BUSINESS INNOVATION VIA COLLABORATION

e-Manufacturing: Web-based Collaboration Systems for SMEs

Kwangyeol Ryu, Seokwoo Lee, Wonpyo Hong, Dongyoon Lee and Honzong Choi

e-Manufacturing Center, Korea Institute of Industrial Engineering, 7-47 Songdo-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, Korea

Keywords: e-Manufacturing, Collaboration, Manufacturing Innovation.

Abstract: Unpredictable challenges from global markets and customers make manufacturers difficult to produce

quality products satisfying cost and time constraints. To cope with competitive and dynamically changing

internal and external conditions, the manufacturing industry needs to be equipped with advanced

technologies including IT as well as substantial infrastructure. “e-Manufacturing” is referred to as a system

methodology enabling the integration of manufacturing operations and functional objectives of an enterprise

by using intelligent IT technologies such as Internet, tether-free communication methods including wireless

networking or web-based connections. The key factor of e-Manufacturing is collaboration. Hence, we have

developed four kinds of web-based collaboration systems, referred to as hub systems, while conducting e-

Manufacturing project funded by the Korea government. In this paper, therefore, the functions and

characteristics of each collaboration hub systems will be introduced. Furthermore a case study of business

innovation by applying collaboration systems for SMEs(small and medium sized enterprises). As a result of

applying collaboration systems to SMEs, they can get competitiveness because of effective web-based tools

for them, and reach business innovation which makes them survive in a global market.

1 INTRODUCTION

The manufacturing industry has been facing with

unpredictable challenges brought on mostly by

dynamically changing customer demands. To cope

with competitive external conditions, the

manufacturing enterprises of today should equip

advanced technologies based on substantial

infrastructure including network facilities, which

supports speedy communication and rapid data

transactions. Due to widespread availability of the

Internet over the past decade, business of the

enterprise has been evolving into e-business, which

innovates in business processes and systems such as

Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP), Supply Chain

Management(SCM), Product Lifecycle Management

(PLM), Customer Relationship Management(CRM),

and so forth. It has aided the acceleration of rapid

and smart production in manufacturing systems to

fulfill requirements of customer such as short

delivery, low cost, and quality products(Lee, 2003).

Although many companies and government have

tried to innovate in manufacturing industry, they

tend to invest funds only for facilitating partial

sections of a whole business such as product or

production technologies, manufacturing process, and

business services. Business innovation, however,

must occur in all dimensions – product, process, and

organization – to improve business performance and

competitiveness. Companies are seeking new ways

of providing additional value to customers and

gaining a competitive edge over their competitors.

As a representative way of gaining competitiveness,

they are focusing on the collaboration even with

their competitors. Today’s worldwide economic

conditions also call for them to modify their

business processes. As a consequence,

manufacturing enterprises(especially small and

medium sized companies, i.e., SMEs) are focusing

on on-line or off-line collaboration to get the power

of scale and to manage processes effectively.

When we compare a commitment of manpower

during the product lifecycle between global leading

companies and most of the Korean SMEs, focal

points are definitely different as depicted in Figure 1.

Most of Korean SMEs seem to ignore the

importance of the initial stage for making products

including product design, process planning, etc.,

thereby they often alter production schedules and

force subcontractors to rework changed parts. Hence,

they expend a significant amount of manpower later

198

Ryu K., Lee S., Hong W., Lee D. and Choi H. (2007).

BUSINESS INNOVATION VIA COLLABORATION - e-Manufacturing: Web-based Collaboration Systems for SMEs.

In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - SAIC, pages 198-201

DOI: 10.5220/0002372301980201

 SciTePress

in dealing with inherent quality errors or claims

from customers. Such waste can be prevented by

making collaboration in the early stages as done by

leading companies. Experts in each process gather

and make lots of discussion with each other to

reduce errors possibly occurring during and after

production. By doing so, they do not encounter

many after-sales troubles even though they spent

much time and effort in early stages. In short,

collaboration in the early stages produces a big

difference in quality of final products.

