Reduce Your Time to Market with these 5 Reasons to use SOLIDWORKS PDM for Data Management

We often stress the importance of properly managing your CAD data. There are plenty of reasons why you should employ a strong data management system, if not at the very least to keep your design data organised!

Whatever the size or complexity of your organisation, SOLIDWORKS PDM provides a highly configurable and scalable solution so you don’t spend time worrying about (and money on) problems that could have been avoided by properly securing and organising your data.

#1 – Collaboration

A recent Tech Clarity White Paper opens, stating…

“Collaboration impacts every part of product development, and products cannot be developed or brought to market without it.

It involves working as a team with multiple groups and departments, both internal and external to the organization.

It requires successful co-ordination of processes, data, knowledge, ideas, schedules, communications, and more.”

An easily navigable common platform, with permissions and access controls is a great way to improve collaboration and reduce your time to market.

With SOLIDWORKS PDM, you can keep under-change data synchronised and quickly share information and data with other users and teams, such as Manufacturing or Marketing, in order to reduce scrap and rework costs.

#2 – Common Platform

As well as providing a best-in-class integration to SOLIDWORKS CAD, SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional integrates directly with other CAE tools such as DriveWorks, SOLIDWORKS Electrical, SOLIDWORKS Composer, MBD, Inspection and Visualize.

It also integrates with Microsoft Office and supports the integrated, interactive viewing of hundreds of file formats while providing the capability to enable the sharing of data with other business systems like MRP and ERP.

With SOLIDWORKS PDM, all your data is in one place, reducing silos and enabling teams to collaborate and share in real time.

#3 – Accessibility

Whether browsing the Vault, using the Quick Search Bar or configurable Search Cards and Favourites, engineers and non-engineers alike can quickly locate files, and confidently use the latest approved or in-work version dependant on their log in rights and requirement at the time.

Access is also not just limited to Windows Desktop users.

With SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional and Web2.0, Mac and Ubuntu users who require access to content within the PDM Vault can do so with ease.

Searching for data, viewing files, and collaborating with desktop SOLIDWORKS users is made straightforward through an intuitive and functional browser-based Client.

Lifecycle, project, and discrete file permissions mean that you don’t have to worry about the wrong revision of a design being produced accidentally.

By using SOLIDWORKS PDM, you and your team can spend less time searching and validating, so you can spend more time on designing and refining.

#4 – Accountability & Compliance

Whether using standalone PDM logins, or a linked Windows account with Single Sign On, in PDM Professional, SOLIDWORKS PDM maintains an audit trail of each change and stage in the lifecycle of the file.

It even displays who is working on a file you are referencing in real-time inside of SOLIDWORKS, enabling you to get the latest version as soon as it becomes available.

SOLIDWORKS PDM also gives us the option to enforce user comments when committing changes to the Vault or pushing the file through its Workflow.

That way, you will always know who did what and when they did it with SOLIDWORKS PDM.

#5 – Automate Repetitive Tasks

Engineers can spend a lot of time preparing data for other users internally (e.g. Simplified models for Simulation) and externally (neutral formats for manufacturing and/or collaboration).

Workflow automation in SOLIDWORKS PDM enables the creation of neutral data files from supported CAD and Microsoft Office files both on demand and automatically as part of an approval process.

Other Configurable Workflow tasks in PDM Professional include the Export and Import of metadata, such as structured Bills of Materials via .XML, or, by plugging in our BOM Export Add-in using .CSV or .TSV files, or even direct to a Microsoft Excel template.

There’s no need to spend time creating neutral file formats in bulk when SOLIDWORKS PDM and SolidQ could free up those resources for other tasks that will add real value to your business.

Summary

Integrated PDM systems such as SOLIDWORKS PDM help manufacturers realise greater efficiencies by eliminating time spent searching for existing product design data and related information, while automating product development workflows.

Instead of spending time searching for design data or manually creating BOM information, product developers can utilise the PDM system to quickly and easily locate product data, encourage design reuse, and realise additional efficiencies related to using a single, integrated design and data management system.

Time savings are not limited to product development, however, as a PDM system will also make downstream MRP and ERP functions more efficient.

If you’re ready to get started with data management and SOLIDWORKS PDM, then give our team a call on 01926 333777 and we can discuss your specific requirements and help you manage your CAD data effectively.