European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Innovation and Standards INNOVAFUN
INNOVAFUN
Innovafun
‘Main experiences and recommendations from INNOVAFUN under the Europe INNOVA Standards networks initiative’ www.europe-innova.org
INNOVAFUN is supported by the European Commission under the Europe INNOVA initiative
Legal notice This manual has been produced as part of the Europe INNOVA initiative. The views expressed in this manual, as well as the information included in it, do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the European Commission and in no way commits the institution.
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Innovation and Standards INNOVAFUN
The INNOVAFUN HANDBOOK ‘Main experiences and recommendations from INNOVAFUN under the Europe INNOVA Standards networks initiative’
A result of the project Applying open standards to INNOVAte FUrNiture business processes
A Publication supported by the European Commission
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
CONTENTS
FOREWORD: STANDARDS NETWORKS CHAPTER 1: STANDARDS FOR INNOVATION STANDARDS FOR FURNITURE
7
13
CHAPTER 4: WHERE CAN I GO?
35
4.1 How to adopt ISO 10303-236
39
4.2 Who can provide support in the standard adoption process?
53
4.3 Auxiliary tools and services
54
CHAPTER 5: AND NOW? IS IT ENOUGH?
59
CHAPTER 2: BASIC CONCEPTS
17
2.1 funStep origins
17
2.2 What is ISO 10303-236?
18
5.1 Competitiveness and business benefits
59
2.3 Interoperability Costs
20
5.2 Validation and conformance testing
62
2.4 Advantages of adopting funStep
21
5.3 e-business with funStep
64
5.4 A semantic approach
65
CHAPTER 3: WHO AND WHERE AM I?
25
REFERENCES
66
26
USEFUL LINKS
66
28
PARTNERS AND AUTHORS
67
3.1 Organisations in today’s global market
25
3.2 Furniture stakeholders 3.3 Compliance with the funStep standards
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
The mechanism through which standards impact the innovation process is often described as the “path dependency of the innovation process”. In short, when specifications are defined, the options for future technological developments are narrowed down by definition, since alternatives are ruled out by a combination of technical and market choice. This may be considered as detrimental to innovation but at the same time innovation requires some kind of predictability and stability so that innovative solutions can more easily find their way.
And now? Is it enough?
There is evidence to suggest that well implemented standards may contribute to the innovation process and therefore to economic growth. The challenge lies in increasing awareness of how standards may be used by economic actors to develop innovative new products and services and more efficient business processes. Such information must be neutral and unbiased in order to be credible. This offers new business opportunities for information services that assess the costs and benefits of standards in a user-friendly manner thus helping clients to take informed decisions on how to use standards in the most innovative way.
Where can I go?
The merit of developing standards lies in the possibility of reducing the transaction costs involved in the development and application of (new) technologies and of generating positive network externalities by reaching economies of scale. Standards may, under certain circumstances, also generate negative effects, such as the adoption of sub-optimal technical solutions, the freezing of potential new technological developments or the “stranding” of entire user communities in dead-end products or services. However, innovation does not necessarily favour the “best” technological solutions but those that find strongest support from the market.
Who and where am I?
As codified information, standards serve to spread knowledge of the requirements for market acceptability and contain explicit technical information reducing uncertainty and search costs for producers and customers. In addition, non-technological standards help shaping new organisational forms and business models and contribute to raising the quality of services and to the efficiency of business processes.
Basic concepts
Standards play a crucial role in the definition of market conditions in many industrial sectors and not only in those concerned with high-technology. The use of standards is accelerating technological and organisational change and thus improving innovation performance. Standards are part of the infrastructure that supports efficient innovation processes. They play a major role in promoting innovative products and services, by providing stable references for the development of new innovative solutions and creating large scale markets.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
STANDARDS AND INNOVATION
Foreword
Foreword STANDARDS NETWORKS
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Standards may therefore be considered as a catalyst for innovation. In Europe, large investments are made into the development of standards, offering enterprises potential competitive advantages under the right framework conditions. However, standards in many industrial areas are not sufficiently known or used by product and service developers. In many areas, more than one standard exists for the same purpose which makes it often difficult to decide which the best are.
EUROPE INNOVA AND STANDARDS To promote the awareness of existing standards and their potential to stimulate innovation, a call for proposals for European projects was launched under the Europe INNOVA initiative in the framework of FP6 with the objective to exchange and compile good practice on how to use standards to develop innovative business solutions, focusing on three key aspects: Innovafun
1. Facilitating the integration of open standards into the design of new products and services European standards are widely acknowledged as one of the measures to enhance intra-EU trade and to foster competitiveness. In this respect, the objective was to demonstrate the possibilities to promote the use of existing standards in the design of new products and services by bringing together designers, product developers and consumer associations to identify and test practical approaches to using standards in an innovative manner.
2. Facilitating the integration of open standards into business processes Non-technological standards play a crucial role for the development of new business practices and services. Examples include, in particular, quality standards and standards defining new business workflows, such as in the area of e-business. From a public policy perspective, a wider use of standards in these fields would help to promote the quality of new business services and to facilitate networking among enterprises, by promoting interoperable business solutions. In this area, the objective was to identify the most promising standards for the development of business practices and services and to develop practical guidance for their implementation at sectoral level.
3. Stimulating innovation through reference to standards in public procurement Public administrations have a huge impact on the economy in their role of procurers of goods and services. Public tenders and purchases are rather formalized processes, where reference to standards is often made.
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
The Europe INNOVA call for proposals resulted in six European standards networks, five addressing the use of open standards in the design of products, services and business processes from a sectoral perspective and one focusing on public procurement as a lever for stimulating innovation:
STAND-INN, operating in the construction sector, addressed new manufacturing processes based on the IFC standards with the aim of creating new and more efficient business processes, thus facilitating the construction
And now? Is it enough?
INNOVAFUN - Applying open standards to INNOVAte FUrNiture business processes - aimed to build industrial consensus on the innovative funStep standard-based solution, facilitating the integration of open standards in the furniture industry. The funStep standard is acknowledged by many SMEs as a catalyst for the innovation in the sector. Although INNOVAFUN targeted the furniture industry, its results can also be used as a reference in other industrial sectors.
Where can I go?
EUROMIND, in the shipbuilding sector, looked at solutions on how to improve European shipbuilding supply chain collaboration by connecting digital systems via open standards. It identified the most promising open standards and documented their use in horizontal integration (cooperating shipyards) and vertical integration (in the supply chain) in order to address the ever increasing need for cooperation between shipyards, system integrators, equipment manufacturers, electrical engineering companies and other suppliers as well as professional service providers and ship owners.
Who and where am I?
DEPUIS - Design of Environmentally-friendly Products Using Information Standards - aimed at improving the environmentally friendly design of new products and services through the innovative use of new information standards with a view to enabling more companies to use Life Cycle Thinking when assessing the environmental impact of their design of new products.
Basic concepts
BIOHEALTH dealt with security issues related to the use of standards for eHealth interoperability and addressing all concerned parties: those working in healthcare as well as patients and citizens; healthcare insurers, governmental bodies and the healthcare industry. It developed relevant information and clear guidelines for eHealth standards users in areas such as identity management, biometrics, ethical applications, etc.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
EUROPE INNOVA STANDARDS NETWORKS
Foreword
Here, the objective was twofold: on the one hand to assess how standards are currently used and referenced in public procurement processes in the EU and, on the other, to improve the way in which existing standards are referenced in European public procurement processes, with a view to helping bidding companies become more innovative in their product and service design and offer.
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sector’s great potential for cost reduction and productivity increase. STAND-INN has brought together the set of open standards to improve information exchange and interoperability in the building lifecycle and it has identified new standards for sustainable development. This, in turn, should help improve the competitiveness of the building and construction industry. STEPPIN - STandards in European Public Procurement lead to INnovation - explored how referencing open standards in European public procurement processes could foster innovative business solutions amongst bidding companies and sought to encourage the use of new procedures and methods to stimulate innovation through the application of standards in both the public and private sectors.
