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Has Computer Aided Design (CAD) improved our lives?

Thursday, July 8th, 2010 by Setpoint

We all remember how CAD would save the world and make our engineering lives more productive, error proof, and repeatable. Well the jury is in and it’s far from the end all be all.

CAD software is just one of many tools that we engineers use.  It has its value but I have found that it’s not for everything and in many cases it can hinder getting the work done.  It does not take the place of a thinking brain and sometimes it will lengthen the time line on certain projects.  When using CAD people will sometimes go into a black hole and design something that may be a bad idea to begin with, and instead of being trashed right then and work on the next iteration, there is now a beautifully articulated drawing complete in every way that is discarded and worthless. Sometimes something is designed in CAD that just needed a rough sketch.  In the past we could take paper and hand sketches over to a machine shop and work with them and get the parts more quickly than the time it takes to get a 3D model.

At one point one of our customers forced us to switch from one CAD software program to another product.  It cost us $60,000 in hardware just to make the change and we experienced a drop in performance since the engineers had to learn a new program.  The first year we looked at the mechanical engineering cogs for weldments, tools, machined parts, and sheet metal material, looked at the design and engineering hours and normalized the cost of living, cpi, and for everything we’ve bought since the conversion.  The ratio was dead steady and then there was a decline in productivity with a hard cost of $300,000 and a soft cost for training and learning of another $300,000.  Upgrading and going to new systems all the time is a complete waste of money.  If you think you’re going to be more efficient, you’re not.  The feature set increases faster than you can learn to use them and implement them.

Another time when using CAD software is inefficient is concepting.  This is the initial phase of design and it doesn’t replace a good artist or hand sketcher and a competent engineer. In concepting scale reviews aren’t important.  For example designing a car in CAD isn’t as good as building a model on the floor where several people can walk around it and look at it.  Way too many people have only one tool in their toolbox, CAD.  It replaces thinking for action and they can struggle all day drawing some image rather than going and getting a piece of wood and testing it.

What has your experience been?  Has CAD software improved your workplace?

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Continually Implementing the 5 S System

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 by ksmith

After working for Setpoint for almost 4 years now I have come to expect the continual 5 S clean up around the office and the shop floor.  This year I was tasked with cleaning up our internal Company Intranet site and no sooner had I started that when I was tasked with going through the 5 S’s of sort, straighten, shine, standardize and sustain of our website.  After we found so much unneeded stuff on our Intranet we wanted to make sure our website wasn’t filled with a bunch of old or outdated information.

Sorting though and looking at what you have on a website seems to take a while because not only are you cataloging what is there, you’re making decisions on its importance.  Working at a custom automation company there have been many projects that we have done over the years, and from a marketing standpoint I wanted to emphasize all the capabilities that we possess.  However, from a company standpoint I had to consider which capability was a critical core competence that we wanted our potential customers to understand vs. a capability that is more of a commodity that most automation companies possess.

Straightening up the site required that I carefully go though the website and make sure everything had a consistent look, feel, and were in the same places.  For instance the lead generation form was important.  I know that I don’t like it when I go to websites and struggle to find the lead generation form or even to find my way back to where I came from so in straightening the information I have tried to make sure everything is set up the same.  I also felt that it makes it easier to go to various web pages if there is some similarity in where to go to find certain things.  For instance, under the about section there better be information about the company like their history, management, and press releases.  That’s what I have come to expect on other sites so I made sure it was the same for mine.

Shine is a little different on a website since you don’t have floors to sweep and polish, but it is no less important.  In shining the site I looked at the feeling or look of each page.  Does it have a clean look to it?  Is it really crowded or is it empty?  Shining for the website became the overall look and feel.  It’s hard to find your way around a site that is crowded and has a lot of extra stuff shoved into every corner.

Standardize came easily after sorting and straightening.  Once the importance of items had been established, the standardization of placing the content onto the website in a consistent way leads to a standard look and feel on each page.  Because each item had been sorted and straightened and the website “shined” the standardization fell easily into place.

Now comes the time of sustaining the changes made as well as sustaining the standardized process of placing new items onto the website.  It would be all too easy to just say whew we made it through that, but that’s not what the Toyota Production System (TPS) is all about.  TPS is all about continual change, making changes all the time to add value, continue to learn, grow and get better at what you’re doing.  That’s why continually running through the 5 S’s of sort, straighten, shine, standardize & sustain is so important.  Each time you go through the steps there will be new items to look at and work on.

