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A
Model for Product Specifications in the Production Life Cycle
of SBQ Steel
Khalil
Fazlollahi, Ph.D, P.Eng Quad Infotech Inc, Toronto, Ontario
Henrique
Costa, B.Sc. Quad Infotech Inc, Toronto, Ontario
Copyright
© 1999-2003 Quad Infotech Inc.
Introduction
The production of SBQ Steel products is continuingly becoming
more complex in nature in order to meet increasingly demanding
applications and customer requirements. As a result, the definition,
management and communication of the product specifications necessary
for production have become increasingly difficult. In particular,
areas of concern are industry and customer specific requirements
definition, revision control, complex scheduling, routing and
material tracking, verification of test results for conformance
to requirements, and conformance documentation such as Certified
Material Test Reports. Development of a model to be able to accommodate
this complex requirement is the subject of the paper.
Quad Infotech
has developed software for defining, managing and communicating
product specifications to meet complex SBQ production requirements.
This includes formal review and approval functionality to aid
in maintaining compliance with quality standards such as ISO9000
and QS9000. In addition, the product specifications can be used
as an integral part of the quality testing functionality in [QMOS]
to verify conformance to requirements for each order to ensure
production meets customer specifications.
This software
can be used in conjunction with the existing [QMOS] modules for
management and operations personnel to Plan, Schedule, Optimize,
Report and Analyze production on a real time basis.
The
need for an integrated intelligent specification system
As a business
grows their SBQ market, so increases the complexity of the product
specifications and more onus is placed on the scheduler and Quality
Assurance department to communicate the appropriate customer requirements
for each production order.
The creation
of the schedule many times is a manual process in which the scheduler
creates the production orders by combining sales orders of like
products and requirements. The scheduler uses experience and in-depth
knowledge of the customer base to identify orders with potentially
special requirements that may require dedicated production orders.
Reviewing the customer’s requirements in common forms such
as specification books and customer files or legacy systems is
often necessary to determine if any special requirements are required
that must be cited on the scheduled production order. This manual
process must be carried out each time the new schedule was to
be published making it a time consuming and arduous task not to
mention error prone.
In addition,
with new mill improvements common in the industry, the increased
production, coupled with more SBQ orders for custom sizes, grades
and lengths means increased workload for the scheduler.
In operations,
the supervisors and operators have to refer to the reference on
the schedule and review the entire specification in the legacy
system to decipher the specific requirements for the order. In
addition, often not all information is contained in a single source
and multiple systems and books may have to be consulted in order
to ensure all requirements are known. Further, when operators
are required to perform tasks such as custom tag printing, they
must again refer to another source and manually type in the special
requirements for the order. This manual process must be carried
out for each special order making it a labor intensive and error
prone practice.
In addition,
the Quality Assurance department’s task of managing the
various sources of information for all to use is also a time consuming,
arduous and error prone process. Those facilities that must also
focus on maintaining ISO and/or QS quality standards certification
have an added level of complexity in the management of product
requirements.
The main focus
of developing the product specification structure are:
- 1
Consolidate all product requirements into one system.
- 2
Improve management of specifications to meet ISO and QS quality
standards
- 3
Reduce scheduling time and work load by automatically determining
like sales orders (products with like specifications)
- 4
Reduce/eliminate manual errors in citing special order requirements
- 5
Improve communication of special order requirements to production
personnel
- 6
Reduce/eliminate manual operator input of special requirements
for tasks such as custom Tag Printing
Design
The product
specification design was based on already proven [QMOS] concepts
and technologies. A Product Specifications data model was designed
to integrate with the existing Product Definition [QMOS] model.
The main functions of the Product Specifications system were then
designed and programmed to meet standard quality system management
requirements and common specification management and communication
practices in the industry.
The data model
was structured around a hierarchy of Standard Product Specifications,
Customer Specifications and Order Specifications in which Customer
Specifications supersede the Standard Specifications and Order
Specifications that supersede the Customer Specifications. This
hierarchy and the integration with the rest of [QMOS] are illustrated
in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Integration
of Product Specifications
Specification
Definition is an integral part of Sales, Production Scheduling
and Production and as a result has been designed to integrate
with each of those areas in the steel manufacturing process. Specification
Definition is designed as a separate functionality from the rest
of [QMOS] that can be used as a specification management system
as well as integrated with other [QMOS] modules.
Specification
Definition
Specification
Definition is based on the principal that all requirements can
be categorized and quantified in the same manner. In this design,
requirements have been quantified by three categories: Numeric
Limits, Boolean and Text. Examples of each are shown below and
illustrated in Figure 2:
Figure 2 Specification Definition
Both Standard
Product Specifications and Customer Specifications can be stored
together. In order to simplify the definition of specifications,
the customer is left out. The customer is only specified when
tying the specs to the Product Code. Details are described in
a later section.
