Implementing a new PDM Software

The previous articles I posted on this subject were intended to educate the reader on why you need a PDM package, and how to evaluate PDM packages so you can choose the right one to suit your needs, the needs of the company you work for, and the needs of others within your company that will be accessing your documents.

In this article I am going to review what you need to do to get that new PDM package up and running on your network so you can start controlling those documents.

Justification, Budget, Purchase.

Before you can make purchase, you need money.  To get the money, you need to justify why you want to spend $10,000’s of dollars for computer software to manage your CAD documents.  To start, we will take a look back at how we defined the need.  Here were the points I outlined.

1. How do you store multiple revisions of a single document?  If documents are stored with the same name in different directories, how can you ensure the correct revision of component is loaded with the parent document?  If documents are stored with different names, you have to reload the component, but that changes references in the parent document.
2. What revision of a component, belongs with a specific revision of a parent document?  There may be times when there is a need to access an older revision  of an assembly.  Without a data management software, how do you know you have the correct components loaded with the parent document?
3. A document was modified, but who changed it, and when?  You can look at the file properties to determine when the file was last saved, and who saved it, but this does not identify how many times the document was changed since it was created, and who did each of those changes.

Now it’s time to evaluate the effects these problems have on other areas of the company.

• Can you easily determine the correct revision of a component that was built for a specific machine that was assembled and sent to a customer?
• How difficult is it to find the correct revision of a component that was built 3 years ago, 6 years ago, etc…?
• If manufacturing were to receive the wrong revision of a drawing?  What is the cost associated with reworking or scrapping a production run (200 or more parts) made to the wrong print?
• If customer service (or the parts department) needed to send out a part to a customer.  What if they sent out a part made to an old revision of a print?  Now the customer has a part they cannot use, or the machinery does not work correctly because the wrong part is installed.  At this point, you may lose a customer.  How much does that cost?

At this point, you should be able to start adding dollar values to each of these issues, and others issues that may occur.  Then multiply this by how many times this happens in a year.  You will most likely end up with a dollar value that is larger than you expect.

If you already have a document management software, you also need to justify why you need to replace it.  In my case, our users lost confidence in the current/previous document management software that was in use, because of the problems we have been experiencing for years.

The use of a Document Management System can reduce these problems by providing a fast means of searching for the correct document you need, ensuring you get the document you need, and prohibit users from seeing any document they should not have access to.

At this point, you have an idea on how to justify your purchase of the PDM package you need.

Planning your implementation.

There never is, nor ever will be, a good time to implement a new piece of software.  Everyone in your department is working on developing new products, improving existing products, providing support for manufacturing, customer service, sales and marketing.  With all of this going on, when is the best time to implement a new PDM package?

Consider this, product documents is created or modified on a daily basis.  The longer you wait, the more documents (or document changes) will need to get moved into the new PDM vault when you get it installed  The longer you wait to get these documents onto, and managed by a PDM vault, you increase the risk of losing this documentation, or risk someone using the wrong version of a document.  These are risks you can do without, and you can avoid by implementing the new PDM package as soon as you can.

It looks like the best time to implement that new PDM package is now.

Planning the implementation of a new PDM package requires working closely with the vendor/reseller.  The people that will be directly involved in this implementation are:

• Vendor/Reseller technician or consultant.
• PDM Administrator(s).
• Corporate or department IS/IT support technician.

