Expert CAD Management The Complete Guide phần 6 pdf

If you can visualize the transition to 3D from management’s perspective and use faster/cheaper metrics, you’ll be surprised at how much better you understand the process.I’ve often made

Figure 7.4 Spectacular projects like the pyramids were completed using old tools But they could certainly be done faster and

cheaper (in real terms) with today’s technology

Faster or Cheaper, or (We Hope) Both

The only reason we’re using anything today that we didn’t use yesterday is because itmakes existing tasks faster or cheaper, or (we hope) both Believe me when I say that

if we could do engineering with slide rules and paper faster than computers and ters, we would still be doing so

plot-All businesses need to consider how new CAD technologies, especially 3D nologies, can best be integrated into the everyday engineering environment in a waythat delivers faster, cheaper results To illustrate faster/cheaper, let’s look at the evolvingtechnology of business communication and draw a few conclusions as we go

tech-Some examples of the faster/cheaper paradigm might be the following:

Letters faster than couriers And people were even willing to pay more for speed when

the Pony Express came into being The motivating factor here was faster even though it

wasn’t always cheaper

Standard mail cheaper than express When standard mail delivery was implemented

(along with the standard postage stamp), mail was available to everyone for less The

motivating factor here was cheaper even though delivery was slower.

Air mail faster than standard mail Even when mail was cheap and available to all, air

mail delivered the ability to get it there more quickly The motivating factor here was

faster even though it was more expensive.

FedEx faster than air mail Unlike airmail before it, FedEx got mail there the next day,

guaranteed The motivating factor here was much faster even though it was much more

expensive

Fax much faster than FedEx Faxing got the information there in minutes for the cost

of a phone call The motivating factors here were cheaper and faster.

E-mail as fast as faxing E-mail had all the speed of faxing but didn’t require the printing

and scanning of paper documents Information is e-mailed in its native data format The

motivating factor here is cheaper because less labor is used to handle the information.

Where was the real paradigm change? It was with the fax machine (not the

com-puter), because the fax machine was where technological changes facilitated faster and

cheaper at the same time And please notice that the evolution of mail handling took a

century, whereas the fax machine went from nothing to full business implementation in

What happens when we arrive at a plateau in the speed of information movement, like

where we are today? We can’t make things faster anymore Once speed is no longer the

advantage, the entire process moves toward cost control

In today’s CAD market, we clearly have the following results in terms of dataformats:

Note: In architectural environments, more comprehensive building models and design platforms allow

more people to use the same data without interface boundaries along the way Motivation: cheaper.

Don’t all of these point to faster and cheaper? I think they do! I therefore think

that the formatting of data into industry standard CAD formats with electronic

collab-oration via e-mail will be the way to go, because things can’t get much faster, but they can get cheaper by standardizing data formats.

What will be the next faster/cheaper innovation that will totally change the way

we design cars, buildings, and infrastructure? Who knows? The point is, we have towatch the trends carefully and try to forecast the change

Thinking Like Management

Let’s try an alternate way of looking at the faster/cheaper paradigm from a ment standpoint I’ll use the example of moving to 3D design software as a back-ground for the discussion because I hear this discussion so much in industry If you can visualize the transition to 3D from management’s perspective and use faster/cheaper metrics, you’ll be surprised at how much better you understand the process.I’ve often made the assertion that management teams are increasingly ambivalenttoward implementing 3D software because they think it will take time to do (notfaster) and it will be expensive (that is, not cheaper) Given that perspective, you cansee why they’re hesitant Let me run through a list of typical management thoughtsregarding implementing new software:

manage-The old software runs just fine Translation: manage-They don’t see the cheaper in new software.

New software requires customization The old software has been so highly customized

that any new software will require a substantial amount of customization and

debug-ging just to get it to production level Management doesn’t see this as cheaper.

Note: In manufacturing environments,we can now do 3D prototyping from the same model we used to

per-form stress analysis,thermal calculations,and kinematics interference studies.Motivations:faster and cheaper.

New software is buggy Software upgrades can be buggy, which makes CAD managers

wait for service packs or the next release These types of problems are neither fast nor

cheap.

