Navigating Seamless Change Management with SOLIDWORKS PDM

    In the realm of product design and development, change is a constant. Whether driven by evolving requirements, customer feedback, or compliance updates, managing changes efficiently is crucial for maintaining product integrity and meeting project timelines. SOLIDWORKS PDM (Product Data Management) stands as a robust solution in the realm of change management, offering organizations a streamlined and organized approach to handle modifications throughout the product lifecycle.

Understanding Change Management:

    Change management involves the systematic approach to dealing with changes to a product's design, documentation, or associated data. Effective change management ensures that modifications are controlled, documented, and implemented without disrupting the overall product development process.

Challenges in Traditional Change Management:

    Traditional change management often involved manual processes, document revisions, and complex workflows that could be prone to errors and delays. As product designs became more intricate and the need for collaboration increased, these manual methods proved to be insufficient.

SOLIDWORKS PDM: A Catalyst for Efficient Change Management -

    SOLIDWORKS PDM provides a comprehensive set of tools specifically designed to address the challenges of change management. Let's explore some key features that make it an invaluable asset in navigating change seamlessly:

1. 

1. Centralized Data Management: SOLIDWORKS PDM serves as a centralized vault for storing and managing all design and project-related data. This ensures that all stakeholders access the latest and most accurate information, eliminating the risk of using outdated or incorrect data during the change process.

2. Version Control and Revision Management: The system automates version control and revision management, ensuring that every change is tracked and documented. This capability is crucial for maintaining a clear audit trail and understanding the evolution of a design over time.

1. 3. Automated Workflows: SOLIDWORKS PDM allows organizations to define and customize change workflows. This includes the ability to create, review, and approve change requests seamlessly. Automated workflows reduce the likelihood of errors and speed up the change management process.

 4. Integrated Collaboration: The integration of SOLIDWORKS PDM with SOLIDWORKS CAD software fosters seamless collaboration between design and data management. Engineers can initiate change requests directly from CAD environment, ensuring that changes are accurately reflected in the design data.

1. 5. Access Control and Security: SOLIDWORKS PDM provides robust access control and security features, ensuring that only authorized personnel can make changes or access specific data. This is crucial for maintaining data integrity and compliance with industry regulations.

6. Real-time Notifications and Alerts: Users can set up real-time notifications and alerts within SOLIDWORKS PDM to keep stakeholders informed about the status of change requests. This promotes transparency and ensures that everyone involved in the process is aware of critical milestones.

    In the fast-paced world of product development, an effective change management strategy is a cornerstone of success. SOLIDWORKS PDM offers a comprehensive and integrated solution, enabling organizations to navigate changes seamlessly while maintaining data integrity and collaboration efficiency. By centralizing data, automating workflows, and integrating with SOLIDWORKS CAD, SOLIDWORKS PDM empowers teams to embrace change as an opportunity for growth and improvement rather than a hurdle to overcome. As businesses continue to innovate and evolve, SOLIDWORKS PDM remains a critical tool in achieving efficient and effective change management in the world of product design and development.

 

Methods to Effectively Reuse the Design Data

Have we ever imagined how many workman hours we lose in trying to Reuse the Data which is supposed to be saving the time and money instead of losing them? It includes time spent on,

•  Searching right version of the data among many file versions created by our team members.

•  Finding missing references of data.

•  Recreating the File/Folder structure.

•  Maintaining Filenames/Folder names.

The losses may sum up nearly the savings we make from data reuse. Hence it needs a system that is as much effective as possible to ease the pain and improve the Return of Investment spent on maintaining and reusing the older project files. The system we are proposing for this data reuse is SOLIDWORKS Product Data Management. Being a proven data management solution, SOLIDWORKS PDM provides excellent data management and reuse tools like Search tools, copy tree, Branching and Merging.

