Oil drill pipe leader using RuleStream to improve quotation process, extend design automation capabilities
Wakefield, MA — October 28, 2004 — Grant Prideco said this week it is using a solution from rules-driven product management (RPM) provider RuleStream Corp. to streamline its order fulfillment process. Houston-based Grant Prideco is the world leader in drill stem technology development and drill pipe manufacturing, sales and service.
Grant Prideco turned to RuleStream to shorten manufacturing lead times by increasing the speed and accuracy of its quotation process, extending the company's design automation capabilities and improving the retention and reuse of product knowledge, all using an integrated software environment.
Grant Prideco sought out RuleStream after it determined its in-house product design and quoting software system — which needed to handle as much as 200 manufacturing orders per month — wasn't keeping pace with the company's needs.
By implementing RuleStream for its DrillPipe product, the results were almost immediate, with drawing time reduced from 10 hours to 10 minutes. Pleased with the success of the implementation, Grant Prideco said it plans to expand the use of RuleStream to additional product lines, including drill collars and other drill stem accessories.
"Manufacturers automate non-value-added engineering tasks to decrease the time and cost of product development," said Marc Halpern, research director at Gartner. "Successful initiatives increase the capacity for engineer-to-order businesses. They also increase the amount of time that can be spent on product innovation and planning more efficient new product introductions."
Ultimately Grant Prideco said it intends to use RuleStream to bridge its internal enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, MOVEX (from Intentia), with SolidWorks. The company's goal is to improve its product ordering system to allow automatic project options such as pipe length and diameter to be made available during the order process, as well as to be able to incorporate printed drawings and specification sheets with the orders.
"RuleStream's integrated process automation environment is an ideal solution for a company like Grant Prideco, which must meet stringent customer design requirements while keeping costs low and responsiveness high," said RuleStream CEO David Vredenburgh.