Upgrading takes time Management has no patience for upgrades that don’t go

smoothly, and thus CAD managers are hesitant to embark on upgrading out of fear

What is fascinating about these trends is that they’re all business and ity driven rather than technologically driven It seems like you can have the greatest

productiv-software release since time began, and it won’t matter if it isn’t easy to install, integrate,

and run quickly with low learning curve times from everyone involved

Finding the Faster/Cheaper

Because we’re talking about dealing with new software releases, let’s examine some

ways that new software can be introduced into your company’s culture with minimal

cost and maximum impact—thus garnering maximum management support If you

combine some of these suggestions with a healthy dose of faster/cheaper, you should be

able to allay management’s fears Try some of the following approaches to start the

conversation:

Generate a list of great time-saving features By listing the new software features that

allow you to save time, you show management where the faster is Often, management

thinks that we always want new software and that we don’t give thought to what the

benefits will be Head off this skepticism by illustrating your thought process and

showing management that you’ve found the faster in the new software.

Generate a planning document You’ve found the faster in your new software Now,

plan things so you can get the faster done cheaper Sometimes management just wants

to know that you have a plan, so show them yours—and make sure they know you’ve

got your eye on the faster/cheaper paradigm while you do so

Demonstrate a smooth implementation timeframe By planning for new software to

transition in smoothly, you’ll minimize disruptions and keep mistakes to a minimum

Although smoothness doesn’t get things done faster or cheaper, it keeps down the costs

of mistakes, thus maximizing whatever faster/cheaper you’ve already planned for

Plan for successful training Like a smooth implementation, planning for training keeps

down mistakes But training offers a powerful faster benefit by generating productive

people that much faster Sell your skeptical management team on training by using the

faster motif, and watch how their opinion about training changes.

Planning for the Future (via the Past)

I know the discussion of the faster/cheaper paradigm isn’t a technical topic per se, but anumber of technical principles simplify down to what is faster/cheaper in the businessworld My point in introducing you to the faster/cheaper paradigm is to give you theinsight into why things change and to allow you to forecast which technologies willwork for you

Whenever you’re in doubt, use some of my historical references, and then usethat history to analyze current-day technologies and see how they apply to your currentwork environment As you do so, always ask these questions:

If you can answer yes to one or more of the questions by making a change, thenit’s probably a good change to make If you can answer yes to all these questions, then

you’ve found an idea that is faster and cheaper, and you should be moving rapidly to

implement the change

Now that you’re thinking about the faster/cheaper paradigm, you may find ithard to go back to your old ways of thinking about technology No matter what else, Iguarantee that your company’s senior management is thinking faster/cheaper, so whynot think the same way?

Faster/Cheaper Internet

Why should any CAD work process move to WANs or the Internet? Don’t we alreadyhave methodologies that work? The key to examining the possible impact of Internetmethodologies is to focus on how costs can be reduced and time spans accelerated It’sgenerally true in business environments that faster and cheaper are better, and cooltechnology is pushed aside if it doesn’t support these dual objectives Let’s examinehow the Internet can potentially make the business of design faster and cheaper, andsee if you think it will affect your company

On the cheaper side of the equation, there is no dispute that most designers,

engineers, and other technology professionals have access to the Internet at work orhome Therefore, if you can make drawings, markups, plots, digital pictures, andscanned images available to your employees, customers, and vendors via the Internet,you’ll save money How did I arrive at this conclusion? Well, if your customers canhelp themselves to key files via the Internet, you don’t have to pay for FedEx or faxing

charges, and you save time by not having to send e-mails or other manually generated

correspondence You save on both service and labor

On the faster side of the equation, Internet sites allow customers and vendors to

access information at any time on their own terms This self-serve mode of operation

cuts down on phone tag, errant communications, misrouted e-mails, and so on The

simple fact that customers can help themselves allows the process to proceed at their

own pace This not only makes things faster for the customer but also gives them the

feeling you’ve custom-tailored a solution for them

The Possibilities

Now that you’re attuned to the faster/cheaper paradigm, it’s time to put the concept to

use What sort of Internet processes could you add to your CAD environment that

would facilitate faster/cheaper work? An interesting question, to be sure I’d like to

split the possibilities into two categories:

User-centric functions:

Collaborative/Customer-centric functions:

All these types of functions are nuts and bolts issues that aren’t terribly sexy but

do need to be dealt with My point is that new technology (Internet/WAN) is useful

only if it solves problems you have (rather than creating new problems) at a lower price

point than other options Therefore, I’ve found that focusing on proven technologies

that work well at low costs yields good results for almost all companies

Note: Don’t be afraid to use a time-tested technology with low costs (like FTP) rather than bleeding-edgetechnology that costs more Remember, the point is to get the job done, and the faster/cheaper paradigm isthe way you judge what works

Note: Faster/Cheaper: not newer-cooler!

