While thinking about the challenge of companies managing multi-CAD environments (yes, I know, this is what geeks do…) I couldn’t help but to imagine a Rube Goldberg device. Often, creative and resourceful workarounds (digital duct tape) are deployed, but the opportunity for improved collaboration and productivity is still huge.
Why is it that we work in these multi-CAD environments? The rule-of-thumb for data management is that as your CAD systems double the complexity quadruples. And data management problems can quickly get out of hand if you don’t have strategy and process in place to manage the risk.
Most people (Rube Goldberg aficionados excluded) do not purposely create these complex environments…But there are reasonable explanations for how companies ended up with this challenge:
1. Mergers and Acquisitions: Beyond the organizational and cultural assimilation, bringing together different companies almost always includes rationalizing and connecting different technologies together. In the case of companies with engineering departments, there are often multiple MCAD and ECAD authoring tools in place.
2. OEM Supplier Relationships: In order to secure business from OEMs (especially in the automotive and aerospace industries), suppliers are often required to submit MCAD and ECAD data to the OEM in a prescribed, proprietary format. This requires the supplier to have multi-CAD authoring tools on site to do business with multiple OEMs.
3. Departmental Decisions: In many companies, technology decisions are made at the department level. This enables different groups within a company to acquire technology that focuses on niche requirements. In the past, companies could work in relative silos without major disruptions. Today, competitiveness demands that all departments collaborate and maximize their intellectual property.
Without a well-formulated strategy, you could place your company’s productivity (and perhaps your job) at risk. Some of the key challenges in a multi-CAD environment include:
1. Inability to collaborate from one CAD authoring tool to another.
2. Inability to share information outside of the engineering department. Collaborating with manufacturing and others in the early stages of product development could provide substantial productivity improvements.
3. Inaccurate and out of date Bill of Materials (BOM)
At 3DEXPERIENCE ENOVIA, we’ve been working with companies for years to help them transform a multi-CAD challenge into a multi-CAD opportunity. Companies like Eaton, 3M and Toshiba are using the ENOVIA Multi-CAD Experience to increase productivity and obtain the benefits of PLM. If you can give us 12 minutes, we’d love to show you how ENOVIA can help in increase productivity and obtain the benefits of PLM in this pre-recorded webinar at:
