标题: 我听见人家说。。。 [打印本页] 作者: zhizhi 时间: 2003-11-16 22:06 标题: 我听见人家说。。。 aggieengineerrmb (Mechanical) May 27, 2003
Does anyone have any positive experience with the implementation and use of a rules based product configuration software package? We are a valve manufacturer is part high volume manufacturer and part engineer to order supplier. My company would like to use this approach to help streamline the product quotation process by reducing (or eliminating) the need to get engineering involved with specific questions about what can be quoted and also insure that some of the tribal knowledge that currently exists in the heads of engineers is effectively captured. Seems like a good approach, but my experience with softare in the past is that it overpromises and underdelivers.
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BML (Industrial) May 29, 2003
I suppose it depends on what you mean by product configuration. The company I work at uses an assembly configurator to generate part identities, bills of material, and routings on the fly. It works great, and it is all based on pre-defined and pre-designed lower-level parts.
However, I have heard a lot of grumblings about configurators that will "design" a part for you. It seems that there are typically too many special considerations to be effectively programmed. Perhaps you can only "configure" a subset of products, and the rest that need special consideration could either be done manually or based off a configured model.
Hope this helps!
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Fawkes (Mechanical) Sep 12, 2003
The best method to adopt is to apply the pareto relationship. Target your configurator for 80% of the products but ensure that the business processes can maintain development without a configurator. This will provide the best return and also ensure that you don't lose engineering knowledge which can happen when you automate the design process.
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AHay (Computer) Sep 15, 2003
Knowledge-Based Engineering software can (and often does) deliver, but as the previous post mentions, you should not realistically aim to cover every case with this type of software.
There are many web sites covering techniques used for knowledge capture and maintenance to ensure that you get at the right information and store it in a useful, maintainable way. (Knowledge Management in Google)
Off the shelf packages can be used to represent simple rules and components with no programming, but for complex processes you will need to resort to some programming - but specific knowledge based applications can simplify the programming task.
KBE modules are available for many of the major CAD systems, but these don't always provide the flexibility that you are after. Some are nothing more than parametric models driven by formulae where as it sounds like you require something which will allow you to alter topology and size based on the user inputs.
This type of software requires a different approach to conventional software development methodologies - the software tends to evolve rather than being fully specified at the start of development, so the language used should support this (I'd rule out C/C++ for KBE). VB is a reasonable starting place if you've got experience of that, else I'd look to Python or Lisp.
Even if the rules aren't specific enough to perform on 100% of the cases, they usually give a good starting point for those that fall outside of the software scope.
Hope that helps. 作者: zhizhi 时间: 2003-11-17 09:20
ARKOS (Specifier/Regul) Sep 30, 2003
I磛e been working in large projects here in my country, Costa Rica, and recently I磀 figure out that there is a big difference between Project Management and Construction Management.
If I got it right, the Project Manager works with the design team, and is suppose to clearly understand the project requirements, in order to set the specification level and scope, pointing to a porpouse.
He must demand on the design team to improve and develope concepts to the limit, so he can match both, a cost and a quality.
The Construction Manager should be pushing and coordinating with the General Contractor, looking for the the better strategy, logistics, so a schedule can be set. The schedule will provide to major programs: The in-site-information schedule, that might me coordinated with the PM; and the purchase schedule. With this set of schedules, the CM can go and look for the Ownership磗 sign-offs, in order to allow the GC to proceed.
I will like to have some comments to this concepts.
Thank a lot.
Victor Garcia
ZURCHER ARQUITECTOS
San Jose - COSTA RICA
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RDK (Civil/Environme) Oct 2, 2003
The two terms have a lot of different meanings. Even in the same industry and within the same geographic areas the terms are at best ambiguous.
Often each company involved in a project will name someone their project manager for their portion of the work. Thus there will be a PM from the designer, one from the general contractor, one from each of the sub-contractors. There can be sub consultants and they can all have their own PM抯.
Generally the PM is concerned not only with the technical details of the work but the logistics and coordination of the project as well as the contractual and financial arrangements.
There is only one 憈rue?Project Manager for any given project. That is the one person who has the overall responsibility and authority to run the project and to bring the work to a successful completion within the time and budget allowed.
This person is typically directly hired (employee or consultant) by the owner.
Because the PM is also responsible for the management of the design contract, (including monitoring progress, authorizing payments etc.) he or she should never be an employee of the design consultant.
Construction Manager can also have several definitions. There is a construction project delivery method called construction management where someone or some firm acts like a general contractor and does not do any of the actual work with employees but divides the project up and sub-contracts the entire scope of the work.
Some construction companies also call their site superintendent a Construction Manager. (cheaper than a raise?)
The Construction Manager can also be a subordinate to the true project manager and be responsible to the PM for all field and construction activities. (Schedule, logistics, coordination etc. ) In that case the CM is usually someone from a consulting firm, either the designers (NOT recommended) or a specialty construction management firm.
The reason I do not recommend that the CM be from the design firm is that there is a conflict of interest in having the designer control the administrative, budgetary and schedule of the construction process. The designers are normally picked for technical capability. Good designers do not usually make good construction managers. The designer抯 representative will put the needs of the designers over the needs of the owners and of the project.
Often the CM will uncover design errors. The CM is the last opportunity to catch these errors before the work is completed. These errors have to have a fair hearing and full opportunities be made to correct them. If the designers are running the construction there will be incentive to cover up the errors or to blame the contractor. An independent CM will not care who is responsible, just what has to be done to correct the error.
Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng
Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com