Enterprises must capture, manage, and leverage

their intellectual assets to differentiate themselves.

The best way is to use the right application which

supports collaboration. Collaboration is the most

important factor to increase a company’s flexibility

and agility to respond swiftly to changing market

pressures and competitors. Collaboration is being

viewed as the next big wave after e-Commerce,

digital commerce and several other variants that

have emerged over the last decade [4-5]. According

to the outcomes of the e-Manufacturing project, as

illustrated from the following section, collaboration

systems can function as a good extranet as well as

intranet especially for SMEs who have insufficient

infrastructure or network facilities.

Pr o d u c t

Planning

Design Drawing Making

Molds

Reliabilit y Parts

Approval

Mas s

Production

Deliver

to Market

Korean SME

Leading Company

Manpower

Design Team

Product Planning Team

Product Development Team

Mold Subc ontractor s

Injection Company

Qualit y/Reliabilit y

Te a m

Purchasing

Qualit y Control

of Final Product s

Mass

Production

Post - produc tion,

Assembly Company

Qu a l i t y

Ga p

Majo r

Ac t o r s

La c k o f

planning skill &

collaborat ion

La c k o f

design skill

La c k o f

Te chnology of

subco ntract o rs

Fr e q u e n t

change s in

design

Inherent e rrors

in quality are

repeat ed

Collaboration

Figure 1: Comparison of product development lifecycle.

2 E-MANUFACTURING

e-Manufacturing can be referred to as a system

methodology enabling integration of manufacturing

operations and functional objectives of an enterprise

by using intelligent IT technologies such as Internet,

tether-free communication methods including

wireless networking or web-based connections(Ryu

et al., 2004). It is a novel concept or paradigm in

manufacturing areas used to meet the requirements

for the complete integration of all business

participants including suppliers, manufacturing

elements, and customers through the effective use of

web-enabled technologies.

e-Manufacturing does more than just connect the

Internet to the shop floor. It provides a fundamental

change in a enterprises’ strategic value proposition.

It is a collection of systems, processes, and

technologies supporting and enabling manufacturers

to collaborate with others. To effectively embody

collaboration, the following tools are developed;

 Tools for data mining, transforming, and

transferring to manufacturing facilities via

web-enabled applications,

 Intelligent methods and tools for monitoring,

predicting, and resolving undesirable events

such as deterioration, trend of performance

loss, machine faults or failures, etc.,

 Tools for optimizing processes and operations

to improve system performance,

 Synchronization tools for integrating systems

associated with e-Manufacturing such as MES

(Manufacturing Execution System), PLM

(Product Lifecycle Management), etc.,

 Tools for satisfying customers by providing

qualified services including engineering

services, technical assistance, consulting, etc.,

 Collaboration methods and applications

enabling companies to cooperate with others

amicably by supporting easy sharing of

data/information/knowledge.

e-Manufacturing project was launched as a pilot

program by both central and regional governments

to build up infrastructure to promote collaboration

and technology development among companies in

2004. The industrial section where the collaboration

system first applied was injection-mold. However, it

will be enlarged to other major industrial sections

including automobile, machinery, electronics, etc.

Furthermore, the application region of the project

will be spread out from the metropolitan area to

local areas as well as overseas countries. Note that

the number of SMEs who participated in the project

was 81 in 2005 and it becomes 210 in 2006. The

goal, model, and main characteristics of the e-

Manufacturing project can be summarized as

illustrated in Table 1.

Table 1: Outline of the e-Manufacturing project.

