See for yourself why so many small and mid-size manufacturers have switched to Arena from
spreadsheet-based BOM and change management.
Register now and enjoy unlimited access to Arena for the next 10 days
On this page
Many companies wonder if they need Arena and a product data management (PDM) system. They wonder if the systems are redundant and if not, how they work together. Arena and PDM tools are not redundant and can be used together very effectively to control product designs from initial concept into final manufacturing. PDM systems, also called computer aided design (CAD) vaults, help mechanical engineers store their CAD files and manage the complex relationships among those files, while Arena provides a bill of materials (BOM) and change management system that entire companies use to manage all the information that defines their products. Used together, the two systems provide a great degree of control throughout the product development cycle.
PDM systems are file repositories or “vaults” that hold mechanical CAD files, including parts and assembly models as well as drawing files. In 3D CAD systems these files rely heavily on each other - they have relationships and contain dependencies that drive details like feature size and placement in other models. If engineers are not careful, small changes in one file can break an entire product assembly. The PDM vault allows mechanical engineers to better manage the complex interrelationships between the part, assembly and drawing files. They can share files with other team members and keep each other up to date on design modifications through a file check-in/check-out process. The product data management (PDM) tools are often integrated directly with the CAD program being used by the team for design modeling.
Mechanical engineering departments generally begin using a PDM vault when their team grows and the complexity of CAD file management increases with it. Significant problems occur when CAD files are stored on shared folders on servers. Changes are easily lost through accidental overwriting of CAD files causing engineers to redo hours or days worth of work. A PDM vault allows every mechanical engineer working on a particular product to have access to all parts in the assembly but the ability to save changes only to the files under their control. The vault is located on a local server that the company’s IT department can back up regularly so that valuable intellectual property is not lost due to a hard drive crash on an individual desktop.
Mechanical engineers use product data management systems to save all the CAD files they are currently working on. They can organize the parts in their assemblies in whatever way is most convenient for them without interfering with the organization of the final bill of materials (BOM). For example, they can use “phantom” assemblies to hide certain structures within a model, like electronic components, which might be hidden to see the fit of the cosmetic shells more easily.
PDM systems often have configurable workflows that allow mechanical engineering teams to request that their co-workers review a particular part or assembly. Other engineers on the team can look at details-like boss and rib placement or draft angles-all within the same system. Internal design reviews allow other engineers to provide input and a fresh set of eyes to ensure all design requirements have been met. These meetings might take place in person when teams are centrally located, but a PDM system helps bridge the geography gap when companies have design centers in multiple locations around the globe.
Each engineering department or creative discipline has their own design tools and associated vaults for storing different file revisions. Below is a list of common vaulting systems found in each area.
Once non-mechanical parts are included in the product BOM or people outside the mechanical engineering department need access to the product design, a product data management (PDM) system on its own is no longer enough. PDM systems are tightly tied to CAD tools, which makes it easy for mechanical engineers to check parts in and out. This is not the case for other groups, like electrical engineering or marketing, who don’t have access to the CAD tools. For them the PDM vault is an unfamiliar system that’s difficult to navigate and that requires the use of a number of special viewers to look at most files.
Then to share parts with key suppliers and other people outside the company, the IT department needs to punch a hole in the company firewall and/or create a VPN connection to allow external access to the vault. Companies are often unwilling to take those steps, so mechanical engineers resort to email and ftp transfers for sharing large CAD files with their design and prototyping partners.
When it’s time to give manufacturing the complete product BOM, including mechanical and electrical parts-and often software, packaging and artwork too-each department wants its own tool to be the primary BOM tool. They all have good reasons. For instance, the electrical engineers’ vault connects to electrical design automation (EDA) or component information system (CIS) tools and retains details like value, footprint and tolerance for each electrical component in the library. But with no department wanting to see the complete product BOM managed in another department’s tool, the already tricky hand-off to manufacturing gets even more complex.
This dilemma illustrates the need for a company to have more than just a product data management system. PDM is effective for mechanical engineering collaboration, but as soon as others need to be included in design and communication, there needs to be a way to manage the combined product data and facilitate communication across groups.
Arena is a collaborative bill of materials (BOM) and change management system designed to be used throughout the product lifecycle by the whole company. It sits at the epicenter of the product lifecycle management (PLM) landscape, connecting PDM vaults and EDA systems that store engineers’ working design files to ERP systems that contain final approved production data. Each department that contributes to the design and manufacture of a product uses Arena to store the product data it generates and/or to retrieve the product information it needs. Anyone in the organization who has login credentials can access Arena with an internet connection and a web browser, anytime, from anywhere in the world. Arena ensures the safety and availability of all data with a financial grade security infrastructure that includes continuous backup to a warm disaster recovery site.
