The most experienced provider of
Knowledge Based Engineering and Web Based Design-To-Order™
Systems
John
Lambert
CEO and
President |
As part of DAA's ongoing newsletter education program,
I am pleased to announce the formalization of our Mechanical
Engineering and General Software Support Services offering. www.DAAEngineering.com
As many of you know, an integral part of DAA's vision
for Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) and Web-based
Design-to-Order™ Systems (DTO™) is the integration of high-end
Mechanical Engineering and general Software Services. This
unique offering is part of the backbone of DAA's approach to
KBE and DTO™ automation.
DAA's unchanging perspective
is the specification, development and delivery of production
worthy KBE/DTO™ systems cannot be efficiently achieved without
strong engineering consulting. This perspective is shared by
many of DAA's customers including Dresser-Rand, Senior
Aerospace, Delphi, NASA, GE, General Motors and many others.
In addition to providing engineering consulting as
part of our KBE offering, DAA's Engineering Team has been
continually retained for non-KBE services work. This work has
always been a natural extension of our engineering team.
DAA Engineering Services customers have enjoyed the
following benefits:
- Very little or no training time
- Zero risk
- On-budget and on-time deliveries - always
- The highest quality engineering staff
- Use and management of offshore resources when
appropriate
Please review our website at www.DAAEngineering.com.
You may contact us at info@daaengineering.com
for more information or for mechanical engineering or general
software support services.
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| Where does off-shore programming fit in the KBE
field? |
Since the inception of modern KBE systems over 15 years
ago, one lesson has been hard learned by many; KBE methodology
is critical. KBE methodology refers to the following of a well
defined KBE process, executed by the right people, as being
indispensable to successful production deployment of KBE
applications. The failure to follow a well developed KBE
methodology always results in project failure to some degree.
One of the most critical aspects of KBE methodology is
proper business analysis as an integral, and indispensable,
part of the KBE planning process. Proper business analysis,
discernment of business needs, and the final translation of
those needs into technological, KBE terms is requisite.
Increasingly, the difficulty in conducting business analysis,
needs discernment and technology translation, by off-shore
consultants has become increasingly evident. The June 2004
issue of CFO Magazine categorizes these as types of tasks as
"high risk" for off-shoring while, at the same time, outlines
"low risk" tasks where off-shoring can be used effectively.
Increasingly, off-shore suppliers are becoming trained
in KBE technology. Over the past three years DAA has worked
extensively with off-shore partners. We have had great
success. These partnerships have lowered costs and in certain
cases increased quality.
In the area of KBE
technology, off-shore resources have been shown to work well
when used within the context of an on-shore, KBE methodology
such as DTOPro™
as employed by DAA.
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| Series: Technology Positioning - Knowledge Based
Engineering vs. Traditional Technologies. |
|
What are some specific examples where KBE DTO Systems
work well and Configurators struggle?
In our
continuing discussion regarding the differences between
Traditional Configurators and Knowledge Based Design-To-Order
systems we'll highlight some of the differences by taking a
look at specific examples:
1. Cooper Industries,
Crouse-Hinds Division, Sign Configurator
2. General Motors,
Brake Hose Configurator.
Crouse Hinds Airport Lighting Products has a Knowledge Based
Sign Configurator that automates sign designs, proposals and
manufacturing documentation. This system incorporates
knowledge, rules and specifications that govern virtually
every aspect of sign design, manufacturing, and installation;
and the back-and-forth interaction between sales, engineering
and the customer. DAA Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE)
technology was chosen over a traditional Configurator because
DAA's KBE technology handles:
- Dynamic generation of geometry and drawings
- Complex algorithmic logic regarding geometric
relationships
- A "rules in a bag" programming approach that allows for
easy and quick "add-hock" rule changes without system
re-write.
Traditional Configurators can't handle
dynamic generation of geometry or drawings and require
procedural programming of rules. Through the use of KBE
technology, Crouse-Hinds has been able achieve these
deliverables and also deploy this system on their in-house
sales computers and over the web to important customers. In
addition, they have completely eliminating the need for
engineering involvement in day-to-day sign configuration,
drawing and quotation. They have also achieved an 86%
efficiency increase over manual methods.
