PDM/PLM

Solidworks http://www.solidworks.com is WNA's PLM/PDM application

Solidworks is CAD software and we use the Enterprise Module for project and documentation management. This is especially useful for how we develop the molds and tools for our product and improve communication between the departments and speed time to market.

The main purpose of using Solidworks is revision control and product lifecycle management. Two previous projects that moved forward with incorrect designs had cost WNA over $210,000 and in one case a setback of 65 days. A secondary concern was centralized storage of the design files.

A major concern of the IT Department regarding the PDM project was bandwidth. Many of the engineering design files are large with a rare few being up to or over a 1 GB. This issue can be reduced with the use of the “Suppress” feature in PRO-E which significantly reduces the size of the file. All the required information is still contained in the smaller file. The suppressed files will then be uploaded. When downloaded from the PDM server the conversion back to the full specs is almost automatic. New Product Development expects to upload a few design jobs a week and does not expect to continuously impact bandwidth. Occasionally a design will be very large, these files will be suppressed and then uploaded after normal working hours.

Currently the end user who sets up the product to be made will utilized a much smaller PDF file and not the PRO-E design files.

Some of the largest design files come from the vendors in the form of STP files. Files under 10 MB are normally transferred via email and larger files are transferred using YouSendIt. The STP is then imported into PRO-E where they are reduced significantly.

There is a possibility that the QA Spec database may be rolled into PDM later. Even if it is not, the new Spec database is expected to be utilized by all WNA sites. This will increase bandwidth usage.

Another consideration, SolidVision stated that a second server could be set up in Covington. This would add another server to the cost and increase bandwidth to support replication of the SQL database. There would be an additional need for SQL replication software.