SOLIDWORKS PDM Search Tools:

The initial time-consuming process in data reuse is running searches for various files and its references. To overcome this SOLIDWORKS PDM provides two kinds of search options – Embedded Search and PDM Complete Search Tool. The Embedded Search is same as we have in windows explorer that runs search for files and folder whereas the PDM Search tool provides a flexible and customizable search options. The Search keyworks can be filenames, folder names, file extensions and meta data combined with Operators like AND, OR & NOT. The SOLIDWORKS PDM Search tool provides a separate window exclusively with,
1. Search Toolbar – provides options like Run, Stop, Delete & Save searches.
2. Search Favorites – lists the frequently made searches and searches added to favorites list.
3. Searches – lists the different default and customized Search Cards based searches.
4. Search in Vaults – lists all the available vaults to make searches in multiple vaults at same time.
5. Search Form – Displays form of selected search card where we can provide search criteria.
6. Results – Lists the files and folders relevant to the search criteria we provided in search form.
7. Tabs – Shows file preview, data card, Version details, Bill of Materials, etc.

Note: The Embedded Search is available both in SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard as well as PDM Professional Whereas the Complete Search tools is available only in SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional.

Copy Tree Dialog Box:

Once finding the right data is a success, the next step is extracting the data without missing any file references and organizing them with proper file name and folder structure. For this, SOLIDWORKS PDM provides a tool called Copy Tree which acts similar to the SOLIDWORKS Pack and Go tool. Here the major difference is Copy tree tool can preserve the folder structure for parent and child reference files with Preserve Relative Path option. Also, PDM features like regenerating Serial Numbers for file Number, replacing file name with Serial Number, File Warnings, Check-in options are available with which projects can be copied and organized as per our requirement. The file versions can be either the version of the selected file or the latest version. Copied files can be developed as a new project without affecting the source data.

Note: SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional has a similar tool called Move Tree which moves the Selected file and entire file structure to the destination location.

Branching and Merging:

Branching a file is like taking a copy of source file to work with for a sustained development period and later merging it with the source file to combine the file as a new version to the source file. This can be done to both CAD and Non-CAD documents. The same source file can be branched many times. The branched files can also be re- branched if needed. The branching and merging dialog box are similar to Copy Tree dialog box with all the options available similarly. In addition, branching dialog box will have a separate test box for providing a name to the branch operation. The branching operation will be recorded to the history of the file so that it can be referenced in future. Merging dialog box will provide no option for destination file location since the files will be merged only to the source file in the source file location. With branching and merging source data can be reused to build a separate project as a version of source project and later if needed both projects can be merged to make the source project as a updated revision. Hence Branching and Merging not only provides data reuse capability but also the older data replacement capability for minimizing duplicate file stack-up inside the vault

THANK YOU FOR READING!

SOLIDWORKS MANAGE – DISTRIBUTED DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

SOLIDWORKS Manage is the fully integrated advance data management system with global file management and application integrations enabled by SOLIDWORKS PDM.

SOLIDWORKS Manage is the key element in providing Distributed Data Management. This is accomplished by various functional areas:

Project management

Provide critical information to help teams focus on important tasks, and provide an overview of resource capacity for better planning and utilization. Manage project stages, timelines, and milestones along with resource utilization and capacity. Utilize user tasks and timesheets to automatically track progress.

Process Management

Streamline business processes, automate document creation and bring together all involved stakeholders for new products, from sales and marketing to production and support. Configure states and decision points for all types of business processes such as Engineering Change Requests (ECR), Orders (ECO) and Notices (ECN), transmittals and approvals.

Item Management

Create, edit and compare complete bills of materials (BOM) by associating items, files and free text. Manage product variations for different use cases and applications. Derive SOLIDWORKS drawing- bill of materials and item numbers directly from system data.

Dashboard & Report generation

Create and distribute interactive graphical dashboards to display critical information. Configure reports to company standards and publish automatically or on demand.

Benefits:

• Real time insight of complex project data make place ahead of schedule.
• Reduce down size resource as per task.
• Automatic Report generation.
• Visibility of each and every corners of shop floor.
• Administratively run the company.

 

Business impact of data Management in Power & Process Industry

Product datamanagement (PDM) has to serve as a central knowledge repository for process and product history, and promotes integration & data exchange among all business users who interact with products — including project managers, engineers, sales people, buyers, and quality assurance teams. But its not happening in real-time environment.

