Design & Drawing Office Management 2

[daveparkinson]

Apologies if this is in the wrong section of the forum, I was going to put it in the Engineering Management/Certification section until I realised that only 3 threads were active in the past month. And because I've received some cracking help in the Solidworks forum in the past I thought I'd be cheeky and pop it in here.

I would like some advice on Design & Drawing Office Management. I'll explain my situation here.

1. This is my first job since leaving University.
2. I am the only employee who designs our products in SolidWorks, as such the data management and organisation of related information is my responsibility. Fag packet sketches are faxed through to me from our design engineer at another branch.
3. I have recently been successful in getting the company ISO 9001:2008 certified.
4. I have recently installed PDMWorks Workgroup; began transferring old files to the vault, and have been using it for new projects. I use dumb file numbers. (e.g 000345, 000346 etc.) It's a fantastic bit of software, but I am not using it beyond using it as a data organisation tool and revision/issue status management. I don't think I'm using it to its full potential.
5. I have no parts numbering system in place at the moment.


We are looking to get some very large (for our company at least) orders. The customer would require regularly updated parts catalogue, technical documentation, post design services.

Basically, I want to organise and structure our drawing and design office in a much more professional and efficient manner. Without coming and having a look at it yourself you can't really know whats going on but I would appreciate any advice, stories, current practices that you use in your organisation etc etc.

Cheers

PS. I am considering buying the ISO Technical Drawings Standards Handbook (

http://www.iso.org/iso/drawings1.pdf)

as a starting point. Anybody have any views on these standards?

 

[NomLaser]

PDMWorks Workgroup is a dumbed down version of the Enterprise version. The Workgroups version is useful as a storage vault and revision control but not much beyond that. Enterprise allows you much more control over data flow and triggers.

As an example, our company has our ECR/ECN (Engineering Change Request/Engineering Change Notice) system built into PDMWorks Enterprise. You can send notifications to users via a built-in inbox (similar to outlook) to indicate changes, approvals and releasing of parts. Enterprise is a god-send to medium to large sized companies but I would hate to be the one that has to set it up. You would likely need an on-site IT department to handle this but it is pretty good once it is setup.

 

[JD80]

For companies that have a fairly standard product with a multitude of variations smart part numbering seems to be the way to go.

Companies with few or unrelated products seem to work well with dumb numbers.

As someone above said you want all of your numbers to match. SW models=MRP numbers=Drawing numbers. We don't have this where I work and there are constant questions about which SW drawings work for "product x".

You are in a great position just remember to document everything as you go. It's a good idea to have someone else double check to make sure your documentation is clear.

 

[daveparkinson]

Well I've been absent from this forum for a few weeks. (I have been reading though).

I've been running a dumb file part numbering system for about a month now, and I've got to say its not quite working for me. I can see the benefits, and understand them fully. But I think a slightly more intelligent numbering system will work better...I may live to regret this.

Right now a numbering system similar to the one SnowCrash mentioned about 6 posts in seems like it will suit my company.

This is where I'm upto.

1. I've read up a fair bit of PDM/PLM, thought about how I can implement the methodologies into my company. Actually, all I've really done is a lot of thinking. I need to get something going.

2. My next step (I think), its to make an Engineering Data Management database. Nothing fancy, just a place to record all projects, assign numbers, record ECO/ECR's etc. Does anybody have an example of a database/spreadsheet/whatever such as this? Screenshots, descriptions, example databases etc. Cheeky I know, but it'd be a great help.

3. COMMON PARTS LIBRARY!!! How does your parts library work, how is it organised? For that matter, how is your whole PDM Vault organised? I've just created general folders, which I'm not too happy with. If anyone fancies taking a screenshot of their PDM Vault Structure Tree I would be most grateful. There might even be a star in it for you XD

I think I'm getting there now, things are starting to fall into place..."Working Smarter, Not Harder" is my focus at the moment, even if it is a cheesy tagline.

Thanks for everyones help so far, it really is appreciated.

 

[GRF]

I have set up a vault before and did it in this way:
As a norm my file names are part number followed by the description.


Assemblies
-Product type 1
-Drawing Number-Description
Solidworks and other supporting files
-Product Type 2

Components
-Connector Bodies
-Part Number-Description

-Enclosures
-Part number-Description
-Solidworks and other supporting files
Procedures
-Drawing Number-Despription
-Solidwokes and other supporting files

Scratch area
-Usernames
-Any files that user feels like

This leads to having a lot of projects listed in your vault but I find it easier to find things. We also use SAP to handle all real stuff I just the vault to keep track of the Solidworks files. I feel it is safer than leaving it all out on a network drive somewhere even when there are only 2-3 people accessing the vault.

 

[pejaer]

Good discussion and I'll add 2-cents;

I work in medical device industry and recently setup a part number system for my company.

I went with a dummy number system and agree with the PITA comments with smart numbers. I also went with only an alpha-numeric number (no dashes slashes, others) because I believe there are some barcode standards that no not recognize these characters; and because I want the data to eventually transfer easily to any ERP system out there (far in the future); and I follow the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid).

For common parts libraries, here is a potential pitfall that I would like comments on: whereas I started to use common parts libraries, to use in multiple designs (ie using the same PART in many assemblies) I find it risky, especially in my industry, because of the trickle down effect of any design change to that common part. On one hand, you want the design change to be reflected in all assemblies (fast and easy), on the other hand, (again this might be industry specific, med device, aerospace, etc) changing the "common part" requires testing and risk evaluation on all effected parts. For this reason I choose to have a common parts library, but instead of using this part in many assemblies, I right-click copy, paste in the directory where the "new assembly" is being created, and change the part number of this "common part". This gives more control over design changes, while still has some efficiency benefits of common parts.

Interested to hear others responses on this one....

Paul