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During the installation phase CAD/CAM/CAE has been new and different, but it must eventually become an accepted part of the fabric of the company. The same is true of all computer systems. No company would take visitors into the drafting department to show them the drawing boards, and while it is to be hoped that there will always be something worth demonstrating on the CAD/CAM/CAE system, the days of giving demonstrations simply because the equipment is new and expensive may eventually disappear. Even though the system may currently only have a history of a few years, there will come a time when the people who use it will have known no other way of working and cannot remember when there was not a CAD/CAM/CAE system in the company. The CAD/CAM/CAE Manager of a maturing system must therefore establish the framework on which CAD/CAM/CAE will be run to the year 2010 and beyond. Skill dilution, personnel rotation and development, and lack of adherence to procedures will all tend to make the implementation decay. Encouragement of CAD/CAM/CAE growth and prevention of decay will be equally important activities. Although it may appear on the surface to be stable, a successful CAD/CAM/CAE system is in fact a growing and regenerating organism. Users become more skilled and take on new responsibilities. Some will be promoted or will move on to non-CAD/CAM/CAE projects, as they must be if they are not to feel trapped by their CAD/CAM/CAE role. New blood will have to be trained. It is easy to forget how long it took experienced CAD/CAM/CAE users to get up to speed and to expect new users of the system to work at the same high level. The replacement of old users by new users dilutes the CAD/CAM/CAE skill base, and unless this problem is addressed the performance of CAD/CAM/CAE will decline. There are many influences on the development of CAD/CAM/CAE within the company. The marketing department may be so pleased with its potential for impressing customers that they take up a great deal of user time creating demonstrations for potential clients. The financial department may become concerned at the size of the CAD/CAM/CAE overhead and wish to see evidence that suitable business benefits are accruing. Such influences increase as integration projects develop, creating interfaces that open up the possibility of information flow throughout the company. These influences coupled with the internal state of flux mean that CAD/CAM/CAE can never be managed as a background activity - the manager and the support team must always be active on its behalf, because without their involvement and commitment the system will stagnate and decay. Positive action will resolve the problems that are likely to arise. Training should help to overcome the effects of personnel rotation. Methods of pooling user-developed techniques, such as macro roundups and skills workshops, should be devised. Some inventiveness with the format will help. CAD/CAM/CAE cartoons and tongue-in-cheek dictums are more easily remembered than dry procedural documentation. Personnel development can fill skill gaps. Users and managers must not be held back simply because they are too skilled. Resources for new projects should be allocated to build the basic enhancements that the users call for as they gain more experience. Plans for all projects should exist as a result of the review, and the review should be carried out annually to maintain this focus and ensure that system and personnel changes are accommodated. In the long term, relationships with both the vendor and the user group can never be too strong. The vendor should be made to participate in the success of the implementation. User groups provide a forum through which knowledge of the best practice of each area of implementation can be gained. Management of a mature CAD/CAM/CAE implementation requires that many of the virtues needed for the initial installation, such as the ability to assimilate information rapidly, the ability to work in an environment of rapid change, the ability to implement a 'get by' solution now and look for the better answer later, are superseded. The mature implementation is more oriented toward consolidation, review, development of new initiatives and personnel, attention to procedure and detail. It seems almost as if the initial phase of CAD/CAM/CAE installation requires a CAD/CAM/CAE Manager who is a real leader and entrepreneur, whereas in the mature implementation these qualities are no longer needed. They appear to be replaced by that quality of the traditional middle manager - the ability to provide smooth running of current operations on a day-to-day basis. The consolidated, mature CAD/CAM/CAE installation provides the necessary, solid basis for the following phase in which engineering information and CAD/CAM/CAE play key strategic roles. They are the resource and the tool that will be at the heart of product innovation and quality in the future. Those companies that use them efficiently and entrepreneurially will gain a competitive advantage. In the same way that information and information technology have revolutionized industries such as airlines and banks, engineering industries will also be revolutionized. The resource (information) and the tool (CAD/CAM/CAE) are identified. Top management is faced with a strategically important problem - how to use them effectively. |