Universal Language Could Revolutionize Computerized Manufacturing : Technology: A Navy project aims to unify communication so that production time could be slashed and small orders filled efficiently.
With a dozen of the country’s top companies looking over their shoulders, computer scientists and engineers are working at a new building near Charleston’s airport, trying to make a few nuts and bolts for the U.S. Navy.
If they are successful, the $93-million project on which they are laboring not only will help the Navy solve one of its most difficult supply problems, but in years to come it could also lead U.S. industry into a new realm of sophistication in the world of computerized manufacturing.
At the heart of the project is the development of common computerized language for industry that would allow every part of the manufacturing process--from soliciting bids to general design to blueprints to retooling plants to making parts--to be guided by computers. What’s more, the computer language involved could be a standardized one used by companies as diverse as General Motors Corp., Westinghouse Corp. and McDonnell Douglas Corp., all of which have taken an active interest in what is happening here.
The factory incorporates all the latest buzzwords in state-of-the-art manufacturing. There is “just-in-time” delivery, meaning that supplies can be made so quickly that large inventories are not needed, and flexible manufacturing, meaning that the factory can make one product and then quickly switch to another.
But the South Carolina facility adds another important element--its common computer coding process--that experts say could radically change the way industry views the manufacturing process.
The facility is designed to make a variety of products that it has never seen before, in contrast with the more common flexible manufacturing systems designed to produce two or more specific, already-agreed-to items.
The project is built around this premise: If detailed directions for making a part could be put into a form that any computer could read, then all automated factories with the right basic tools could use those directions to turn out that part. Theoretically, employees would just pop the detailed computerized instructions for the spare parts into the manufacturing system, and the factory should be able to produce the item correctly the first time.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly the Bureau of Standards) has led the effort to achieve standard computerized part specifications; the Navy’s manufacturing system is being developed under a program known as RAMP, for “rapid acquisition of manufactured parts.”
Manufacturing executives say that RAMP and related technologies may profoundly change industry practices across a broad front--managing employees, product lines and supplier relationships.
The government has put its muscle behind the program, with the Pentagon already committed to building three RAMP manufacturing facilities and more under consideration. Ultimately, the Pentagon says, its goal--admittedly a long way off--is to insist that all weapons come with a complete set of computerized manufacturing instructions.
Dennis Cascio, plant manager of a Westinghouse facility in Buffalo, N.Y., explained RAMP’s allure this way: When a part breaks down on a Westinghouse toaster, that appliance could be 20 years old or older. Cascio’s plant then must come up with the proper spare parts, many of which may no longer be used on newer appliances. Currently, Westinghouse must either stockpile the parts, which is costly, or it must gear up to produce a low number of the parts, which also is expensive. Under RAMP, Westinghouse should be able to produce just one item efficiently.
“The technologies within RAMP are of immense value to anyone who is making toasters and washing machines,” as well as military equipment, said Rudi Germ, manager of computer integrated manufacturing for Electronic Data Systems Corp., the computer systems subsidiary of General Motors.
The Navy is interested in getting its ships out to sea, not in building toasters, but there too RAMP can help.
Far too often, a Navy official said, a ship is brought in for routine maintenance weeks before a planned deployment, only to discover that a critical part is damaged. In many cases, the part is out of stock, and its manufacturer has been out of business for years.
This problem is expected to get worse because an anticipated slowdown in defense spending could put many parts manufacturers out of business.
Currently, the Navy often cannibalizes another ship to get parts, and when the second ship is ready to sail, it takes a part from a third ship, and so on, until the part is produced. Unfortunately, producing the part normally takes an average of 12 months--and at a price that often makes the Navy gag.
“Because only one or two parts are generally needed, the parts are costly to produce and quality is hard to guarantee,” said Bob Houts, director of the Navy’s advanced logistics technology division. “That’s why you come up with the $600 toilet seats.”
