Summary of Super Hornet Meeting:
This contracting effort was a focused effort to define the configuration so we could proceed to the next step. We came out of it with something that was good enough to be costed. And it brought customer and contractor along at the same time.
We came out with a very clear direction. There was not much debate after that about what was in the aircraft. But we still had to guard against requirements creep.
We had a "spec jamboree." We broke into the same teams. We took the requirements and the configuration from the negotiation sessions and used the C/D spec as a starting point. We took that specification apart and re assembled it to reflect the E/F we had defined.
Where there were still disagreements, they were noted, and assigned to teams for resolution. Most of these were closed in a timely manner With this process, we were able to hammer out the important details of the E/F specification, include input from a wide range of stakeholders, and do it in a very short time.
Attributes of configuration items are defined in configuration status updates with baselines established to identify current approved identification of items verified to make sure they conform to, and perform as defined in configuration status updates.
Whenever a change is contemplated to an item, the effect of that change on other items and associated status updates is evaluated. Changes are systematically processed and approved by the change control authority. Change implementation involves update and verification of all affected item status updates.
Information about item configuration, identification and status, and change status is collected as activities associated with the configuration process occur. This configuration status accounting information is correlated, maintained, and provided in useable
form, as required.
The responsibility for the configuration process and supporting activities is shared between DoD contractors-- will usually vary according to performance or design-based acquisition and product support goals in each phase of service life.
Benefits of configuration process are somewhat obvious but are often overlooked:
1. Product attributes are defined to provides measurable performance parameters to realise common basis for acquisition and use of the product.
2. Product configuration is documented and a known basis for decision-making changes is established based on correct, current information so production repeatability is enhanced.
3. Products are labeled and correlated with their associated requirements, design and product information so metrics are accessible, avoiding guesswork and trial and error
4. Proposed changes are identified and evaluated for impact prior to making change decisions
5. Make sure downstream problems are avoided so cost/schedule savings are realised
6. Configuration information, captured during product change, build, distribution, operation, and support processes is organised to determine relationships
7. Timely, accurate information avoids costly delays and product down time
8. Ensures proper replacement and repair; and decreases maintenance costs.
9. Actual product configuration status update charges are verified throughout service life
10. Weighing impact of required configuration attributes establishes high level of confidence in product information
Top 10 Survey Frequency Response of Field-Level Unit Proposal to Adapt to Using Product Configuration Development
Some companies offer partly configurable products, so that the customer can specify some of the functionalities, and the development department will be involved in satisfying more specific customer needs. If a specially designed product is produced for a customer and it is profitable to make it available for other customers, the necessary changes should be performed in the product family model.
So, if the company later accepts an order for this product, it will be an ordinary order on a configurable product. However, the product should not be visible in the product family model until fully detailed production documentation ie bill materiel status updated, routings etc. for the product has been created.
Action is required when customer absolutely must have feature, generally when it is the determining criteria in purchasing the product. Ratings will act as constraints for needs customer expressed only because it was observed that the product could do it, but that the customer also never use and do not care about. Note that more rating levels can be used for a more refined resolution, depending on the subjects’ abilities.
A good approach to forming an importance ranking for a population is to send a questionnaire to a random customer sample, using the uncovered customer needs list and asking for importance on each need. This approach can provide a sound sample for determining importance.
But any sample importance determination must incorporate two phases. First, a decision must be made to see if customer need is a hard constraint that must be satisfied, or an objective that can be traded off versus the other customer needs, and so carries a degree of relative importance.
Phases must be separated and accounted for differently by the design team. Second phase profitably modeled with importance weightings-- or more generally preferences in a second phase. To separate out any customer needs that are hard constraints that must be met, each need is examined one at a time, and the number of must-have responses compared to the total number of subjects.
Clearly, if every subject flags the need as a must-have than that need must be satisfied. But if only a fraction of the subjects indicate the product must satisfy a need, a decision must be made over what fraction should be used before interpreting the customer need as a constraint.