Using ROI Metrics

We’ve all encountered limitations within our CAD systems Sometimes we just don’thave the functions we need to perform certain tasks efficiently Chances are, you’vewanted to use your CAD management position to do something about the shortcom-ings but have been met with management resistance to spending money The key to get-

ting what you want and building a case for CAD management is to use an ROI-based

approach to justify your arguments

Every year you spend money on upgrades, supplies, training, hardware, and so

on, but how do you know if you’re spending your money well? This is a question thatmanagement teams very much want an answer to and one that CAD managers shouldask In order to know if you’re spending your money well, you need a measuring stick:

a set of metrics that allows you to evaluate your spending

ROI metrics allow you to keep score and prioritize which spending items in yourannual budget are delivering the goods and which ones you could do without Interested?The good news is that you don’t need a business degree or accounting certificate tounderstand and use ROI metrics Let’s look at a case of how you can use ROI; as we

go, we’ll examine how persuasive this is from management’s perspective

Defining ROI

Return on investment is exactly what the name implies: a returned value that arisesfrom investing in a certain way In layman’s terms, think of purchasing a new softwareprogram and then wanting to know how well that investment is paying you back Inalmost all CAD management scenarios, the return on your investment will be in timesavings Anything you spend money on should generate a savings amount that justifiesthe spending

Stick with me while we set out some basic terms and concepts that are crucial tounderstanding ROI metrics Pay particular attention to the concept of different ROIvalues in different years, because this is crucial for CAD managers:

ROI Return on investment The savings an investment can produce divided by the

outlay the investment requires, expressed in annual percentage form For example, ifputting a new plotter in place can save you $1,000 per year in costs, but the plottercosts $5,000 in outlays to purchase and implement, the ROI is (1000/5000)*100%

or 20%

Realized savings The amount of money you can save by purchasing a new product or

service Two examples are reduced paper and toner costs realized by purchasing anewer plotter, and reduced labor from applying custom CAD programming

Initial outlay The initial amount of money you spend on a given item or service An

example is the initial purchase price of a plotter, computer, or consultant

Labor outlay The amount of time it will take you and/or your staff to implement new

items or services into your organization An example is your time to set up a new

plot-ter or compuplot-ter, or staff time spent attending training classes

Recurring outlay The ongoing amount of money required to keep a given item in

serv-ice Examples include an annual service contract for hardware, software subscriptions,

consulting retainer contracts, and even recurring labor

Year 1 ROI The amount of savings in the first year of the investment, divided by the

total outlay in the first year This number is typically low for new hardware and

soft-ware because you have large initial outlays in the first year

Year 2 ROI The amount of savings in the second year of the investment, divided by

the total outlay in the second year This number is typically much higher than year 1

because the large initial and labor outlays were absorbed in year 1

Year N ROI The amount of savings in the last year of the investment, divided by the

total outlay in that year N generally is the number of useful years of service for the

investment For hardware, N can be anywhere from 3 to 5, whereas software usually

has a useful life of two years

Aggregate ROI The average ROI values for year 1 through year N This aggregate

number gives a true measure of how well the investment performs over its entire life

Admittedly, there’s some uncertainty in forecasting an investment years into the future,

but figuring the aggregate ROI value is better than guessing

Payback period The number of years/months it takes for the savings from an

invest-ment to exactly equal the outlays for the investinvest-ment An example is a software utility

that generates $2,000 per year in savings but costs $4,000 in outlays over two years to

acquire; it has a payback period of two years

Computing a Quick Example

Suppose you’ve done a study of your AutoCAD personnel and determined that they’re

wasting an inordinate amount of time looking for standard blocks, title frames, XREF

attachments, and graphics files The waste is so obvious to you that you decide it

would be worthwhile to create a standardized set of tool palettes that all users could

use to quickly perform tasks that slow them down Sounds good so far, right? But how

do you get the approval to spend the time and resources you’ll need to make it happen?

