Decision support in the quotation process of engineered-to-order products

doi:10.1016/j.aei.2011.07.001

Advanced Engineering Informatics

Volume 26, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 66-79

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2011.07.001 Get rights and content

Abstract

Sub-suppliers acting in the supply chain of the car industry have to adopt a strategy of products customization to be at the competitive edge. This is caused by the diversity of client’s requirements that entails customer engineered products with a high level of variety. A business strategy based on engineered-to-order products requires systems for efficient generation of product variants. This also includes a need of decision support in the order preparation process as well as in the quotation preparation process. Decision support that gives access to detailed and accurate information in the quotation preparation enables a high level of product adaptation while ensuring company efficiency. By the introduction of a design automation system, this can be achieved. However, means to manage different application domains, projects, task knowledge and design information are required together with a possibility to perform detailed analyses on the system generated information. The objective of this work is to contribute in that area. Initially, a number of success criteria were identified and explorative work was conducted for the purpose to develop a conceptual model and principles that an application system would reside upon. The result is a framework consisting of an information model and underlying principles to be used when developing a design automation system for quotation preparation. A system founded on the framework supports management and analysis of quotations and product variants. The functionality and usefulness has been demonstrated and validated by a system implementation developed in collaboration with an industry partner.

Introduction

Many companies base their business strategy on an engineer-to-order approach providing product concepts that are highly adaptable to different customer specifications. These product concepts appear frequently in the business-to-business market and range from discrete parts to complex products. The companies providing these products are commonly involved in many quotation processes and to be able to respond quickly with competitive prices and a short product delivery time while ensuring company profitability, these companies have to introduce design automation. This implies the deployment of a process view of the product concept and the definition of a product platform for variant designs incorporating engineering knowledge (e.g. mechanical design, production engineering, and cost engineering). Automation of product design, process planning, and cost estimation integrated in a system enable design proposals to be generated in a short time with minor effort. Different product variants can be evaluated while cutting off delivery time of products and offers [7], while guaranteeing consistent design calculations. One task suited for automation is quotation preparation including the definition of principle product design, process planning and cost estimation.

The advantages to gain by introducing design automation to support the quotation process are not difficult to see. What become a lot more difficult to answer are the issues related to how it should be realized. The scope and the purpose of this research originate from industrial problems and needs which have been identified within research projects carried out in near collaboration with five industrial partners.

The main objective of this work is to provide a system foundation for automated quotation preparation. The focus is on a solution that enables generation of different product variants based on varying customer requirements as well as changes in product and manufacturing properties. Management of different application domains, projects, task knowledge and design information should be supported together with the possibility to perform detailed analyses on the data generated by a system implementation. Collaboration and decision-making in the quotation processes should be supported by the possibility to easily evaluate different solutions and their effects on different technical and economical aspects. The industrial and scientific objective is to provide concepts and principles supporting application system development and utilization for both practitioners and researchers.

Section snippets

Research methodology

This work is associated with research in design automation. There, the four domains – domain knowledge, process character, tools and computer implementations – are considered as base elements for system realization, and their combinations into design automation systems in an industrial environment are studied. The aim of the research in this field is to derive new knowledge including descriptive statements gained by analyzing existing solutions and industrial practice, or prescriptive

Related work and state of the art

The research in the field of design automation has been conducted for about half a century [4]. Focus has been on both the automation of the design process and the automation of the design object during the years. The work has mainly adopted an object oriented supported by the evolution in CAD software, i.e. the rules have been defined and organized in accordance with a product structure. This has been further supported by the different commercial KBE tools available today for modeling of

Quotation preparation of engineered-to-order products

The quotation process can be divided into three sub-processes; request for quotation (RFQ), quotation preparation, and quotation evaluation. The quotation preparation in the manufacturing industry is very important. From the manufacturer view, it precedes the order preparation (Fig. 2) and is initiated by a customer request for quotation. What have been quoted concerning functionality, price, quality and delivery time will affect the final business success. Hence, it is essential to have access

Supporting management and analysis – General principles and conceptual model

In order to build, use and maintain a system it is essential to find an information model that agrees well with concepts and working practices used at work daily by the users. Several domains are commonly involved in the quotation process, and the concepts in these domains are linked in a complex way constituting a semantic model. Information related to these domains has to be represented, captured, structured and stored, allowing for analysis to be performed on the stored information. In the

Case study – Realization and use

A general tool, ProcedoStudio, has been developed based on the principles and models presented in the previous sections. The tool, that is a shell for modeling, execution and management of different knowledge domains, has been used for setting up a pilot application system for automatic design of seat heaters to be used in the quotation process at a company. Both the development of the general tool and the development of the application system have been conducted in close collaboration with a

Conclusion

The presented work provides an approach, i.e. an information model and underlying principles, to be used when developing a design automation system for quotation preparation. The objective to support the development of a computerized decision support that enables generation of different product variants based on varying customer requirements as well as changes in product and manufacturing properties was successfully reached. This includes means for management of different application domains,

Acknowledgements

This work was conducted within a Swedish Knowledge Foundation granted project and financial support is gratefully acknowledged. The author would also like to express his gratitude to Kongsberg Automotive for providing information and knowledge about the case of application as well as for collaboration and helpful discussions. Finally, Lars Johansson, Swerea IVF, and Martin Tapankov, Jönköping University, participated in the system development, and their contribution is greatly acknowledged.

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Decision support in the quotation process of engineered-to-order products

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Research methodology

Related work and state of the art

Quotation preparation of engineered-to-order products

Supporting management and analysis – General principles and conceptual model

Case study – Realization and use

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Advanced Engineering Informatics

Journal of Production Economics

Introduction

Product Customization

CRC-cards for the development and maintenance of product configuration systems

Creating a documentation system to support the development and maintenance of product configuration systems

WSEAS International Conference on Computer Engineering and Applications