KEY LESSONS FROM THE EUROPE INNOVA STANDARDS NETWORKS Innovafun
The experience of the Europe INNOVA standards networks shows that it remains a key challenge to better use standards for the development and commercialisation of new products and services as well as for organisational innovation which requires strong business support. In many cases, new standards are not ready to be used directly by end-users but require further efforts to integrate them into new or better business solutions. Evidence from the standards networks also suggests that in many sectors, a wide range of standards co-exist and that it is often hard for SMEs and procurers to decide which the best are. As a result, SMEs and public and private procurers are only exceptionally using standards with a view to bring innovative solutions into markets. In order to address these challenges, the standards networks have developed a number of tools or materials, which are being presented in this series of handbooks, through which neutral information about the benefits and costs of using standards with a view to helping SMEs and procurers gain easier access to relevant standards in order that they may better accommodate innovative solutions into often complex environments. These services offer specialised information on which standards matter for what, whom and in which context, and they are seen as particularly strong tools to leverage innovation into new markets. It would be desirable if such new information services would be supported, as much as possible, by the national and European Standardisation Organisations with a view to promoting the wider use of standards. The results of the Europe INNOVA standards networks are very encouraging. Further efforts will therefore be undertaken to facilitate the innovative use of standards, for example in support of the new Lead Market Initiative of the European Commission. Standards experts are invited to actively participate also in the next generation of Europe INNOVA that will follow a more thematic approach and therefore requires close cooperation with other actors that facilitate innovation processes. Standards can make an important difference.
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
CHAPTER 1: Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
Innovation and Standards INNOVAFUN
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
1. Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
Where can I go? And now? Is it enough?
INNOVAFUN is part of a series of projects based on the ISO-10303-236 funStep standard, and specifically seeks to enable seamless sharing of information between SMEs within the international furniture and interior design sectors. funStep is already a well-known initiative worldwide, mainly in the furniture sector, supporting improved business processes in European furniture-related organisations.
Who and where am I?
However, a number of problems arise when design data generated for one purpose are used elsewhere in the supply chain for a different purpose. Many different software and hardware systems are used and these differ not only between companies, but also among different functions within a company. Because each system has its own proprietary data format, product data are created and stored in multiple and often incompatible formats which makes the exchange of these data difficult. Resulting data files may contain errors, may be incomplete, or may be formatted in a way that makes them unusable. These barriers are factors that prevent innovation and growth.
Basic concepts
The furniture industry has become increasingly international, with retailers buying goods from manufacturers all over Europe and beyond. Similarly, manufacturers source their raw materials from suppliers worldwide. Product data standards (where they exist at all) differ across national boundaries, so the development of international product data standards will extend business opportunities across the global supply chain. Many separate companies involved in the design, manufacture, sale and distribution of furniture, are requiring the sharing and exchange of huge volumes of information.
Foreword
Firms engaged in supply-chain relationships – whether as manufacturers, customers, suppliers or service providers – need to share a great deal of information in the course of their business activities. Historically, companies have managed these information flows in a number of ways, including telephone calls, letters, telex, faxes, and electronic data interchange (EDI). More recently, the availability of reliable high-speed internet connections has become widespread and the cost of implementing technological solutions has dropped. Consequently, companies have begun to make better use of IT to automate critical business communications.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
The furniture sector in Europe comprises thousands of small and medium sized enterprises, which in turn, employ tens of thousands of workers. Companies invest an average of 25 minutes per item per year manually cleansing out-of-synch item information, with 30% of catalogues containing avoidable mistakes. For a company with 10,000 items, this represents over €100,000 in annualised operational costs which, through the adoption of funStep, would be completely eliminated. In addition, 60% of invoices contain errors, each costing an average of €300 to reconcile. This could be avoided by applying standards in the business processes.
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The ISO-10303-236 ‘funStep’ standard solutions aims to address these issues by providing a robust, scalable and open data format that supports data sharing between companies and systems is a seamless way. However, the adoption of technology alone would not maximise the potential benefits of funStep solutions. There are also cultural and operational changes that, if adopted, would leverage the benefits; for example, the funStep data model would make an ideal partner to a lean manufacturing system. Through funStep solutions it is possible to get easier access to new markets, to manage product data through all product life cycle phases and distribute product catalogue data to retailers and E-marketplaces. These advantages give the possibility of reducing administration costs associated with handling quotations, orders, etc., as well as the opportunity to have internet catalogues and e-commerce on manufacturers’ websites. However, IT systems are often looked upon with scepticism as organisations seemingly spend large amounts of time and effort trying to communicate seamlessly with little result.
Innovafun
For larger businesses, the re-sourcing of IT systems and the establishment of international purchasing departments can be incorporated into the company’s business plan, but for smaller concerns it can be a daunting prospect. This affects the development of the furniture industry as a whole. The process must be made easier if the industry is to capitalise on the benefits of international sourcing and the application of IT. The way to do this is to apply standards that help companies make best use of technology. Ruthless competition is a potential barrier to the adoption of funStep, but any improvement in efficiency will boost profitability. The growth of the internet has seen manufacturers having a more direct contact with end users, which could drive demand for greater interoperability. Long lead times for products have historically been acceptable, but consumer demand for faster service in the digital age is placing increasing demands on the industry, which could help drive the adoption of funStep. This handbook intends to help furniture SMEs to adopt the open funStep standard and integrate the resulting business efficiencies and resulting innovation in their normal business by using different products and services.
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
CHAPTER 2: Basic concepts
Innovation and Standards INNOVAFUN
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
2. Basic concepts Foreword
The funStep history started in the mid 1990’s, to answer the concerns expressed by a group of Spanish furniture manufacturers on the problems related to the lack of interoperability with their customers/suppliers systems. This first analysis, made in 1994-1995, caused the origin for the ESPRIT funStep project that generated the first international initiative of STEP-based standardisation of data models for furniture industry: funStep was borna!
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
2.1 funStep origins
Basic concepts Who and where am I? Where can I go? And now? Is it enough?
=`^li\ (1 funStep History
a.
funStep Interest Group; www.funStep.org
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This project showed the need of furniture manufacturers, interior designers and retailers to exchange graphics and non/graphics product information, regardless of the Computer Aided Design (CAD) system used; despite the wide offer of specialised CAD systems for interior design available on the market, the different types of information could not be exchange as required. Since then, funStep began to be looked upon as a solution for the daily interoperability problems of thousands of furniture sector companies all over the world. The FSIGa was officially created in October 1998, with around 150 different companies attending to its open-to-public kick-off meeting. FSIG has survived and now has almost 700 members, 85% of which are involved in the furniture industry sector. Figure 1 shows how FSIG was, and continues to be, the embryo for new ideas that go from projects which aim to extend the standard and cover the e-business requirements, to the achievement of the ISO standard at ISO TC 184 SC4b status going through collaborations with CEN/ISSS, industry-led initiatives and world-wide collaborations.
Innovafun
Over the years, FSIG has been commanding the funStep initiatives and developments and has promoted the implementation of the funStep technologies. The support of the furniture industry sector and its desire to be competitive in an increasingly difficult market is the funStep engine: creation of related products and services, improvement of those already in existence and improvement and extension of the standard to new areas and sectors.
2.2 What is ISO 10303-236? funStep is an initiative around the ISO funStep standard, formally known as ISO 10303-236 “Industrial automation systems and integration – Product data representation and exchange – Part 236: Application Protocol: Furniture catalogue and interior design”. It is a foundation for data exchange in the furniture industry so that all the software involved in the manufacturing, design and sale of a product understands the same vocabulary. Thanks to this vocabulary, the manufacturer is able to share his product information with other industrial partners. Customers demand more and more information every day and the information must be complete, updated, understandable and without errors. Standards are the answer. Manufacturers using IT will get a considerable advantage over those who do not use it at all. The former may send and receive e-commerce documents in standardised format, may get easier access to new markets, manage product data through all product life cycle phases and distribute product catalogue data to retailers and e-marketplaces. These advantages give the possibility to reduce administration costs when handling quotations, orders, etc., as well as the opportunity to have internet catalogues and e-commerce on manufacturer’s websites. However, IT systems are often viewed with some scepticism as organisations seemingly spend large amounts of time and effort trying to communicate seemingly with little result. a.
funStep Interest Group; www.funStep.org
b.
ISO TC 184 SC 4 - Automation systems and integration. Industrial data
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Foreword
Every furniture company is different, with different product ranges, designs and styles. As a result, businesses develop custom-made systems to facilitate their development and market positioning. This costs money and requires knowledge. Many small furniture manufacturers and retailers do not have the resources and capabilities to develop custommade systems and the use of external IT specialists can be very costly.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
=`^li\ )1 Business relationships without funStep
The process must be made easier if the industry is to capitalise on the benefits of international sourcing and the application of IT. The way to do this is to apply standards that help all companies make best use of technology.
If in one sector, inter-company commercial communication uses sectoral standards or if generic standards are applicable, the communication is easy and direct.
And now? Is it enough?