Since different
customers may have different limits for the same requirements,
the concept of the Specification Version was introduced. In this
way, the same specification can have different variations that
may be used by any Product Code and any Customer. For example,
A36 Version 1 may have standard ASTM chemistry limits but A36
Version 2 may have 0.25 Cu max. Now that Version 2 exists, any
Customer and any Product Code can use that specification. This
also eliminates the need for creating additional Product Codes
just to identify different limits for the same specification.
An example of different versions may be seen for grade specifications
for 1005R and 1006R in Figure 3 in which the O2 spec is 20 max
for Version 2.
Figure
3 Spec Version
Each specification
is also defined with a Test in order to facilitate the definition
of the details of the specifications by filtering the list of
Elements to those that have been defined for the Test. For example,
a Chemistry specification will not display UTS, Yield, Elongation
as elements for selection and a Mechanical specification will
not display C, Mn, P etc as elements for selection. The Test Definition
screen may be seen in Figure 4.
Figure
4 Test Definition
A very powerful
feature of the design is the concept of using a Work Center as
a part of the specification definition. With Work Center the user
can specify for which operators the specification is pertinent.
As the example in Figure 3 illustrates, the Grade specification
1005ML is pertinent to the LMF Work Center. [QMOS] will use this
information to determine which screens and ultimately who will
see this specification by use of their Login ID, which is defined
with a Work Center. This means that the operators do not have
to sift through all specifications for the order to find those
that are pertinent for them.
In addition,
for a single Version, multiple Work Centers may be defined each
with their own set of limits. This eliminates the need to create
new specifications and still set different limits for different
stages of the steel making process. This is very useful for establishing
EAF and LMF chemistry limits where the EAF Work Center must meet
specific chemistry before production can be moved on to the LMF
Work Center. Similarly, the Rolling Mill Work Center may have
its own limits for dimension specifications while QA Work Center
has the absolute limits.
In order to
reduce manual errors in checking specifications and ensure nonconforming
material is always placed on Hold, a specification can be specified
with automatic Hold for all nonconforming material when a test
fails to meet specifications. Figure 3 displays the Hold checkbox
that identifies this specification as requiring any nonconforming
material to automatically be placed on Hold. This Hold designation
is designed to be at the Work Center level in order to accommodate
those specifications that may have process only requirements in
one Work Center such as the EAF chemistry, and absolute limits
in another Work Center such as LMF chemistry.
Process
Specifications
In addition
to product specifications this design will also provide the ability
to define some process specifications that operators need during
the manufacturing process. Such specifications include Tap Temperature,
Superheat, Casting Speed, Reheat Temperature, Finishing Speed,
# of samples, Bundle Weight, Tag Type etc.
It is proposed
that most Process Specifications can be stored in the same structure
as Product Specifications using the Numeric Limits, Boolean, and
Text categories. Similarly if test results are recorded for those
specifications, verification of conformance to requirements may
be done. For example, Casting Speed may be monitored and compared
to the limits specified and if they are exceeded an alarm may
be generated with the potentially nonconforming material automatically
placed on Hold.
Product
Code
The basis
behind the integration of the Product Specifications with the
rest of [QMOS] is the Product Code. The Product Code is a code
used to identify the material being ordered by the customer akin
to a Part Number or Catalogue Number and as a result, each sales
order is placed for a specific Product Code. This Product Code
is then carried throughout the rest of the production process
as the identifier of the item that must be produced. As is the
case with many steel making businesses, Product Codes are defined
by key characteristics such as Shape, Size, Grade, Length. As
a result, unique Product Codes are created for different combinations
of those key characteristics. Since some businesses have more
or less key characteristics to define their Product Codes, [QMOS]
was designed to require a unique Product Code but allow any variation
of key characteristics. An example of Product Codes is illustrated
in Figure 5.
Figure 5 Product
Code
Since the
Product Code is the cornerstone of product definition, it will
also be used as the cornerstone for Product Specifications. Product
Specifications are connected to a Product Code so that when an
order is placed for a Product Code the specifications can be resolved
directly through the Product Code.
Product
Specifications
Product Specifications
are connected to Product Codes in two ways: Product Specs and
Customer Specs. Product Specs are the standard or normal requirements
regardless of customer. This may include industry standards such
as ASTM, SAE, DIN etc or standard manufacturer’s instructions
such as the company’s internal practices. In general, every
Product Code should have a Product Spec as the standard requirements
for making that product. An example of Product Code Specs may
be seen in Figure 6.
Figure 6 Product Code Specifications
Customer Specs
are the non-standard specifications that pertain to a customer’s
requirements for a product. Therefore, in addition to any Product
Specs, a Product Code may have Customer Specs connected to it
as well. This Customer Specification structure eliminates the
need for creating additional Product Codes just to identify customer
requirements.
There are
two cases for definition of Customer Specs. One case is when the
customer does not want the standard Product Specs but instead
wants some variation thereof. For example, instead of the standard
Carbon range for a grade, the customer requires a tighter range.
