reUse Secrets of Competitive Companies
In today’s world, due to market globalization and technological acceleration, industrial companies are required to cut costs and reduce product design time. In recent years, they acquired parametric CAD, PDM and, sometimes, PLM* software to reach their acceleration goals. Progress has been made, but must go much, much further. One of the keys to reaching these goals is to encourage the reuse of components and processes that already exist in the company. The most obvious source of savings is at the design office level where designers spend much of their time recreating components that already exist. This phenomenon varies significantly by industry, but according to an Arthur D. Little study, up to 80% of an engineer’s work is identical (or almost) to something that has already been done within the company. The ability to avoid recreating components can lead to significant time savings and many other savings in a domino effect throughout the product lifecycle.
Fewer parts in stock represent a source of savings at the production, storage and after-sales service levels. Savings can also be expected in terms of time-to-market and at each level in the product lifecycle An LMI study** performed for the U.S. Department of Defense estimates that each new part added to inventory costs $27,500 on average. Thus, to reduce the costs of its low-cost Dacia range, Renault drastically reduced the number of parts. A Logan contains at most 6,000 parts, whereas a traditional sedan contains 10,000. But Renault also turned to its stocks of parts for other vehicles in the group, including Renault and Nissan, to create this range. Seventy percent of the Duster, the recent success of the Renault brand, is made up of parts that already existed. The result was that the Duster was put on the market only three years following the decision to launch this low-cost 4×4, and its price is 20% to 30% less than that of its competitors.
Process implementing is long and complex
The challenge therefore consists of implementing processes, particularly at the PLM level, that encourage designers to make the reuse of components a priority. All departments involved in the product lifecycle should adopt this approach, not just design offices. All players must have access to tools to be able to find the part they are looking for, from the purchaser to the after-sales service department, including the methods and manufacturing departments.
