Product data management for the estimation of manufacturing standard time

Abstract

This thesis concerns the development of Product Data Management (PDM) system for the standard time estimation process in a customized power supply unit manufacturing company. During the subcontracting and preproduction scheduling phase, the company estimates standard time using a time formula rather than a stopwatch motion-time study in order to estimate labor cost for quotation and plan production. According to the company's nature, it is vital to establish standard time accurately and rapidl. Author had discussed with engineers and found that the current standard time estimation process often takes a long time and the value obtained are considered subjective. From Cause-and-Effect diagram, the root cause was discovered to be the current manual procedure in handling product data Since labor cost cannot be estimated without clear manufacturing stadard time, and subsequently manufacturing standard time cannot be established prior the process plan is established and also process plan cannot be completed without complete product data. This implies that the large impact on standard time estimation can be made in the management of product data. Hence, the development of computerized Product Data Management System (PDM) is proposed, which involves two stages, namely data preparation and database development. The first stage can b e referred to as a variant process planning approach (VPP) in which required data and data flows are predetermined then established into a formal standard procedure for future guideline. This stage consists of three steps l) detail stadard process plan preparation, 2) part family formation, and 3) part coding. In the database development stage: product data management, which consists of four modules: search; teach; add; and print, is developed to simplify the management those data and their workflows. Author carried out an implementation lasted a month, with 3 new models. The total hours used to estimate standard time for the three models of the month of implementation had been reduced from 96 to 67 working hours, saved 29 working hours, which was an approximate 30% improvement. In total, the sloution has helped the company to save 3 full working days (8hrs/day) and 5 hours during the month of implementation. Moreover, the estimated standard time values are more consistent compared to the previous manual approach. Author also expected to see better result in the near future once more amount of product data is computerized and the PDM program is more utilized. Eventually, the ultimate business objective of increasing sales and profits can be improved.