In this case, the customer spec is considered an override to the
standard. The second case is when the customer requires additional
specs that the standard does not. For instance, the customer may
require that a non-structural grade meet specific mechanical limits.
In this case, the spec is considered additional to the Product
Specs. An example of the Customer Specs may be seen in Figure
7.
Figure 7 Customer Specs
There is another
case in which the customer specifies requirements that are not
part of their normal requirements and are intended as one-time
only specifications for an individual order. These specs are considered
Order Specs and don’t fall into either the Product Specs
or Customer Specs category. Therefore, Order Specs are not connected
to a Product Code but rather to the sales order itself. Those
requirements may be specified in a Note field on the sales order
and will be automatically transferred to the production work orders.
These requirements are considered overrides to both standard and
the normal customer specs.
Revision
Control
The principal
of revision control is based on changes made to Product Code Specifications
rather than a single specification. For instance a customer changes
their chemistry requirements from 0.30 Cu max to 0.25 Cu max.
A new specification would be created as a version of the previous
specification and tied to the same Product Code. An Effective
Date is used to specify when the new change is to go into effect.
As of that date, the old specification becomes obsolete and the
new specification becomes active. This is also a powerful feature
since the user is not required to time the updates in the system
to the specifications with actual orders or production.
Specifications
for a Product Code are never deleted in order to maintain complete
revision history. The user will see all changes made as separate
specifications for the Product Code.
Specification
Resolution
When resolving
the full requirements for an order, all three types of specifications
will be taken into consideration and the hierarchy used to determine
the actual order requirements each time. An example of the Specifications
screen may be seen in Figure 8.
Figure 8 Specifications
Review
and Approval
In order to
manage the changes and maintain compliance with quality standards
such as ISO and QS, a formal Review and Approval functionality
has been designed to work with specifications. The changes made
are communicated through email to the various persons responsible
for review and approval and are not active until all necessary
persons have approved the change. An example of the Review and
Approval screen is shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9 Review and Approval
Scheduling
Product Specifications
are used to aid in scheduling by eliminating the manual workload
involved in working up a schedule from sales orders. This automated
feature is a complex function that resolves the order requirements
for each order and combines like orders to be produced at the
same time. The orders must have the exact same specifications
for the work center being scheduled in order to be combined. One
of the main reasons for exact same requirements is to provide
the operators the correct information for each order automatically.
At the push
of a button, [QMOS] will combine sales orders booked for a specific
rolling to create work orders for production and sequence the
work orders according to user defined production sequencing rules
for that work center. The scheduler may re-sequence as needed
and modify the quantity.
Tag
Printing
As an order
is being packaged, the [QMOS] Tag Printing will automatically
extract the necessary tag information defined in Product Specifications
and display it on the screen for the operator to review. If necessary
the operator may modify. This eliminates the need for the operator
to keep in mind which orders require special tagging and which
do not. [QMOS] manages the information and provides the operator
with all the necessary information for each order automatically.
Similarly,
custom paperwork such as Certified Material Testing Reports and
Shipping documents can be automatically generated based on the
defined specifications.
Summary
The Product
Specifications model is the basis for automating, streamlining
and reducing errors in many business functions in the steel manufacturing
process. This model provides great flexibility in allowing the
user to customize their specifications to meet their specific
business needs while enforcing common specification management
and communication practices.
Some of the
advantages that the new Product Specifications model can provide
plant wide are as follows:
- 1
Eliminate the need to create extra Product Codes just to handle
customer specific requirements.
- 2
Customizable Product Specifications and Tests can be defined
by the user at any time to fit unique customer and business
requirements
- 3
Reduce customer claims by eliminating errors and reduce time
with formal specification management and maintain ISO/QS standards.
- 4
Improve Sales response time regarding product specification
inquiries.
- 5
Reduce customer claims by eliminating release of non-conforming
products through automated specification verification.
- 6
Reduce customer claims by eliminating custom tags and paperwork
errors
- 7
Consolidate all specifications in one system and display the
order requirements plant wide instantly.
- 8
Reduce scheduling time by automatically generating Work Orders
based on customer requirements.
References:
1.
[QMOS] Design Documents
2. [QMOS] User Manual
The list of
[QMOS] modules are as following:
- [RSP]:
Roll Shop Planner
- [PSP]:
Mill Scheduling & Product Set Up
- [GSP]:
Guide Shop Planner
- [BCI]:
Bearing and Chock and Stand Building
- [SBI]:
Saw/Shear Blade Inventory
- [PRR]:
Production Control & Reporting
- [STP]:
Shift Planner and Production Analysis
- [BTC]:
Bundle Tag Control
- [PSC]:
Production Scheduling and Control
- [BYM]:
Billet Yard Management
- [MPC]:
Melt Shop Production Scheduling & Control
[QMOS] Modules
For further
information please contact us:
Tel:
(416) 391 3755 Ext. 248
Fax:
(416) 391 3645
Khalil.Fazlollahi@quadinfotech.com
www.quadinfotech.com
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