The company I work for is planning to implement Infor's XA ERP system this year. We currently do not have any PDM software.

The ERP consultant we have spoken to stated that engineering will be required:

1     Generate the item numbers in XA (it will show the last used 8 digits number, engineer will manually enter the next)

2     Manually enter the item number into the document name/ configuration name/ user specified name field in Solidworks

3     Copy+Paste Item No. and Qty. from the Excel based BOM from SW into Excel macro enabled workbook

4     Run macro

5     Open XA syncing software

6     Refresh software

7     Check for error, re-export if needed

8     Import BOM into XA

This seems overly complicated to me. Generating an item number, entering it into SW, then exporting to XA and make sure everything matches? XA -> SW -> XA ? Why the circle?

So, my questions are:

Is it possible to streamline this process?

What are some common Solidworks to ERP workflows?

is it possible to remove Excel from the process?

Will we essentially lose all of our custom properties in SW if all of the data is stored and linked in XA via an item number?

How can Solidworks EPDM improve this process?

Thanks in advance..