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Discovering and Resolving Problems

Thursday, April 1st, 2010 by Setpoint

In any organization that intends to exist for an extended time period, learning is critical. Not repeating mistake allows a business increased profitability. Someone once said (I can’t remember who) something like - “the school of hard knocks is a hard school to go through, but only fools return”.

Over the years Setpoint has been, is, and will continue to be an engineering centric business. Most of the projects we build have never been built before; most are completely clean sheet designs, meaning that no one is quite sure what this machine will end up looking like. This means that there will be multiple iterations as we develop the machine. It is critical to our success that we discover our mistakes as soon as possible to reduce our costs. The table below illustrates how critical it is to discover the problems as soon as possible.

When Mistake is Discovered and Fixed

Relative Cost to Fix
Designing at the white board $1.00
Designing in CAD system $10.00
During build of machine $100.00
During debug phase $1,000.00
After installing at customer site $10,000.00

Over time we have developed some unwritten rules that we use to help us down the development path. For this blog we sat down and wrote down the ones that matter to Setpoint.  These are in no particular order:

  • Right to left thinking - What are we really trying to solve here?  What must be solved, what would be nice to solve, what doesn’t matter if it is solved? What happens if we just leave it alone?  Is it really a problem?

  • Stop to think and drive towards root cause or what really needs to be solved, it is too easy to get caught up in ‘noise’.  Always ask the five whys

  • Evaluate and Prioritize: does this need to be resolved this instant, don’t get caught up in minor issues and miss a fundamental problem - (forest for the trees). Most problems don’t have to be solved this instant – a little time and thought usually pays big dividends

  • Take a system view of problem, don’t resolve one problem and create 3 others because you isolated the problem and disconnected it from how it has to interact with the rest the system

  • Don’t get designed into a corner, you may need Plan B – in fact it usually helps to have more than one legitimate idea as you move forward. This helps avoid sticking with a solution too long that should be discarded.

  • You can’t ‘will it to work’. And ”it might work” generally means it won’t work

  • Document all important work in a simple manner…your memory’s not that great and often results in faulty assumptions that somehow get turned into facts. Always pull the data to see what is really going on. Many so called facts are generally assumptions…if in doubt, treat it as an assumption and react accordingly

  • Turn the problem objective into a math problem if possible. Typically the guy with the equation wins.  It is easy to argue about subjective ideas like – that’ll never last, that’s not strong enough, or that’ll never make cycle time. Facts should rule in those kinds of discussions

  • When debugging, only change one thing at a time if possible…seems slow but it’s much faster long term. That way you know what worked and what didn’t.

  • When debugging, document a known ‘baseline’ that can be returned to when you’ve tried 4 things & you can’t get anything to work anymore, if in doubt go back to the baseline.

  • Sometimes the best way to improve the Design Factor of a system is not by increasing the capability of the system but reducing the requirement…sounds obvious but it’s not.

  • When working on timing issues never forget parallel operations are your friend…once again, not always obvious

  • Watch for unaccounted moment loading in a design.  Forces are rarely overlooked; however, moments are commonly ignored

  • Is the process defined?  Because a process has been duplicated twice in a lab doesn’t mean it can be automated

  • What’s the simplest thing that could work?

  • Given enough time and money you can solve anything, is regularly heard on the engineering and assembly floors, and it is the enemy of profitability.

  • If you had to contribute your paycheck towards it would you still solve it that way?

  • And finally - What would Steve do?

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Our Annual 5 S Lean Cleanup

Thursday, February 18th, 2010 by ksmith

Each year at Setpoint as we begin the New Year we go through the 5 S process in our office.  We sort through everything at our desks, the shop, closets, and in the office in general to clear out those things that we no longer need or use.  Then we straighten everything up and rearrange stuff to clean things out and make it easier to find items that we use. 

This year as I was preparing to lead the 5 S cleanup the decision was made to cleanup our Intranet instead.  We got rid of so much over the last few years and hadn’t really accumulated much since our last cleanup.  However, our Intranet is about 5 or 6 years old and instead of cleaning old files off as they were no longer needed and keeping the architecture up to date as we went along, new links and pages were added instead.

