ADOPTING CONTACT CENTER APPROACH TO COLLABORATIVE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT-USING TFT-LCD DESIGN CHAIN AS CASE STUDY

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1 120 International Journal of Electronic Business Management, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp (2003) ADOPTING CONTACT CENTER APPROACH TO COLLABORATIVE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT-USING TFT-LCD DESIGN CHAIN AS CASE STUDY Ching-Jen Huang 1, Amy J. C. Trappey 1*, Yin-Ho Yao 2, Shen-Chou Yeh 3 and Yu-Hsiung Cheng 3 1 Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management National Tsing Hwa University Hsinchu (300), Taiwan 2 Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Ta Hwa Institute of Technology 3 Corporate Synergy Development Center ABSTRACT This research focuses on studying the concepts and technologies of computer telephony integration (CTI) for smart and rapid services of collaborative product development communities. A multi-channel dynamic design community service center system is modeled, developed and implemented. We use TFT-LCD design chain as a case study to conduct detailed system design, analysis and implementation. The research efforts are constructed in three main stages. First, we review current research directions and the latest information technologies in enhancing collaborative designs, customer contact center and design community concepts. Second, a multi-channel, analytical and dynamic design service center is developed to improve the efficiency and performances of collaborative partnership. Third, the collaborative design service center is configured as a real case study (i.e., TFT-LCD design chain) to prove the applicability. The research enables consistent, efficient and cost-effective service across all collaborative channels. Thus, customer and supplier services can be improved significantly and the product development cycletime-to-market can be shortened. Finally, a customer-driven product design can be achieved through a true collaborative community. Keywords: Collaborative Design, Design Community, Data Mining, Contact Center, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 1. INTRODUCTION The use of computer telephony integrated technologies to facilitate collaborative design chain is becoming increasingly practical as network computing and communication becomes cheaper, faster, and more widespread. An understanding of collaborative design is important in setting communication mechanisms and goals to meet requirements of mass customization. A multi-channel dynamic design service center is developed to directly facilitate communication and interaction within a design team. For supporting the progress of a design team work, a good service center must track and serve customers needs, regardless of which channel is used for communication (e.g., voice, , fax, on-line chat, web-faq or VoIP). In order to provide real-time interaction with multiple channels of communication and offer more responsive, efficient and personalized customer services, the system will integrate following key technologies: Integrate multiple contact points: telephone, , fax, voice to optimize center operations. Combine technologies with Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) technology. Integrate with collaborative design workflow management system. Integrate with knowledge management tools. Combine with data mining technologies to analyze the performance levels of services. In this paper, a dynamic design community service center (DDCSC) has been modeled and developed to support design community. The * Corresponding author: trappey@ie.nthu.edu.tw

2 C. J. Huang et al.: Adopting Contact Center Approach to Collaborative Product Development 121 architecture has been applied extensively on a TFT-LCD industrial design activity. The research efforts are divided into three main stages. First, we review current research directions and the latest information technologies in enhancing collaborative design, contact center and design community concepts. Second, a multi-channel, analytical and dynamic design service center infrastructure is developed to improve the services and performance of collaborative partnership. Third, the collaborative design service center is configured with a real case study, i.e., TFT-LCD design chain. It will show how multi-channel dynamic design chain center technology can be applied in a complex design community. The DDCSC has the critical functions for design team collaboration. They include voice, on-line chat, web-faq, and VoIP. For example, a component designer can call in (or use on-line chat) to request the end-product designer s instruction for component assembly configuration or specific design constraints of that component. Further, the service center collects all data of design teams requests, including the ranks of frequently asked questions (FAQs), the frequency of team member interactions, and the most troubled design components. The paper is organized in the following sections. In the background section, the previous research in collaborative design, contact center, design community, and customer relationship management are reviewed. Section 3 depicts the integrated contact center approach to collaborative product development. The case study of TFT-LCD s design chain is described in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 draws the conclusion of this research and describes the future research directions. 