Establishing Engineering Standard Operating Procedures

What do you need to established engineering standard operating procedures (SOPs) within your Engineering organization?

If your organization follows ISO manufacturing standards (e.g., ISO 9000) or plans to, your Engineering department will need Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for key tasks. These aren’t about how to ‘Engineer’ but focus on managing documentation and design processes more effectively. SOPs ensure consistency, improve efficiency, and help your team meet compliance requirements without extra headaches. This article builds on my SOLIDWORKS World 2011 presentation and offers updated information to help your team navigate these needs.

The following are examples of procedures that will likely be necessary for your organization.

  • Drawing Standards SOP – preparing mechanical drawings per Engineering Standards (e.g., ISO 128, ASME Y14.5, BS 8888). This should include instructions on selecting templates, naming conventions, part numbering, filling out title blocks and even preferred drawing view layouts. Model-based Definition may require its own SOP too.
  • CAD Document Management SOP – processes for organizing, naming, storing, accessing and distributing CAD documents, including guidelines for 3D CAD models and cloud-based tools. This may include instructions on file and model formats, such as creating PDFs of drawings or distributing models as STEP to outside vendors.
  • Drawing Review and Approval SOP – steps for peer reviews, quality checks and approvals of drawings.
  • Revision Notation and Control SOP – marking and controlling revisions of drawings.
  • Template and Symbol Libraries SOP – maintenance and use of standardized templates, symbols, blocks and CAD customizations such as macros and data tables .
  • Design Review SOP – formal process for review of design and drawings
  • Engineering Change SOP – steps for initiating and documenting proposed changes to designs and drawings (Engineering Change Request; ECR), then their approval and implementation (Engineering Change Order; ECO), including notification and effectivity for full traceability (Engineering Change Notification; ECN).

For Engineering departments, these procedures should be tailored around their CAD application(s), PDM and PLM systems.

Structure of SOPs

Organizations that have well-documented processes should establish a template for their procedures. There are several elements that most standard operating procedures should include. Each SOP should be use a number-base layout that employs functionality of the chosen wordprocessor. This list of elements should be tailored for the Engineering department. The following is an example of the required (as applicable) elements with a brief explanation.

  1. Title and Document Information
    • Title – descriptive and specific to the task or process.
    • Document Number – unique identifier for tracking.
    • Version or Revision Number – indicates current version.
    • Effective Date – the date upon which the document becomes valid.
    • Approval Signatures – for validation and compliance.
  2. Purpose – the reason the procedure exists.
  3. Scope – extent to which the procedure applies (the processes and roles are controlled by this document).
  4. Responsibilities – define roles and responsibilities of personnel involved.
  5. Definitions – list and define specialized terms and abbreviations.
  6. Materials, Tools, and Equipment – list of required resources to complete the procedure. Include software applications that are utilized within the process described within this document.
  7. Procedure – actual procedural instructions, often in step-by-step format with clear statements with explanatory diagrams and images. Typically, this will be the bulk of the document.
  8. Troubleshooting – guidance for handling common issues or errors.
  9. References -links to related documents, manuals, or regulations.
  10. Revision History – a table that tracks changes over time with notes on updates.

Once the types of SOPs are established and a structure for the SOPs is agreed upon within your organization, the task of actually writing the procedures comes next. This could mean completely rewriting old procedures or writing new ones. Future articles in this series will address good writing practices for SOPs and specific considerations that cover CAD related needs and an organization’s processes.

Full ASME Revision List

Full ASME list of allowed letters for revisions and view labels

Author: Matthew Lorono

Website: fcsuper.com/swblog

ASME Revision list thumbnail
ASME Revision list

Per ASME Y14.35 standard, these are full lists of allowed letters to serve as revisions and view labels on drawings. There are two choices. The pre-2014 list contains all single and double digit revision letters. The current list (as of 2014) contains all single, double and triple digit revision letters. Omitted are the letters I, O, Q, S, X and Z. File format is Excel, from which the list may be readily copied.

