Customer Showcase

WMH Tool Group Collaborates Internationally Using Autodesk Streamline

Preliminary Usage Slashes Product Development Time by 10 Percent; Expects 20 Percent Savings Using Full Capabilities

Like many industries today, the manufacturing industry is characterized by mergers and acquisitions. As in nature, it is an environment in which the strong survive and prosper.

Succeeding in today’s tough economic climate with geographically dispersed business divisions requires a keen sense of resource management and a state-of-the-art collaboration solution. WMH Tool Group, a company that has figured out how to do this successfully, is using the Autodesk Streamline™ ® on-demand collaborative project management solution service from Autodesk. WMH Tool Group, one of the most successful makers of power tools used by contractors and homeowners worldwide, has an interesting business strategy. Some of its divisions, including its Industrial Wood Division, use Asian suppliers not only for cost-efficient product manufacturing, but also for engineering services. Engineers in the Industrial Wood Division’s Nashville office serve as consultants to suppliers in China and Taiwan throughout the product development process. Engineering and manufacturing are done in Asia, where complete solution suppliers can provide cutting-edge technologies without sacrificing speed and cost efficiencies. Offshore manufacturers are also capable of handling greater volume and more types of products. To facilitate the process, WMH offices in Taiwan and China serve as liaisons between WMH Tool Group in the United States and its Asian manufacturers, which use Autodesk Inventor® and other solutions for 3D design. As a complementary solution to Autodesk’s design software, Autodesk Streamline enables international communication and collaboration for WMH Tool Group, so productivity is not impeded by differing time zones. Through this improved organization and ability to collaborate more freely, WMH Tool Group can better use its limited resources to increase productivity. “Using Autodesk Streamline, we slashed 10 percent off product development initially,” said Barry Schwaiger, engineering manager for the Industrial Wood Division. “Overall, we greatly improved our communication, organization, business processes, and competitive advantage.”

Streamlining Processes Amid Mergers and Acquisitions

WMH Tool Group manufactures a broad spectrum of stationary and portable power tools for the metalworking, woodworking, and material-handling industries. WMH Tool Group also has an array of hand tools for the retail and wholesale markets. Today, WMH Tool Group’s product lines include the Powermatic, Wilton, Jet, Performax, Columbian, Waxmaster, and PolishMaster brands. With headquarters in Chicago, WMH Tool Group employs 600 people worldwide and generates $250 million in annual sales. Its sales are generated through a broad base of regional dealers; retail customers including Costco, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Wal-Mart; and Internet companies such as Amazon.com and Woodcraft.

Conquering Business Challenges

According to Schwaiger, WMH Tool Group’s business challenge is to develop stand-alone, feature-intensive, unique products in a highly competitive tool market. To do so WMH must communicate effectively with offices, suppliers, and manufacturers around the world. Meeting this challenge also requires that WMH Tool Group organize data so everyone in the company can access up-to-date manufacturing design information regardless of location. Not only must everyone be able to access the same information, they must be able to access it at the same speed regardless of location or Internet connection. Before using Autodesk Streamline, WMH Tool Group stored information on a server in its Nashville facility, which resulted in slow access for team members not based in Nashville. Within this early usage state, WMH Tool Group has 25 users at seven sites using Autodesk Streamline for collaboration. This includes the Auburn, Washington; Chicago; and Nashville offices as well as WMH Tool Group liaisons and suppliers in China and Taiwan. Autodesk Streamline is deployed across Engineering, Sales/Marketing, and Operations departments. The implementation took place in summer 2001, and within one week everyone was using the service productively. “One of the best things about Streamline is how easy it is for all the team members to access the design information they need to get their jobs done, regardless of whether they are designers, engineers, purchasers, or marketers. The service is so easy to use, there is virtually no downtime or learning curve—and the results are immediate,” said Bill McCann, technical publications editor, Engineering Department, WMH Tool Group. “With our design team spread between several locations in the U.S. and Asia working on more than 50 active projects together, it’s crucial to have the information organized and accessible by everyone. Streamline helps us do just that and deliver products on time and within our budget.” “It allows our operations all over North America and Asia to easily access information via the Internet without the limitations associated with resident servers and associated electronic traffic,” added Schwaiger.

Antiquated Collaboration Tools

Like many companies, WMH Tool Group was relying on email and overnight couriers to communicate with suppliers. These options were antiquated, time consuming and expensive. Email lowered productivity because it was time consuming to determine the correct version of a document, caused extra work to determine if an attachment was received, required detailed explanations to communicate effectively, and slowed down email servers. Overnight couriers, the only alternative to email when files exceeded 10MB, were even less effective in terms of communication and collaboration. Microsoft Word files of an instruction manual were loaded on a CD and sent overnight to Taiwan and China. The Engineering Department alone sent files by courier twice a week, at a cost $50 on average. The “overnight” service actually took two or three days for international shipments, many of which the Customs Department returned because of improperly completed shipping forms, causing further delays. “The little things started amounting to a lot,” said McCann. “Our design team needed a more effective way to work than email and storing information on a server. It was extremely difficult to have any sort of version control or tracking system in place, and we knew that we could be working much more efficiently. With Streamline, we are able to store all our information in one location and work on it simultaneously. The benefits we’ve seen in terms of efficiencies are very impressive. And, we know there is still a lot more power in Streamline yet to unlock.” WMH Tool Group evaluated other solutions but found that eProject was too complex and that eRoom lacked manufacturing-industry focus.