2. BACKGROUND Design can be viewed as an activity in which a team of designers work together towards a final product specification [12]. A design process can be divided into three stages, i.e., pre-design, in-design, and post-design. In the pre-design stage, the decision of adopting collaborative environment/architecture and its working model is the major concern. Kvan [8] proposes two types of design process: (1) continuous closely-coupled process in which the participants work closely to realize a design and (2) loosely-coupled process with each participant contributing what they can in different domains of expertise at the stages when they have the appropriate knowledge to the situation. The disadvantage of a continuous closely-coupled process is difficulty in identify discrete contribution of individual participants. However, the participants in the loosely-coupled process have particular expertise that can be contributed to the solution process with distinction. In the in-design stage, the efficiency and evaluation of a design process is a research area. An integrated product design and development has been viewed by researchers and industry practitioners as the key for reducing cycle time to market, as well as improving product quality and reliability [10]. There are two distinct branches of design research. One tries to emulate design activity and other attempts to support design activity [12]. In the first branch, design can be viewed as a transformation of an initial design requirement into a design description using a set of transformation operators. In the second focus, computer programs are developed to assist designers in analyzing and documenting their creativity. The computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) systems play an important role in this approach. It offers a tool that could potentially enhance the productivity and effectiveness of design team-works [10]. In the post-design stage, the communication among the participants, the repository of design details and the design knowledge sharing are among the primarily concerned topics. They are changing the way people collaborate and share information across an enterprise. In order to support the activities of the three stages, forming a design community with proper supports is a good direction [1, 5]. A multi-channel contact center is a good approach to support design community with enhanced design knowledge sharing from the perspective of customer relationship management (CRM). Today, customers want to complete a transaction seamlessly. They expect the companies to provide professional assistance anytime, anywhere, anyhow. Integrating the call center with the web page(s) and voice over IP is a new concept that many companies are beginning to take advantage of [3]. In contrast to the traditional call center, it does not use an analog PBX but utilizes both PSTN and the. People can request a customer service orally by a traditional phone or VoIP software. In order to express the multi-channel features of intelligent call center with convenient, inexpensive and around-the-clock services, it is renamed as contact centers. Contact centers play a critical role and are deeply embedded in modern business processes [13]. As a central place for contact and information gathering, the contact center allows a company to build, maintain, and manage customer relationships by solving problems, resolving complaints, providing information and answering questions quickly [6]. Since customer service processes are becoming more complex, to automate and retain the knowledge of an enterprise in customer service is more important. With greater emphasis placed on customer service, a customer relationship management (CRM)

3 122 International Journal of Electronic Business Management, Vol. 1, No. 3 (2003) with knowledge-based system (KBS) or data mining system is much helpful for facilitating knowledge acquisition, sharing and diffusion from customer transactional record. There are three types of CRM, i.e., integrated CRM, analytical CRM and collaborative CRM. Integrated CRM is focused on combination of sales, marketing, and service strategies that depend on coordinated actions [11]. Analytical CRM is focused on the analysis of customer data for the purpose of managing business performance and building good customer relation [2]. For collaborative CRM, companies provide multi-channel collaborative services such as , E-communities and web-enabled customer interaction centers to facilitate interactions between customers and businesses. For a design community, the integration of collaborative design system and the collaborative CRM, particularly contact center will enable consistent, efficient, and cost-effective services across all collaborative channels and participants. Thus, design community services can be improved significantly and the product development cycle can be shortened. 