When you start planning the implementation, you need to consider the following:

• Schedules of persons listed above to determine availability for work to be completed.  You need to consider pre-planned vacations, consultant schedule with other customers, etc…
• Server purchase, setup and installation.  Plan about 3-6 weeks (depending on vendor) for the server.  This includes order placement, shipping time, setup, and on-site installation of the server.  The IS/IT department will most likely take care of this part of the implementation.
• Time needed to customize software to meet department/company needs.  This includes user/group rights, data cards, workflow, etc…  The PDM Administrator must have a complete understanding of all of the options here.  Especially with the workflow, because of all of the actions that can be controlled here such as changing variables, document transitions, email notifications, user/group rights to transitions, etc…
• Time needed to write document import tools/instructions to migrate existing data into the new PDM vault.  There is a lot of value in this step.  This step is the development of the tools need to move your existing documents into the new vault.  This stage alone will involve a lot of research and testing to ensure the tools can find the proper documents and place the documents into the correct location in the new vault.
• Training for PDM Administrators who need hands-on training on how to customize the software, including user/group setup and rights, Workflow creation and modification, folder and template setup, and customizing document data cards.
• Training for “Contributors” who need hands-on training for using the software, including searching for documents, changing document states, document check-in and check-out.
• “Viewer” training for anyone who needs to access the documents in the PDM vault.  This training needs to coincide with their work, and their participation in the document release process.

Test and Trial Period

Incorporate about 2-3 weeks for a “Test and Trial” period into your implementation timeline.  Use this trial period for the following:

• Develop, test and verify the results of the document migration tool.
• Encourage users to get hands on experience with the vault to test out various scenarios on a test vault that will eventually be removed.
• Fine-tune those workflows. You will need 2-3 meetings with engineering management and project managers to determine all of the procedures that need to be implemented into the workflows.  Also look at providing limited access transitions that bypass steps in the workflows for those ECNS that have been approved, but not checked-in to the old PDM package.  Make sure you test those workflows to verify they work as expected. 
• Write and test procedures on how people should be using the new PDM package.

Going LIVE!

When you first put together the implementation timeline, you made a commitment to have the new PDM package on-line by a predetermined date.  Before this can happen, you need to make sure all of the following has been completed and is ready to go.

• All customizations have been copied from the test vault into the new vault.  Pay special attention to data cards, templates, workflows, and any scripts that were written for the test vault.  Also look at and verify all file locations.
• All documentation is migrated from the old PDM software, or other places, into the new PDM vault.  Make sure this documentation is being moved into the proper states in the workflows.  You should have an idea from the test vault, how long this will take.  Based on the number of documents involved, and in an effort to minimize the impact on productivity within the department, you may need to do this over the weekend.  Before you start this migration, make sure you disable the check-in/check-out capabilities of the old vault before you start creating the migration tools/instructions.
• The PDM Administrator needs to have a high comfort level with customizing the software, understand how the PDM package is setup, how the workflows are setup, creating and modifying workflows, and resolving issues that may occur.  If you have multiple PDM Administrators, make sure all administrators know how everything is setup, but limit all changes to be completed by one PDM Administrator.  This helps reduce troubleshooting efforts down the road.
• The PDM Administrator also needs to make sure they have support resources that are ready to help them resolve issues that may occur.  These resources include corporate IS/IT technician, vendor/reseller consultant and customer support, and engineering management that has confidence in the PDM Administrators knowledge and skills to resolve issues as they occur.

When you have officially moved over to the new PDM vault, keep in mind that not everyone will be jumping in and using it right away.  Because of this, not all features will be used right away, and an unforeseen issue may not occur for several weeks.

As of my writing this article, the company I work for had “Gone Live” with the implementation of PDMWorks Enterprise about a week ago (early October 2008).  Everyone in the Engineering department understands that the implementation of this new PDM package is a learning experience for the users and the PDM Administrator(s).  Even though everyone has been trained, and has a working knowledge of checking documents in and out of the vault, there will always be some situations that require special handling.  An example of this is an ECN that was started before the new PDM vault was setup, and the revised documents do not exist in either vault.  In this case, the old revisions of documents need to be checked out of the new PDM vault, and the revised documents need to be checked in. Keep in mind that these steps may be different than what the user initially learned during training.  In these situations, the users need to know that the PDM Administrator(s) are available to guide them thru these special circumstances, and if necessary, they can create, or already have access to, special tools (Workflow transitions) that can handle these situations.