Let us suppose we have eight clients from eight different countries. It should not be necessary to know eight different languages to communicate with them - a common language, let us say English - should be enough to communicate. This central language, known by all, is a standard of communication between the eight clients. This is what happens with ISO 10303–236 – funStep: a unique language/standard that every application understands and uses to communicate with each other (see Figure 3).
Where can I go?
Large companies can incorporate the re-sourcing of IT systems and the establishment of international purchasing departments in their business plan. However, such a prospect may appear somewhat daunting for a small business. This affects the development of the furniture industry.
Who and where am I?
Another important consideration is that the furniture industry is increasingly becoming international with retailers buying goods from manufacturers all over Europe and further overseas, who in turn source their raw materials from domestic and overseas suppliers. Product data standards differ among systems and across countries. By developing international product data standards, both national and international trade barriers will be reduced, thus resulting in an extension of the business opportunity across the supply chain.
Basic concepts
Currently, there is a diffuse range of systems restraining the development of trading partnerships and inhibiting the development of products, software solutions and e-commerce. These barriers are real factors that prevent innovation and development in the furniture industry.
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2.3 Interoperability Costs The costs of poor interoperability may be direct and/or indirect. Typical areas for incurring cost include: Avoidance costs are costs associated with preventing interoperability issues before they occur, i.e. costs of developing translation software or maintaining legacy systems. Mitigating costs are the resources required to address interoperability problems after they have occurred, such as manually processing or re-entering data.
Innovafun
Post-manufacturing interoperability costs include costs in the marketing and sale of a product, such as brochure development and populating website databases. Loss of market share resulting from delays, where customers turn to alternative suppliers for a faster response.
=`^li\ *1 Business relationships with funStep
Delay costs arise from interoperability problems causing delay in the introduction of a new product, or prolong the sale of a bespoke product. These include lost opportunity sales or penalty payments. Specification costs, the cost to a manufacturer of obtaining product data from product and material suppliers, or the cost to a designer of sourcing and specifying furniture for a specific purpose. Future proofing costs are generally unknown costs that will occur at some time in the future in order to integrate with new (currently unknown) system requirements.
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
2.4 Advantages of adopting funStep Foreword
=`^li\ +1 funStep data mediation
Many different software and hardware systems are used and these differ both among companies and among different functions within a company. Because each system has its own proprietary data representation, product data are created and stored in multiple, often incompatible formats which make the exchange of these data difficult. Resulting data files may contain errors, be incomplete, or even formatted in a way that makes them unusable for downstream applications.
Where can I go?
‘funStep’ standard aims to address these issues by providing a robust, scalable and open data format that facilitates data sharing and interoperability between companies and systems in a seamless way. However, the adoption of technology alone will not maximise the funStep potential benefits. Some cultural and operational changes, if adopted, would lever the benefits.
Who and where am I?
Many separate companies can be involved in the design, manufacture, sale and distribution of a complex item of furniture, requiring the sharing and exchange of huge volumes of information. However, certain problems arise when design data, generated for one purpose, are used elsewhere in the supply chain for a different purpose.
Basic concepts
Historically, companies have managed these information flows in a number of ways, including telephone calls, letters, telex, faxes, and electronic data interchange (EDI). More recently, the availability of reliable high-speed internet connections has become widespread and the cost of implementing technological solutions has dropped. Consequently, companies have begun to make better use of IT to automate critical business communications.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
Firms engaged in supply-chain relationships, whether manufacturers, customers, suppliers, or providers of services, need to share a great deal of information in the course of their business activities. This interaction suffers greatly from interoperability issues resulting in many of the above costs.
And now? Is it enough?
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The main benefit of adopting the ISO funStep standard data model is the increased efficiency that results from seamlessly sharing data between different IT systems bringing additional benefits without the need to re-enter information. Thus, there is a reduction of human errors and end-to-end transaction time (lead-time). When developing new software, internet applications or other database related IT systems, it is possible to use the existing ISO funStep standard data model instead of spending time and effort on building a proprietary database from scratch that will most likely be incompatible with those belonging to business partners. Using ISO funStep standard compliant systems means that component suppliers can provide full technical information about their products to manufacturers. These, in turn, can provide comprehensive product information to retailers, publish catalogues, operate e-commerce systems, manage stock control systems or supply data to interior designers, all entering the data only once. Customer orders placed with retailers can be communicated back up the supply chain immediately, enabling components, materials and manufacturing resources to be allocated at the earliest opportunity.
Innovafun
In Chapter 5 we estimate the potential economic impact of adopting the funStep standard across the European furniture sector. It is symptomatic that, with a few exceptions, only a few companies have analysed these costs in detail and that allowance for delays and errors are often built into the manufacturing and sales process.
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
CHAPTER 3: Who and where am I?
Innovation and Standards INNOVAFUN
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
3. Who and where am I? Foreword
As in other industry sectors, furniture is constantly evolving in the way business is conducted, taking into account new techniques, technologies and demands. In the past, furniture businesses were product-related, and processes were designed for manufacturing purposes integrating several services in the same company. Nowadays, services are outsourced, leading to the creation of more SMEs specialised in different fields of work: lacquering, cutting, sanding, etc.
c.
Alba, M., DĂez, L., Olmos, E., RodrĂguez, R. Global Performance Management for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (GPM-SME). IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, (2005).
And now? Is it enough?
The industrial network can be divided into two different groups: large companies and SMEs. While large companies dominate the market in many sectors, SMEs represent approximately 90% of the furniture industryc. These have to invest in reorganisation of processes and innovation to keep competitive. Here, the use of standards and services plays a significant role in the Information Age we are living in. All these changes affect the business ecosystems and the importance attached to data integration and interoperability, moving from intra-department integration to cross value chain.
Where can I go?
Marketing is fundamental to any business, and it shapes how businesses are perceived by their business partners and customers. In the past, marketing activities undertaken by furniture companies were aimed squarely at their clients, but the internet has had a massive impact. Most companies have a web presence, and this is shaped by interaction with and the opinions of site visitors.
Who and where am I?
However, business models have evolved. Companies are now moving from their isolation to collaborate with different companies of the same type. A business model can be defined as a description of the operations of a business. This description includes its components, functions, revenues and expenses, which the business generates. Nowadays, companies are keen to create joint ventures to increase their competitiveness.
Basic concepts
The adoption of new technologies, IT standards or services is accelerating this change. Nevertheless, this is still a very traditional sector. The time spent on introducing new technologies, business techniques and even standards is longer than in other sectors such as automotive sector.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
3.1 Organisations in today’s global market
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The Figure 5 summarises the major evolution aspects. These are: • Globalisation: with global markets growing more and more and local market spaces merging increasingly with each other. • Growing competition: shifting from firm-to-firm competition to network-to-network competition.
Innovafun
• Increasing customer governance, forcing firms to adopt an enriched definition of business excellence by enhancing the traditional quality/ cost/time variables with new views such as eco-responsibility (environmental impact, green products and services), ethics and social responsibility (including gender issues).
=`^li\ ,1 Evolution of the business ecosystem
In the future, the evolution and collaboration will continue and even grow, provoking the generation of new kinds of organisations: the federated environments, holistic systems consisting of components within different administrative entities cooperating to provide a service where everyone is able to do business and maintain clear communication with everyone within the same environmentd. In addition, funStep is evolving to assist organisations to move towards the federated environments. funStep services are now seeking holistic connections with commercial data, dictionaries and domain ontologies, which will give them the flexibility to integrate stakeholders’ frameworks and processes seamlessly.
3.2 Furniture stakeholders Figure 6 shows the profiles of stakeholders analysed by INNOVAFUN: retailers, manufacturers, suppliers, e-marketplaces and interior designer/architects. Their characteristics and relationships lead to different implementation requirements. A set of generic use-cases describing the different possibilities for the adoption of funStep representing real situations faced by the furniture industry in their daily business is shown in Chapter 4 using d.
Preeti Bhoj, Sharad Singhal, and Sailesh Chutani. SLA management in federated environments. Proc. 6th IEEE/IFIP Intl. Symp. on Integrated Network Management. Boston,MA, (May 24-28, 1999).
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Where can I go?
The supplier may serve to the manufacturer both raw material, half-finished products and even some services like sanding or design. Designers are stand-alone people or organisations who work, following the CAD rules with the associated restrictions. Therefore, manufacturers subcontract them to bring their ideas to reality in product development. They are normally the first step in the furniture supply-chain. Often, they are categorised according to their business objectives. A sole manufacturer can establish relationships with many suppliers due to the atomisation of suppliers in terms of activities. Suppliers can also play two different roles: seller or buyer. The most known and frequent role is that of a seller. However, the supplier may deal with its own suppliers, thus acting as a buyer.
