
Why Automate Design?
► Reduce
effects of staff turnover
► Improve consistency of design and detailing
► Minimize repetitive monotonous procedures
► Reduce errors and omissions – quality and $
► Reduce processing time -> increase sales
► Reduce processing costs -> increase sales
► Allow time to be spent on refining processes
and products requiring innovation
Why Automate Design?
► Price
and delivery are Primary Customer
goals
► Quality and technology are our niches
► Long learning curve
► Volume is seasonal and unpredictable
► Complexity is unpredictable
► Computer Automated Design versus
Computer Aided Design – You can do both
Why Not Automate?
► Automation
leads to lost knowledge and
dependency on systems
 Remedy: Strong continuing in-house
involvement
► Who
knows how it was designed
 Remedy: Separate legible domain rules from
cryptic software engineering
What is automated?
► The
fundamental, repetitive, design and
detailing decisions that are common place
and second nature.
► The time consuming, detail oriented, well
documented procedures that are less
common.
► The high confusion details that repetitively
produce errors.
What is automated?
► Goals….
 Reduce time… Front door to shop floor
►(time
to money)
Achieved
 Reduce back charges
►(keep
the money)
Achieved
 Reduce staff learning curve
►(save
the money)
Achieved
 Minimize impact of complex work
►(make
more money)
Achieved
What is Product of Automation?
► Engineering
 Fully loaded, totally optimized design for all
components, including design reports, pricing,
3D model and data for Drafting
► Drafting
 Complete set of Erection Drawings, Bill of
Materials (by plant), Fabrication Drawings, 3D
model, Data for Manufacturing
How was it Automated?
► With
a Knowledge Based 3D Engineering
(KBE) model from Design Power, Inc.
► With AutoCAD for graphics and drawing
creation.
► Developed by Domain Experts to process
work like they think, and incrementally
capture their design rules into Design++.
► Done using logical Objects that represent real
concepts and tangible parts.
How was it Automated?
► This
Design++ tool is a design automation platform
► Design++ provided us with
 Object representation for real concepts and tangible parts
in a “Bill-of-Material” like model
 Platform for knowledge capture with design rules
averaging only 20 line per rule
 Built-in dependency mechanism that provides rule
execution coordination and change management
 Interfaces to legacy and other software
 Options for graphic display of 3D model
How was it Automated?
► Our





vision…
One person – one job
Achieved
One system – all complexities
Achieved
One system – all inputs and outputs Achieved
Automate 90% of all product knowledge Achieved
All design work in 3D
Achieved
Is it Feasible?
► In
our case, most definitely YES!
► Before: 20% of Product Automated,
1 million lines of code
► After: 95% of Product,
½ million lines
► Business volume (tons) has increased 50%
along with complexity – Drafting and
Engineering departments are 10% larger.
Challenges
► ROI
– Getting commitments for higher
production or lower costs
► Change – why?
► Schedule – 11 man year project
► Speed of system for low complexity
► Politics
► History of AI (KBE) projects in general
Solutions
► ROI
– Developers are Domain experts – let them
speak for production departments
► Change – eventually sold on benefits
► Schedule – 3 people team – partial
implementation at 14 months
► Speed – faster hardware
► Politics – Corporate management support
► History – Departmental successes – total solution
that covered entire departmental needs
Our Rewards…
Complexity (1-10)
Total number of parts
2
300
30
Unique parts
Old Way
Drafting Time 2 days
Complexity (1-10)
Now
1 day
10
Total number of parts 13,000
Unique parts
450
Old Way
Now
Drafting Time 45 days 25 days
Our Rewards… Pre-Privatization
RCC Design 1997-2000
1997 Base Year = 100
120.00%
110.00%
Jobs Per Year
Hours Per Job
100.00%
Tons Per Job
MH/T
Avg Complexity
90.00%
80.00%
1997
1998
1999
2000
Training time cut 20%
Back-charges cut by 60%
Our Rewards… Pre-Privatization
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1
2
1999 $
3
4
2000 $
5
6
7
1999 Jobs
8
9
10
2000 Jobs
COMPLEX JOBS 6 - 10
Job count up 33% year-to-year
Revenue up 50% year-to-year
Job Count
$ Million
Job Complexity Distribution - Total Company
Our Rewards …Today
► #3
supplier of “Pre-Engineered” Metal
Buildings – We used to be #4
► #1 – Indebted and sold to Australian Steel
Company
► #2 – Bankrupt and sold to Mexican Steel
Company
► #3 – Bankrupt and operating as smaller,
separate companies
► #4 – RCC – Record Profits & Market Share
Our Advantage
Michael E. Porter:
Cost OR Differentiation Leadership
to achieve
Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Our Advantage:
Cost AND Differentiation Leadership
• Cost Leadership => man
hours/ton
• Differentiation Leadership =>
increased focus
on complex
Thank You