Arena stores complete product BOMs that include drawings, specifications, and the approved manufacturer list (AML) and approved vendor list (AVL) for all the parts in a product, from electrical off-the-shelf components and custom sheet metal chassis to safety labels and packaging boxes. Each item can be given an automatically generated unique part number based on your company part numbering standard. Each revision of each part and assembly can be stored and compared to understand changes in the design. BOMs can be redlined to highlight the differences between any two revisions. That means no more time wasted doing manual compares between BOMs, and no missed changes leading to costly mistakes.
Late in a design people often wonder “Why did we do it that way?” and are left to search through old emails, handwritten notes and lots and lots of spreadsheet BOMs to understand why particular decisions were made. Arena allows product discussions to be held online so that issues can be discussed, design options compared and decisions recorded. This discussion can even be fed into a formal engineering change order (ECO) process where all stakeholders sign off on the design change before it makes it out to the manufacturing floor or into the ERP system. With this record of the design discussion you can look back and understand why decisions were made and what approaches were tried without having to search emails and server files for answers or repeat entire investigations.
With Arena you can bring in design and manufacturing partners early in the development process. Their participation in design discussions can help you create products that are easily made with repeatable high quality. Once design changes have been made and ECOs approved, they can be automatically notified and given access to the final change documentation. Your suppliers and contract manufacturers can report back on their change implementation progress and record information about modifications they make. All the information is linked to the original engineering change order so it can be found easily in the future.
Arena and PDM vaults serve distinct functions that together cover your needs during the design, development and manufacturing of a product. The two systems have some functionality that may appear to overlap, but at their core the systems are designed for different purposes. PDM enables multiple mechanical engineers to work on the same product assembly files, while Arena enables multiple departments to work together on all aspects of a product, a product line, or even an entire product portfolio.
Arena and PDM systems together can help small and mid-sized manufacturers keep their products under control from the start of design through manufacturing. PDM vaults allow the mechanical engineering team to iterate on designs and keep each other informed, while Arena allows that team to share ideas with others when they are ready.
Here are some examples of how Arena and PDM vaults are used together during a product design and development process.
Files can be released for a prototype with less overhead than a production release, but releasing the right files is still important because prototypes are often expensive. With Arena you can share a snapshot of the design with your purchasing department and your prototype vendors, and you can give purchasing access to vendor information, CAD files and specifications. Meanwhile the mechanical engineers can keep working on the design and continue saving their new files into the PDM vault without worrying about others seeing their work in progress and getting confused as to which file is the correct version.
Often during the design process questions arise that must be considered by a group of people before decisions can be made. These complicated discussions often require more than one meeting and are supported by documents like CAD files showing design variations and options, cost spreadsheets and finite element analysis (FEA) results. More people are included as new issues are uncovered. The CAD files show the variants and when the final option is saved to the PDM vault it will be added to all impacted assemblies. In the meantime, the discussion of the issues and the options takes place in Arena, which can capture all files, issues and discussions in one place. People, including suppliers, can be added to the conversation at any time and can state their recommendations. Once a decision is made, the entire review can be associated with an engineering change order to execute it.
While similar to the process for releasing prototype files, a production release tends to be more formal and include additional people from internal departments like engineering, manufacturing and purchasing as well as external people like key partners, suppliers and contract manufacturers. When they’re ready for production, products are released to the manufacturing and operations teams via approved engineering change orders (ECOs) in Arena so that inventory can be purchased and production lines set up. Those groups require final Bills of Materials (BOMs) as well as complete documentation in order to correctly purchase parts, accurately inspect them and understand product assembly and testing. This information, some of which gets loaded into ERP systems, must be accurate so companies can avoid purchasing the wrong parts and wasting money and time.
Every manufacturing company wants to design and build good products. They want to design those products quickly and make them consistently of high quality. To do that, companies need business systems to help manage and store product data and communicate that data. Arena allows small to mid-sized manufacturers to gather their data from places like PDM vaults and EDA tools and share it with design and manufacturing partners as well as ERP, MRP and other business systems. With Arena, manufacturers can keep their product data, bills of materials and change orders under control, yet accessible to those who need them.
Click image to enlarge
©2012 Arena Solutions, Inc. Arena and Arena Solutions are trademarks of Arena Solutions, Inc., Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. All rights reserved. Other product and company names are the property of their respective holders. Contact Arena at questions@arenasolutions.com for permission to repost or syndicate this content.
Ready to start? Try Arena free for 10 days. Sign up