Who and where am I?
Supplier
Basic concepts
=`^li\ -1 funStep stakeholders and relations
The manufacturer, who is in contact with all the other agents of the value chain, is the principal actor in the furniture industry. It is in the centre of all the relationships that occur in the furniture industry. Its role is different according to the partner in the value chain involved. In fact, it can play two different roles: seller or buyer. The first role occurs when it is in contact with the retailer and with the e-Marketplace. The buyer role takes place when it buys some raw material from the supplier or services from the interior designers.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
Manufacturer
Foreword
these profiles. The use-cases do not intend to represent business situations, not even system behaviours, but are intended as guidelines and to be the drivers in the way industry should proceed in order to adopt funStep in their business. Therefore, it is fundamental that each organisation is able to recognise their role as one of the following stakeholders.
Interior Designers/Architects And now? Is it enough?
Interior designers, sometimes associated with architects, are more similar to a supplier although with a higher level of specialisation. They play the seller role. The interior designers prescribe or recommend to the client (the manufacturer in this case) an assortment of interior design products in addition to the interior design project itself. This relation to the end customer makes them an important target group for both manufacturers and retailers, acting as market promoters of specific products.
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Retailer Although it is the most visible stakeholder in the furniture industry, at least with regard to consumers, it is the last link in the furniture supply chain as it connects manufacturers and end users. The retailer keeps the privacy of the products, as the customer never knows which manufacturer is involved except at top decoration retailers. The retailer normally acts as a “buyer” and as such, he just buys the products from the manufacturer and sells them to the end customer.
e-Marketplace & Software Vendors The e-Marketplaces can be divided into two different categories: B2B, acting as mediators between manufacturers and retailers; and B2C, acting as mediators between the sellers (retailers, distributors and manufacturers) and the final customer. While the B2C e-Marketplaces, like the retailers, can only play the buyer role, the B2B e-Marketplaces can play both roles – buyer and seller – as they are in the middle between manufacturers and retailers. The same roles are applicable to software vendors. Innovafun
3.3 Compliance with the funStep standards The ideal scenario in the communication between two different stakeholders is when both are fully compliant with funStep. If that is not possible, the stakeholder receiving the information should have the same or higher level of compliance than the sender. This requires a definition of the different levels of compliance.
ISO 10303-236 ISO 10303-236 is an Application Protocol1 (AP236) that defines the context and scope for representation of furniture catalogues and placement of pieces of furniture into a decoration project. It also references the information module (ISO/TS 10303-4362) that specifies a formal structure and associated semantics for the representation of data. Anyone could implement funStep at different levels of compliance. This AP contains six levels of implementation, which are designated implementation modules or Conformance Classes (CC) and are standards by themselves.
=`^li\ .1 furniture catalogue
1
Application Protocols are the top parts of STEP with a 2xx part number. They refer to particular industries such as automotive design, shipbuilding and NC manufacturing.
2
Technical standard 10303-436
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
=`^li\ /1 Geometry
=`^li\ 01 Decoration Project
• ISO/TS 10303-436 “AP236 Furniture Catalog and Interior Design” (CC6) merges all the implementation modules mentioned above.
And now? Is it enough?
Figure 10 below explains how, depending on the profile, one might need to implement only parts of the standard. To take an example: in the traditional relationship of Supplier/Retailer, it is sufficient to implement CC1. However, since the granularity of the implementation modules is higher than the one required by a small company’s needs, sub-levels (named conformance options) have been defined within the funStep community, enabling a wider variety of valid implementations.
Where can I go?
• ISO/TS 10303-1355 “Parameterised Catalog Data Information and Shape Representation” (CC5) is an implementation view that merges the part of the expressions with the part referred to geometry representation, thus adding the capability to represent products with a great number of variants and whose composition is characterised by Boolean expressions of operands selected from a set of product features and their geometry;
Who and where am I?
• ISO/TS 10303-1354 “Furniture Interior Decoration” (CC4) builds upon CC2 allowing the creation of interior decoration projects, i.e. of placing the CAD modelled pieces of furniture in a room space (see Figure 9);
Basic concepts
• ISO/TS 10303-1353 “Parameterised Catalog Data Information” (CC3) is also accumulative to CC1 (not CC2) and adds data information about the capability of including expressions to the catalogue. For example, it is possible to define a relationship between height, length and width in such a way that modifying one value modifies all others proportionally as a result of the defined relationship rule;
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
• ISO/TS 10303-1352 “Catalog Data Information and Shape Representation” (CC2) is accumulative to CC1 and adds data information about the products’ geometry (see Figure 8). It enables the representation of geometric models, surface conditions, geometric tolerances and dimensions that characterise the shape of product components;
Foreword
• ISO/TS 10303-1351 “Catalog Data Information” (CC1), provides the definition of the main information product data of a catalogue, such as the definition of a product, its different versions and specifications. A furniture catalogue contains a list of pieces of furniture to be offered to customers/distributors. A catalogue provides a commercial view of the products of a furniture supplier, but it does not represent the design information of the pieces of furniture (see Figure 7);
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=`^li\ ('1 funStep standard in stakeholder relationships Innovafun
e-Business funStep Open Architecture - ebfSOA The e-Business is getting more important these days. Nevertheless, some of the companies integrated in the furniture sector, like the e-Marketplaces, are aware of these new potentially beneficial practices, other stakeholders are unaware, if not reluctant to adopt them. To solve this, the funStep initiative developed a set of structures for enabling an easy adoption of e-Business by the furniture industry. These structures, known as ebfSOA, were developed based on XML schemas mapping different administrative and commercial concepts in 15 different types of messages: • Product inquiry: “Request for Quotation”, “Quotation”, “Order”, “Order Response” and “Order Change Request”; • Payment: “Invoice”, “Pro Forma Invoice” and “Credit Note”; • Product delivery: “Delivery Note”, “Despatch Advice” and “Receiving Advice”; • Control documents: “Order Status Request”, “Order Status Report” and “Receiving Confirmation”; • Other documents: “Claim”; The funStep initiative has recently agreed to shift the rationale that lies beneath the ebfSOA XML schemas (a de-facto standard), towards the ISO standard approach. Currently, both the documents and the ISO standard are completely independent and although a company had invested money in adopting the ISO funStep, more money has to be invested in order to adopt the ebfSOA.
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Considering both standards described and the number of sub-parts implemented, it is possible to define three different levels of funStep compliance: • Level 0: the stakeholder has no funStep standard adopted and interoperability is never guaranteed;
Basic concepts
• Level 1: for stakeholders that have adopted AP236, or the e-business de facto standard (exclusively). Inside this level, there can still be different sub-levels according to the parts of AP236 implemented (see table 1) or the conformance options. Here, interoperability is only assured if the sub-levels implemented are the same or the receiver level exceeds that of the sender.
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funStep compliance and IT adoption
Foreword
The funStep team is working on a new approach to the documents that would make profit of the packages developed for the ISO standard in order to avoid this overspending of time and money. Regarding compliance, as opposed to AP236, no sub-levels of compliance have been defined. Thus, a company either conforms to the ebfSOA or not.
• Level 2: for stakeholders that have adopted both funStep for e-business and AP236; Catalogue ISO TS 10303-1351
Partially Compliant
CC1
√
CC2
√
CC3
√
CC4
√
√
CC5
√
√
Expressions ISO TS 10303-1353
Room Decoration ISO TS 10303-1354
√ √ √ √
Where can I go?
1
Geometry ISO TS 10303-1352
Who and where am I?
Ap236 Level
KXYc\ (1 Level 1 of funStep compliance (excluding Conformance Options detail)
And now? Is it enough?
At present, most furniture organisations have not yet adopted any funStep standard and will thus be on level 0 of compliance. Indeed, many have still different IT usage situations.
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Below there is an analysis of the more common situations: • Situation 1 - “Does not have an IT Infrastructure”. This is the case were no IT equipment is used in the organisation and all information is stored in paper format. Fortunately, this case is currently being reduced, and is concentrated in the micro-enterprises with less than 10 employees. • Situation 2 - “Has an IT Infrastructure, but is not focused on information exchange”. This is the case common to the majority of SME environments and is the case where companies have computers, internet connection, but have no specialised system to enable e-commerce or any kind of electronic communication (e.g. ERP). Companies in this situation normally store their information in Microsoft Excel®, Microsoft Word® documents, or in very specific software formats. • Situation 3 - “Has an IT Infrastructure for information exchange”. This case reflects the situation of companies that have already invested money in a system to enable e-business and the exchange of information with their business partners. In this situation companies might already be adopting funStep (fully or partially), or may use proprietary formats not understandable by all, thus obstructing plain interoperability. Innovafun
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
CHAPTER 4: Where can I go?
