Collaborative Engineering:
AMRCC member practitioner of this technology
WHAT ARE COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGIES?
Collaboration technology allows people, or groups of people, to work together from remote sites. Design sessions, product reviews, supplier meetings, and customer reviews no longer require travel and time away from daily work. Depending on the software being used everything from 2-D drawings to Microsoft office documents to 3-D model assemblies can be viewed, marked-up, manipulated, and modified in an interactive session by computer.
This report will briefly describe the uses and advantages for a sampling of these technologies and software packages.
<< Return to Top
BENEFITS
Some of the many potential benefits of using Collaboration technologies include:
- A design project team no longer needs to be co-located. They can collaborate on a design online in a virtual meeting with their counterparts across town, within company divisions across the nation, or with resources across the world.
- Design and Marketing reviews of a 3-D model concept can be held across a company's divisions, or with divisions and customers across the globe linking up multiple sites.
- Suppliers can join collaboration sessions to discuss parts or tooling directly with their customer from their location.
- Companies can compete for business across long distances by offering the ability to regularly meet with their customer and collaborate on projects without incurring the expense and lost work time of travel to their site.
- There are tremendous savings in travel costs, combined with the savings of employee down time while traveling, that face to face meetings require. None of the involved parties in these sessions are required to spend more than the length of a normal meeting away from their company or their primary job.
- Improves designs, shortens design cycles, and reduces time to production and market by improving communications without requiring travel. Because travel is not an issue larger groups of people from multiple areas of expertise can join in sessions to provide more, and better, input.
- Allows companies to take advantage of resources within their own company divisions, external resources and expertise, and low cost suppliers that otherwise would be too far away to use effectively.
<< Return to Top
UNIQUE SYSTEM APPROACHES
Several types of software exist geared towards specific types of collaboration:
- Systems geared towards 2-D documentation. These systems allow multiple users to view, create, mark-up, and modify 2-D documentation such as Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Project files, schedules, etc. They allow sites that are not co-located to conduct virtual meetings and review documentation together. Users see the same screen, and in most cases each can be given the ability to manipulate the data being viewed.
- Systems geared towards 3-D documentation. These systems allow multiple users to view, mark-up, and in some cases modify and create 3-D models. Some systems are tied to their own native format, some also accept neutral format files (IGES, STEP, SAT, etc.), and others have been enhanced to accept several native formats plus neutral formats.
- Some systems allow for the use of a web cam to allow the users to see each other and interact, and most work in conjunction with a teleconference.
<< Return to Top
SYSTEM CAPABILITIES TO CONSIDER
- Some systems have difficulties going outside a company firewall or allowing access in through the firewall. These systems do not lend themselves to working with outside suppliers or customers.
- Some systems require better Internet connections than others, depending on how data transmission is handled. Some 3-D systems such as CoCreate OneSpace handle 3-D data by sending image data out to the "client" attendees from a central server that supplies the horsepower to actually load and manipulate the models. Any queries of the model, modifications, or additional models being loaded are sent to the central server for processing. This avoids requiring all participants to have higher end PC's at their disposal, and allows connections down to the modem level to be used.
- Ease of use. Look at the amount of training required to learn how to use the program. If the program is too difficult to run and time consuming to learn you may run into resistance from suppliers or customers that don't have the resource to commit to learning a complex system.
- How difficult is the program to install. If you plan on using the program with remote sites or suppliers that do not have systems support resource look for programs with installation wizards or other aids that make them intuitive and simple to install.
SYSTEM COMPARISONS
<< Return to Top
JUSTIFICATION FOR IMPLEMENTING COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY
- One of the easiest ways to justify the cost of Collaboration software is to capture the cost of travel and loss of employee time during travel. These are usually readily available costs tracked through expense reports or travel reports. The hours of employee time lost during travel are also easily calculated against a cost per hour the company loses.
- Other justifications which are more difficult to calculate are:
- Shorter time to market. Revenue that could be earned if the product is on the market and available for sale quicker.
- Better product design with less chance for errors or do-loops.
- Broader market that your company can serve. Takes long distance issues out of the loop.
<< Return to Top
AVAILABLE COLLABORATION SOLUTIONS
This is a relatively new and rapidly expanding technology. The softwares listed in this section are a small sampling of the available products that are on the market that PDT&T group members have contact or experience with.
- CoCreate OneSpace Advisor (Introduced in early 1999)
- 2-D viewing and mark-up.
- 3-D viewing, modification and mark-up.
- Unlimited number of participants per session.
- Processes data through a main server and downloads image data to the client PCs. This reduces lag time and speeds up the process. All processing is done in the main server to allow the use of low end PCs for clients.
- Does not require a license for specific CAD systems.
- Has the ability to import neutral format files such as IGES, STEP, SAT.
- Has available adapters for several major CAD systems to allow you to import native files from those systems. There is an additional cost for these adapters.
- Owner of the software and server is allowed to give out client licenses at no extra cost. Licenses can be downloaded from the CoCreate website over the Internet. Suppliers, customers, etc. can be given a license at no cost.
- Sessions are interactive. Ownership does not have to be assigned to allow members to manipulate models, etc.
- Files can be downloaded by members during the session. Security is provided to allow the meeting organizer to limit access to download files and view entire assemblies by the various members of the session.
- ProEngineer Design Collaboration Extension (DCX) (Introduced Spring 2003)
- 2-D and 3-D viewing and modification of ProEngineer files.
- 15 participants per session.
- Requires each participant to have a ProEngineer license as well as a DCX license.
- Data is stored to each PC in the session.
- Data is controlled by one member at a time. Control can be passed to another member upon request.
- Webex/Microsoft NetMeeting
- Work with many types of software.
- Relatively inexpensive.
- Don't require participants to have a license.
- The host computer must continuously refresh the bit-mapped display of the remote computers. This activity slows interactive performance and makes the remote application appear sluggish.
- Conference participants don't have access to the application data.
<< Return to Top
AMRCC member practitioner of this technology
The companies listed below, are willing to discuss their hands-on Collaboration Engineering experiences with you. Please feel free to use the email contact feature below to notify them of your interest. You will be contacted by the company's expert with that software to address your questions at their first convenience.
Company: Fisher Controls, Marshalltown, IA.
Collaboration Software: CoCreate OneSpace Advisor
Other systems used past or present: Windows NetMeeting.
Applications for Collaboration: Used to:
- Hold interactive design sessions with engineering at other global Fisher design centers.
- Collaborate with suppliers online to convey requirements, and design parts to best fit the process creating them.
- Hold design, marketing, and manufacturing reviews involving personnel from other Fisher divisions and sites.
Data used in collaboration sessions: 3-D models, 2-D drawings, Microsoft office documents, JPEG files, digital pictures, etc.
For additional information from this current user, contact: Fisher
<< Return to Top
Click Service Providers to search Iowa companies by solution
Search Useful Links to find manufacturers and suppliers of this technology.
