Sww 2007 Lets Get Ready To Automate

Let’s Get Ready To Automate Preparing yourself, your company and your models for design automation. Paul Gimbel – Razorleaf Corporation

What you can expect in the next almost hour
Introductions…well, introducing me at least
Preparing yourself for design automation
Preparing your company for change
Planning your automation project
Preparing your models for automation
Questions and maybe, if we’re lucky, some answers

Paul Gimbel, Business Process Sherpa
Yes, that is my official title
Certified SolidWorks Professional (since program inception)
Certified SolidWorks Trainer/Support Technician (10 years)
Only Certified DriveWorks Enterprise Implementer
RuleStream Implementer (Certification Program Pending)
VB and SolidWorks API developer as needed
Business Development Leader – Design Automation Group
Business Development Leader – Business Process Group
Plays Well With Others…most of the time

Razorleaf Corporation
Services-Only company
Services include:
Process Analysis
Implementation
Training
Support
Technologies include:
Product Lifecycle Management
Product Data Management
Rules-driven Product Management
Design Automation
Custom Application Development
www.Razorleaf.com Call Now!! Operators are standing by!

Razorleaf Belief
Today’s organizations can be market leaders through the proper application of business process that takes advantage of tomorrow’s technologies.

Preparing Yourself For Automation

We hold these truths to be self-evident…
It doesn’t matter what kind of automation you want to do:
DriveWorks
RuleStream
TactonWorks
Other Commercial Product
Custom Visual Basic Application
Custom Web Application
Excel VBA
Design Tables
SolidWorks Equations
Effectively Trained Monkeys

Think BIG
Automation Has Huge Potential
Revolutionizing How Companies Work
Saving DAYS and WEEKS
Doubling the Amount of Jobs They Take On
Offering Custom Products They Could Never Customize
Entering New Markets
Getting Engineers Back to Doing Engineering Work

Now Get Real
It takes a good bit of time
Is Saving Yourself 3 Minutes Worth A Month Developing?
Do you have another job to do?
It takes cooperation
100% Automation is generally unachievable
Drawings will most likely require manual rework

Asking Permission
You have to stop doing your job to work on this
That costs the company money
You have to prove to yourself and them that it’s worth it
How long will it take? Longer than you think
How much time will it actually save? Be realistic now
Will it bring new money into the company? That’s real money
Are you the best person for the job? I know you WANT to be
Who will REALLY have to give their permission?

If You Fail To Plan, Plan To Fail
Document your plan
Paint your vision of the future with your tool in place
Who will it affect?
Outline the new work instructions
What will need to be purchased?
Who will need to be involved?
What existing systems will you interface with?

Get Thee To Training
SolidWorks Training
API Training
VB.NET Training
Commercial Product Training

Preparing Your Company For Change

Prepare To Fail
An estimated 90% of change initiatives fail

Effective Change Requirements
Establishing a Sense of Urgency
Creating a Guiding Coalition
Developing a Vision and Strategy
Communicating the Change Vision
Empowering Broad-Based Action
Generating Short-Term Wins
Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change
Anchoring New Approaches In The Culture
From “Leading Change”, John Kotter, Harvard Business School Press

Creating a Sense of Urgency
“ Wow, wouldn’t it be cool” ain’t gonna cut it
EVERYONE has a natural resistance to change
People need a crisis to get them to change
Change requires 110% effort for 100% pay

Create A Guiding Coalition
You Can’t Do It Alone
If You’re Going To Change How People Work You Need Management On Board
How People Are Measured May Need To Be Changed
Management Needs To Walk The Walk Or Nobody Will Go Along With The Project

Developing a Vision and Strategy
Automation for Automation’s Sake Doesn’t Work
Must Be a Part of a Larger Vision
Must Be In Line With Company Vision
Clear Vision Means Where You Want To Be
Clear Strategy Means How You Intend To Get There

Communicating The Change Vision
Brings people on board with your plan
Everyone Else Has To Be On The Same Page
Those Not Cooperating Will Be Sabotaging You
Management has to show that they’re on board
Solicit feedback

Generating Short-Term Wins
People Need To See Success Or They Will Lose Faith
Small Bits Of Improvement Pay For Future Development
“Sell A Little, Make A Little, Learn A Lot” – Brain Brew
Get feedback and re-evaluate your development

Anchoring New Approaches In The Culture
If People Won’t Use It, It’s Worthless
People Need To Continue To Use It
It Needs To Become A Way Of Life
Don’t Assume Because You Think It’s Cool, Everyone Else Will Too
Corporate Culture Is Very Hard To Change
Years Of Change Have Been Reversed By Corporate Culture
Understand Your Company’s Culture

The Importance Of Process
Automating an inherently flawed process just creates more crap faster.