In the early 1980s, with the Navy embarking on a massive ship construction program, Navy officials decided that the spare parts problem had become untenable and agreed to spend the money to try to find a technology-based solution.
The Navy awarded an eight-year, $93-million contract for a RAMP demonstration program to a consortium composed of the South Carolina Research Authority, Battelle Research Institute, Arthur D. Little consulting firm, Grumman Data Systems and Systems Engineering Associates, which specializes in shop-floor engineering.
The consortium has built a prototype system, which it is testing. In a few years, the Navy plans to have three fully operating RAMP facilities: the Naval Air Depot at Cherry Point, N.C. (September, 1991), the Naval Avionics Center in Indianapolis (March, 1992) and the Naval Shipyard at Charleston, S.C. (March, 1993).
Consortium officials say RAMP can reduce the time that it takes to make a specially manufactured part from 300 to 30 days. It is also designed to produce small batches--as few as one item--as efficiently as it can make large batches.
The consortium has also embarked on a technology transfer program to get this technology to as many companies as possible.
Manufacturing experts say the success of RAMP will rise or fall on developing its computerized data file. The data file must be written in a standardized way so that a broad spectrum of manufacturing systems, from that at Cherry Point to the one at Westinghouse, can read it.
The standard being developed, known as the “product data exchange specification,” could ensure that every manufacturered item would have a blueprint design file that could be read by many computerized manufacturing systems.
With the system, planners say, information could be transferred from manufacturers to suppliers more quickly and accurately. The Navy and large manufacturers would not be dependent upon one specialized supplier, but they could turn to a host of companies that had the right basic tools, such as the correct drills and dies. It would also give suppliers more versatility, enabling them to switch from producing auto parts to making parts for the airplane or the appliance industries, should automotive sales hit a slump.
Manufacturers could switch their product lines faster to adjust to changing consumer tastes. Furthermore, manufacturers that wanted to upgrade their manufacturing process could theoretically just put a different computerized file with a new set of instructions into their equipment and they would be ready to go.
Agreeing on a standard has not been easy, however, according to Brad Rigdon, vice president of quality process and resource management for McDonnell Douglas’ systems integration company. Every company believes that it has the best way of doing things, he said.
Nevertheless, Rigdon is optimistic. He is heading a group of more than a dozen major companies, including Boeing Co., International Business Machines Corp. and GM, that have banded together to speed up development of the software design standard. He said growing numbers of American manufacturers believe that a standard is critical to the nation’s hopes of restoring its manufacturing competitiveness.
“Unless somebody gets behind a standard, nothing happens. The big thing here is that the federal government has said, ‘This is it,’ ” said Jack White, manager of the manufacturing engineering center of the Industrial Technology Institute, an Ann Arbor, Mich., not-for-profit group designed to bring new technology from universities and research environments to corporations.
Cost appears to be a potential problem, according to many industry executives. Cascio said Westinghouse estimated that it would cost roughly $10 million to convert its printed wiring assembly operation to RAMP. In South Carolina, the consortium spent $6.5 million on the equipment, and that figure does not count the money spent setting up the system and software.
Such costs can be prohibitive to small companies, according to Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who has sponsored controversial legislation to amend antitrust laws to allow small U.S. manufacturing companies interested in flexible manufacturing to form informal partnerships to share equipment and plants. Cascio said executives also worry that data conversion--writing computer descriptions of all the parts produced--could be a headache. But Gary S. Gajewski, manager of the consortium that is running RAMP, said data conversion goes relatively fast: about six hours for small mechanical parts, like a piston or a nut, and 24 hours for something more complex, like a printed circuit board.
White predicted that many manufacturing systems will appear, if not identical to RAMP, at least like a cousin of the Navy-sponsored factory. But it will take time and see some growing pains.
“Over the long run, it will cause a very fundamental change in the way we manufacture,” said Dave Arnsdorf, senior engineer at the Industrial Technology Institute. “But it’s going to come in small pieces, step by step.”