Description

Goal

To increase industrial competitiveness

and added value via collaboration

Model

Business innovation model including both

on-line and off-line collaboration

Characteristics

The project develops collaboration

systems via cooperation between

government and industrial entities

BUSINESS INNOVATION VIA COLLABORATION - e-Manufacturing: Web-based Collaboration Systems for SMEs

199

2.1 Collaboration Systems

The collaboration systems have been independently

implemented (but are now being integrated)

according to their specific objectives. As illustrated

in Figure 3, we have developed Design_Hub,

Production_Hub, Blow_Hub, and Engineering_Hub

from 2004 to 2005, and we are now building up a

new one referred to as Automold_Hub. The

Design_Hub was first developed among 5 systems to

support collaborative design of molds by providing

useful tools including CAD conference, 3D drawing

visualizer, collaborative project manager, etc. While

developing Design_Hub, we started to develop

Blow_Hub which is specialized one according to the

product type. That is to say, blow-product can be

produced when two types of molds are equipped

with (i.e., parison mold and blow mold). At the same

time, another collaboration system, namely

Production_Hub was developed to support

collaboration among small companies who have

different production skills including machining with

CNC, discharge of electricity, try-out, CAM,

assembly, etc. In the mean time, for mold companies

involved in the e-Manufacturing project, the use of

three collaboration systems often got them into

trouble because of the inveterate inferiority in the

quality of products, parts, modules, and molds. To

support them by providing engineering technique

and knowledge, Engineering_Hub was newly

developed in 2005. By utilizing Engineering_Hub,

mold companies receive benefits from helpful

information or service provided by engineering

experts when faced with any intricate problem or

need to consult engineering knowledge such as CAE

(Computer Aided Engineering) analysis and 3D

inspection, etc. Figure 3 illustrates functional areas

and topology of aforementioned collaboration

systems configured from the process point of view.

All functions of the collaboration systems are

provided as a type of ASP (application service

provider) so that users can use them at anytime and

everywhere. Functions are summarized as follows;

 Design_Hub

− Managing collaboration project information and

history of injection molds

− Managing standard work templates and

distributing drawings and documents

− Online conference with 2D/3D CAD drawings

− Searching project/data information according to

users’ permission to access

 Blow_Hub

− Managing collaboration project information and

history of blow molds

− Managing standard business templates

− Providing part library supporting parametric

design of parison and blow molds

− Same functions supported by the Design_Hub

 Production_Hub(Figure 3)

− Planning and scheduling including outside

orders by simulation(with delivery or cost)

− Distributing specification of parts or modules to

the cooperating companies

− Monitoring production progress of cooperating

companies, and reporting it to customers

through SMS (short message service)

− Providing online CAE, inspection services

− Supporting the calculation of production costs

Expansion

of covering

Processes

(2006)

Design_Hub

Technology

Collaboration

Mold Design & Production Extrusion / Mass ProductionProduct Design

Inverse

Design

Mock-up

CAS

Conferencing

Photo

Clinic

Automold_Hub

(2006 brand-new)

Production_Hub

CAM

Standard

Machining

Discharge

Electricity

Core

Machining

Precise

Machining

Assembly

Maintenance

Concept

Design

Concept

Design

Blow_Hub

Trouble

Shooting

Trial Shoot

Blowing

Parison-mold

Design

Blow-mold

Design

Assembly &

Inspection

Engineering_Hub

CAE Analysis

Inspection

Trial Shoot

Quality

Approval

Novel

Technology

Defection

Consulting

Consulting/

Experts

Design

Collaboration

Collaboration with

Drawings and Technology

Styling

Part

Design

Part

Design

Review

Design

Review

Pilot

Product

Pilot

Product

Mold

Design

Mold

Design

Production

of Mold

Production

of Mold

Assembly

& Inspection

Assembly

& Inspection

Trial

Shoot

Trial

Shoot

Trouble

Shooting

Trouble

Shooting

Extrusion

Conceptual Product Design

specialized hub

according to

the product type

Figure 2: Functional area and topology of each collaboration systems.

ICEIS 2007 - International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

200

A System connecting Technical Collaboration Hub

Connection

to other

Hub Systems

Collaboration

w/ Drawings/

Visualization

On-line

Conference

w/ Drawings

Pro/ E MS- Of f iceCATIA

System

Interface

Supporting

CAM

in the field

Production

Scheduling

System

Process

Mgnt.

System

Visualization

Mold Design

Standardization

Web- based Collaboration Hub System (

Production_Hub

)

Security Mgnt.