You could spend weeks trying to come up with all of the possible scenarios that users may run into, but no one can think of everything. Because of this, the PDM Administrator(s) needs to be comfortable with their own troubleshooting and problem solving capabilities to overcome any problems that may occur.

Good luck on your implementation!

Evaluating PDM Software

You finally decided to purchase a Product Data Management (PDM) software to manage your engineering documents.  Great!  With so many offerings out there, which one do you choose?  This article will identify some of the steps you should take, and what to look for, when selecting a PDM software package to suit your needs.

Core team.

• Put together a “core” team of people from the following areas.  For each group, I have identified at lease one reason you need them involved.
• Engineering Management – This group oversees the operations of the complete department.  They also need to be aware of what software is needed and used.  This person may not have to be at each meeting, but they do need to be aware of the reasons for each decision made by the core team.  It will be the Engineering Management that will need to justify the expenditure when you do purchase the PDM package.
• Group Managers – If you have multiple teams in your engineering department, you need a manager from each group.  Two of these managers should team up and take charge of the project.  This part of the team will be paying attention more to functionality and how the software meets the needs of their group.  They can also identify the department and release processes and learn how each PDM package can help them in their daily activities.
• Drafters or Designers – These are the people who will be using the PDM software the most.  They will be the ones who can identify the “ease of use” characteristics of each package.
• Information Services/Technology (IS/IT) – Once the implementation starts, these people will be setting up and supporting the server and software for whatever PDM package the core tam chooses.  In most cases, they are not concerned with how the software functions.  They need to know what infrastructure is needed to integrate the software.  They can also answer questions on the current network capabilities and loads, and ask questions to help them be better prepared when implementation time comes around.
• PDM Administrator – Hopefully you have one now.  If not, you need to find one (or two).  This person will work the closest with the PDM vendor’s consultant/technician to set up the software to meet the departmental and group needs.  If software customization is needed, this person needs to be aware of the customizations that can be completed, and where to go to do the customizations.   This person will eventually be the person to do all of the changes that will be needed the software.  This will reduce the need to bring in a consultant to make even the simplest of changes.  This person will also help IS/IT set up the software for each user.
• CAD Administrator – This individual is the one who best knows how each CAD station is (or needs to be) set up.  This individual may be the one person that can best evaluate how the PDM software will integrate with the CAD system and how it may affect current CAD Standards and Procedures.  This person will also closely work with the PDM Administrator to help with the integration.

By having these members involved in the evaluation upfront, they can provide valuable insight into their everyday work, and provide valuable opinions onto each PDM package you will be evaluating.  They will also feel they have had an opinion in the decision and the new PDM package will be more acceptable to others in the department when it is finally implemented.

Define your current and future needs.

Other than vaulting your documents, and improving your ability to search for an existing document, what else to you want the PDM software to do?

• Automated document release process?  Look for Workflow capabilities.
• Multiple engineering locations?  Multiple manufacturing locations?  Look for vault replication capabilities to speed up access to documents.
• Outside vendor access to your documentation?  Look for a web portal.
• Support after installation – Do you need subscription support or do you intend on maintaining it yourself?
• Expandable/Modular/Scalable – Can the software be purchased or implemented in various stages or modules?  This capability will allow you to implement what you need now, and expand in the future.
• Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) applications you use now or plan on using in the future.
• Connectivity with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications you use now or plan on using in the future.
• If you have an existing PDM package, you will need to provide a justification for replacing it.

Whatever your current or future needs are, define them up front.  Create a gap chart (Sample) and add each capability you need to that chart.   You will be filling in that chart during the PDM evaluations.  This will later help you decide which PDM package best suits your needs.

Software integration.

What software is in use in your department or company?

• How many different CAD systems do you use?  Are the documents 3D Solid Models with references, or just 2D drawings? 
• What about office applications, like Microsoft Office, Lotus Smart Suite, Corel WordPerfect Office? 
• Do you have any other specialized applications that you need vault control of the documents they produced.
• Does the PDM software provide vault/document access from within the applications, or is everything done outside of the application?
• Do you want or require some level of “Partner” status with your application vendors?