Let’s work up this idea in an ROI format and see how compelling the case can be from

a financial standpoint

Figure 7.5 ROI computations represent a balancing act between time and money and quantifying that balance.

In order to do the ROI math, you need to determine the realized savings andoutlays required to create and implement the tool palettes Here are some values I’veobserved in the real world that can be used for this example:

Realized savings Suppose you can find a small change to make in a given work process

that will generate time savings for your CAD users How do you quantify those savings?

If you can save each CAD user one hour per week, and that CAD user makes $20 perhour, the average annual savings will be $960 based on a 48-week work year If youhave 10 CAD users, an annual savings of $9,600 can be realized

Initial outlay The initial outlay for this example is $0 because you already have the

CAD software and you don’t need any additional software to create tool palettes

Labor outlay The amount of time it will take you to gather all the blocks and

graph-ics, organize them into tool palettes, deploy the palettes to users’ desktops, and providesome basic training on the functionality of your tool palettes must be considered in twoportions: Your time to create, deploy, and train based on an estimate of 28 hours oflabor at $40 per hour equals $1,120; and 1 hour of training per CAD user at $20 perhour equals $200 for the entire department The total labor outlay is therefore $1,320

Recurring outlay Each time you upgrade your CAD software, you’ll need to make sure

you move all the blocks, graphics, and palettes to the new version to assure proper

functionality You shouldn’t have to retrain users on palette use, so the outlay will be

purely your labor Assuming a generous 10 hours per upgrade cycle at your $40 per

hour rate, the recurring outlay to maintain the palettes is $400 annually

Now you can move to an ROI computation for year 1 by dividing the $9,600savings per year by the year one outlays of $1,320 and converting to percentages Some

quick calculator work will determine the ROI to be a staggering 727% for the first

year Think that’s good? Consider the year 2 analysis, where the same $9,600 is saved

but only $400 is spent to achieve the savings, thus yielding an ROI of 2,400% An

aggregate ROI for the first two years of this example is an average of the year 1 and

year 2 values—1,564%, if you do the math

The payback period for this example is achieved quickly because the projectgenerates more savings in year 1 than it costs If you divide the $1,320 in year 1 out-

lays by $9,600 in year 1 savings, you’ll see that payback occurs in 0.14 years, or seven

weeks! Think you can get management’s attention with these calculations and

support-ing data? You bet

Drawing Conclusions

I’ll now draw some conclusions from the example and extend the logic to make

addi-tional recommendations you can use in your day-to-day CAD management tasks:

Big savings from small investments The example saved a lot of money with a small

investment of your time and no software expenditure Management will love these

types of efficiency improvements precisely because they generate big ROI values with

no out-of-pocket expenses (because you’re already on salary)

Achieving savings is what ROI is all about As you run through some example cases,

you’ll start to think about how you can save money more than how you can spend it

This psychological shift is profound and one that your management will very much

appreciate

ROI shows the big picture As you become increasingly aware of ROI methods, you’ll

think more about how you work and how to make your workplace more efficient with

minimal spending

The formula always works No matter what you’re buying, programming, or training,

the formula of savings divided by outlays always covers the bases Just make sure you

capture all the outlays, and you’ll arrive at ROI values quickly and easily

When you think about your job from an ROI perspective, you can’t help beingmore business minded and value focused When you combine your new-found ROI

expertise with the technical skills you already have, you’ll be a true CAD management

double threat

Putting ROI to Use

Now that you know how to quantify how well an investment performs, you may want

to go back to your budget and think about each item from an ROI standpoint Yes,going back through your budget to project ROI values will take some time on yourpart, but the exercise will help you set your budget priorities You’ll also find thatwhen you submit your budget backed up with ROI computations, you’ll get a tremen-dous amount of management respect and much smoother budget approval