In addition to customer needs, there are also other requirements that a product must satisfy, for example manufacturing, and represented as additional requirements in the customer needs list. Typically all have constraint multiple importance, since they must be met for the product to be sold or physically produced.
Other non-customer requirements can be incorporated in the customer needs list as deemed appropriate. Alternatively, a specification sheet may be added for non-customer requirements, organising the requirements according to topic.
1. Ability to fulfill wide range of customer requirements
2. Shorter lead times in sales-delivery process
3. Increased control of production
4. Reduction in customer-specific design
5. Efficient way to offer broad product line
6. Establish link between the sales/production departments
7. Secure fully specified orders
8. Secure valid production documentation
9. Easier to deal with large number of variants
10. Less maintenance of production status updates
Top 10 Production Plans/Operations “Digital Twin” Decision Making Questions
Service Life Phases decision making requires good, reliable estimates of time-to-market delivered cost, product quality and supply line reliability. These systems must be developed in parallel with product and integrated into Digital Twin Model of existing systems or to support future system design. Discrete logistics schedule events constitute control framework. Metrics guiding continuous improvement process will continue to be critical for systems engineering.
Organisations not motivated to take deeper dives are retrofitting existing machines to designate them as connected . Attaching sensors to collect critical operational information makes them smart. The chalkboard of buzz words and patch-work of programmes currently used by industry are introducing glaring gaps, generating errors and inconsistent approach to Digital Twin technology in general.
One approach includes establishing a limited digital reach to monitor, promote, connect, track and trace in order to value every point of provider/customer contact, not only once for sales of product but over the life time of the product to include service quality- the main readiness metric to gauge customer satisfaction.
1. What Production Technology?
2. How is Production Allocated?
3. Who/Where are Suppliers?
4. What are Contingency Plans?
5. What to do about Inventories?
6. How is Product Transported?
7. What Resources to Assign?
8. How to Sequence Tasks?
9. When to Change Resources?
10. Where does Job go next?
Top 10 Efforts Comprise DoD Actions to Improve Weapons Systems Product Purchases
Busy schedules require keeping track of customer accounts, maintain prospective customer relationships, field product and model questions to deliver timely and accurate quotes making the process better and faster.
The whole sales process is streamlined and accelerates the conversion of sales opportunities into revenue with automation tools that simplify complex configurations, speed quoting time, and ensure ordering accuracy-- also mitigating common obstacles such as product combination errors, miscalculated costs, and quoting delays.
Happy customers stick around: Increase instances where customer requirements are satisfied by delivering a quick and user-friendly customer experience with the 3D product configuration so attention is focused on the customer rather than the time-consuming quoting process and customers benefit from precise visual and interactive build of customised orders with confidence and freedom.
Vendors can work closely with customers to educate, present, customise, and interact with "virtual" products using near-realistic 3D models so relationships are improved by visually displaying product plan/design, configuring products quickly, price and quote accurately, and order efficiently.
Visual communication and showcasing competitive differences of products in a realistic and engaging manner can encourage customers with little-to-no knowledge of product process to become less apprehensive and more engaged in designing and ordering with automation tools that simplify complex configurations, speed quoting time, and ensure ordering accuracy.
1. Procurement Action to take place over modernised interface
2. Modifications to Cost/Price Reporting requirements
3. Emphasis on Reliability/Maintainability in Product Design
4. Improvement of Planning for Acquisition of Services
5. Transparency of Test/Evaluation process & tools capabilities
6. Quote Configuration Series Product Baseline
7. Business System Component Visibility
8. Display of Programme Budget Figures
9. Ownership determination of Product Specs Details
10. Acquisition Workforce Training Improvements
Top 10 Questions for Virtual Showrooms Communicate 3D Products Customised Substitute Models to Customers Orders
In today's digital world, customers expect a seamless product purchasing process--one that gives them confidence to order what they want, how they want it. With Product Configurator, manufacturers and distributors are providing a user-friendly, visual configuration tool for customers to quote and order with confidence to boost business efficiency, productivity, and quote accuracy while helping to close sales more quickly, and enhance the customer experience.
