Smith International was founded by H.C. Smith in 1936 and is now a $1.2 billion company and a recognized leader in the manufacture of oil tool products Smith Tool is the oldest division within Smith International and manufactures roller cone bits used in drilling for oil and gas.
In 1989 Smith International's headquarters were moved from Irvine, CA to Houston, TX and the manufacturing facilities were moved from Irvine to Ponca City, OK.
Where do you start when the work culture is so ingrained with resistance?
The new VP of engineering that arrived in 1984 knew that change control was needed. Four new procedures were established which included
o design review,
o engineering documentation and change control,
o redline drawing control and
o material review board.
The first ECR was written on April 24, 1984. Resistance remained, but who could argue with an objective of being able to track changes?
These four procedures remained in place until 1991.
Shift Of Emphasis In 1991
An organizational realignment resulted in added emphasis on documentation and data control. I was asked to head up that effort.
Control of the ECR process and the CCB function had to be improved. The policy as written appeared to be adequate but no one took it seriously. ECR's were being misused. CCB meetings were taking up an entire day's time and going nowhere.
The system was inefficient. The wrong people were involved.
Guidelines for CCB meetings and writing ECR's were established and the correct people were brought into the loop.
Eighteen Smith Tool sites around the globe were to be ISO 9001/2 compliant by 1994. For once the direction was clear and the resistance was gone.
I was promoted to Configuration Manager and now
responsible for putting documentation in place to be ISO compliant. There was a ton of work to be done but it was also an opportunity to reengineer the process.
I wish I had known about CMII at that time.
The interviewing process was critical. People from engineering, manufacturing, sales, purchasing, etc. were interviewed to determine the impact of change. A flowchart was constructed. For the first time you could see how documentation flowed and it was incredible. It was a spider wed going everywhere.
The ECR cycle was still perceived as being slow and for good reason. Investigation showed that the bottleneck occurred in the review and sign-off process. Both were supposed to occur in the CCB meeting.
The review process was moved outside of the CCB and the number of required signatures was reduced.
Time lags were gradually being reduced.
Physical documents were addressed next. Formats were standardized. MS Word was chosen as the PC software standard. The old mainframe was replaced. The custom coded database was replaced with ORACLE. All documents were revised and reissued. We now had consistency.
The Quality System Manual was constructed with references to all of the documents required for operations.
The ISO audit took one week and the auditors spent about one day in CM. There were no findings.
Houston received ISO 9001 certification on August 9, 1993. The other 17 sites achieved certification within one year.
Getting certified is relatively easy. Retaining that certification is more difficult.
Document control would continue to come under closer scrutiny although it was not a problem at this time.
Network servers were being installed and it was time to take advantage of the new system. Sherpa was chosen for vaulting and maintaining documents that are on the network server.
Documents were upgraded without issuing "controlled copies." Users were trained that electronic files are "controlled" and printed copies are "for reference only."
The CMII principles, combined with the capabilities of Sherpa, have proven to be a sound combination.
Workflows for introducing new products and revising existing products follow the conformance requirements of the "V" diagram per CMII. Other changes that have been implemented in accordance with the CMII model include:
o replacing the CCB with a CRB and a CIB
o fast track system for ECR's
o emphasis on clear, concise and valid documents
o specific ownership of each document
The Corporate Baseline
Other divisions within Smith International have shown interest in the direction that we are taking. We represent the corporate baseline. Initiatives taken within Smith Tool will permeate throughout Smith International.
Institute of Configuration Management Scottsdale, AZ 85261-5656 Tel: (480) 998-8600 Fax: (480) 998-8923 Email: info@icmhq.com