ASME Revision List (pre-2014)

ASME Revision List (as of 2014)

Create CAD Standards (SolidWorks environment)

Creating a drafting standards within a SolidWorks environment is an important task.  The task may seem daunting to those of us who haven’t done this before, particularly if our company has no pre-existing documentation methods.  These can be new companies, or companies moving from a lack of control into standardization.

Fortunately, there is a lot of help available.  Actual drafting standards already exist.  Also, many of us have been through this before (sometimes multiple times).  ASME provides American National Standards for many of the areas that need to be covered.  ISO provides international standards for these too, however I will focus on the use of ASME since this is what I used myself.  On the other-hand, creating SolidWorks specific standards requires a little more reseach and upfront work.

Here are my very general suggestions for documents and tasks to create a company’s standard.

  1. SolidWorks Templates (basic overview)
    1. Create a basic solid model template.  The setup within this template will become the backbone of everything within SolidWorks. This will be the most used document.  Establish custom properties that detail the part.  (Use of existing properties can be leveraged to simplify this task.)  Creation of this first template does not preclude the creation of other solid model templates. Instead, it will be used to create any others. For details about templates, goto SolidWorks Help and search titles only for the words “document templates”.
    2. Create a solid model assembly template.  Many of the general settings of this template should be duplicates of the settings of the solid model template.  Some planning is required.  Determine the best method of assembly structure for your company.  Several practices exist as guides, such as Top-Down, Horizontal Modeling, Bottom-Up, and Configurations.  It is important to note that there is not one-size-fits-all method for all companies.  Research each and make the determination based on company needs.  Setup the assembly template to support the chosen method.  However, do not become overly reliant on any particular methodology since situations may require flexibility.
    3. Decide how the drawing templates will interact with solid models. This includes deciding to have any pre-defined views, use of custom and other properties, etc.
    4. Create sheet formats and templates for each drawing size that will be commonly used.  Include annotation notes linked to custom properties, such as part number, material, revision, originator, origination date, surface finish number and/or type, etc.  See SolidWorks Help search for “Link to Property”.
    5. If in a network environment, place the templates and sheet formats within a folder where all SolidWorks users will have access.  Point all SolidWorks installs to this location.  This can be done within pulldown menu Tools>Options>File Location>Document Templates and Sheet Formats.
    6. Create a company standard for shortcuts and macros that speed up SolidWorks operations. Set up a network location for the company macros.
  2. Create the following standard operating procedures.
    1. SolidWorks Performancethat covers computer system requirements, Windows settings, SolidWorks installation, working folders, and standardizing files.
    2. SolidWorks Best Practices and Standards
      • Solid models: discussing preferred methods for creating features.
      • Assemblies: cover methodologies (when to use top-down or bottom-up; and what part should be the primary fixed component) and how to avoid circular mating, etc.
      • Drawings: covering how to use templates/sheet formats, shortcuts, common macros, etc.
    3. Drafting Standards, which can rely on ASME Y14.100 (umbrella engineering drawing standard), ASME Y14.5M (GD&T drafting standard) and possibly ASME Y14.41 (3D model drafting standard).  List exceptions to the ASME standards within the procedure.  If relying on these standards, make sure to have copies of them on hand. This will allow the procedure to be short and to the point.  If not relying on a standard, this procedure can potentially be very long.
    4. Source File and Document Control, which covers how to handle file management (SolidWorks files) and documents.  Be sure to cover processes for control of SolidWorks files in folders and/or the PDM application.  This may be a procedure that is supplemental the company’s general document control processes.
    5. Revision Control, which covers how to revise engineering documents.  This can rely on ASME Y14.35.  If the company uses a ERP or PLM, this procedure may be supplemental to those processes.

For references for further research, check out SolidWorks resource links, such as weblinks that can be found here on Lorono’s SolidWorks Resources.  Also, check out Blog Squad sites such as Matt Writes.