All products and accessories are stored in one menu, which creates increased opportunities to identify additional products based on what the customer is ordering. Customers will be able to customise their orders, receiving a real-time rendering and quote so there are no more quoting delays or only seeing the product the first time when it arrives at the front door.
As customers configure their order with the application responsive drag-and-drop functionality, shopping cart and product model instantly update as new items are added or removed.
So it will be easy for customers to drag-and-drop add-on items and accessories to customise products across a range of industries: build anything from strength equipment, heavy equipment machinery and play systems equipment.
3D product configuration Demo can bring value to any manufacturer who sells customisable products so customers will enjoy the simplicity and accuracy of ordering with a 3D Product Configurator.
1. What is the effect of different discussion models e.g., independent, embedded, and doubly on participation and the establishment of common ground?
2. Beyond textual discussion, what external representations will effectively support collaborative communications and how do the representation affect grounding and the cost of integration?
3. How can the coordination of individual contributions be improved?
4. Can semi-automatic summarisation or merging of separately developed virtual reality views be used to form aggregated contributions?
5. How should selection and visual emphasis techniques be designed to provide realistic pointing behaviours?
6. Can referenced objects be clearly recognised by both Troops and machine collaborators?
7. How can pointing and graphics annotation be designed to handle dynamic visualisations and changing task sets?
8. How should behaviour navigation cues be effectively added to visual assessment tools to improve battlespace awareness?
9. Can automated techniques be used to help allocate effort by digging into past contributions, user profiles, and inferred networks to enable systems to direct collaborators to tasks in need of attention?
10. How can beneficial results of collaborative virtual reality assessments be more effectively exported, shared, and embedded in external network media?
This contracting effort was a focused effort to define the configuration so we could proceed to the next step. We came out of it with something that was good enough to be costed. And it brought customer and contractor along at the same time.
We came out with a very clear direction. There was not much debate after that about what was in the aircraft. But we still had to guard against requirements creep.
We had a "spec jamboree." We broke into the same teams. We took the requirements and the configuration from the negotiation sessions and used the C/D spec as a starting point. We took that specification apart and re assembled it to reflect the E/F we had defined.
Where there were still disagreements, they were noted, and assigned to teams for resolution. Most of these were closed in a timely manner With this process, we were able to hammer out the important details of the E/F specification, include input from a wide range of stakeholders, and do it in a very short time.
Attributes of configuration items are defined in configuration status updates with baselines established to identify current approved identification of items verified to make sure they conform to, and perform as defined in configuration status updates.
Whenever a change is contemplated to an item, the effect of that change on other items and associated status updates is evaluated. Changes are systematically processed and approved by the change control authority. Change implementation involves update and verification of all affected item status updates.
Information about item configuration, identification and status, and change status is collected as activities associated with the configuration process occur. This configuration status accounting information is correlated, maintained, and provided in useable
form, as required.
The responsibility for the configuration process and supporting activities is shared between DoD contractors-- will usually vary according to performance or design-based acquisition and product support goals in each phase of service life.
Benefits of configuration process are somewhat obvious but are often overlooked:
1. Product attributes are defined to provides measurable performance parameters to realise common basis for acquisition and use of the product.
2. Product configuration is documented and a known basis for decision-making changes is established based on correct, current information so production repeatability is enhanced.