If you ask the CEO to find a document on the Intranet he won’t be able to.  He tells me all the time that it’s confusing and that it takes too many clicks to find anything.  How in the world do you start sorting through the Intranet?  I started by making a list of every page and document that we had on there.  We have over 500 items on our Intranet, I had no idea.  Some of those items were duplicates where the same document was added into two different sections.  At least I knew what I needed to sort through.  It just goes to show that when you don’t pay attention to something, it can get totally out of hand as everyone keeps adding things that are not necessary.

The next thing I did was to ask everyone what documents they actually use from our Intranet.  For the most part, there were four documents that most people use.  The rest are either once in a while or they are not used at all.  That was an eye opener, why do we have so many documents available if no one ever even looks at them. 

Now it is time to straighten everything up.  Those items that are used will need to be grouped with like items so that within three clicks you can find any document on our Intranet.  I also need to come up with better category names so that by looking at it you will know what is included, rather than generic terms like “Forms”.

So I’m off to get these items straightened up.  Hopefully the next stage in this process will be easy.

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5 S Process in an Assembly Shop

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 by ksmith

Recently we talked about the 5 S process developed from the Toyota Production System.  Some believe that the 5 S process can only be implemented in a manufacturing environment and do not see the benefits of using this process to improve their work environment.  Here at Setpoint we have our design engineers in an office environment and our assembly technicians in a shop environment with both areas using the 5 S process. 

We made a video and put it out on YouTube to walk through our shop and show how the 5 S Process can be implemented in an assembly environment where we build one machine and ship it, then build a completely different machine.

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Sustain - the Fifth “S” of the 5 S System

Thursday, November 12th, 2009 by Ken

After the first four S’s from the Toyota Production Systems improvement process have been implemented, the most important work begins.  If you have gone to all the work of setting up the system you must sustain or even improve on it to keep the system working properly.  Things change and you need to be flexible.  If something is not working the way you would like change it and keep changing it until you are satisfied. 

For instance, you should be able to tell at a glance if all the tools are in they place or if your hardware is running low, you may have to walk around and check some key spots each night to make sure the system is being used properly.

We are all very quick to form habits and by repeating these steps over and over it will be no time at all and your employees will be telling you when parts are low or things are not where they belong.

The 5 S System may seem like a lot of work at first and it is, but the benefits far out weigh your initial investment.

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Standardize- The Fourth “S” of the 5 S System

Thursday, November 5th, 2009 by Malorie

Now that the first three 5S’s (Sort, Straighten, and Shine) have been implemented, the next step is to concentrate on standardizing best practices in your work environment, also known as the Japanese term Seiketsu. This involves creating a consistent approach for carrying out tasks and procedures amongst all employees and departments. Orderliness is the core of standardization.

If the first three steps have been followed correctly then standardization should fall right into place with the help of all involved.  Standardization receives the most success when everyone knows their role and rules of their area and therefore can be involved in the development of these standardized rules because they are valuable for the information they deal with on a day to day basis. In the end, everyone should know exactly what their job responsibilities are and they should know exactly how to perform as well.

This process works very well at Setpoint because we work in a very fast paced and schedule driven environment where we usually can’t afford to lose a day when someone has an unforeseen absence. Therefore by following the 5 S system there is usually someone able to step in and pick up right where the last person left off without having to ask a thousand questions and wasting time looking for parts or tools.

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SHINE - the Third “S” of the 5 S System

Thursday, October 29th, 2009 by John

Following Sort and Straighten in the Toyota Production System 5 S System is Shine.  Shine is going through and cleaning up the work area.  At the end of the day each person needs to clean up their workstation, sweep the floors, clean off their desk, and return tools to their proper place.  This should be incorporated into every day routines.

When you take the time to “shine”, you are preparing for the future. Today’s workplace is full 0f inconsistencies and infractions.  There needs to be order and organization desperately.   Without the shine chaos starts to take control. 

So when you use it be sure to clean it by puting it back away every day so as to make everybody’s everyday tasks easier to complete.  That will make the world turn smoother than it did before.