Innovation and Standards INNOVAFUN
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
4. Where can I go? Foreword
Having clearly identified the stakeholder group, the funStep compliance level, and the company’s IT adoption situation, one should be able to match the requirements with what funStep has to offer. Depending on the IT starting situation, the table 2 will guide the implementors on the use-cases they should follow in order to adopt certain parts of funStep and raise the level of compliance. Level of funStep Compliance
1
0
0,1
Optional
1
Uptake basic IT
UC-01
2
Build data system based on funStep
UC-02
3
Implement system interfaces
UC-03
4
Populate data system
UC-04
5
Test the level of funStep compliance
UC-05
1
Build data system based on funStep
UC-02
2
Implement system interfaces
UC-03
3
Migrate internal data to funStep system
UC-06
4
Test the level of funStep compliance
UC-05
1
Find requirements that the current system does not answer
UC-07
2
Analyse how funStep could answer the requirements
UC-08
3
Discover mapping from internal system to funStep (selected parts of funStep)
UC-09
√
4
Implement functionalities/ services to transform internal data in funStep data and vice versa (selected parts of funStep)
UC-10
√
5
Implement new parts of funStep
UC-11
√
6
Implement system interfaces for the new parts
UC-12
√
7
Test the level of funStep compliance
UC-05
And now? Is it enough?
KXYc\ )1 Use-case suite for the adoption of the funStep standards
√
Where can I go?
3
0
# of Use-case
Who and where am I?
2
Priority Steps (#, name)
Basic concepts
IT adoption Situation
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4.1 How to adopt ISO 10303-236
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Before considering the appropriate actions using this table, it is recommended that the requirements to which systems cannot respond be clearly identified. Then, depending on the compliance level desired, the use-cases will gradually guide the stakeholders in the modification of their systems using translators to import/export information according to the funStep standards. This progressive process will allow organisations to move from funStep compliance level 0 to level 2. Not all use-cases are mandatory, and organisations may choose to go trough them or not. To take an example: if a company is in situation 3 using a system to manage catalogues, and wants to migrate to funStep to widen its market, it does not need to go through steps 5 and 6. It is not implementing new functionalities, but only using funStep for those already addressed. The following sections give an overview of the scope of each use-case, a graphical formalisation using the UML nomenclature and a textual plan of actions.
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Use-Case 01 – “Uptake basic IT” The use-case 01 intends to represent a scenario (see Figure 11) that describes how a company with no IT equipment at all, uptakes a basic IT. The scenario is based on the assumption that normally before acquiring any kind of material, companies analyse the market to find the best deal possible.
Action Plan 1. The “Business Administrator” starts by defining the available budget for investment; 2. Then the “Software Engineer” prepares an analysis of the market regarding hardware and software components to find a set of components that better fits the requirements and the available budget; 3. The “Business Administrator” analyses the proposal and acquires both hardware and software. As far as the hardware is concerned, at least a printer, one computer with a modem and Internet Service Provider (ISP) is required. Regarding the software, the minimum is required, i.e. operating system, text processor and e-mail software; 4. Afterwards, the “IT Technician” installs the software and connects the hardware components to the computer; 5. Finally, the “IT Technician” also creates e-mail accounts for all employees, and provides them with internet access.
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Foreword
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Basic concepts
Who and where am I?
Where can I go?
And now? Is it enough?
=`^li\ ((1 UC-01 “Uptake basic IT�
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Use-Case 02 – “Build data system based on funStep” Use-case 02 represents a scenario (see Figure 12) that describes how to build a data system based on funStep. It is based on the belief that the company has no IT infrastructure to deal with the product data catalogue or commercial documents except the basic use of PCs with an office automation software suite, like Microsoft Office®. This situation is common to the majority of European furniture manufacturers; most of them use simple spreadsheets or documents to support the management of product catalogue data.
Action Plan 1. The “Software Engineer” starts by selecting the most suitable database system; 2. Then the “Business Administrator” acquires the database proposed by the “Software Engineer” (in case it is not a free one);
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3. Afterwards, the “IT Technician” installs the database and builds the data repository based on the funStep standards. For this, it uses the description of funStep data model (in XSD or SQL or XMI or OWL). At this stage, the amount of work to install just a subset is equivalent to implementing the complete funStep data model; 4. Finally, the “IT Technician” implements data import/export functionalities, so that it can exchange data with others.
=`^li\ ()1 UC-02 “Build data system based on funStep”
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Use-Case 03 – “Implement system interfaces” Foreword
UC 03 aims at representing a scenario (see Figure 13) that illustrates how a company could implement new funStep interfaces.
Action Plan
2. Then the “IT Technician” using the funStep tutorials and the description of the funStep data model (in XSD or SQL or XMI or OWL or EXPRESS), can hardcode the interfaces directly from the company system, using database forms or automatically generated web forms.
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1. The “Software Engineer” starts by defining the functional and visual requirements for the system interfaces;
Basic concepts Who and where am I? Where can I go? And now? Is it enough?
=`^li\ (*1 UC-03 “Implement system interfaces”
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Use-Case 04 – “Populate data system” The use-case 04 represents a scenario (see Figure 14) that illustrates the actions a company takes when populating data in the internal system. This scenario only occurs after building a new system compliant with the funStep standards (UC-02).
Action Plan 1. The “Business Administrator” defines which data to migrate to the new data system; 2. Then the “System User” populates the new funStep-based data system, looking at the company records and using the system interfaces to manually insert internal data into the new funStep system; 3. Finally, the “Company’s funStep-based system” stores the data.
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=`^li\ (+1 UC-04 “Populate data system”
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Use-Case 05 – “Test the level of funStep compliance” Foreword
The use-case 05 represents a scenario (see Figure 15) describing how a company tests the level of funStep compliance of its own software system. This test helps the company to know whether it is in conformance, both syntactically and semantically, with the funStep standards, and if it is interoperable with other systems also using funStep.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture Basic concepts Who and where am I? Where can I go? And now? Is it enough?
=`^li\ (,1 UC-05 “Test the level of funStep compliance”
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Action Plan 1. The “Software Engineer” starts analysing the available funStep testing methodologies; 2. Then he/she chooses the conformance testing mechanism among the remote funStep web-services online testing application, or the local downloadable application; 3. After that, the “IT Technician” is in charge of preparing the company’s system for the conformance testing and interoperability checking procedures. He/she has to install Java Virtual Machine3 and, depending on the mechanism chosen, either implement a client for web-services, or download the local funStep conformance application; 4. The next step is the generation of sample data sets covering the full extent of data that the system can handle, by means of the “Company’s funStep-based System”; 5. With the dataset generated, the “Conformance Testing Mechanism” can execute validation, detecting the level of compliance and reporting the errors found in the implementation of the “Company’s funStep-based System” if that is the case; Innovafun
6. After these tests, the “Software Engineer” can begin the interoperability checking procedures, downloading the pre-prepared funStep suite of tests and feeding them into the “Company’s funStep-based System”; 7. Subsequently, he/she visualises the imported information and follows the funStep modification steps using the system interfaces; 8. Before ordering the system to store and export modified information in funStep format, the “Software Engineer” takes snapshots of the displayed information. This procedure provides a printable document to show the information inserted in the “Company’s System”; 9. Finally, the “funStep Central System” imports the information from the company and displays it to a “funStep Consultant” who will compare the snapshots with the displayed information. If everything matches, he/she will certify the software system.
3
http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Use-Case 06 – “Migrate internal data to funStep system” Foreword
The use-case 06 represents (see Figure 16) the situation in which a company has to migrate its own data into the new funStep system. The key of the scenario is that not all the data has to be moved from the original system to funStep, except for the data considered relevant by the “Business Administrator”.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture Basic concepts Who and where am I? Where can I go? And now? Is it enough?