Challenges faced in Power & process Industry:

A)Spending countless hours for the design approvals Engineering Change Orders (ECO)–more time to prepare and convey Engineering change notice (ECN) and getting approvals.

B)Has to maintain a whole Revision history of a design evolution,Errors of manual approaches to be captured and also Duplicate file creation has to stop.

C)Unable to collaborate with multiple location organizations

D)Difficult to deliver the right file, at right time to the right person

E) Difficult to Create, maintain, manipulate and store the Bill of Materials (BOM) data to support downstream operations.

Solutions:

A) By Automatic electronic workflow system in SolidWorks PDM,significantly reduce the time required for the design approvals of Engineering change orders (ECO).

B) SolidWorks PDM Track changes, maintain a whole revision history of a design’s evolution, and errors of manual approaches can be avoided and also helps to avoid creation of duplicate files .

C) SolidWorks PDM allows replicating the data from one location to another location without much effort.This global connectivity helps in reducing the time to market of product.

D) But with SolidWorks PDM, usingworkflow and transition action- data can assigned automatically to a right person at right time with notification

E) SolidWorks PDM software offers many tools which enables to handle BOM data more efficiently and also to export this data for the use in downstream applications.

Benefits:

• Achieve Intelligent Process automation
• Ability to Track Changes
• Helps in Process integration
• Smart BOM Management
• Error free Change management
• Enterprise Scalability for multiple Location access.

 

How SOLIDWORKS PDM is more helpful for Industrial Equipment Manufacturers?

Critical Assets to Monitor Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Process Issues :

Industrial Equipment Sector presents a unique situation in terms of reliability, primarily due to the nature of production. While a wide range of other industries can run at reduced loads or output after suffering unexpected downtime, nearly all assets in industrial manufacturing can be viewed as critical. All assembly line style of manufacturing equipment is dependent on other equipment up line or down line to be operating during production. Even a small issue can severely cripple or entirely halt production. Therefore, it is highly critical to monitor any asset that has the potential to slow or halt production to reduce or eliminate unplanned downtime.

Why SOLIDWORKS PDM?

Product Data Management (PDM) is the use of software to manage product data and process-related information in a single, central system. This information includes Computer-Aided Design (CAD) data, models, parts information, manufacturing instructions, requirements, notes and documents.

Factors of SOLIDWORKS PDM

1. Capture, manage and deliver product information

• PDM systems capture and manage product information, ensuring that information is delivered to users throughout the product lifecycle in the correct context.
• File ownership, version control (check-in and check-out of files), revision

2. Functionality & Data Security

• Security and administrative functionality protects intellectual property rights through role management, project-based security and associated access privileges.

3. Process Enablement

• A PDM system can help you establish, manage and execute automated workflow-driven processes that reflect company-specific best practices for change planning (what-if analysis), change incorporation (execution), and change verification and communication.

4. Configuration Management

• PDM systems provide the visibility necessary for managing and presenting a complete Bill Of Materials (BOM). It facilitates the alignment and synchronization of all sources of BOM data, as well as all lifecycle phases, including the as-designed, as-planned, as-built and as-maintained states. 

5. Collaborative File Management

• All users have access to the latest versions of files, that are stored in a central location. This means manufacturing can have immediate and direct access to a project file, when it is release.
• All files are stored centrally, thereby reducing the chance of data loss or. This includes having your work overwritten, by a co-worker saving files, to a shared network drive.
• Multiple versions of files can be kept, thereby allowing a user to revert to a previous version.

BENEFITS OF PDM

• Find the correct data quickly

• Improve productivity and reduce cycle times
• Reduce development errors and costs
• Improve value chain orchestration
• Meet business and regulatory requirements
• Optimize operational resources
• Facilitate collaboration between global teams
• Provide visibility for better business decision-making

 

How to create Effective Technical Documentation and Improve ROI using SOLIDWORKS COMPOSER

Objective

Clearly explain and present your product or process using 2D and 3D graphical content that you can quickly create with SOLIDWORKS Composer software.