Add each of these applications to that gap chart.  This will help ensure they are considered when you are evaluating each PDM package.

Comparing each package.

Before seeing live demos, do some research and obtain product literature.  Many software vendors have product literature on their website that you can download.  Use this information to start filling in that gap chart.  If necessary, send one or two people to a trade show to talk to vendors and see live demos.  At these trade shows, or in local user groups, ask other people what PDM software they use, why they chose it, how easy it was to integrate, and how they like it.  This will help knock a few candidates off of that gap chart.

When you get that gap chart down to 3-4 candidates, you can start getting the vendors in for live demonstrations and questions and answers.  Work with each vendor to provide enough time for them to do a good demo and allow for a Questions and Answers session after the demo.  After each demo, the core team should discuss the pros and cons of the PDM software they have just seen.

Making your choice.

At this point, you should have some valuable data on that gap chart.  It is now time to get the core team back together for another review of all of the PDM packages you have reviewed.  Get opinions from each team member on likes and dislikes of each package, and slowly start paring that list down to 1 or 2 packages.

If you still feel it is necessary, have another session of demonstrations of the PDM packages from the final candidates.

At this point, make sure everyone is in agreement with the final choice.  Don’t base your decision on “Lowest cost” or “Easy to back out of later”.  These decisions may cost you more in the long run because you will probably outgrow the new PDM package in a few years, then you will have to do this evaluation all over again.

My own experiences.

The first PDM package I had to maintain/administer was too “simple”.  It’s integration with SolidWorks consisted of macros to launch an external program, which then retrieved data from the SolidWorks document, created data in an external database, and moved files into the vault.  I had no say in the decision to purchase this PDM package.  One of the engineering managers was the PDM administrator, but I was the one who had to do the software testing to ensure it worked.  A short time later, the PDM administration duties were “dropped in my lap”.  That was over 9 years ago. 

We outgrew the old PDM software about 6 years ago. And started our evaluations for new software about 4 years ago.  After a year or so of justifications and evaluations, we picked SmarTeam.  Due to it’s overall cost, it took a while to get approved and into the budget.  The purchase and implementation was delayed until the 3rd or 4th quarter due to ERP implementation an expense.  Our budget was pulled out from under us in the 2nd quarter so it could be used for ERP implementation an expense.  This was devastating in my opinion, because that meant that we would have to do the evaluations all over again, and we were stuck working with the “simple” PDM package we outgrew years ago.

There are many great PDM packages out in the market place.  The SolidWorks website was a great place to see what PDM packages work with SolidWorks.  It is also a good place to find the SolidWorks Certification levels of each PDM packages.  During the evaluation period I had seen demonstrations at local SolidWorks User Groups, Regional Conferences, Technical Summits, and SolidWorks World.  I have also found Chris Fabri of SynergisSoftware, who has been helpful and answered any general PDM question I have, even after knowing we have chosen a PDM package they do not sell or support.

My choice.

The final decision was PDMWorks Enterprise which is not being called SolidWorks Enterprise PDM  Here are the reasons:

• PDMWorks Enterprise is actually add-on to Windows Explorer.  If you are familiar with Windows Explorer, then learning how to use PDMWorks Enterprise will be easy.  This also helps with the integration of various Windows based applications.
• PDMWorks Enterprise is also an Add-In to SolidWorks and has earned Gold Partner status with SolidWorks Corporation.  This identifies a high level of integration with SolidWorks and it’s products.
• PDMWorks Enterprise is a SolidWorks product that is supported by our SolidWorks Reseller.  This gives us one source to go to when we have issues with SolidWorks or PDMWorks Enterprise.  This eliminates the finger pointing that may occur with different vendors.

Good luck on your research!

PDM in plain English

Defining a need.

