Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>\n
As an instructor at a vocational career college with internships at local design firms, I am constantly amazed at the number of companies using a really good Automated Design package like SolidWorks to make sure their designs work, are manufacturable, and meet the requirements of their customers.\u00a0 (Meeting the requirements is no longer a viable business plan in this global economy, but that is a different topic all together.)<\/p>\n
What scares me is that there are still companies out there who believe in 2 data management myths.\u00a0 I will discuss the first one in this post and the second in a soon to follow rant.<\/p>\n
The first data management myth: “Windows Explorer is a data management tool.”<\/p>\n
Windows Explorer is a rudimentary viewer into a windows file\/folder directories.\u00a0 That is it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
People, the models & drawings created in any CAD package at a manufacturing or design firm are the digital records\u00c2\u00a0&\u00c2\u00a0digital currency that make that company money.\u00a0 Without those documents, how will you manufacture your product that sales and marketing have oversold in too little time?\u00c2\u00a0 Hmmmm?\u00a0<\/p>\n
3D, History Based, Parametric modelers by nature have a complex set of file relations that no one should every have to figure out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you improperly move this file to another directory or Lords of CAD\u00a0 forbid “Rename the file to show the next revision in the part number, the drawing looses connectivity, content and functionality, the assembly opens with errors you have never even heard of.\u00a0 The Yellow and red thing in the feature manager tree are really SolidWorks yelling at you telling you that you royally screwed up!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then there is the project of updated drawings to new revisions (you know, the I did not thoroughly review my design so now I have to modify the original design so it can actually work.)\u00a0 What do you do now?\u00a0 Make changes to the original document so you have no idea what the previous revision looked like?\u00a0 Copy the document set and make the changes there renaming those files with the new revision in the file name(just the thought of renaming strikes the fear nerve in me).\u00a0 Are you sure that you have triple checked all of the other files that your changed document effects?\u00a0 This process using Windows Explorer is achievable at a costly price.\u00a0 You design time.\u00a0 I thought we were moving into an era of design productivity.\u00a0 This arduous task seems to be light years from being productive.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0As soon as your company adopts a CAD package like SolidWorks it is time to implement Product\/Project Data Management.\u00a0 I know, there are some folk out there who are saying things like: “We only have one designer so we do not need it”\u00a0 or “We have a procedure that ensures that file names are correct, blah blah, blah…”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the first comment I ask, “Do you want to end up like the Big 3 always asking for bailouts for the people who by your vehicles”.\u00a0 To be successful you need to be in business to make a profit now and into the future.\u00a0 Get these systems up and running immediately so that if (when) your business does grow you do not need to scramble to figure something out now.\u00a0 Every designer has the Greatest directory structure and file naming scheme that everyone will understand.\u00a0 And monkeys fly out of my butt every day.\u00a0 By the way, I have beautiful ocean front property to sell you in the Everglades.\u00a0 What happens when that designer quits?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many PDM systems are very scalable to accommodate 1 – 100’s of users.\u00a0 These data management systems also allow you to either use an existing directory structure or define an even easier one that will take no time for newbies to learn.\u00a0 Earlier, Matt Lorono wrote a fantastic post about CAD standards, PDM can compliment your CAD standards with naming standards, filing standards, change standards, the list is endless.\u00a0 It will really complete a Great CAD standard.\u00a0 PDM can usually hook into ERP\/MRP systems to reduce the number of times a cad jockey has to enter the same information over and over again.\u00a0 Make drawing searches available to everyone company wide.\u00a0 No CAD needed.<\/p>\n
The comment about procedures… When is the last time you read your company procedures?\u00a0 A procedure about file naming, directory structure, etc… is about 5 years wasted productivity because as we all know it is so incredibly productive to read those things.\u00a0 We also know that every individual has different ways of bending the procedure to make it work for them.\u00a0 Think about it, there are easily 50 ways to model the part you are in the process of modeling.\u00a0 You are telling me you are going to restrict that to 1 way.\u00a0 What happens when your 1 way inhibits productivity?\u00a0 In the CAD system you set up templates that everyone starts from.\u00a0 You require certain things to be done in the model like no under defined sketches, you can use the Design Checker to check these requirements.\u00a0 With a proper PDM implementation you can set templates that replace the custom properties of a model, then transfer them to a drawing so you only have to enter title block info once.\u00a0 You can set up a behind the scene directory structure that none of your people have to be aware of because once the info is in the PDM system, all of that info can be used to search for things using a Google style search.\u00a0 Setup a fill naming structure that will automatically manage file names for your designers.\u00a0 One less thing for them to worry about screwing up.<\/p>\n
Get one of these systems in place now.\u00a0 Most of them cost less then a one year subscription for your 1495 seat of SolidWorks.\u00a0 Complete your CAD standards and become more productive now.\u00a0 Remember, Windows Explorer is not Data management.\u00a0 Is is a portal into the directory structure of your computer which often leads to chaos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"