3. INTEGRATED CONTACT CENTER APPROACH TO COLLABORATIVE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT This research adopts an integrated contact center approach to collaborative product R&D. A dynamic design community service center (DDCSC) is planned and implemented. The concept and hardware/software architecture of DDCSC system are described in the following sub-sections. 3.1 Conceptual Architecture of DDCSC System Figure 1 shows the conceptual architecture of the DDCSC system. It includes four modules. They are collaborative design platform, design community contact interface, design community service center and backend office system. The four modules are fully integrated to support the processes of collaborative product development. 1. Collaborative Design Platform (CDP) The CDP is a modified system of our previous research [7]. CDP integrates with the design community service center (DCSC). It allows the designers to communicate with each other through the interfaces of computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW), such as video conferencing or on-line chat. In addition, with the platform, the designer can inquire the progress status of a design workflow through multi-channel entry points, such as a telephone call, VoIP, and web functions. 2. Design Community Contact Interface (DCCI) The DCCI is a multi-channel communication interface. It supports fax, telephone (voice), , web, video, on-line chat, and VoIP. The customers and designers can express their opinions or complaints to the contact center through the interface he/she used conveniently at any time. 3. Design Community Service Center (DCSC) The DCSC is the core module of the DDCSC system. It handles the communication in the design community and records all transactions via the DCSC for further analyses. The service center supports the following main functions: Customer data screen popup Customer contact data bank Agent scripting Automatic dialing Skill based routing Graphic interface Call monitoring Call/data integration Recording system Automatic call distribution (ACD) Interactive voice response (IVR) 4. Backend Office System (BOS) The BOS focuses on the analysis of transactional data in the data warehouse. BOS integrates with management information system (MIS) to retrieve the transactional data and use this data as a base to analyze and synthesize data mining the valuable information for management purposes. The system applies data mining techniques to find the information, such as frequency of requested questions and the satisfaction level of customers. Client PC DW MIS DM Backend Office Web Interface Desktop Dialer IVR Mgmt Design Community Service Center Database Collaborative Design Platform Fax Interface CTI VoIP PSTN PBX online Fax Tel Web Video Chat Design Community Contact Interface Figure 1: Conceptual architecture of proposed DDCSC system The DDCSC system defines four types of user accounts (roles) and authorities, i.e., administrator, agent, designer, user as shown in Table DDCSC Architecture The proposed architecture of DDCSC is shown in Figure 2. In Position A, two main servers, i.e., a CTI server and a web server, are applied as an integrated CRM server. In this case, they are installed

4 C. J. Huang et al.: Adopting Contact Center Approach to Collaborative Product Development 123 on the same personal computer. The computer has three interface cards, i.e., voice card, fax card and VoIP card. The voice card is for telephone communication, the fax card is for faxing and the VoIP card is for voice communication over IP. In Position B, only a CTI server is installed with the same three cards (voice, fax and VoIP) to communicate with the CTI server in Position A through the. Position A and Position B can be viewed as a virtual design service center across multiple locations. Table 1: The definition of roles and authorities of DDCSC Roles User s authority The top level of the authority. The Administrator users can run all the DDCSC functions. The user with authority level three Agent can execute the service functions of the DDCSC. The designer with authority level Designer two can inquire the workflow status of a design process. The generalized user, such as a customer, with authority level one can execute the basic functions, User e.g., make a phone inquiry, on-line chat, reviewing and sending faxes to the contact center. When a design partner or a client connect to the system to request for some services, such as discussing design specifications with a partner or lodging a complaint to the design center, he/she can choice a CTI server to send requests or messages. The server will forward the requests to the nearest service agent for reply. It establishes a more economical and efficient connection using VoIP and mechanisms. following sub-sections, we briefly describe the TFT-LCD industry first. Then, the TFT-LCD design chain collaborative scenario is depicted for the service center implementation. Finally, an implementation process based on the scenarios is discussed. 4.1 Brief Description of the TFT-LCD Industry The thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) is a type of flat panel display (FPD). It is different from the traditional CRT display. The production process of TFT-LCD is very complicated and need a high quality control standard. TFT-LCD comprises many high tech components, which are manufactured by the opto-electronic suppliers. The manufacturing process of TFT-LCD consists of three sub-processes, i.e., TFT array manufacturing process, LCD assembly manufacturing process, and LCM manufacturing process. There are many components needed to put into production, such as glass substrate, ITO glass, dichroic filter, polarizer, backlight, cold cathode fluorescent tube (CCFL), and driver s IC. The suppliers participate in the design chain using the loose-coupled process [7]. The process-oriented collaborative design model is the typical approach in TFT-LCD productization involving a variety of component and final product developers. 4.2 The Collaborative Scenario of TFT-LCD Design Chain Figure 3 shows a simple example of TFT-LCD design chain. H Company submits the monitor specification requests to its upstream suppliers, the TFT-LCD frame manufacturer (C Company), the TFT-LCD base manufacturer (W Company), and the TFT-LCD panel manufacturer (S Company). The upstream suppliers design the components of TFT-LCD for H Company and use the DDCSC to conduct the discussion sessions during the design process with H Company and other design partners. Client CTI Server Web Server Voice VoIP Server CTI Server Voice VoIP Client TFT-LCD Panel Manufacturer: S Company TFT-LCD Frame Manufacturer: C Company TFT-LCD Base Manufacturer: W Company TFT-LCD Monitor Manufacturer: H Company Figure 3: An example of TFT-LCD design process Fax Position A Fax Position B Figure 2: The proposed architecture of DDCSC 4. CASE STUDY In this research, a multi-channel dynamic design chain service center system is configured and implemented for TFT-LCD design chain. In the Figure 4 shows an example of design chain supported by DDCSC system. The H Company is a TFT-LCD monitor manufacturer and it s headquarter is in Hsinchu with a branch office in Taipei. There are CTI servers both in Hsinchu and Taipei sites. An integrated CRM server is setup in Hsinchu as the core DDCSC platform. The CTI servers are connected to each other using VoIP cards to form a design service center. The CRM server stores all transactional records from both sites. When an upstream supplier,

5 124 International Journal of Electronic Business Management, Vol. 1, No. 3 (2003) such as S Company, C Company, or W Company, wants to request a service or have a question, they can call the nearest contact site making a request using a local call. The server will forward this phone call to the target server where the partner is located via VoIP. H Company (Taipei Site) HCompany CRM Server (Web Site) VoIP Design Service Center H Company (Hsinchu Site) S Company C Company W Company Figure 4: A case of TFT-LCD design chain In order to implement the DDCSC system for H Company s design chain community, there are some parameters to be defined first. Table 2 shows the definition of roles of H Company s DDCSC system, Table 3 shows the department-ing classification and Table 4 shows the reasoning of incoming calls and examples. When a new phone call reaches, the DDCSC system gets the basic data of incoming caller (and its classification as shown in Table 2) and then forwards the phone call to the appropriate (classification as shown in Table 3) and record the reason types of incoming call (as shown in Table 4) in the transaction database (data warehouse). Table 2: The definition of roles of H Company s DDCSC system Classifications of caller Role definition and examples Collaborative TFT-LCD factory, such as H design factory A Company Collaborative Collaborative design factory, design factory B such as W Company Component 1-tier supplier, such as S supplier A Company Component 1-tier supplier, such as C supplier B Company Agent Authorized agent Department/Col league Customer Department: a R&D department Colleagues: managers, directors, supervisors, etc General consumers Table 5 shows the main functions of implemented DDCSC system for TFT-LCD industrial applications to support the collaborative design activities such as confirmation of design specification, feedback of market quality information and discussion and negotiation of product specifications in design stages. The system supports multi-channel interaction, as well as the analyses of the DDCSC performance and the satisfaction level of its services. Table 3: Department-ing classification and example department Classification of Example department Project planning R&D Production Quality control Sales management Procurement/ outsourcing Customer service Operator New panel spec. project-planning unit R&D center Manufactory Department of QC Marketing department Procurement department Sales service department Call service agent Table 4: Reasoning types of incoming calls and their examples Reasoning of Examples incoming calls Project Communication during project planning Research and development Production Quality control planning or pre-design stage. Interaction and knowledge sharing between TFT-LCD R&D members. Communication between design and manufacturing partners. Improvement suggestion provided by TFT-LCD design and production team members. Sales Contacts for sales promotion. management Procurement Purchasing and outsourcing affairs and outsourcing and interactions. Customer Relevant information enquiries and services complaint from customers. General Ask questions about bills and services and request questions. enquiries During the DDCSC system setup process, it focuses on the hardware/software installation and system configuration with proper parameter setup. This process also consists of five steps. The first step is to purchase the DDCSC hardware and software based on the analytical result of design community service center model. The second step is to configure the system with correct parameters and users roles. There are two types of parameters that should be

6 C. J. Huang et al.: Adopting Contact Center Approach to Collaborative Product Development 125 setup, the private automatic branch exchange (PABX) parameters and the web site parameters. The PABX parameters are defined to drive the proper functioning of PABX, such as the automatic call distribution (ACD) and the inbound and outbound call forwarding management. The web site parameters setup is to define the account information of clients, the inbound/outbound call management and record keeping. In the third, fourth and fifth steps, the DDCSC HW/SW is physically installed, integrated and tested with appropriate actions and logics. Functions Online communication Video conference function Online facsimile service function Service record of design community electronic mails system Statistics and reports of service record Table 5: Main functions for TFT-LCD DDCSC system Collaboration scenarios Online communication between component suppliers and TFT-LCD factory to decide suitable component items, specifications and process evaluation. Online request and response between TFT-LCD factory and its suppliers. Video conferencing for design review by TFT-LCD factory and key component developers. Clear up and evaluate outsourcing relevant affairs by the suppliers and their collaborators with video conference. Review the quality of parts design using video conference. TFT-LCD factory faxing quality related information to each responsible unit to investigate the causes of quality failure. With online facsimile service function, agents or dealers fax quality improvement proposal to TFT-LCD factory. Complaint cases through customers calls. Responses to incoming calls with design problems from test unit. With incoming calls historical records by the system, the design team can enquiry and check previous design problems and feedback to R&D stage to prevent similar problems recurring. Enquire or request for technical support. Information exchange for design review and communication and response to correction items of reviews among design teams through . Statistics and report for service records, such as customer enquiries, designing and assembling problems. Statistics for each type of problems enquired by downstream factories or customers. Statistics charts of most frequently asked questions for each product. Statistics for new types of questions enquired by downstream factories and customers within one week, which has never appeared before. 4.3 Implementation Process of DDCSC The implementation process of DDCSC consists of two main sub-processes, i.e., DDCSC collaboration scenario modeling process and DDCSC system setup process (Figure 5). In DDCSC collaboration scenario modeling process, the relationships and operational models of design chain collaborative partners is analyzed. The process includes five steps. First, the design chain partners relationship and the involving companies are identified. Second, the collaborative design chain structure and the roles of involving companies are defined. Third, the design community s service center model is analyzed to form the DDCSC structure. When the DDCSC system structure is defined, the related data for the setup process of DDCSC system are identified. Fourth, define collaborative design process to understand how the collaborative workflow can integrate with DDCSC. Finally, the users can executive collaborative design activities with the full supports of DDCSC. DDCSC Collaborative Scenario Modeling Process Analyze industrial SCM partners' relationship Analyze collaborative design chain structure Analyze design community service center model Define collaborative design processes Execute collaborative design activities On-line communicate and support DDCSC System Setup Process Purchase DDCSC HW/SW Define DDCSC s' roles and parameters Install DDCSC HW/SW Integrate and test system Execute DDCSC system Figure 5: The implementation process of DDCSC in parallel to the collaborative scenario modeling process

7 126 International Journal of Electronic Business Management, Vol. 1, No. 3 (2003) 4.4 The Collaborative Practice of TFT-LCD Design Community Figure 6 shows the DDCSC system execution using web-enabled interfaces. For example, when a customer reports design frauds or when a LCD frame manufacturer (C Company) states the manufacturability problem to H Company, they can make a phone call to the H Company s DDCSC. The system will use the CTI functions to record the contents of incoming call, the interactive processes, and the collaborative service results. The R&D s of H Company can analyze the historical records of CTI to identify significant design problems in order to improve the design efficiency and quality based on partner requirements. In the same way, the TFT-LCD design partner W Company can discuss the design concepts and specifications with H Company s R&D staffs. They can also exchange information to each other by using and on-line chat services (as shown in Figure 7). Figure 8 shows the integration of DDCSC system and collaborative design workflow system. When a designer of TFT-LCD design community wants to supervise the progress of TFT-LCD design process, he/she can use the integrated collaborative workflow interface as an entry point to monitor the design process and make sure that the proposed schedule is complied. Furthermore, the system can auto-reply the FAQ by setting corresponding parameters. The auto-reply services save cost of collaborative design services for H Company. All the transaction data is stored in a data warehouse. The system supports many data mining functions for the design teams, such as statistics and report for service records, statistics for problems enquired by downstream factories or customers, statistics charts of most frequently asked questions for each product, statistics for new types of questions enquired by downstream factories and customers within a selected time frame. According to the statistical results, the R&D staff of H Company can better understand and satisfy the design partners concerns and expectation. Figure 6: Interfaces of DDCSC system execution

8 C. J. Huang et al.: Adopting Contact Center Approach to Collaborative Product Development 127 底 座 設 計 規 格 採 用 B 式 設 計 將 可 能 產 生 接 點 問 題, 用 B 式 設 計? Figure 7: An example of design team s specification discussion Figure 8: Integration of DDCSC and collaborative design system

9 128 International Journal of Electronic Business Management, Vol. 1, No. 3 (2003) 5. CONCLUSION The DDCSC system consists of comprehensive functions of a contact center, in comparison to the ones provided by a traditional call center. It allows manufacturers, suppliers and customers collaboratively design and develop products while their needs for real-time interactions, queries, and feedbacks can be facilitated through multi-channel service entry points. The research enables consistent, efficient, and cost-effective service across all collaborative channels. Services to customers and suppliers can be improved significantly and the product development cycle time can be significantly reduced. The DDCSC system contributes to the following benefits: Record keeping for further analysis: Record the time, member, reason, content, channel of customer service, etc. Respond to its customers needs in real-time and interactively. Generate the statistical reports of services with respect to the performance and customer satisfaction. Control service delivery effectively. Provide a consistent accessibility and entry points for customers. Provide multi-channel and complimentary contact channels. Reengineer business processes to fulfill service needs of design team. Evaluate the collaborative design community s service quality and performance. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research is particularly supported by National Science Council and Corporate Synergy Development Center. REFERENCES 1. Arias, E., 1995, Designing in a design community: Insights and challenges, Conference Proceedings on Designing Interactive Systems: Processes, Practices, Methods, & Techniques, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. 2. Bailetti, A. J. and Litva, P. F., 1995, Integrating customer requirements into product designs, Journal of Production Innovation Management, Vol. 12, pp Bernett, H. and Jaramillo, M. L., 2001, Assessing web-enabled call center technologies, IT Pro, pp Berson A., 2000, Building Data Mining Applications for CRM, McGraw Hill, New York. 5. Craig, D. L. and Zimring, C., 2000, Supporting collaborative design s as design communities, Design Studies, Vol. 21, pp Feinberg, R. and Kim, I., 2000, Operational determinants of caller satisfaction in the call center, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 11, pp Huang, C. J., Trappey, A. J. C. and Yao, Y. H., 2003, Design and develop WfMC-based modularized network collaborative design system, Journal of Chinese Institute of Industrial Engineer, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp Kvan, T., 2000, Collaborative design: what is it? Automation in Construction, Vol. 9, pp Liang, T. and Leifer, L. J., 2000, Re-use or re-invent? Understanding and supporting learning from experience of peers in a product development community, 30th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, S3A Monplaisir, L., 1999, An integrated CSCW architecture for integrated product/process design and development, Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Vol. 15, pp Ravi, K. and Robinson, M., 1999, Chapter 5 - Customer relationship management: Integrating processes to build relationships, e-business: Roadmap for Success, Addison-Wesley, New York, pp Saad, M. and Maher, M. L., 1996, Shared understanding in computer-supported collaborative design, Computer-Aided Design, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp Trappey, C. V., Trappey, A. J. C. and Hsu, F. C., 2002, Designing an integrated call center using and wireless telephony technology, Proceedings, the 30th International Conference on Computers & Industrial Engineering (The 30th IC C&IE), Tinos Island, Greece, June 29th - July 2.