General
Motors consumes large amounts of engineering, drafting,
manufacturing, prototyping and testing time designing brake
hoses for their line of cars and trucks. In order to reduce
cycle times and associated costs, a DAA Knowledge Based
Configuration System was chosen. The following items were
provided to GM that could not be delivered with a traditional
product Configurator.
- Complex geometric assembly and motion analysis of the
suspension system.
- Geometric interference analysis between the brake hose
and the various suspension components.
- Complex non-linear mathematical analysis predicting
brake hose deformed geometry over the entire range of
suspension motion.
- Geometry (CAD) based inputs to the Brake Hose
Configurator.
In the GM system, as well as the
Crouse-Hinds system, a Traditional Configurator would lack the
capability to conduct the geometry based reasoning and logic
required to solve these problems. In addition, the required
drawing, CAD and graphical manufacturing outputs could note
have been created as they require dynamic generation. KBE
systems are the only class of systems that can dynamically
generate geometry and drawing outputs.
In our next
newsletter we'll continue to explore the differences between
Traditional Configurators and KBE systems in terms of how
rules are loaded and maintained.
|
| Series: Knowledge Based Systems on the Web - Question 2
of 5 (More to come) |
|
Can I web-enable an existing Knowledge Based Engineering
System?
Yes! An entire host of legacy
(pre-existing) systems can be web-enabled using DAA's
Knowledge Server (KS). And you're not limited to just
Knowledge Based Engineering systems, either. Enterprise and
desktop systems can be web-enabled using KS as well. As long
as a system has an Application Programming Interface (API), it
can be web-enabled.
Legacy systems such as Microsoft
Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.) can be web-enabled just
as well as complex KBE models. These systems can also interact
with each other and provide one another with data that may be
required to finish an intricate design. DAA's Knowledge Server
is a gateway between users, applications, and data.
In the
past, the web-enabling of desktop-based systems has proven
problematic for many reasons:
- Scalability - Only one user can use the system at a
time.
- Reliability - What happens when the computer hosting the
system loses power? What if the system encounters a fatal
error and shuts down?
- Accountability and Security - How do you ensure only
authorized users are allowed to access the
system?
DAA's Knowledge Server has a remedy for each
of these concerns, and enables your system to be published
reliably and securely over the web.
Read more about WebDTO
and Knowledge
Server on our website.
|
|
| Configurable Web User Interface for DTO Systems (Part 1
of 2 in the Series:) |
What capabilities does the UI have?
Standard Templates
DAA has developed
new "boilerplate templates" available for rapid development of
web-based Knowledge Based Engineering systems. These templates
include standard User Interface (UI) features such as radio
buttons, drop-down boxes, multiple-select boxes, and text
boxes. By utilizing our templates, we provide a robust user
experience while maintaining a rapid development cycle.
The standard templates are full featured and include
automatic server and client side input validation. However, if
the templates do not meet our customers' specific needs we can
develop or work with our customer to integrate a more
customized user experience.
Customized User
Interface With our custom UI option, any number of
technologies can be employed to give users a richer interface
experience. Rich media technologies such as Macromedia Flash
can be integrated into the interface to provide advanced
features that are not available using standard web controls.
There is a tradeoff with this approach, however; the
client requires more processing power and the user base may be
limited to browsers that support the more advanced feature
sets utilized by the feature rich content. Custom content also
takes longer to develop than content that is delivered using a
standard template.
DAA offers the choice for the user
experience: standard, customized standard, or a completely
custom "look and feel." The UI is the gateway to reduced quote
turn-around time, reduce design time, elimination (or drastic
reduction) of engineering involvement in specials, customs and
designed to order products, generation of immediate design
documentation for customer approval, retention of engineering
knowledge, reduction of errors, to name just a few of the
benefits of a Knowledge Based Engineering System.
Rules Separated from Graphics
With
traditional UI tools such as ASP or JSP, graphical controls
and logic are integrated. This integration can result in large
scale UI re-writes when either the logic or graphical controls
are changed.
DAA's new UI technology separates logic
and graphical controls, thus eliminating the requirement for
UI re-writes when logic or graphics changes are required. The
result is lower cost to development, more flexibility and
lower maintenance costs. Find out more...
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