3D modeling software embeds external models into assemblies and drawings.  Doing so ensures that all parent documents (drawings and assemblies) are updated when the child document (part or assembly) is modified.  To do this, the parent documents contain links to the child documents.  These links are referred to as external references.  Retaining multiple revisions of 3D models, drawings, or other documents, external references can be cumbersome to manage.  Here are just a few issues:

1. How do you store multiple revisions of a single document?  If documents are stored with the same name in different directories, how can you ensure the correct revision of component is loaded with the parent document?  If documents are stored with different names, you have to reload the component, but that changes references in the parent document.
2. What revision of a component, belongs with a specific revision of a parent document?  There may be times when there is a need to access an older revision  of an assembly.  Without a data management software, how do you know you have the correct components loaded with the parent document?
3. A document was modified, but who changed it, and when?  You can look at the file properties to determine when the file was last saved, and who saved it, but this does not identify how many times the document was changed since it was created, and who did each of those changes.

With just these three scenarios, you can start to get an understanding of how complex a task it can be to manage multiple revisions of your documents by hand.

Product Data Management (PDM) in plain English

In its simplest terms, Product Data Management is securing and controlling the data used to create the products your company designs, engineers and manufactures.  This data includes, but is not limited to drawings, 3D models, schematics, decals and signage, etc…  Additional data such as FEA Analysis, manufacturing specifications, quotes, test results, etc… is also considered product data that needs to be managed and secured.

Product Data Management (PDM) software handles these tasks for you.  Even the simplest PDM packages offer these features:

• Document Vaulting - Stores each revision of your document in a safe location where it cannot become lost or accidentally modified.
• Document Check-in and Check-out – Document check-in is the capability to place a document into the vault.  This includes placing revised documents back into the vault.  Document check-out allows users to retrieve a vaulted document so it can be modified. Document check-out is limited to the latest revision documents only.  Once a document is checked out, no one else can check-out the document.  This prevents anyone from beginning a new change to a document that is already being changed. 
• File Relationship Management – Keeps track of what version of a component was used on each version of the parent document.
• Contains and Where Used – PDM software also records the parent/child relationships between revisions of child components and the revisions of parent documents.  This tracking provides a quick way to see what a document contains without opening the document.  This tracking also provides where-used capability that provides a list of parent documents that a component is used on. 
• Search – Any PDM software you look at needs to provide a quick and easy means for you to find the document you are looking for.  The more fields the software can search on, the mode refined your search can be.  Boolean (and, or, not) based searches improve the power of the search capabilities.
• Audit Trail – Keeps track of who checked the document in or out of the vault.  This tracking helps identify when a document was modified, and who modified it.  It can also keep track of who initiated the release process and who approved the document(s).

The vaulting, check-in, check-out, contains and where-used capabilities are minimum features for PDM packages.  Many of the PDM packages out on the market offer additional features, some of which are listed below.

• Workflow - A means to use software to track your current document release processes.  Example; After documents are modified, they can be placed in a pre-release state within the workflow.  Once documents are placed in this state, notifications are sent for appropriate people to review the documents.  From this state, the documents can be pushed further thru the release process, or rejected and pushed back for additional changes.  Using a workflow to track the status of documents in the release process provides a way to quickly determine where an ECN is within the process, and who or what may be holding up the process.
• Email notifications – Send emails to various individuals or groups to identify when they need to review or approve document changes.
• Vault replication – An automated means of copying the vaulted files and databases to multiple off-site locations.  This not only reduces file access times for those off-site locations, but it also provides a back-up of your vault.
• Batch processes – The server will do redundant or time consuming tasks such as print documents or PDF publishing.
• Web Portal – This allows people outside of the department or company (such as sales people or fabrication vendors) to have access to the latest documents as soon as they are released.

From this article, you should have at least gained an understanding of why you need to implement a Product Data Management package and a brief overview of some of the basic and advanced functionality available in many of the PDM software packages that are in the market.  In a future article, I will identify how to evaluate your needs and compare those needs against the features available in each of the PDM package offerings.