Metso Automation:
Product Configuration Tools Cut Costs, Add Value

Metso Automation decided to add "intelligence" to its Jamesbury online product catalog to help its customers and partners auto-configure and assemble its complex valves and actuators in advance of placing their orders. The company reaped the benefits of moving configuration assistance from phones to the internet.

Business Challenge:

Metso Automation, a manufacturer of Jamesbury-branded automated valves, actuators and related components, has a long history as a leader in using technology to make it easier for Buyers to do business with them. Metso is committed to differentiating itself from its competitors through a process of continuous improvement. Once Metso decided to offer their industry's best self-guided Product Configuration tool, they began to work through a challenge very common to manufacturers of semi-custom and build-to-order industrial products.

Specifically, Jamesbury products are used in a broad variety of applications throughout the process industry. As a result, each of their products can be configured with a variety of options for material, end connection, construction, ratings, etc. Proper selection and configuration of a product requires in-depth and intimate knowledge of Metso's various products, their applications, and their limitations.

In addition, Metso also sells their products as completed assemblies, mating together a valve, an actuator and an appropriate linkage. Once again, obtaining the proper configuration requires an in-depth knowledge of Metso's products. The process involves calculating the specific requirements based on the Customer's unique operating conditions and selecting a matching set of components, which can then be mated in an assembly.

Knowing that the task would be difficult and being true to their industry reputation, Metso was determined to outperform their competition. They would do so by providing their Channel Partners and Customers with a Product Configurator Solution that would allow them to confidently, easily and accurately select and configure products in a self-guided fashion.

Technology Solution:

To put strategy into action, Metso chose i-MARK to implement a combination of i-MARK's technology-leading Product Configurators and its engineering-specialized Selection and Assembly Wizards. The Solution also included the use of i-MARK's Professional Services team, which possesses deep skills and first-hand experience in scientific software, manufacturer business models, and engineering know-how about complex engineered products.

Metso Product Configurators directly addressed the problem of building complex semi-custom and build-to-order products by providing a tool that defines available options, and that takes into account the rules that define what options are available and in what combination. Metso Selection Wizards automated the selection process by intelligently and intuitively guiding Customers through a step-by-step building process, leading them to the product that best suits their operating environment and performance requirements.

Metso's implementation began with the development of Product Configurators. These electronic tools define all of the options available for each of Metso's products, an ordering code, and a user-friendly description. These options include size, body material, seat material, connection options, special processing requirements, etc. Additionally, the Product Configurators incorporate all of the rules required to ensure that only valid combinations of options can be selected.

Supporting data, such as sizing charts and material chemical resistance data, were also integrated into the Product Configurators, making it easier to determine the option that best suits a particular application. The Product Configurators also permit a Customer to automatically select the most common or typical selections with a single click.

To further improve users' abilities to achieve success, a number of Selection Wizards were included to help Metso Customers determine the specific product that addresses their particular application. Using a Selection Wizard, the Customer is presented with a series of questions relating to their requirements. Based upon the Customer's answers, the Wizard recommends the product that best responds to their needs.

The next challenge for Metso was to eliminate the complexity associated with selecting matching components for an assembly. To address this, an Assembly Wizard was used to integrate valve and actuator Product Configurators with information about corresponding connecting linkages. The Assembly Wizard automatically calculates the valve opening torque for the Customer's operating condition. It then determines the appropriately sized actuator based on this torque, the Customer's power and operating needs, and the availability of a matching linkage.

End Result:

The result of this joint Metso/i-MARK effort is a highly sophisticated Product Configurator Solution. It empowers Metso Partners and Customers to confidently select and accurately configure a product or an assembly of products, knowing that the ultimate configuration is a valid one that can be manufactured by the company. Metso is pleased with the resulting business benefits of reduced costs, increased revenues, diminished risk of improper configuration, and strongly differentiated brand leadership.

Bruce Weatherbee, Engineering Systems and Technical Information Manager at Metso Automation, said, “Our Product Configuration software is used every day by our Customers and our Partners. The intelligence that i-MARK's solution brings to our on-line catalog is exactly what we were looking for.” Del Merenda , i-MARK President & CEO believes Metso's Product Configuration achievement further strengthens the value to manufacturers of using front-end solutions to cut costs, drive revenue, improve brand value and grow market share. Merenda emphasized, “i-MARK prides itself on being ‘the clear industry leader' in deploying and operating sophisticated solutions for manufacturers, like Metso Automation. Our focused customer-facing applications, deployed exclusively for complex product manufacturers, provide dramatic business benefits, reduced total cost of ownership, and shortened time-to-market cycles.”

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