When incorporating a new component revision, many manufacturers struggle with the question of whether to trigger a new revision of the assembly. You don’t want to bury yourself in a pile of pointless documentation […]

Over the years, I’ve seen many new Arena customers wrestle with the question of whether a new component revision should trigger a new revision of the assembly or assemblies that contain it.

Choosing supply chain partners is one of the most important decisions you make when scaling your business, but knowing which suppliers to trust can be a risky game. Whether you’re sourcing components, semi-finished […]

Social networks aren’t just for the kids these days. Today’s professional online communities offer unprecedented opportunities to connect with peers, stay up-to-date on trends and best practices and find solutions for […]

While outsourcing began as a quest for cheaper labor, a successful outsourcing strategy depends on more than your ability to find a country with low labor costs. As wages rise in Asia, […]

“What you want to do will define how you get off the ground. When you make and sell physical goods, you begin to trade […]

Prior to Arena and the advent of cloud, PLM was an expensive gamble. PLM solutions took a long time to implement, and implementations frequently failed. Faced with frightening odds, small and […]

If you’ve ever designed for parts that are non-compliant or approaching end-of-life, you understand the value of accessible and up-to-date component information. But unless you work for an enterprise with access to […]

Desktop Engineering’s editor-at-large Anthony Lockwood combs through dozens of new product releases each week to find the latest tool helping engineers innovate and create better designs. And this week, he chose Arena […]

We know making a product is hard—and that the day-to-day challenges of making hardware products raise a lot of questions. It’s why we’ve dedicated our blog and the resource section of our website to sharing best […]

Arena has been a proponent of cloud solutions for over a decade. And now, by forming partnerships with like-minded cloud companies, we’ve been able to extend the value of cloud even further.

n Erik Kaas’s Six reasons why manufacturing systems fail, the Sage ERP VP of product management identifies several ways a manufacturing system can do more harm than good. I wanted to jump in on the conversation, but […]

I’ve been wondering lately if electronic distributors’ investments in ecommerce are paying off. I’m just speculating here, but there are definitely clues that the market at large is not adopting ecommerce for […]

Late one night in a college architecture studio, Jason Lentz reached that point when fatigue and deliriousness spark an idea so far out, it just may be genius. Standing on a stool and encasing himself in a cardboard […]

Most every company talks about a Lean supply chain.  The pressure to reduce inventory, improve asset velocity, preserve cash, and make the numbers look good on the balance sheet drives most supply chain professionals […]

If you work in a company where document control is responsible for generating and managing internal part numbers, you know it can be a hassle to track down and send over the relevant part documentation each time you […]

Even when you’re knee-deep in design for one project, you might still run across multiple options for a key component or find candidate parts to compare and contrast for future projects.

If you’ve ever designed unavailable or single source parts into your circuit board, you can appreciate the importance of easy access to component information like cost and availability. The last thing you need is to […]

Managing product data, from the first BOM to the final sign-off, is a top priority for our customers. And because of this, we are excited to announce our partnership with ERP Logic—an SAP channel partner and SAP […]

Prototyping with rendering software used to require specialized design and coding skills. But new developments in 3D programming have taken the technical work out of rendering and made the tool more accessible for […]

If you make a change to one of the components on a bill of materials (BOM)—say you’ve found a superior component or your current component is going end-of-life—you need to know with complete confidence whether the […]

We all heard this saying as a child, but I think it applies to business just as much as it applies to the playground. It’s one thing to celebrate new customers, but it’s equally important to appreciate the ones who […]

Finding the right level of control for your manufacturing change approvals is essential for getting your product to market on time and at cost, but knowing when to loosen up and when to lock down is often a tricky […]

Young, bright and fresh out of engineering school, Hardi Maybaum was sure of two things—the engineering process was too slow and complicated, and the only way around it is with more collaboration in the engineering […]

It sometimes feels like software companies get all the attention from early investors. It might feel this way because software companies, unlike hardware, are usually easier and cheaper to get off the ground. […] read more

If you’ve ever ordered 1,000 more parts than you need, or halted production due to an unforeseen part shortage, then you know how important it is to communicate changes on time and to the right people. […] read more

You know your job better than anyone, and probably know which business tools you need to do your job better and quicker. Now, if only you could convince your boss to approve the purchase. Organizational psychologists […]

Graphic by David Sasda.

At the most recent MFGChat—a bi-weekly Twitter chat for manufacturing experts, leaders and trailblazers—we talked a lot about manufacturing education. Everything from improved STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & […]

Scaling Part II: Five tips for maintaining scalable supplier relationships See Part I: Is your business prepared to scale? There are a variety of steps you can take internally to prepare your business to scale, but […]

It’s no surprise that outsourcing has changed the global manufacturing landscape over the last several decades, for better or worse. Outsourcing allows manufacturers to competitively price and scale up and down […]

Andres Morey and Samuel Wurzel are changing the way you shop for electronic parts.

Andres and Sam, who studied physics together at Brown, then pursued PhDs in astroparticle physics and plasma physics respectively, […]

Over 40,000 people visit the emergency room each year for table saw related injuries, and almost 4,000 of those people end up losing at least one finger. That’s a table saw accident every 9 minutes. 10 table saw […]

I’d like to take you on a journey through a world without product data exchange (PDX)—where OEMs and CMs rely on manually created print packages and zipped electronic files to share product information back and forth. […]

Success often strikes when you least expect it, and when it does, will you be ready? This blog series will help you determine whether your business is ready to handle the challenges of an increase in production […]

Our recent series on intelligent vs. non-intelligent part numbering schemes, prompted many of you to weigh in and share your own experiences on the topic. And we were pleasantly surprised to receive such a wide […]

If you’re part of an organization that’s scaling to production, we’ve got you covered with our scalable cloud PLM solution.

But what if you’re just starting out? You need to capture and document parts, but without […]

A couple of weeks ago I shared some big picture questions to ask when launching a new product.

While a lot of the big picture questions are VP or C-level, a successful new product introduction (NPI) is something […]

If you’ve ever managed an interdisciplinary manufacturing project, you’ll know what I mean when I say each discipline speaks its own language. When you’re dealing with engineers you’re talking CAD and design; when […]

We’re offering something new at Arena—single-user, lightweight BOM management. Let me explain. We’ve come a long way since our early days as BOM.com, and today Arena BOMControl is used by thousands of manufacturers […]