We recently had an inquiry from a market intelligence and research firm regarding some challenges their customer was experiencing. The problems this particular high tech manufacturer faced were, in fact, quite common – and offer a great chance to examine some options and recommendations that apply not only to this customer, but to many others in a variety of industries and marketplaces.
The scenario: This high tech manufacturer has no centralized ECAD Library, but it has PCBA layout and design engineers around the globe using various design tools and re-creating the wheel every day for their part libraries. It’s a classic PDM/PLM question. So, what do we recommend for companies with this problem…?
The challenge with ECAD libraries is that each ECAD vendor uses a proprietary format to represent the part libraries. The scenario described is typical of a company that has grown through acquisitions. They pick up smaller companies addressing a particular niche market. However, these companies have their own ECAD tools and their own part libraries.
Therefore, our recommendation would be a combination of process and system:
They should centralize the part introduction process to eliminate part duplication (the estimated cost to introduce a new part is anywhere from \\\$10K – 20K). Ideally, the process should include the decision on whether the corresponding ECAD models should be created for all ECAD tools, or whether the part is only going to be used in a particular design group. They should centralize the cataloging of their parts so that designers can search one database to see if the part is already available. Centralizing the part introduction process and cataloging also ensures data consistency and accuracy across multiple ECAD tools which allows designers make the best informed decision in the part selection process. This data should include not only technical parameters (values, tolerances, etc), but also business parameters (e.g. prices, lead time, environmental compliance, etc).
ENOVIA 3DEXPERIENCE can provide solutions to facilitate these improvements:
ENOVIA’s New Part Request role enables companies to define and standardize their part development and supply chain planning process to ensure that new parts follow a company standard process to identify, qualify and test supplier parts in advance of global production. New Part Request improves efficiency and quality when introducing a new part by ensuring that all stakeholders (e.g. Design, Components, Manufacturing, Quality Engineers, Purchasing, etc.) are involved and sign-off on their respective roles in the process. It ensures that ECAD models are made available corporate wide, not only to the user who requested it. New Part Request provides dashboard views to manage new part request task assignments and lifecycle management so that the requester and all stakeholders know the status of the part.
ENOVIA’s Classification Manager role improves reuse by making parts and IP easier to find for all users. Classification Manager allows companies to define a variety of taxonomies so that different departments can browse product data through their own role-based classification. For example, a design engineer will browse for a part from the perspective of whether the component is classified as passive, active, or electromechanical. On the other hand, purchasing may want to navigate to a component based on the distributor or lead time. Classification Manager also filters attributes that are most relevant to the user so that they don’t have to scroll through long columns of data to find the information they need.
EXALEAD improves design turnaround times by making searching for parts more efficient for the user. It transforms large volumes of heterogeneous, multi-source data into meaningful, real-time information intelligence to help users improve business processes and gain competitive advantage. According to the Aberdeen Group, 45% of an engineer’s time is spent searching for or re-creating parts. Making parts easier to find, increases design efficiency so designers spent less time searching and more time designing. Making parts easier to find saves time and money by eliminating part duplication.
ENOVIA’s PLM Collaborative Services utilize the Electronic Physical Components model (EPC) which allows flexibility so that a single part can be targeted to a variety of CAD systems. There’s no longer a need for designers to search multiple ECAD libraries for a part to include in their design. Users can search for parts in ENOVIA right from their CAD tool and instantiate them directly into their schematics.
ENOVIA’s unified/holistic product definition incorporates ECAD and MCAD together into one product definition – so the MCAD and ECAD designers contribute their respective designs into one common product definition. No synchronizing of structures, BOMs, etc.
Saving an Altium Designer component to 3DEXPERIENCE so all parts are under lifecycle management.
Instantiating an electronic part directly from 3DEXPERIENCE eliminates the need to manage two separate ECAD libraries.