Collaborating on 50 Projects Simultaneously

To meet its customer requirements for innovative products with a high quality/price relationship and total customer service, WMH Tool Group conducts competitive market studies with an emphasis on developing new products as well as improving existing products. “With Streamline, the brains no longer need to be in one location because each member of the design team is able to access the information that is critical to their job. Today, we’ve got about 50 active projects stored on Streamline. With engineers in Auburn, Washington; Chicago; Nashville; Taiwan; and China, it’s imperative that everyone has access to the most recent project information,” said McCann. “A typical project for us takes about a year, and, with multiple locations, keeping track of the most up-to-date information was becoming increasingly challenging. With Streamline, we can accurately plan our in-stock dates and keep track of exactly what stage each and every project is in. With one design team spread throughout the world working on so many different projects, it’s crucial to have the information organized and accessible by everyone,” added McCann.

Product Development Process

The engineering process at WMH Tool Group’s Industrial Wood Division is now much more efficient because Engineering, Technical Publications, Operations, Marketing, and Asian suppliers are able to collaborate effectively. The Division has created standard procedures, forms, and information for company use that are posted centrally on the Autodesk Streamline project site. With processes standardized, WMH Tool Group has increased its competitive advantage by being quicker to market with fewer mistakes. The product development process comprises many stages within the Division. First there are forms and marketing specifications that must be accessed, completed, approved, and communicated for new product development. The Asian suppliers review the specifications and create a design concept in 3D with Autodesk Inventor software. Because of an inability to communicate 3D data directly, suppliers then convert the design to a 2D DWG file and post it to Autodesk Streamline for the Nashville office to review using AutoCAD® software. Schwaiger suggests changes and asks for a sample to conduct field tests and design critiques. Because of the 2D data, currently WMH Tool Group faces challenges in this communication. In the future, WMH Tool Group will be able to use the 3D data in Streamline without requiring 2D DWG files for communication. The Asian suppliers then develop a more sophisticated 3D design using Autodesk Inventor software. Nashville and Asian suppliers negotiate costs, and Nashville provides the authorization to launch production of the total build of product and additional parts for quick after-market servicing. At this point the Purchasing department takes over. At the same time, operations manuals are also being developed. In Auburn, Washington, McCann spearheads content development and obtains Autodesk Inventor images of the machine and parts from the Asian suppliers. Product managers review the content for liability. The final graphics-intensive manuals are posted to Autodesk Streamline for duplication and insertion into product packages. At any time during this process, Cliff Rickmers, vice president of International Operations who overseas all the brands, can access Autodesk Streamline to find out the status of a particular project. Such self-service update is available to all users with permission. Key players, with or without an engineering background, are no longer left in the dark about project status.

Expanding Autodesk Streamline Usage

In 2003, Schwaiger plans to expand the use of Autodesk Streamline beyond the current 25 users within the Industrial Wood Division. He also hopes to deepen the usage within the Industrial Wood Division’s Engineering, Sales/Marketing, and Operations departments to include capabilities such as online view and markup directly on 3D Autodesk Inventor models, with automatic notifications and tracking of any such activity in Autodesk Streamline. For example, Marketing can specify to the Asian suppliers exact placement for product labels, bar codes, and warning labels. Using Autodesk Inventor 3D designs in combination with Autodesk Streamline, Marketing can communicate placement more effectively and accurately than with 2D drawings. Schwaiger believes that other divisions and departments, such as Purchasing, IT, and Human Resources, will find Autodesk Streamline beneficial as well. Any department that needs to centralize information and manage projects can realize the benefits of Autodesk Streamline, including departments outside product development. It gives them easy access to information in a personalized format and enables them to centralize and standardize processes within each group. Schwaiger’s goal is to generate an initial 10 percent savings within each new site or department that adopts Autodesk Streamline. With deeper usage, those percentages will only increase. “In Engineering, we’ve only scratched the surface of Streamline’s capabilities, and we estimate that we can achieve at least 20 percent improvement using the full capabilities of Streamline. We expect 10 percent or greater productivity improvement for each additional department that adopts Streamline,” said McCann. “For us, like many manufacturers, there is a simple formula for success. Better communication, plus better organization, plus better business processes equals increased competitive advantage. Streamline is a key to achieving that result,” concludes Schwaiger.