To catch up on the series, here are links to the other posts:

Overview of the 5 S System

Sort - the First “S” of the 5 S System

Straighten - the Second “S” of the 5 S System

Standardize- the Fourth “S” of the 5 S System

Sustain - the Fifth “S” of the 5 S System

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STRAIGHTEN - The Second “S” of the 5 S System

Monday, October 26th, 2009 by Bryan

The first principal of the 5S system, Sort, is where you take and identify those items that are needed for you to accomplish your work.  Those necessary items are what we will now focus on.  Straighten, or Setting in Order, is the second principal of the 5S system.  In order for you to have an efficient work place, you need to have the correct tools and supplies close at hand and you need to be able to quickly find them.  Everything must have its place, and be in its place.

Looking at the desks in our building, mine has to be the most disorganized.  When I am done with a book or an item it is pushed out of they way rather than placed back where it belongs.  It’s a good thing the engineers are moved around so my desk gets cleaned up once in a while.  I’m forced into compliance, although I’m no where near as bad as someone who worked here several years ago.  On the other hand, my garage at home…  let’s just say that sometimes it takes more time to find the tools that I need for a project than it does to complete the project.  This principal of 5S is all about making your work area more efficient.  Setting up work stations or areas for work and having the correct tools and supplies in those areas are keys to becoming more efficient in the tasks that you do.

In the area that you have to work set aside areas for the storage of supplies and tools.  Keep the tools that you need more often closer to hand than those that you use less frequently.  Set aside a place for them and label it.  Shadow boards or cut outs in foam in your tool box are good examples of this.  Doing this allows you to quickly find the tool that you need.  It also allows you to know at a glance if you are missing any tools needed for the job at hand.  Totes or bins can be labeled and placed in the areas that are needed.  If you are working on an assembly line only have the tools and supplies that you need in your area.  Arrange them in a fashion that facilitates the work flow.  Minimize the clutter. Put tools in their designated place after they are used.  Keep a clean and organized work area.

By organizing and cleaning your area, you can maximize your efficiency and increase your work flow.   Greater efficiency and more work done makes for happy people.  For me this means more time to do an extra item on the honey-do list at home.  And this does make the Boss happy.

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SORT - The first “S” of the 5 S System

Monday, October 19th, 2009 by Bob

In using the Toyota Production System to improve your organization you need to integrate the 5 S processes from your desk to the production floor. The first “S” is to sort out what is and is not needed to do the required work in the work area.

Sorting the things you need to do your job on your desk, in receiving, in the production area, on the assembly floor, and any work area helps you work more efficiently and less prone to misplaced parts and tools. What do you sort? What do you need to do the job or task including tools, parts, and paperwork? If you don’t need it to do your job, it shouldn’t be in your workspace. Not only do you need to sort out what you need, but evaluating the proper quantities of each is also very important. One way to determine what you should have at your workspace is to use the 24-48 hour rule. If you are not going to need it in the next 24-48 hours, it doesn’t need to be in your workspace.

Here at Setpoint, we sort just about everything that comes in the doors, including our engineers. When parts are received a label is attached and the part is placed in a subassembly tote and the tote is placed on the projects rack. When there are enough parts for assembly to begin, the rack is moved to a specific assembly area designated to that project. The assemblers can go grab a tote and take it to their work area to begin assembly. When the assembler needs screws, wire, air hose, or a tool he can go to that rack or cabinet where everything is sorted by type and size. He takes only what he needs and continues working. When he reaches a stopping point or completes the assembly, everything is placed back in the tote and back on the rack. He then grabs the next subassembly tote and begins the build process again. At the end of the day everything is put back in its place, including totes, tools, and paperwork so it is ready to go the next day.

This sorting process has allowed us to be very efficient at building our projects. Any one assembler can go to any project and determine what can and needs to be worked on. We know where to find any tool, wire, hose, or fastener without searching the shop floor. I have worked at other companies where this sorting was “sort of” used (pun intended), and it makes for a long day when you are searching for the part or tool you need because it was not returned to its sorted place.

As I mentioned before, not only do we sort the products coming in our door, but we sort our engineers as well. Depending on our current projects, our engineers get sorted into different teams to utilize their talents and experiences. Yes, this means moving our computers and our stuff from one area to another. I have been sorted at least five times in just over three years. Sometimes this can be a pain, but this sorting helps the team’s communication and makes the design process much more efficient. It also gives us a chance to sort out the accumulation of stuff from our workstation and place it in the proper place–the garbage.

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