It is an inevitable path for pressure vessel manufacturers to enhance their informatization capabilities

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Many people would say that the factory just needs to produce the products, right? That’s right, many of our manufacturing plants are like this! And many factories sell their containers by weight! Speaking too much only brings tears… Yet, in such fierce competition, there are always some companies that manage to stand out – they either expand their business scope, focus on a specific vertical sector, or strengthen their capabilities in order to compete in the international market! These companies will grow rapidly for a period of time, but as the number of orders increases and the requirements for the products they produce become more stringent, they will find it difficult to manage things as easily as before. Typically, at this stage the company’s annual output is in the hundreds of millions. If it decides to expand further at this point, the owner will find that as the number of employees increases and departments become more specialized, various problems arise. The more departments there are, the more detailed the division of labor becomes; as a result, there are more barriers and the cost of communication increases. The same thing used to be decided with just a brief discussion among a few people, and then it would be put into action. When the company grows larger, it becomes harder to resolve issues easily; often several meetings are required, and multiple people need to participate in repeated discussions before a solution can be found. Most manufacturing plants should have these positions: sales, marketing, after-sales service (in smaller companies these roles are combined, while larger companies have them separated) ； Project manager (coordinates various departments and clients; this role is hardly found in small companies, where it’s usually the sales team that takes on orders and handles follow-up tasks) ； Design, verification, review, approval (one-stop design process) ； Manufacturing process (larger companies may divide it into material planning, layout, cold working, etc., while smaller companies might even integrate it directly into the production department) ； Welding process (welding processes generally have one) ； Others include procurement, warehouse management, material cutting, production, inspection, non-destructive testing, completion documentation, document control (may be present in larger companies), human resources, finance, and the office. By the way, in terms of information management, large companies may divide tasks into hardware and software maintenance, software development, information security, etc., while smaller companies may not even have a dedicated IT department. As far as I know, many companies’ computers are not replaced until 5 or 8 years have passed, and drawing software is often used without any proper support; this is a typical case of gaining something small at the expense of losing something much more valuable. At the current stage, the most costly factor is actually labor; failing to update hardware in a timely manner represents a huge waste of labor when it comes to drawing tasks. As the company grows larger, tasks such as prior reimbursement processing, leave requests, business trip applications, and the issuance of office supplies can no longer be handled manually; otherwise, as the number of employees increases, more and more time will be spent on these matters. At this time, some companies usually introduce OA systems to handle these processes related to office management. Some organizations may make mistakes when determining the scope of their OA systems, by including business processes within those systems as well. Many organizations do this in the early stages of digitalization, since they have not yet introduced specialized business systems. Typically, PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is used in the main business processes. There are indeed some PLM systems available on the market, but most of them are standard products that don’t suit the needs of our industry; many companies end up giving up on using PLM after introducing it. Seeing this, many people might think it’s an advertisement, haha, no no no, I’m just chatting casually... Or else one might decide to have a PLM company carry out further development, only to realize then that the costs involved are far beyond what one could imagine. More capable companies either develop PLM on their own or hire external firms to develop PLM-like systems. In our industry, a PLM must address at least the following issues to be considered a qualified PLM. 1. Paperless processing: For documents of size A3 or smaller, such as customer requirements, engineering documents, workflow-related documents, purchase orders, substitute material forms, modification notices, and non-conforming product handling forms, paper versions are still typically issued due to the specific nature of drawings. However, the number of departments involved in distributing these documents can be reduced, and some departments can use PDF electronic versions. 2. Document workflow: Certain documents (such as modification orders, substitute material forms, and non-conforming product handling forms) require going through a specific process; for example, substitute material forms need to be circulated among multiple departments and require signatures from various parties before they can be finalized and put into use. 3. Submission of drawings. 4. Distribution of construction drawings. 5. Distribution of process documents. 6. Management of as-built documents. 7. Management of warranty certificates. 8. Management of sales documents. 9. Non-destructive testing management. 10. Management of technical document archives. 11. Workload calculation. If the core business is like a tree, then projects represent the main trunk, and each product is a branch on that trunk; the smaller branches on those branches represent the various businesses and processes that arise from that particular product. For example, sales needs to prepare product design task sheets; the technical department is responsible for the design, material selection and planning, as well as the implementation of cold working and welding processes. The quality control department is tasked with conducting inspections and preparing completion documents – these are all minor aspects. It is worth mentioning that implementing a new system often encounters considerable resistance from various departments. No matter which department it is, using a system will more or less increase the workload, or it means that previous tasks are carried out in a different way; this can cause discomfort among some people and lead to negative emotions. At this time, with the support of senior leaders, if persistence is maintained, the system will be successfully launched after some time. Otherwise, there will be some setbacks; the launch will be delayed, and it might even fail due to the lack of cooperation from certain departments and the absence of oversight from management. After successful launch, results will appear after a while. These results are highly standardized data. Image: It is only at this point that people realize that using this system is useful for them, as it makes it very convenient to look up information. For example, it is possible to check whether there are any previous records of performance using this material, whether there are any records of performance at pressures above 10 Mpa, whether there are any records of products with a diameter of over 10 meters, and whether there are any records of performance with equipment used in the papermaking industry – all of these can be verified. For another example, you might want to know how many product designs each designer has created in a year. It is possible to find out how many drawings arrive each month, what types of products they are, and what the total workload is. The images allow one to find out how many products are currently in the design phase, how many have already had their construction drawings prepared, and which materials are supposed to be used first but haven’t been so far – all of this can be identified. This is something that could not be achieved with previous Excel spreadsheet management. A team of a dozen or so people can manage to keep track using Excel, but for teams of twenty or thirty people, it’s better to consider using a system.