3. Products are labeled and correlated with their associated requirements, design and product information so metrics are accessible, avoiding guesswork and trial and error
4. Proposed changes are identified and evaluated for impact prior to making change decisions
5. Make sure downstream problems are avoided so cost/schedule savings are realised
6. Configuration information, captured during product change, build, distribution, operation, and support processes is organised to determine relationships
7. Timely, accurate information avoids costly delays and product down time
8. Ensures proper replacement and repair; and decreases maintenance costs.
9. Actual product configuration status update charges are verified throughout service life
10. Weighing impact of required configuration attributes establishes high level of confidence in product information
Top 10 Survey Frequency Response of Field-Level Unit Proposal to Adapt to Using Product Configuration Development
Some companies offer partly configurable products, so that the customer can specify some of the functionalities, and the development department will be involved in satisfying more specific customer needs. If a specially designed product is produced for a customer and it is profitable to make it available for other customers, the necessary changes should be performed in the product family model.
So, if the company later accepts an order for this product, it will be an ordinary order on a configurable product. However, the product should not be visible in the product family model until fully detailed production documentation ie bill materiel status updated, routings etc. for the product has been created.
Action is required when customer absolutely must have feature, generally when it is the determining criteria in purchasing the product. Ratings will act as constraints for needs customer expressed only because it was observed that the product could do it, but that the customer also never use and do not care about. Note that more rating levels can be used for a more refined resolution, depending on the subjects’ abilities.
A good approach to forming an importance ranking for a population is to send a questionnaire to a random customer sample, using the uncovered customer needs list and asking for importance on each need. This approach can provide a sound sample for determining importance.
But any sample importance determination must incorporate two phases. First, a decision must be made to see if customer need is a hard constraint that must be satisfied, or an objective that can be traded off versus the other customer needs, and so carries a degree of relative importance.
Phases must be separated and accounted for differently by the design team. Second phase profitably modeled with importance weightings-- or more generally preferences in a second phase. To separate out any customer needs that are hard constraints that must be met, each need is examined one at a time, and the number of must-have responses compared to the total number of subjects.
Clearly, if every subject flags the need as a must-have than that need must be satisfied. But if only a fraction of the subjects indicate the product must satisfy a need, a decision must be made over what fraction should be used before interpreting the customer need as a constraint.
In addition to customer needs, there are also other requirements that a product must satisfy, for example manufacturing, and represented as additional requirements in the customer needs list. Typically all have constraint multiple importance, since they must be met for the product to be sold or physically produced.
Other non-customer requirements can be incorporated in the customer needs list as deemed appropriate. Alternatively, a specification sheet may be added for non-customer requirements, organising the requirements according to topic.
1. Ability to fulfill wide range of customer requirements
2. Shorter lead times in sales-delivery process
3. Increased control of production
4. Reduction in customer-specific design
5. Efficient way to offer broad product line
6. Establish link between the sales/production departments
7. Secure fully specified orders
8. Secure valid production documentation
9. Easier to deal with large number of variants
10. Less maintenance of production status updates
Top 10 Production Plans/Operations “Digital Twin” Decision Making Questions
Service Life Phases decision making requires good, reliable estimates of time-to-market delivered cost, product quality and supply line reliability. These systems must be developed in parallel with product and integrated into Digital Twin Model of existing systems or to support future system design. Discrete logistics schedule events constitute control framework. Metrics guiding continuous improvement process will continue to be critical for systems engineering.
Organisations not motivated to take deeper dives are retrofitting existing machines to designate them as connected . Attaching sensors to collect critical operational information makes them smart. The chalkboard of buzz words and patch-work of programmes currently used by industry are introducing glaring gaps, generating errors and inconsistent approach to Digital Twin technology in general.
One approach includes establishing a limited digital reach to monitor, promote, connect, track and trace in order to value every point of provider/customer contact, not only once for sales of product but over the life time of the product to include service quality- the main readiness metric to gauge customer satisfaction.
