Let’s do Less Work… (with automation)

How about this? Do less work + yet get more accurate and error-free drawings and sign-offs? Sound good? Then this post is for you…

I wanted to write a short blog outlining some of the very nifty ways that SolidWorks Enterprise PDM (a.k.a. EPDM) can automate a whole lot of processes that you take for granted, and at the same time decrease your errors, and add standardization to your sign-offs.

Here I’m just going to show 3 simple ways that Enterprise PDM automatically helps you with this:

Number 1 – Title Blocks (Engineers)

I would say about 95% of companies still have their engineers fill in the title block information manually, engineer name, date, description, etc. – but with EPDM there is absolutely no need at all, as soon as you send off a part/drawing to be approved, your name + date + part description all get automatically put in.

Me, being an engineer, would make a drawing, and send it for approval to my manager, and when I do this EPDM will automatically put my name + date + all the project and customer information in for me (I put NONE of this information in myself, it was all done automatically by EPDM when I send my drawing for approval):

Number 2 – Sign-off + Revision (Managers)

Next, your manager will come along and review, then approve your drawing, and THEIR name + date will be automatically added to the drawing along with a new Rev:

Number 3 – Automatic PDF / STEP / IGES

Once a part is approved by your manager, EPDM can automatically create PDF files, STEP/IGES files, or any other type of file you’d need and save them to a special directory (so your vendors can grab the files to quote on, for example):

In conclusion: With all this automation that EPDM gives you, not to mention since everything is automatic there’s really no way to screw it up, so no more errors either  – why do anything manually ever again? Now that’s what I call doing less work…

Cheers.

Jake Middleton – CSWP