I hope I’ve inspired you to start looking at your budgets and expenditures from

an ROI perspective

Performing Bottleneck Analyses

Now that you’ve got an idea of what an ROI analysis is and what the variables are,

let’s explore an interesting special case called a bottleneck analysis Let me begin by defining a bottleneck as a limitation in your current software, hardware, or processes

that is costing time and, therefore, money Obviously, if you can eliminate bottlenecks,you’ll save time and, therefore, money, and management will love you for doing so.I’ll use a real-world client example of a bottleneck that existed because of thelack of a software utility The CAD manager at the company couldn’t get management

to authorize the software utility, thus perpetuating the bottleneck I’ll work through theprocess we used to outline the bottleneck and obtain approval for the software, so youcan follow along Here’s how it works in the sequence we used:

Savings buys the software We proposed to use the labor savings we could generate (by

removing the bottleneck) to pay for the software Therefore, we had to illustrate that a

$45/hour architect taking two hours to create a door and window schedule was costingthe company $90 If we used the software utility to automate the production of theseschedules, then we could save the company $90

Additional investigation showed that if the design firm produced 100 of theseschedules a year, then a total cost saving of $9,000 could be realized

Create a benchmark Now that you’ve established the bottleneck points that cost you

productivity, you should go back and verify your time savings estimates By creating a

written summary of your time savings estimates, you create what is known as a marking document You should use the benchmark as a test case for the new software

bench-you choose to purchase so bench-you can prove that everything will work

Note: This example is a perfect real-world bottleneck analysis: It finds a process that is time consumingand then produces a payback based on time savings

Figure 7.6 Just as removing a traffic jam improves traffic flow, removing productivity bottlenecks in your CAD

envi-ronment allows more work to flow Using ROI methods to identify bottlenecks lets you purchase the tools you need

In the case of the architect making window and door schedules, we wrote abenchmark that included creating a drawing with a variety of doors and windows and

then producing a finished drawing with the generated schedules Note that in this

benchmark case, we took care to create a drawing first and then generate the

sched-ules This way, we observed the time consumed to create the drawing using the add-on

software we were analyzing, to capture the entire experience of using the software

Record your findings in a spreadsheet format, and make it easy for management

to read

Total the costs Add a tab to your spreadsheet that totals the costs of acquiring the

software you wish to buy Consider the following components:

Compute the ROI Divide the savings you can obtain by eliminating the bottleneck by

the costs, and you’ll have an ROI number A general rule of thumb is that ROI

num-bers greater than 1 (or 100%, if you prefer) are a great return on your company’s

investment

Show management At this point, you understand the bottleneck and software solution

well—so well that you’ve quantified things in a neatly written spreadsheet and computed

an ROI If the numbers look good, go show management, and ask for permission to

purchase the software

Building Your Own Case

You can now use the previous outline to build your own bottleneck analysis studies.Some of the more typical places I’ve found bottlenecks lurking are as follows:

in companies in which technology spending is trending up, there is a strong motivation

to refine new technology to fit the company’s needs Therefore, you have every reason to

be optimistic about new technology spending if you frame the debate correctly

The tried-and-true concepts of ROI and automating redundant tasks have nowjoined the mantras of cost reduction and right-sizing in the corporate world If you canidentify opportunities to increase productivity for the employees in your company andprove a high enough ROI to justify the needed investment, you’re golden! And elimi-nating bottlenecks can generate some radically high ROI numbers

It seems that no company, regardless of its circumstances, wants to add ees unless it absolutely has to This aversion to hiring plays into investing in technologythat enables outside contractors to collaborate and places a high premium on eliminat-ing information handling Unless your company is in a death spiral, management willalways be receptive to ideas that allow more work to get done with the same number

employ-of people

Building a Long-Term Plan

Achieving success in CAD management isn’t an accident Few CAD managers have long-term success without planning for it Therefore, build- ing a long-term game plan, one that allows you to tackle tasks in a logical order, is crucial to guar- anteeing your success In this chapter, I’ll give you some suggestions to build that longer-term plan and approach it in modular chunks.

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on how to develop those concepts, as well.

Figure 8.1 When NASA launches a rocket, the agency takes lots of time to plan and ponder

how the mission might go Approach your CAD management plan with the same attention to planning and detail, and you’ll make far fewer mistakes and enjoy a smooth flight