What are we trying to achieve?

1. ) give production staff an excellent user experience in regards to how product specifications are searched and accessed in an ePDM environment
2. ) limit exposure to features/functions which are not specifically required to review product specifications, and eliminate associated licensing costs for features we do not intend to use
3. ) minimize the number of required steps in the navigation process

The UI of the search function in Workgroup PDM meets these requirements, but Workgroup PDM does not meet the needs of the remainder of the information users. The best scenario for our production workers is to be able to do the following;

1. ) enter an Internal Part Number
2. ) select assembly, part, or drawing
3. ) print (or measure, rotate, etc.)
4. ) all without navigating to a specific vault and search card within Windows Explorer or being trained on how to use the ePDM system.

If a stand-alone utility could be developed (in VB or ???) which functions like the example in the picture below, can be mapped to a specific vault based on user authentication (to allow for multiple separate vaults depending on business group), the production team would have a very simple, effective interface which fulfills their requirements.