1. What Production Technology?
2. How is Production Allocated?
3. Who/Where are Suppliers?
4. What are Contingency Plans?
5. What to do about Inventories?
6. How is Product Transported?
7. What Resources to Assign?
8. How to Sequence Tasks?
9. When to Change Resources?
10. Where does Job go next?
Top 10 Efforts Comprise DoD Actions to Improve Weapons Systems Product Purchases
Busy schedules require keeping track of customer accounts, maintain prospective customer relationships, field product and model questions to deliver timely and accurate quotes making the process better and faster.
The whole sales process is streamlined and accelerates the conversion of sales opportunities into revenue with automation tools that simplify complex configurations, speed quoting time, and ensure ordering accuracy-- also mitigating common obstacles such as product combination errors, miscalculated costs, and quoting delays.
Happy customers stick around: Increase instances where customer requirements are satisfied by delivering a quick and user-friendly customer experience with the 3D product configuration so attention is focused on the customer rather than the time-consuming quoting process and customers benefit from precise visual and interactive build of customised orders with confidence and freedom.
Vendors can work closely with customers to educate, present, customise, and interact with "virtual" products using near-realistic 3D models so relationships are improved by visually displaying product plan/design, configuring products quickly, price and quote accurately, and order efficiently.
Visual communication and showcasing competitive differences of products in a realistic and engaging manner can encourage customers with little-to-no knowledge of product process to become less apprehensive and more engaged in designing and ordering with automation tools that simplify complex configurations, speed quoting time, and ensure ordering accuracy.
1. Procurement Action to take place over modernised interface
2. Modifications to Cost/Price Reporting requirements
3. Emphasis on Reliability/Maintainability in Product Design
4. Improvement of Planning for Acquisition of Services
5. Transparency of Test/Evaluation process & tools capabilities
6. Quote Configuration Series Product Baseline
7. Business System Component Visibility
8. Display of Programme Budget Figures
9. Ownership determination of Product Specs Details
10. Acquisition Workforce Training Improvements
Top 10 Questions for Virtual Showrooms Communicate 3D Products Customised Substitute Models to Customers Orders
In today's digital world, customers expect a seamless product purchasing process--one that gives them confidence to order what they want, how they want it. With Product Configurator, manufacturers and distributors are providing a user-friendly, visual configuration tool for customers to quote and order with confidence to boost business efficiency, productivity, and quote accuracy while helping to close sales more quickly, and enhance the customer experience.
All products and accessories are stored in one menu, which creates increased opportunities to identify additional products based on what the customer is ordering. Customers will be able to customise their orders, receiving a real-time rendering and quote so there are no more quoting delays or only seeing the product the first time when it arrives at the front door.
As customers configure their order with the application responsive drag-and-drop functionality, shopping cart and product model instantly update as new items are added or removed.
So it will be easy for customers to drag-and-drop add-on items and accessories to customise products across a range of industries: build anything from strength equipment, heavy equipment machinery and play systems equipment.
3D product configuration Demo can bring value to any manufacturer who sells customisable products so customers will enjoy the simplicity and accuracy of ordering with a 3D Product Configurator.
1. What is the effect of different discussion models e.g., independent, embedded, and doubly on participation and the establishment of common ground?
2. Beyond textual discussion, what external representations will effectively support collaborative communications and how do the representation affect grounding and the cost of integration?
3. How can the coordination of individual contributions be improved?
4. Can semi-automatic summarisation or merging of separately developed virtual reality views be used to form aggregated contributions?
5. How should selection and visual emphasis techniques be designed to provide realistic pointing behaviours?
6. Can referenced objects be clearly recognised by both Troops and machine collaborators?
7. How can pointing and graphics annotation be designed to handle dynamic visualisations and changing task sets?
8. How should behaviour navigation cues be effectively added to visual assessment tools to improve battlespace awareness?
9. Can automated techniques be used to help allocate effort by digging into past contributions, user profiles, and inferred networks to enable systems to direct collaborators to tasks in need of attention?
10. How can beneficial results of collaborative virtual reality assessments be more effectively exported, shared, and embedded in external network media?
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