Technology AND Process Must Change Process Technology From “Technology Induced Change And The Line Manager”, Dr. Eliot Levinson Mutual Adaptation Automation Flexible Technical Implementation Non-Implementation Rigid Flexible Rigid

What is this mysterious thing we call “Process”!?!?
“ A complete end-to-end set of activities that together create value for a customer .”
From “Reengineering the Corporation”, Michael Hammer and James Champy, Collins Publishing

Localized Optimization
Parent/Child Relations in Processes
Changes Affect Downstream Steps
Need To Understand The Entire Process First
Include Others In The Automation Whenever Possible

It’s All About The Process
You’re not just changing your job
Processes are Cross-Functional in Nature
Technology Alone Cannot Yield Benefits
You have to change the way that you work to take advantage of the new technology

Gratuitous Slide O’Graphs * Numbers are completely fictitious and don’t mean anything. As required by Microsoft PowerPoint Code Section 9, Subsection H, Article 8.J.1.22

Planning Your Automation Project

Set Phasers To…um… Phase
Too much change at once will freak people out
It’s easier to troubleshoot and test in phases
Small successes will keep people on board
Let your work pay for itself

Understand Your Audience
Who will be using the program
Don’t limit yourself to engineering/SolidWorks users
Should your intended audience need SolidWorks
Will your users be attached to the network?
Will your users understand all of the terminology (ex. prospects)
Understand what they want to get out of it
You want to build it for them, not for you (customer-centric)

Step 1: Capture the Outputs
What do you want to come out of the back end
Technical Documentation
Quotations, Forms and other documents
3D Models, eDrawings
2D Drawings, DXFs, PDFs
Calculation sheets, Code reviews
What values are required to generate them
Information to appear on BOMs
Form Values
Dimensions

Step 2: Capture Inputs
What will the user need to put into the system
Don’t limit yourself to dimensions
Think of the end user and what they will know
Don’t just think solid models
Customer information
Order information
Address information
Pricing information

Step 3: Discover How To Get There
Calculations
Lookup Tables
Logic Statements
Conversions
Additional Input
L=2x + 3dt(n-1)

Preparing Your Models For Automation

Create Clean Models
Name your features and dementia
Create simple features with simple sketches
Establish all of your custom properties

Decide Where Your Calculations Go
Design Intent
Sketch Plane Choice
Dimensioning Scheme
Geometric Relations
End Conditions
Mating
Equations
Link Values
What Design Intent should go in SolidWorks
What Design Intent should go into the automation program
When in doubt, control it in the automation program

The Plane Truth About Automation
Use planes and axes for all mating
Faces can disappear unpredictably with model changes
Don’t be afraid to make redundant dimensions to locate planes
Assembly can be built without the geometry
Some design automation tools require named entities to mate

Swapping Components
Replace Components is not 100% reliable through the UI
It’s even less reliable through the API
The identical part will almost always swap properly
Build a model with the planes needed and then use Save As

Keep Your Distance
Avoid Distance and Angle Mates
These mates can have multiple valid solutions
Relative position of the components plays a role in the mate
Tendency to flip direction or orientation
“Flip Direction” not very descriptive as to which way is flipped
Create an offset/angle plane and mate to the plane

Now Go To Your Room!
Pay attention to Parent/Child Relations
Help! Help! I’m being suppressed!
Prepare for features to be deleted
Sketch on planes instead of faces
Suppressing a feature does not suppress the sketch
Use dimensions that can be driven instead of geometric relations in certain cases

Parent/Child Example Dimension Change Duplicate Dimensions

Testing. Testing. 1-2-3
Make sure that your models are parametrically correct
Respond appropriately to changes
Make extreme changes
Record simple macros to test parts of the model
Test simple, build complex
Cut-and-Paste, No lost work

Wrap Up

Preparing Yourself
Think of the big vision
Think about the process as a whole
Figure out who will be affected and be ready to deal with them
Get realistic
Figure out who you need to ask permission from
Prepare a written plan of action
Get training

Preparing Your Company
Make sure that there’s a sense of urgency
Make sure that management is on board
Make sure that you are in line with the corporate vision
Identify the process that you will be changing
Develop the changes to the process and the new technology simultaneously – mutual adaptation
Avoid Localized Optimization

Planning Your Project
Use phases – Short-Term wins
Understand your audience
Collect your outputs
Collect your inputs
Connect the dots
Iterate

Preparing Your Models
Create clean models
Decide where your design intent is going
Use planes and axes wherever possible
Prepare components to be swapped
Avoid distance and angle mates
Reduce parent/child relations
Test, test, test

Thank you! (For staying awake) Want to know more? Feel free to grab me at the conference or email me: [email_address]

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Sww 2007 Lets Get Ready To Automate

by Razorleaf Corporation

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