Don’t Mind the Engine Light
/Errors, Delays, and Cost of Quality are Proportional to the Number of Separate Data Repositories
In a recent discovery call, we quickly learned that the organization was using three separate and disconnected repositories to support their product lifecycle activities.
Autodesk Vault was used for the CAD workgroup. Once designs were released, renditions were manually created and then loaded into SharePoint. The bills we exported to a spreadsheet and manually entered into their ERP solution. Purchasing would go to SharePoint to access and print the rendered drawings. These would be associated to purchase orders.
The engineering change process was comprised of email routing with attached Word and Excel files.
Imagine if your CRM solution was comprised of one database for accounts, another for contacts and yet another for opportunities.
Sprinkled throughout the discussions, the engineering manager we were taking to, used such expressions as …
- “we are admittedly doing double entry if not triple”
- “have serious concerns about drawing access”
- “we have no idea what the status of a change or effects parts are”
Separate data repositories and disconnected processes inherently create challenges. The “engine light” is flashing. This is an ideal opportunity to explore the value of a product lifecycle management solution.
About Practical PLM
Our mission is to help engineering/manufacturing companies achieve the promise of product lifecycle management (PLM). We do this by exploring practical action steps that drive business value and that yield measurable revenue contributions and/or reduced expenses.
PLM is a combination of business strategies, best practices and technology. Hence, this monthly newsletter looks at business drivers, processes, along with considerations for various technologies.
The Aras PLM platform is a cornerstone of this trifecta. Aras is the fast growing PLM vendor today. The vdR Group is a full service partner of Aras.
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Written by Martin van der Roest - Martin has nearly 3 decades of experience in the systems and software development business. A majority of this time has been spent in the product lifecycle management (PLM) space with a specific focus on solutions for engineering and manufacturing organizations.