=`^li\ (-1 UC-06 “Migrate internal data to funStep system”
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Action Plan 1. The “Business Administrator” defines which data need to be migrated to funStep; 2. Then the “Software Engineer” starts the mapping. He/she has to discover the funStep concepts that match the internal data provided by the Business Administrator; 3. To do so, he/she proceeds with two analyses: the structure of the internal data and the structure of the funStep standards; 4. In the analysis of the standards, the “Software Engineer” uses the funStep tutorials on the parts being adopted. It can be either the AP236 standard (for exchanging product data), the ebfSOA (for exchanging commercial e-documents), or both. 5. Then, in his/her final task, the “Software Engineer” has to formalise the mapping in order for data to be implemented by the “IT Technician”. Normally, he/she will implement a routine which will perform the automatic migration of the data between the two systems; 6. The old “Company System” exports the data selected into a funStep based format. Innovafun
7. The new “Company System”, which is based on funStep, imports the data provided by the old “Company System” and finally stores it.
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Use-Case 07 – “Find requirements that the current system does not answer” Foreword
The use-case 07 represents a scenario (see Figure 17) describing how a company gets new technical requirements that would demand some changes in the company software. It is based on the belief that a company will not simply start looking for requirements that their system cannot handle, just because someone feels it is important. A requirements list has to be produced, most likely after an analysis of the company’s past business activities, and the outlook for new business opportunities.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture Basic concepts Who and where am I? Where can I go? And now? Is it enough?
=`^li\ (.1 UC-07 “Find requirements that the current system does not answer”
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Action Plan 1. The “Business Administrator” starts by requesting a summary of the business activity to the “Company System”; 2. Then it replies providing the history of past businesses, i.e. all information stored regarding the company business activity in a predetermined period; 3. To do so, the “Company System” needs to search the internal records and compile the report in a printable format; 4. With that report, the “Business Administrator” can look for new business growth opportunities, either by analysing the report searching for the causes of lost business, or by identifying new market trends; 5. He/she will produce new business requirements to be covered; 6. Finally, the “Software Engineer” will conduct an analysis of the systems capabilities; 7. If the system cannot respond to the new business requirements without internal changes, a list of new technical requirements will be produced. Innovafun
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Use-Case 08 – “Analyse how funStep could answer the requirements”
1. The “Software Engineer” has to ascertain if the technical requirements of the company are met by the funStep standards. To do so, he/she has to analyse its’ own technical requirements; 2. Then, he/she has to analyse the scope of the funStep standards based on the funStep tutorials;
Basic concepts
3. Once these two tasks have been performed, the “Software Engineer” has to select the funStep standards and parts, which satisfy his/her, own technical requirements.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
Action Plan
Foreword
The use-case 08 represents the situation (see Figure 18) in which a company has to analyse if, and how, funStep can meet its requirements. It is based on the hypothesis that, for adopting funStep, some engineering work, in terms of requirements satisfaction, has to be performed to make best use of the funStep data.
Who and where am I? Where can I go?
=`^li\ (/1 UC-08 “Analyse how funStep could answer the requirements” And now? Is it enough?
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Use-Case 09 – “Discover mapping from internal system to funStep” The use-case 09 represents the situation (see Figure 19) in which a company has to map its own data into the funStep-based system. It is based on the belief that, for adopting funStep, some mapping between the structure of the internal data and the structure of the funStep data has to be performed. The mapping is only made against selected parts of funStep.
Action Plan 1. The “Software Engineer” starts by analysing the complete data structure of the internal system; 2. Once the “Software Engineer” has analysed the internal data structure, he/she moves on to the analysis of the structure of the funStep standard using the funStep tutorials. He/she only needs to analyse the funStep standard the company is implementing. It can be either the AP236 standard (for exchanging product data), the ebfSOA (for exchanging commercial e-documents), or both.
Innovafun
3. Once the “Soft-ware Engineer” has performed this analysis, he/she has to formalise the mapping by ensuring that both systems correspond.
=`^li\ (01 UC-09 “Discover mapping from internal system to funStep (selected parts of funStep)”
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Use-case 10 represents the situation (see Figure 20) in which a company has to implement some functionality to transform internal data into funStep data automatically. It is based on the belief that, for adopting funStep as the base structure supporting new company’s functionalities/services, some transformation between internal data and funStep data has to be performed.
Foreword
Use-Case 10 – “Implement functionalities/services to transform internal data in funStep data and vice-versa (selected parts of funStep)”
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture Basic concepts Who and where am I? Where can I go? And now? Is it enough?
=`^li\ )'1 UC-10 “Implement functionalities/services to transform internal data in funStep data and vice versa (selected parts of funStep)”.
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Action Plan 1. Prior to implementing any functionality/service, the “Software Engineer” has to define precisely how those new functionalities/services will behave, and how they will be integrated into the company’s system; 2. Once the “Software Engineer” has finished that task, the “IT Technician” starts by identifying the data sets to be exchanged. In these data sets he/she needs to identify which parts are already automatically transformed to funStep (if the company is upgrading the compliance level) by the company’s system and which are not; 3. Now the “IT Technician” knows exactly which concepts he/she needs to transform to funStep. By using the formal mapping performed by the “Software Engineer” in the previous use-case, he/she is also able to find the equivalent funStep concepts; 4. At this point, the “IT Technician” moves on to describe the service interfaces that would perform the data exportation. To perform such description, he/she might additionally describe the web-services and the tool/software interfaces;
Innovafun
5. The final step comprises the implement-ation of the services. To perform such an implementation, it is recommended to use parseable descriptions of the funStep data model, which are available in different languages such as XSD, SQL, XMI, OWL and EXPRESS.
Use-Case 11 – “Implement new parts of funStep” The use-case 11 represents the situation (see Figure 21) in which a company is implementing the new parts of funStep into their internal system.
Action Plan 1. The “Software Engineer” defines the new functionalities for the internal system based on the analysis of the technical requirements produced in UC-07; 2. Once the functionalities have been defined, he/she has to specify how to integrate funStep with the internal system; 3. The “IT Technician” has to perform three different tasks: he/she has to build a repository for the new data sets, implement the integration of the repository in the system and implement the new services. a) In the first task, the data repository should be built using parseable descriptions of the funStep data model, which are available in different languages such as XSD, SQL, XMI, OWL and EXPRESS. The repository will be used for storing the different data which the company uses; b) Once the repository has been built, the “IT Technician” has to integrate it in the company’s internal system; c) Finally, in the last task, the “IT Technician” has to implement the new system functionalities and/or services based on the funStep Data Model to access the repository, and store/retrieve data to/from it.
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Foreword
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
Basic concepts
Who and where am I?
Where can I go?
=`^li\ )(1 UC-11 “Implement new parts of funStep�
And now? Is it enough?
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Use-Case 12 – “Implement system interfaces for the new parts” The use-case 12 represents the situation (see Figure 22) in which a company is implementing the interfaces for new parts of funStep. It is a use-case very similar to UC-03, with the main difference that here, the system retains some of the old interfaces, thus having to integrate the new.
Innovafun
=`^li\ ))1 UC-12 “Implement system interfaces for the new parts”
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Action Plan Foreword
1. The “Software Engineer” starts by defining the functional and visual requirements for the new interfaces to be developed for the funStep parts; 2. Once both sets of requirements have been defined, he/she specifies the integration with the company’s system;
4. Finally, the “IT Technician” will implement the integration with the company’s system.
Each Chapter has a contact person responsible for disseminating the progress to every member, and to be the link among the stakeholders and the funStep organisation to assess who can provide the necessary support in the standard adoption process.
• María José Núñez, AIDIMA (Spain) - mjnunez@aidima.es
Where can I go?
Global contact and funStep initiative leaders are:
Who and where am I?
The funStep Interest Group is organised in Chapters covering all members with links based in their common spoken language or area of activity. The main reason for this kind of structure is based on the need to summarise the contributions, and the difficulty of discussing product data structures with very small companies in foreign languages.
Basic concepts
4.2 Who can provide support in the standard adoption process?
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
3. As soon as the requirements have been defined and the integration has been specified, the “IT Technician” using the funStep tutorials and parseable descriptions of funStep data model (in XSD or SQL or XMI or OWL or EXPRESS), can implement the interfaces using database forms, or using automatically generated web forms;
• Ricardo Gonçalves, UNINOVA (Portugal) - rg@uninova.pt
a.
funStep Interest Group; www.funStep.org
And now? Is it enough?
Contacts for Northern Europe, France, Italy, UK, furniture federations and policy makers are available through the funStep public websitea.
