The biggest challenge to successful product design isn’t the limits of technology or the changing global marketplace- it’s the sheer number of tasks waiting for each engineer to complete! A large Work In Progress (WIP) queue turns innovation into imitation by delaying product launch. A large WIP reduces agility because new opportunities go to the back of the queue, yet only 2 percent of product developers measure their WIP queues and only 15 percent of them can quantify the cost of launch delay. But the answer isn’t to hire more people or pull your hair out- it’s to automate tasks that lend themselves to it, reducing your WIP queue and finally freeing your engineers to innovate! This presentations covers some techniques to quantify your WIP queue and how much it is costing you. It also covers how to automate the most common product development tasks that engineers, sales and quoting departments do every day, using a combination of SolidWorks software and the powerful automation add-in DriveWorks.

1. CAPINC Presents
Jason Pancoast
Engineering Manager
www.capinc.com

2. © CAPINC
Efficiency
Innovation
Preventing
Errors
PROFIT
Customer
Satisfaction
Reducing
Cycle Time
Cost
Reduction

3. © CAPINC
Time
Sales
Original Timeline
Minimal Impact of Delay
“Ideal Monopoly Case”
Delayed Timeline
Delay
Product Launch

4. © CAPINC
Time
Sales
Original Timeline
Delayed Timeline
Delay
Lost sales
Lost sales
Delay
= Cost Of Delay (COD)
Product Launch
Financial Impact of Delay
“Competitive Market Case”

5.  Explore Cost of Delay
applications and
implications.
 Learn how SolidWorks +
DriveWorks can reduce
delays and increase
profits.
 Measure the impact of the
Design-In-Process
queue.
© CAPINC

6. © CAPINC
Case 1:
COD: $10,000/week
• Product has issues that will delay launch 4 weeks.
• Issues will cost $50,000 in sales, Marketing predicts.
What do you do?
Case 2:
COD: $30,000/week

7. © CAPINC
Case 1:
COD: ???
• Product has problems.
• Development can find problems in 5 weeks.
• Manufacturing can find problems in 1 week.
• Manufacturing estimates that re-tooling to address
problems will cost $50,000.
Should Development push this immature product
to Manufacturing?
Case 2:
COD: $20,000/week

8. © CAPINC
Case 1:
COD: ???
Case 2:
COD: $20,000/week

9.  Only 15% of product developers
know their Cost of Delay.
 Employees on the same project
estimates’ vary by 50x.
 Proper economic framework can improve
estimates to vary only 2x.
© CAPINC

10. © CAPINC
Production Delay: Sales Quote Delay:
Ask your sales person:
• Would the customer
pay an extra 10% to
get a quote <24 hours?
• What % of sales would
you lose if quotes took
3 days instead of 1?
Why? Quantify COD for Sales Quote delay.

11.  Explore Cost of Delay
applications and
implications.
 Learn how SolidWorks +
DriveWorks can reduce
delays and increase
profits.
 Measure the impact of the
Design-In-Process
queue.
© CAPINC

12.  Knowing your Cost of
Delay turns debates into
profitable decisions.
 Learn how SolidWorks +
DriveWorks can reduce
delays and increase
profits.
 Measure the impact of the
Design-In-Process
queue.
© CAPINC

13.  Lots of back-and-forth between sales
and engineering.
 Engineering time is consumed by
repetitive work.
 Need to open up R&D opportunities for
new accounts and innovation.
 Requoting missed requirements is
embarrassing and time-consuming.
© CAPINC

14.  Automation is a benign circle. You
just need to get the
engine started.
 For best ROI, start
with low-hanging fruit!
 Create a positive-
feedback-loop.
 Then automate the
exceptions...
© CAPINC
Automation
Effort
Automated
Tasks
Queue
reduction
Excess
capacity!

15. © CAPINC
Input customer
requirements...
•Form-based user
interface
•Web Browser or Desktop
...Let knowledge-
based engineering
take over...
•Fast and powerful rules
engine
•Excel-style logic and
formulas
...Automatically
produce CAD and
other documents
•Behind-the-scenes
operation
•SolidWorks and MS Office

16. Capture customer requirements and create sales documents
© CAPINC

17.  Knowing your Cost of
Delay turns debates into
profitable decisions.
 Learn how SolidWorks +
DriveWorks can reduce
delays and increase
profits.
 Measure the impact of the
Design-In-Process
queue.
© CAPINC

18.  Knowing your Cost of
Delay turns debates into
profitable decisions.
 Implementing SolidWorks
with DriveWorks reduces
delays and increases
profits.
 Measure the impact of the
Design-In-Process
queue.
© CAPINC

19. © CAPINC
Work-In-Progress (WIP) Designs-In-Progress (DIP)
• Refers to physical parts
• Easy to see
• Tracked by Finance Departments
• Refers to ideas
• HARD to see
• UNTRACKED by 98% of
design houses!

20. © CAPINC
How
long?

21.  Cycle Time is a trailing indicator of
a problem.
 Queue size is a leading indicator.
 “Little’s Law” says you can measure
one to get the other, if you must...
© CAPINC

22.  Example1: If you complete 10 jobs per week,
and you have 50 jobs in process, your time in
queue is 5 weeks.
 Example 2: If your cycle time is 30 days and
you complete 2 jobs per day, your DIP is 60
jobs.
© CAPINC
Wait Time =
Queue Size
Processing Rate
* John D.C. Little, MIT, 1961

23. © CAPINC
5 weeks in queue
$30K per week COD
60 products per year
Cost of Queue = 5 x $30K x 60 = $9,000,000 per year

24.  Big DIP queue has damaging effects:
 Longer cycle time (Cost of Delay)
 Increased risk from changes over time
 Variability due to high capacity
 More overhead to maintain queue
 Lower quality from delayed feedback
 Less motivation to work with urgency
 Only 2% of product developers measure
their DIP queues!
© CAPINC

25.  Modest improvements in capacity
can dramatically reduce your queue!
© CAPINC
3 items at 75%
19 items at 95%

26. • Sales and Marketing
• CAD
• Analysis, Prototyping, and Testing
• Management Approval
• Purchasing
• Tooling
© CAPINC

27. DriveWorks
Administrator
+
+
DriveWorks
Autopilot
DriveWorks Live
DriveWorks Live users
EPDM
+

28. Generate engineering drawings and production documents
© CAPINC

29.  Knowing your Cost of
Delay turns debates into
profitable decisions.
 Implementing SolidWorks
with DriveWorks reduces
delays and increases
profits.
 Measure the impact of the
Design-In-Process
queue.
© CAPINC

30.  Knowing your Cost of
Delay turns debates into
profitable decisions.
 Implementing SolidWorks
with DriveWorks reduces
delays and increases
profits.
 Reducing your Design-
In-Process queue saves
costs dramatically.
© CAPINC

31.  For more theory...
read Reinertsen’s book
 For more application...
email salesinfo@capinc.com
© CAPINC

32. Thank you for attending
I’ve Got 99 Projects but Profit Ain’t One
Jason Pancoast
Engineering Manager
jpancoast@capinc.com
www.capinc.com