Traditional Challenges in Consumer Product Industry

• Content creators are often working with different, cobbled together tools, including 2D CAD drawings, digital photography, and file translators.
• Bottleneck to business growth and competitiveness
• Too many manual steps to get to a finished document, and far too much back-and-forth activity.
• Spend too much of time in Manual changes in product as well as technical communication documents
• The whole process is therefore inefficient, slow, and disruptive to the Engineering Department and to the organization as a whole.

Intelligent Solutions for common pitfalls

1.Concurrent technical documentation

• Automate your technical communication process, and make it concurrent with the design process

2.Design, Document, Deliver Easily

• You can dramatically improve the quality, quantity, effectiveness, and customer appeal of your technical communication materials.
• Automatically generating current Bills of Materials (BOMs) with the push of a button, for inclusion in proposals or assembly instructions.

3.Business benefits abound

• Faster time to market. You can create documentation in parallel with product design and development, so products get to market faster.

4.Speed product success

• Engineers can spend more time designing and more easily create technical documents to communicate their work.
• Content creators can spend more time creating great content and less time chasing and updating data.

5.Automating manufacturing and assembly instructions

Summary

• As manufacturing organizations strive to identify ways to,

• save time
• cut costs and
• improve their competitiveness in global markets

• Your company can realize shorter times-to-market, improved operational efficiencies, and good quality documentation.

• More cost savings and also realize significant ROI within the first year.

• Manufacturers can improve profit margins, achieve faster times-to-market, and increase sales related to better customer education

 

How to get CONSUMER PRODUCTS Design Data under Control and improve Team Manage using SOLIDWORKS PDM?

What is PDM? 

In today's consumer products industry, industrial designers and mechanical engineers must work together to bring new products to market with cutting-edge design, market-leading functionality, and low manufacturing costs. 

Product data management (PDM) is the business function often within product lifecycle management (PLM) that is responsible for the management and publication of product data. 

What are the Goals? 

The goals of product data management include, 

ensuring all stakeholders share a common understanding, that confusion during the execution of the processes is minimized, and that the highest standards of quality controls are maintained. 

What is it Focus on? 

Product data management is focused on capturing and maintaining information on products and/or services through its development and useful life. Typical information managed in the PDM module include. 

Common challenges for Consumer Products Designer 

• More confusions in making file revisions 
• To do changes, copying entire data 
• Spending critical time for searching files or even deleted 
• No data security so anyone can access and make faulty corrections 
• Difficult to streamline detail information about data workflow around the global 
• Users may get frustrate in Data replication and synchronization. 

Possible Solutions can do in PDM 

1.Find the Data you are looking for fast: 

• Advanced searching tools inside Windows Explorer 
• Just input the specific information, make it easy 

2.Maintain Version and Revision History: 

• Versions are automatically created and references updated 
• Increment revisions automatically based on defined approval process 

3.Electronic Workflow: 

• Automatically send notifications to designated users and groups when files have modify/Change state 
• Easy to use graphical workflow tool 

4.Manage Non-Cad Data Easily 

• Easily produce customized bills of materials (BOMs) for individual departments
• Manage, view, and print document from more than 250 file types including major CAD formats, Microsoft Office files, images, and animations
• Automatically create neutral files, such as PDFs, eDrawingsTM or STEP 

5.Automate business processes 

• Utilize multiple workflows to handle different document types and approval processes
• Facilitate multiple required approvers with Parallel transitions 

6.Collaborate across boundaries 

• Search for data in multiple ways, using parameters such as document or file name, contained data, or custom properties like part number, description, and current workflow state (e.g., released or in process)
• Enable staff and partners to contribute through webenabled portals from various connected devices including smartphones and tablets

Summary

• Track and manage all changes to product related data 
  
• PDM enables easy and quick access for users on different locations and different times 
• Secure organisation data with powerful Vault creation 
• Eliminate Redundancy in finding the right files in consistent way 
• Spend less time organizing and tracking design data 
• Improve productivity through reuse of product design data 
• Enhance collaboration 
• Helps using visual management.