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4.3 Auxiliary tools and services The funStep community works to bring the research results to industry, undertake technology transfers and enhance the funStep standards adoption by the furniture sector. From the existing funStep services, many have served their purpose in the standard creation process, but many still play extremely important roles in helping the smaller organisations go through the adoption process. The funStep tools and services are described in detail in the INNOVAFUN public deliverable 2.1 and are available through the funStep public websitea. They are divided into types or categories as below:
Software Services
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The Software services provided by the funStep community are applications that enable the easy adoption and use of funStep products by different stakeholders. These types of services are keys, to complement legacy systems, or support a new software development in different companies that wish to interact with each other more easily than they did before. With businesses needing closer cooperation between suppliers and customers, companies need the capability to link up their systems quickly with other companies. Web Services are a specific form of software, which provide the means for organisations to integrate external functionalities in their own system using remote connections. In fact, some of the funStep software services are specified as Web Services.
Training Services As reported in the INNOVAFUN public deliverable 2.2, one of the main objectives of the INNOVAFUN project is to provide training to the furniture community to help the implementation and usage of the funStep standard. The training provided (in the form of tutorials) is delivered in different ways, e.g. traditional classroom, virtual classroom and e-learning. With the funStep training services each user is able to access his/her own training profiles and take the most out of the tutorials.
The tutorials available4 are: • Fundamentals on the ISO Standard for the Exchange of Product Data (STEP) • ISO 10303-236, the funStep standard; • Business documents for product transaction and management; a.
funStep Interest Group; www.funStep.org
4
Available after registration in the training programme (www.funstep.org)
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
• Testing and validation of funStep standard implementations;
• Enhanced Adoption of funStep standards;
Foreword
• Semantic enrichment of product catalogues;
• Data interfaces for the funStep standard.
Validation is defined as the process to check if something satisfies a certain criterion. In the funStep case, the validation of implementations plays an important role, guaranteeing that the community members are correctly using the funStep standards, and are interoperable between them. In Chapter 5 of the handbook, more can be found regarding the validation services.
Basic concepts
Consultancy Services
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
Validation Services
Whenever the case justifies, the funStep community may designate experts to provide external in-house services, such as:
• Technical implementation; • Continuous support.
This type of funStep services are more oriented towards the organisations’ part of the funStep development. However, these services are very important for the future of the furniture sector, because they are the ones that support the development of new products and services, and adapt the existing ones to the envisaged federated environment.
Finally, academic and research institutions are very interested in the funStep community, because it provides the opportunity to put into practice academic prototypes resulting from their daily research.
And now? Is it enough?
The maintenance services are the way in which funStep has to provide feedback to organisations that are evolving and changing their business processes and requirements.
Where can I go?
Maintenance Services
Who and where am I?
• Analysis of the company needs, and the potential impact of the usage of the funStep standard;
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CHAPTER 5: And now? Is it enough?
Innovation and Standards INNOVAFUN
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
5. And now? Is it enough? Foreword
The main benefit of adopting the ISO funStep standard is the increased efficiency that results from sharing data between different IT systems seamlessly, without the need to re-enter information, bringing additional benefits such as reducing the potential for human errors and end-to-end transaction time (lead-time).
It can be shown that users are also less efficient when working with unfamiliar software. In its STEP analyses, NIST estimates that employees are on average only 70% as productive when using unfamiliar secondary software, compared to working on familiar systemse. Furthermore, the greater the number of software systems used by a e.
White, W.J., Ph.D., O’Connor, A.C. and Rowe, B.R. Economic Impact of Inadequate Infrastructure for Supply Chain Integration. RTI International. s.l. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), (2004).
And now? Is it enough?
Manufacturers incur avoidance costs to prevent technical interoperability problems before they occur. For example, they might maintain an AutoCAD workstation even though it is not their primary design tool, solely to ensure compatibility with external suppliers. This incurs avoidable labour, licensing, training and support costs. Large manufacturers have the power to specify the use of specific software, which means that the bulk of the avoidance cost falls on suppliers.
Where can I go?
Avoidance benefits
Who and where am I?
Talking in terms of sectors, although it is important to take into consideration cross-sectorial aspects, the analysis and proposed action plan performed along the document with respect to the ISO 10303-236 standard only focuses on the furniture industry. However, in the particular case of the e-Business funStep Open Architecture - also part of the funStep standards - for commercial documents, the remaining sectors are analysed inside the figure of the supplier, as they can be for example a fabrics supplier (from the textile sector).
Basic concepts
When developing new software, internet applications or other database related IT systems it is possible to use the already developed ISO funStep Standard data model instead of spending lots of time and effort on building a proprietary database from scratch. Using ISO funStep Standard compliant systems means that, for example, component suppliers can provide full technical information about their products to manufacturers who, in turn, can provide comprehensive product information to retailers, publish catalogues, operate e-commerce systems, manage stock control systems or supply data to interior designers, all without the need to enter any data more than once. Customer orders placed with retailers can be communicated back up the supply chain immediately, enabling components, materials and manufacturing resources to be allocated at the earliest opportunity.
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5.1 Competitiveness and business benefits
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company, the larger IT support staff is required. An estimate of the potential savings from the adoption of STEP can be gained is as follows: Item
Metrics
a) Number of companies in industry
102,800
b) Additional staff time spent on using & maintaining redundant systems per company
1.75 hours/week = 91 hours/year
c) Average hourly wage
€15
Estimated cost (a x b x c)
€140,322,000
KXYc\ *1 Avoidance Costs
Industry employment and wages Innovafun
Many of the economic benefits of STEP are based on interoperability, thus leading to increased efficiency and time saving, measured in hourly wage savings, such as redundant labour costs. Therefore, one of the key metrics relates to average wage. Most of the time saving relates to office-based staff, ranging from administrators and sales order clerks to IT and systems support staff. There is limited data relating to wages across the sector, the most recent dating from 2003 (Source: UEA). This data shows a wide variation in employment cost among countries, ranging from €2.22/hour in Latvia to almost €30/hour in Germany, with an EU average of €23/hour. It should be noted that the cost of this staff is more than simply the salary cost. It often includes additional employment overheads such as insurance and pension costs.
Savings/benefits: Mitigation costs Whereas avoidance costs are incurred to prevent data exchange errors, mitigation costs arise in correcting mistakes that result from inaccurate systems. They are mainly incurred as labour costs and the two largest causes are a) manual data entry or data correction caused by incorrect or missing data, and b) data transfer costs incurred as the result of manually converting data from one proprietary format to another. It is highly inefficient to employ staff to re-enter data that already exists in a digital format as it is replicating work that has already been carried out. The quality of funStep translations is substantially greater than other neutral formats; consequently, fewer re-entry jobs are required. For example, NIST reports that in the US automotive in-
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Metrics
a) Number of companies in industry
102,800
b) Number of data transactions / company
100,000/year
c) Data error rate
0.1%
d) Average time to correct data error
1.0 hours
e) Average staff rate
â‚Ź15/hour
Estimated cost (a x b x c x d x e)
â‚Ź154,200,000
Tip:
Innovafun
f.
Gallaher, M. P, Ph.D., O’Connor, A. C., B.A., Phelps, T., Ph.D. Economic Impact Assessment of the International Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) in Transportation Equipment Industries. RTI International. s.l. : National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), (2002).
And now? Is it enough?
Delay costs result from delayed deliveries or transactions caused by interoperability errors. For example, if an order is delayed by two days as the result of the need to manually process a customer order, then this has a cost. In practise this can amount to a significant commercial value, although it is often not recognised as such because the processing time is generally allowed for in the supply process; the cost of interoperability delays is thus rarely calculated.
Where can I go?
Savings/benefits: Delay costs
Who and where am I?
Whilst human and computer errors will always cause instances of manual re-entry, the amount of that re-entry attributable to incomplete or inaccurate transfers between data formats will be significantly less; the introduction of funStep will therefore reduce the need for manual intervention and is one of the main cost savings.
Transferring data between different systems requires time consuming and potentially error-prone conversion. This incurs considerable IT development costs to produce the translation software, as well as close manual supervision to check and correct any errors that occur. Where bi-directional data transfer is required, the potential for mistakes is doubled. An estimate of potential cost savings is shown in Table 4 above.
Basic concepts
KXYc\ +1 Estimate of potential cost savings in the furniture industry
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
Item
Foreword
dustry, companies that have adopted STEP indicated that it has reduced manual re-entry jobs by about 80 percent over IGES, DXF, and other methodsf.