Progress

Monitoring

Quality Mgnt.

(Self-inspection)

Company/User

Mgnt.

Process Mgnt.Process Template

Getting Orders

Design Collaboration Group

Pilot Product

Mold Design

Part Design

Product Design

Collaborative

Mold Production

Factory 1

(CAM)

Factory 2

(NC proc.)

Factory 3

(electric pro.)

Factory 4

(EDM proc.)

Factory 5

(Assembly)

Factory n

(etc.)

Collaboration

Production

Hub DB

Process

History

Figure 3: A system model for Production_Hub.

 Engineering_Hub

− Online CAD/CAE conference with customers

− Managing projects and history of eng. services

− Supporting connection between experts and

customers by organizing communities

− CAI (Computer Aided Inspection) tools for

verifying CAD drawings by comparing them

with skin data points inspected together

 Automold_Hub

− Managing three types of collaboration projects

including styling, inverse design, and parts

development

− Providing collaboration tools such as Photo

Clinic (online voting tools/AHP), on-line CAS

(Computer Aided Styling) conference, CAI, etc.

− Supporting web-based tools for making design

mock-up of automobile and sharing information

with customers

2.2 Case Study of Production_Hub

As an illustrative application, a virtual company,

referred to as “Moldzone”, accomplished business

innovation by applying Production_Hub. The

consortium utilizing Production_Hub consists of 20

mold design/production companies in 2005. Most of

them were regarded as poor and small-sized

companies before using the collaboration system.

Because of their structural limitation, they found it

difficult to survive by getting orders requesting them

to make a single part/mold, while being responsible

for all production costs (e.g., labor cost, electricity,

water, etc.). Furthermore, external market conditions

push them lower the price of molds because there

are so many companies in China, who can do the

same job at lower cost.

In the meantime, they apply Production_Hub to

obtain an effective and efficient way to collaborate

with each other. They use the system as the intranet

to manage all data and information of each company.

They also use it as the extranet to collaborate with

each other. As a consequence, 9 companies reached

the consensus that they should migrate at the same

place in order to reduce indirect costs by sharing

expenses, thereby allowing them to be equipped

with competitive power. They redefined the roles,

processes, and responsibilities of each company

according to their ability to perform in order to use a

web-based collaboration system, Production_Hub .

After applying Production_Hub, their business

model has been changed from product based model

to relation based one.

They are now getting turnkey-typed orders that

request multiple molds at once mostly from overseas

companies. They have increased mold quality but

reduced delivery time and cost. Statistically

speaking, they have achieved a 44.2% increase in

production quantity, 78.7% increase in revenue, and

a 192% increase in their profit. As well, delivery

time has been reduced from 90 days to 60 days (33%

decrease). Currently, they are operating Moldzone II

in order to enlarge their items to produce (mostly

big-sized molds for making automobile parts).

3 CONCLUSIONS

The e-Manufacturing project is designed to build up

infrastructure as a part of its efforts to promote

collaboration and technological development. It is

referred to as a scheme designed to promote

informatization of the manufacturing sector by

innovating and integrating new product development,

procurement, production, logistics, after-sales and

other manufacturing processes based on Korea’s

strong IT infrastructure.

It is our strong belief that developing and

providing collaboration infrastructure to

manufacturing companies is the best strategy for the

innovation in manufacturing industry. By applying

IT and web-based technology into the conventional

manufacturing industry, manufacturing companies

can achieve competitiveness and manufacturing

innovation as well.

REFERENCES

Lee, J., 2003. e-Manufacturing – fundamental, tools, and

transformation, Robotics and Computer Integrated

Manufacturing, 19: 501-507.

Ryu, K., Choi, H., Lee, S., 2004. Framework of e-

Collaborative Engineering Services for Mold

Companies in Korea, IMS Int. Forum, Cernobbio,

Italy, 17 May – 19 May: 1128-1137.

BUSINESS INNOVATION VIA COLLABORATION - e-Manufacturing: Web-based Collaboration Systems for SMEs

201