DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A QUOTING SYSTEM FOR A FASTENER MANUFACTURER

19 th International Conference on Production research DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A QUOTING SYSTEM FOR A FASTENER MANUFACTURER E. Shayan, V. Chitroda Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Siences Swinburne University of Technology, John St, Hawthorn Vic 3122, Australia Abstract This paper discusses a Management Information System to automate the manual quoting process for a company. Increasing number of customer enquiries needs more on time quotes to secure the firm orders. The quotes require a drawing of the product, material specification and cost estimation. There are several thousands of configurations for the small products. Preparation of a quote is time consuming, in the order of two to four hours, and costly depending on complexity. The problem is that only a fraction of quotes would materialize to firm orders. Currently there is no communication between software platforms used for drawing and the office tools to prepare the quotes. A project was formulated to minimize the overall quoting time by a degree of integration of the drawing software and a database designed to manage the product and cost data. Results show a significant reduction of time and increase in quality of the processes and actual quotation and shop order forms generated. Keywords: Quotation Management, Fastener Manufacturing, Database Design 1. INTRODUCTION The current procedure of the quoting process was thoroughly studied. Interviews with company personnel were carried out to learn their requirements and various possible combinations of a fastener that could be manufactured by the company were collected. allows the full quotation to proceed. The drawing is first done by a pencil on a paper for new orders. When an order is a repeat, the previously made quotes are retrieved and modified by photocopying, applying white ink and then writing over it. This procedure takes about 2 hours to make a simple drawing. The time highly Before placing an order customers require quotes from the company. Firm orders are placed only when customers are happy with the quotes. Drawing a fastener as required by the customer is a very timeconsuming part of quoting process. It takes two to four hours to draw a fastener. The process works as follows: Customers send the requirements and specifications of fasteners as sketches or in text format. The company studies the requirements for feasibility and if acceptable varies depending on complexity of the fastener. Mistakes made in manually drafted drawings can not be rectified easily. The quote is sent to the customer after a manually prepared costing is added. Once the customer approves the quote a detailed specified drawing in form of Master Manufacturing Specification is prepared and given to the shop floor to manufacture the products. Master Manufacturing Specification contains all the tools and materials required to manufacture products. It also

gives the tolerances at various stages of manufacturing. Lot size is also specified on a Master Manufacturing Specification. The Waterfall approach [1] was used as a guide throughout the life cycle development of the system. It provided a systematic step-by-step guide to break down the whole process into small steps, which were then addressed individually. process, or a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined outcome. The process of defining relationships among data to create useful information requires knowledge. Hence, information can be considered as data made more useful through the application of knowledge, which increases a person s knowledge of something [6]. Davies [1] defined system as an input process output It is stated [2] that in the past the management process was considered a face-to-face, personal art and not a global coordination process and information was not considered as an important asset for a firm.. Today information systems are driving both daily operations and organizational strategy. Across all industries, information and the technology that delivers it are needed to optimize the flow of information and knowledge within the organization and help management maximize the firm s knowledge resources [3]. Management decisions about information technology are critically important to the prosperity and survival of the firm. Management information system (MIS) is [4], A computer based system that makes information available to the user with similar needs used to meet general information needs of all the managers in the organization. An information system is [5] a set of interrelated elements or components that collect (input), manipulate (process), and disseminate (output) data and information and provide a feedback mechanism to meet an objective. A computer based information system is a single set of hardware, software, databases, telecommunications, people, and procedures that are configured to collect, manipulate, store, and process data into information. They also classified [1] data as the collection of raw facts which, when arranged in a meaningful manner, become information. Turning data into information is a model existing within a given environment. The inputs are the resources from and outputs are resources to the environment or other systems. Process is an activity that transforms input to output. Information systems are usually supported by databases as organized repository to maintain data required for day to day running of an organization. A database management system is a program that serves as an interface between application programs and a set of coordinated and integrated files A management information system can be built by several approaches [7]. The Ad hoc approach, the Data Base approach, a Bottom up Approach, a Top Down Approach. In reality, none of these four approaches is practical when used alone. System development still remains an art rather than an exact science. A system analyst is required to use different techniques in combination with a lot of common sense and professional judgment. The idea of life cycle constitutes an ideal description of the way in which development work is organized. There are four approaches for Life Cycle Development [1], the Waterfall approach, Rapid and Structured Prototyping and the Spiral approach. As suggested by [8] the waterfall approach is the most developed model of system development. It constitutes a series of well defined stages. Each stage has well defined input and output. It is called waterfall approach because activity flows down in a sequence from start to end. The Spiral model approach of Boehm [1987] falls