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Item
Metrics
a) Number of companies in industry
102,800
b) Number of sales transactions / company
1500/year
c) Number of hours lost by interoperability delays
0.1 hour/transaction
d) Average staff cost
€15/hour
e) Estimated cost (a x b x c x d)
€231,300,000
KXYc\ ,1 Delay costs
Savings/benefits: Cost of implementing funStep
Innovafun
The maximum potential savings described can only be realised if all companies adopt the standard and it is therefore necessary to make allowance for the cost of adoption. In Chapter 4 of this document, there is a description of various use-cases and corresponding action plans for the funStep standard adoption and implementation. The use-case to follow will depend on the level of IT the company currently uses and the compliance level they wish to achieve. Consequently, there is no simple cost mode for the adoption of the standard and the values given on table 6 are based on a generic estimate. Item
Metrics
a) Number of companies in industry
102,800
b) Average cost of implementing funStep
€5,000
c) Total cost of implementation
€514,000,000
KXYc\ -1 Estimate cost for implementing funStep
5.2 Validation and conformance testing Interoperability is defined as “the ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged“g. Once the implementations are concluded, organisations adopting the funStep standards are expecting to be interoperable within the sector, following that premise. However, that may not occur as expected when there are implementation mistakes or deviations in the interpretations of the g.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE Standard Computer Dictionary. A Compilation of IEEE Standard Computer Glossaries. New York (1990).
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
The bases for the funStep validation are the Conformance Classes and Conformance Options described in Chapter 3 of the handbook and in the INNOVAFUN public deliverable 2.1. These are used by experts on the standard and on the system requirements, to define the Abstract Test Suite (ATS), which are a set of cases, which certify if the system tested is funStep complianth. Indeed, validation can be used by different stakeholders and applied at two different levels, i.e. software conformance and interoperability. Only if these two are successfully achieved can a full compliance with funStep be obtained.
Foreword
funStep guidelines and training. There is the need to provide a post-implementation validation and testing of the systems!
Conformance Testing
Where can I go? And now? Is it enough?
h.
=`^li\ )*1 Conformance testing to support SW development
Who and where am I?
The CT system is also used to ensure a correct data exchange between companies (Figure 24), guaranteeing that the data complies with the STEP standards adopted. The data validation can be made every time a sender/receiver exchanges data, or as a way to validate, that software packages are able to process data compatible with the standard. In the latter case, the testing only occurs at software development and validation stages.
Basic concepts
The Conformance Test (CT) System intends to automatically validate implementations of ISO-STEP standards, e.g. the funStep standard, in new products and services for the different sectors. Since in funStep, XML is the language used to exchange product data, a new methodology was developed, adapting the ISO oneh. Using this service, organisations could iteratively validate the progress of new software development according to the standard they are implementing (Figure 23). CT reports might save significant time to programmers, avoiding the propagation of standard interpretation errors. As a support to legacy data systems development, companies can ensure the conformance of XML instance data with STEP standard conceptual models, thus improving interoperability within and among different industrial supply chains.
=`^li\ )+1 CT on data exchange
ISO 10303 - Standard for Exchange of Product Data (STEP), ISO TC184/SC4, Part31, Conformance testing methodology and framework. General concepts. International Organization for Standardization
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Interoperability Checking Interoperability Checking (IC) complements the CT, providing a methodology (see Figure 25) to check if the system under test is able to understand and handle funStep data without misinterpretations.
Innovafun
The first step, carried out by the company, tries to read in the XML file provided by the funStep community. The system must be able to handle the file, and after checking, must change it according to pre-defined actions. Finally, funStep analyses the modified file, being able to check if the actions were correctly executed.
=`^li\ ),1 IC methodology
This procedure must be repeated successfully until the funStep compliance level envisaged is assured, after which a funStep stamp will be issued to attest the quality of the implementation.
5.3 e-business with funStep As already explained in previous sections, most of the problems common to the majority of furniture companies, especially SMEs, came from erroneous data and communication difficulties. Information technology interoperability, which is part of the communication process, is a priority as businesses seek to reduce costs, improve design time and manage production and inventory systems. This way, funStep decided to develop a specific furniture sector international standard that would enable the resolution of all the data exchange problems. However, this theory of having one product, i.e. ISO 10303-236, as a unique solution has proved inadequate because it would require the existence of a tremendously big standard. This way, besides AP236, the funStep community developed two other products that complement themselves: the ebfSOA, which is being evolved in ISO TC184/SC4 to become an ISO standard to be integrated with the AP236 structure, and the funStep ontology that enables a semantic extension to the data models. Since it is treated on a higher level, complementing the implementation of both standards, the ontology is not explained in detail in this document.
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
5.4 A semantic approach
Basic concepts Who and where am I?
However, in order to become the desired ontology, such taxonomy still needs to be complemented with domain rules and constraints. It complements the funStep standards providing the related semantics agreed to be the reference by the community, and which will be used as a basis for communication. Therefore, the different stakeholders may continue using their own data structures and semantics, but they will always have a common ground for interoperability when their information is mapped to ISO 10303-236 and ebfSOA (structural) and the funStep Ontology (semantics).
Foreword
Therefore, FSIG envisaged an ontology to be used for furniture products classification. Its first working proposal built a taxonomy that aggregates search criteria and codes for electronic commerce. Later on, the taxonomy was updated through a harmonisation process with existing taxonomies in different fields such as e-marketplaces, ecommerce websites, dictionaries, PPS systems, and from personal experience of participants.
Standards for innovation - Standards for furniture
The ontology is a formal, explicit specification of a shared conceptualisationi. Moreover, ‘conceptualisation’ refers to an abstract model of some phenomenon in the world, which identifies the relevant concepts of that phenomenon (in the funStep case, the furniture ecosystem). And ‘explicit’ means that the type of concepts used and the constraints on their use are explicitly defined. ‘Formal’ refers to the fact that the ontology should be machine understandable. In addition, ‘shared’ means the notion that ontology captures consensual knowledge reflecting a general view shared and accepted by a majority. Ontologies facilitate the understanding, communication and cooperation between people and organisations, offering a semantic – content and meaning based – complement to electronic information management and exchange.
Where can I go? And now? Is it enough?
i.
Gruber, T. A translation approach to portable ontology specifications. Knowledge Acquisition, 5(2):199–220, (1993).
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References a. funStep Interest Group; www.funStep.org b. ISO TC 184 SC 4 - Automation systems and integration. Industrial data. c. Alba, M., Díez, L., Olmos, E., Rodríguez, R. Global Performance Management for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (GPM-SME). IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, (2005). d. Preeti Bhoj, Sharad Singhal, and Sailesh Chutani. SLA management in federated environments. Proc. 6th IEEE/IFIP Intl. Symp. on Integrated Network Management. Boston,MA, (May 24-28, 1999). e. White, W.J., Ph.D., O’Connor, A.C. and Rowe, B.R. Economic Impact of Inadequate Infrastructure for Supply Chain Integration. RTI International. s.l. : National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), (2004). f.
Innovafun
Gallaher, M. P, Ph.D., O’Connor, A. C., B.A., Phelps, T., Ph.D. Economic Impact Assessment of the International Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) in Transportation Equipment Industries. RTI International. s.l. : National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), (2002).
g. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE Standard Computer Dictionary. A Compilation of IEEE Standard Computer Glossaries. New York (1990). h. ISO 10303 - Standard for Exchange of Product Data (STEP), ISO TC184/SC4, Part31, Conformance testing methodology and framework. General concepts. International Organization for Standardization. i.
Gruber, T. A translation approach to portable ontology specifications. Knowledge Acquisition, 5(2):199–220, (1993).
Useful links Europe INNOVA www.europe-innova.org
funStep www.funStep.org
FSIG www.fsig.funStep.org
CEN/ISSS www.cen.eu/cenorm/businessdomains/businessdomains/isss/index.asp
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
Partners Asociación de investigación y desarrollo en la industria del mueble y afines, Spain Design Market Europe, Sweden Federmobili Societa’ di Servizi, Italy FIRA International Limited, United Kingdom Fundación Comunidad Valenciana - Región Europea, Spain Instituto de Desenvolvimento de Novas Tecnologías, Portugal Union Européenne de l’Ameublement - UEA, Belgium Université Henri Poincaré Nancy I, France
Authors Amparo Roca de Togores Carlos Agostinho
Coordinator: Asociación de Investigación y Desarrollo en la Industria del Mueble y Afines - AIDIMA Mrs. María José Núñez www.funstep.org mjnunez@aidima.es
The INNOVAFUN handbook is published by a consortium of companies headed by EuroTop (Belgium) Innovation and Standards 2008
www.europe-innova.org
European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry