PDM enterprise....I'm starting to hyperventilate 4

[MMike1]

So yeah...I'm not really a true SWX user anymore. (Long time CATIA v4...and SWx user)... But now I'm a MANAGER...yes...that's right. All bow before me! If I could I'd grow my hair into points....

So anyway. I've been at this job for 6 months. They've had SWx for a while, but they've not been using it even REMOTELY to its potential. So I've been pushing hard on it. I'm also trying to get COSMOS Advanced Pro, POSSIBLY FlowWorks....and eeeep, PDM Enterprise. I got the quote for PDM yesterday. Honestly, it was right around what I thought it would be. 9 SWx users, and about 12 or 15 viewers/contributors. But the GM here experienced some sticker shock for sure.

But this is all my crazy idea. And if we pull the trigger on this (which I'm quite confident we will), and it doesn't work, it will be my fault.

Honestly, I don't see why it wouldn't work. We'll be geting the VAR to sset up the vault and train us an all that. I't's just going to be a HUUUUUGE culture change for this once, "mom and pop" organization....

But I'm doing the right thing right?? Guys?

 

[Bester2]

Believe it or not I heard the best business advice of my career from an interview with Mark Cuban (The Owner of the Dallas Mavericks). He said, (I am paraphrasing) "If you do not like the situation that you are working in you have two choice, one you can try and change things so that you like the situation, or you can get fired." Notice how he did not say that you can just sit around and deal with it. You are trying to change the situation to make it better for you and eventually the entire organization. If it works, and it should as long as you have management's support and a strong management team, the organization and yourself will benefit greatly. If it does not work there are many other organizations that would love to have a person that is willing to better their company by taking some initiative.

One other thing, make sure that senior management does not handicap this process by keeping any old cad systems as part of the business process. The last place that I worked had SolidWorks but released only Autocad drawings. The chances of loosing associativity was very easy to do and happened way to often.

Good Luck

Brian

Brian
SW 2006 SP 4.1

 

[engAlright]

We have been running Enterprise for nearly 2 years and we are very happy with it. Your installation is about the size (9 swx users) where you will see some real benefits with Enterprise over PDMWorks Workgroup.

The UI in enterprise is very easy to learn (integrated with expolorer)which, with some training, should minimize the apprehension that many users will have with any new system.

Ensure that you have a conservative, detailed implementation plan before you do anything. It's not advisable to throw every document in your company in to it on day one.

Enterprise is very scalable, so make sure your structure (folders, workflows, revision schemes) is scalable as well.

You'll be fine!

 

[ctopher]

If I were in your shoes, I would do it. You will find that organizing your files will save you time, headaches, $$, and loss of history. Good luck!

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 1.1
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 10-07-07)
ctopher's blog

 

[PDMAdmin]

Choosing the right tool for the job is important, of course, but what about the procedures associated with the use of that tool? If they're overly complicated or require things outside the scope of what the tool can do, you could end up seeing little or no benefit. A tool is only as effective as the culture of the company that uses it.

 

[vigildesign]

Have your Solidworks VAR give a demo of the software to all employees at one time in one room, before purchasing anything. They may do that for free if you are going to make some big purchases. See what employees are feeling about the programs and give them a timeframe for implementatation (not with VAR present). If you let the employees know what is going to change in the future, they may then understand that it is for the better.

Marcelino Vigil
GDTP T-0377
CSWP

 

[Theophilus]

All bow before me! If I could I'd grow my hair into points....

HA! Glad I'm not "there" anymore. A bit of a warning:

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20071125.html

I've no good advice regarding the PDM stuff, but I had a bit of success in the corporate world for the short time I was there. I was not a "team" player, so I guess that's why I had to pull the plug on that (that culture drove me nuts!) but I was a hard worker and honest. Depending on the pointy-haired boss, that can be good or bad. If your corporate culture doesn't understand the inherent risk of excellence, you've probably got bigger things to worry about (as Brian's quote from Cuban indicates). Change can be a pain, but the other side of the change ought to provide a good return on the pain. A company driven by fear will have a short life (at least in the private sector).



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[MMike1]

Thanks all....

In actual fact, our GM is quite forward thinking. And he's totally on board. IT's just a question of when. We also REALLY need to ditch acc-pac and our manufacturing software...ie: the one that generates work orders, collects employee time, controls inventory etc....it's called COSS. It's jsut plain terrible.

Doing both at the same time would likely be a disaster. So He needs to decide which project is more important....

 

[dgowans]

MMike1,

I can't help with the PDM Enterprise question other than to say that you are doing the right thing. I'm currently dealing with a situation where I've got to revise a design that was modeled and drawin in Solidworks, but the released drawing was an ACAD translation of the SWX drawing. Yeesh!!!! We're using PDM Workgroup now - much better.

Apologies up front for going off topic...

I hear you, and feel your pain wrt the operational changes. I'm in the same boat, more or less.

We're in the midst of a serious revamping of the way we do things, a necessary process in order to successfully manage the company's growth. Initiatives that I can think of right off the top of my head:

1) Changing our ERP system
2) Introducing a new product development process that starts (in theory) with clearly defined marketing requirements
3) Continuous revisions to our ECO process
4) Various manufacturing improvement activities, of which item 2 above is an integral part
5) Implementing Sharepoint for our website/intranet
6) Possibly implementing Teamcenter

My company, like yours, was formerly a mom-n-pop outfit. We've got decades worth of poorly organized legacy data which needs to be maintained and, finally, organized so that new hires can be told "Go here when you need a document" rather than "Go here first, if you don't find what you're looking for, go here next. If that still doesn't work go ask the guy in manufacturing who's been here 25 years."

I'm rambling, and must stop now before I feel the urge to put my head down on my desk and cry.

Fortunately, our situations are also similar in the fact that these organizational changes are being driven from the top down. That alone drastically increases the chance for success. All in all, this is a really long way of reinforcing the fact that you're doing the right thing for your company's long term success. Keep at it and things will get better, although there will be many days when you'll need the paper bag to control the hyperventilation.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program...

 

[kcarpenter]

I think you're on the right track MMike1. Having implemented and going through a major upgrade right now (not PDMW/E though) I can offer you some advice.

1) Don't bite off more than you can chew. If you and management have big plans for change do them in phases and allow for some time between them. This way you're not constantly pushing one big change down you're employees tiny gullets. The last thing you want is a mutiny on your hands.

2) DEFINITELY EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT PROCESS(ES)!! It was mentioned by some previously and this can sometimes
totally kill a project or phase. It's likely that you'll have processes that can't be done the way they used to because of some limitation in PDME. Try to be flexible when possible. If you haven't already done so create flow charts of ALL your processes. These will come in very handy when you get into your pre-implementation.

3) Keep your customizations to a minimum. Don't get crazy with trying to make the system do things the way you do them now or in a way the system wasn't designed for. Be open minded to accepting a different approach/process to accomplish the end result. This will also lessen the chances of problems in future upgrades to the system. Lots of customizations means lot of testing and potential problems.

4) Test, test ,test, test. Before you implement anything into your production environment test it. Create a test environment and keep it running. This can be your lifeboat during all phases of your implementation. This will allow you to see if any changes/upgrades to the system will adversely effect production. It's a good playground to work out problems and find solutions without dragging down production.

5) Make your VAR your partner for success. Hold them responsible for meeting goals and deadlines. If you fail, they fail. But if you succeed, so do they. Use them to help you get your project plan(s) created and help manage other things so you can concentrate on making changes happen.

Well...time for me to get back to testing MY upgrade. Good luck!!

Kevin Carpenter
CAD Systems Administrator
Invacare Corp.

 

[MMike1]

Funny you guys say that....I recently left Bell Helicopter. They are still stuck with CATIA v4. They were trying to implement ENOVIA to then move to CATIA v5.

But they are so in love with their antiquated processes that they kept getting IBM/Dassault to tweek the ENOVIA software....so much so that they ended up "breaking it" about a week before they were supposed to "go-live". They had to sh*t-can the whole thing. $12M down the tubes. They had trained all of the SME's (I was one). It was a gigantic waste of time and resources...

 

[Takami826]

been implementing since March, learning curve for sure but the biggest issue i have is resistance from autocad folks and those who feel THEIR system is 'fine'.

Thing is, many jobs here are revolving door and I got tired of sifting thru archives trying to make sense of it all. And over 10yrs of "their fine system" (just since I've been here) is a headache to organize as they just want to throw their 'fine system' into PDM and I refuse to allow any 'bad' or uncontrolled data into this.

If you have the support, PDM is wonderful. But you will struggle with the resistance unless you can show.