19 th International Conference on Production research strictly between waterfall life cycle and those based on iterative models. time. They deal with International Standards including Standards Australia, DIN, British Standard, JIS and American Standard to satisfy customers needs. The emphasis of this project was to provide an Information System which can automatically generate a quote including exact drawing with dimensions, component specifications and costing. The system developed had a huge impact on reduction of time, increasing the accuracy and storage/retrieval activities. The proposed system reduced the time required for quoting by 85% and will improve productivity in the office. It will give a system to store and retrieve the data when required. 2. THE PRODUCT STRUCTURE The company makes 12 to 15 quotes / week on an average. It supplies a wide range of fastener from 4 mm to 14 mm with varieties of head types, thread forms (and knurls) and drives, with varying strength grades achieved by appropriate heat treatment. The main types of thread forms include metal or machine threads, self tapping and cutting threads, and special self tapping threads developed for plastics applications. Assemblies are also produced where steel washers are assembled on blanks and thread rolled to hold the washer captive. All products are controlled by Quality Assurance Procedures for dimensions, strength and protection. Protective finishes on the products range from rust proof oiling, phosphate and oil and various plated coatings including zinc, copper, tin and nickel. In addition, the company also manufactures special pieces to customer specifications and drawings, including projection weld studs, bolts, screw, headed pins, solid rivets, wheel studs and screw assemblies as shown in Figure 1. The company conforms to AS/NZS ISO 9001:2000 Quality Standards and has obtained ISO9001 standards. The company s own tool making facilities help to ensure effective control over product quality and shorter lead Figure 1: shape of some Products. The company has a range of equipment which varies from smaller high speed Heading Machines and Thread Rollers to their large range of Headers and Thread Rollers to produce the larger fastener dimensions. Annual production is more than 25 million pieces compromised of a very wide range of products in various lengths and thickness with a multitude of head/drive configurations and thread types. Average annual consumption of raw material ranges from 250 to 300 tons. Materials used include low carbon and medium carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel and brass. The company manufactures up to grade 10.9 high tensile strength fasteners. 3. DATA COLLECTION The current quoting process has two parts, producing a fastener drawing and the completing the financial calculations required for costing. The scope of this report is limited to the drafting part of the quoting process. A new quotation job is done by one person. A plan for drawing is prepared to specify what is required. Then a fastener is drawn by pencil with some details.

These two operations require on average 10 and 120 minutes respectively. The result is passed to the customer for confirmation. When there is an old drawing exists, the job is more complicated. The flow process chart examined showed the distance and time required to do an entirely new drawing for the quote as 7 meters and 65 minutes respectively. Varieties of different threads that can be manufactured by the company are shown in Fig 5. Varieties of different heads that can be manufactured by the company are shown in Fig 6. Figure 5 Varieties of Threads Figure 6 Varieties of Heads Varieties of different drive types that can be manufactured by the company are shown in Fig 7: head. Hence there are multiple blocks for each head, each having a different impression of the drive type. Similarly, washers are kept as separate entities to reduce the required number of blocks to satisfy the combinations. Thread specifications were specified and stored in a database. The graphical representation of the requirements of the new system is shown in the Fig 8. There was a need to explore very Figure 7 Varieties of Drive Types special functionalities of AutoCAD such as use of blocks, ie objects with pre-defined attributes, Hence the total numbers of possible fasteners combinations is 12 x 8 x 11 x 4 = 4224 This demonstrates the reasons for time consuming manual system as they need to basically search through 4224 combinations of fasteners each time. Figure 8: Requirements of New System 4. SOLUTION APPROACH The first step taken was to generate systematic organization structure of a fastener based on its sub components. Each drive type has a different impression (drive type) on the eliminating the need to draw the whole object again. AutoCAD can store the drawing parameters but is unable to store thread specification. Therefore the database and

AutoCAD were required to be linked to help the user to access the database from the be tested is (12 x 11 x 8) + (11 x 4) + (2) = 1102. The blocks were written as per test plan. AutoCAD window without having to start the database separately. Creating blocks for different parts and linking database with AutoCAD would minimize the total time required to make a quote. Fig 9 shows the method of interconnection used. Note this interconnection is to be done only once during initial setup or when a new computer is being 4.2 Implementation and Results In order to make different combinations possible on the system, blocks were broken down in to 5 main categories namely Thread, Head side view (represents head type), Head top view (represents drive type), Sems and Washers and sheets. installed. The insertion point of items were made so that The remaining task was to develop a suitable interface. Since separate blocks were planned for the threads, head, drive type and washers, a procedure for calling each of these blocks was developed. 4.1 Test Plan In order to test the system, all the combination threads and drive types should be tested. The number of different combinations required to they coincide with the insertion point other joining items. An example of a block after completion is shown in Fig 10. The software developed has a directory partly shown below in Figure 11. Recalling that the old process took 132 minutes for a quote, the new system saves 118 minutes per quote which amounts to 1416 minutes (23.6 hours) savings for 12 quotes in a week. This time saving was considered as very significant. In addition the quote has exact shapes and data which stops any later disputes. The system also produces a printed detailed shop floor order with the same accuracy, which avoids any misinterpretation and wrong doings, a cause of many errors in the past. Figure 9 Connecting Database with AutoCAD Insertion Point Figure 10: An Example of Thread and Head Block

Figure 11 Directory Structure 5. CONCLUSIONS The system designed and developed satisfies system can only produce 1100 different combinations of the items involved. the current needs of the host company and provides them with a significant improvement in quality, flexibility and costs. However the drawings produced by AutoCAD are two dimensional. One drawback is that weight of products Any new additions to the part family in the facility require new blocks to be made. However this is an easy task of one off nature. The software can be easily adopted by other companies with manual quoting. cannot be calculated from the drawings. The [5] Stair, Reynolds [2001], Database 6. REFERENCES [1]Davis, GordonB., and Margrethe H. Olson, 1989, Management Information Systems, 2 nd edition. New York, McGraw-Hill. [2] Laudon [1996], Management Information Systems, Sixth Edition, New Jersey, Prentice- Hall. [3] Leonard, Barton, 1995, Multi view An Management Systems, Second Edition, Prentice Hall. [6] Tsitchizris and Lochovsky defined [1982], [7] James O. Hicks Jr. [1984], Management Information system, A user perspective, McGraw Hill. [8] Demarco, 1989, Guide for Developing a Perfect System, McGraw-Hill. exploration in information systems development, McGraw-Hill. [4] McLeod, D., 1998, A Federated Architecture for Information Systems, Prentice-Hall.