Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 17:30:58 -0700 From: cvalique@lost.cs.utah.edu (Carolyn Valiquette) Hello Larry and Joe, Thanks for all your work on the script. Below are our comments. Please let me know how I can be of assistance. I would be glad to help "flesh out" whatever outline you decide on. -C.
The MADE program "is sponsored by ARPA to develop formal design representations in order to improve the entire design and manufacturing process."[1] The design and manufacturing technologies developed at the individual sites, when combined with internet connectivity tools, produce a more powerful design environment.
The MADEFAST exercise "is testing current MADE technology, determining future research directions, and establishing an infrastructure for the MADE community."[2] All three of these activities involve both design/manufacturing and communications technology. It is the development in both of these areas, and the successful interaction between the two that we should emphasize in the video.
A couple of specific comments on the 3/20/95 script:
I don't think that the use of the term "virtual team" is appropriate. Our team is not virtual, we do exist. "Geographically distributed" is more accurate.
I think we should avoid calling ourselves a "dream team." It is almost believable when introducing the concept and benefits of a distributed team, but labeling ourselves that seems a bit immodest. (I also think "dream team" is a little over used.)
With that said, we propose the following outline for the video, some of which is taken from the current script (3/20/95). Some sections are more well developed than others. Some, but not all visuals are suggested. Most of the text is intended to be spoken, either in voice over or an interview.
Now in more detail...
Evolving political, economic, and technical forces are changing the landscape of engineering in both the defense and commercial sectors. Individuals working in isolation must give way to tightly integrated, interdisciplinary teams equipped to respond rapidly to product opportunities and changing requirements. In this rapidly changing world, no single environment holds all the answers. Therefore, the effective but economically unrealistic requirement for co-located teams must also give way to the geographically distributed product development team. With the development of internet connectivity tools a product team can be composed of members chosen for their expertise, with geographic location or re-location no longer and issue. This distributed team takes advantage of the pre-existing tools and environment of each member.
[Visual: The MADE logo, taken from the MADE hope page [1].]
Such a team has been assembled within the ARPA Manufacturing Automation and Design Engineering research and development program. The goal of the MADE program is to develop formal design representations in order to improve the entire design and manufacturing process. MADE projects embody a new vision of agile engineering product teams assembled from multiple, distributed organizations.
[Visual: US map with MADE sites shown [4]. One at a time, each site is *very briefly* described in some way. One idea (which avoids fancy graphics) is to display a text slide followed by relevant imagery from each site. For example the text slide for Alpha_1 would contain
The University of Utah
Concurrent Integrated Design and Manufacture
and the imagery might be brief video of one of the seeker parts being cut, or the gif of the seeker from the web page. Each site should supply their words and imagery (with Stanford reserving the right to edit when necessary).]
[Visual: Madefast logo, taken from the MADEFAST home page [2].]
The goal of the MADEFAST exercise is to test MADE technology, determine future research directions, and establish design, manufacture, and communication technology infrastructures for the MADE community.
[Visual: "The MADEFAST vision" [5].]
Building on ARPA-developed infrastructure, MADEFAST participants were able to demonstrate that incremental research milestones can be coupled creatively with real product development schedules. MADEFAST delivered:
- a working missile seeker prototype,
[Visual: Footage of the final seeker]
- a detailed record of the product and process,
[Visual: Screen shot of the MADEFAST home page [2].]
- a working collaboration infrastructure,
[Visual: Screen shot of MADEFAST resources page [3].]
- an R&D road map for further development.
[Visual: Where is the road map?]
Design and manufacturing tools alone do not foster the distributed team approach to product development. The design and manufacturing technologies being developed by MADE participants, when combined with internet interconnectivity tools, produce a powerful, distributed engineering environment.
The single, most important process decision of the MADEFAST exercise was to document all phases of the project on the World Wide Web. The MADEFAST web provided all participants with immediate access to the state of the project. It also encouraged rapid integration of new team members and the preservation of work done by participants who rotated off the team.
[Visual: Video clip of Sam/Mark(?) mbone session with shared whiteboard containing seeker cross section.]
Internet communications tools allow for not only textual, voice and video communication between participants, but also for the sharing and simultaneous manipulation of design data. These tools, many of which were developed under MADE, together with on-line engineering expertise and services create the distributed engineering, communications infrastructure necessary for the success of the project.
[Visual: Line drawing of seeker [6].]
Date? Utah visits Texas Instruments and obtains design drawings of their optical seeker, which will guide design decisions for the MADEFAST seeker.
Date? Utah and Stanford hold a satellite conference to discuss design issues and project organization. (We don't have video of this.)
Early July: EIT uses Rockwell's Design Sheet to create optics design options. Utah generates preliminary images of the seeker design.
Date? Network video, audio and shared whiteboard play a key role in coming to agreement on a two-stage optics design.
Early August: Utah and MSU agree upon a seeker casing design. Utah manufactures and ships the mold for the casing to MSU. Fabrication is complete in late August.
October: Utah completes fabrication of the mechanical and optical seeker parts. The seeker was assembled and sent to Stanford for integration with the control components.
[Visual: SimLab MADEFAST scenario page [7].]
Cornell's Simlab performed analysis of the physical properties of the optical spider. The results were reported to the MADEFAST community via a web page.
[Visual: Video footage of the seeker.]
November 10th: The working seeker was demonstrated at the MADE PI meeting.
[Visual: Video of the final seeker (hopefully). At least use images from the web page with pictures of the seeker base [8].]
December - March: Efforts focus on producing a compact, portable seeker which highlights the various contributions of the MADEFAST community.
The MADEFAST exercise has shown that a small, geographically distributed group of engineers, with modest resources, can accomplish a significant task when supported by MADE tools and services and by the power of the internet.
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