In my many contacts with companies looking to optimize their CAD / PDM / PLM environment, I meet a lot of people who use old PDM / PLM systems that date from the time when I was taking my first steps in the field of PLM / PDM in the Mechanical Design Division at Hewlett Packard.
At that time, PDM systems were excellent code toolkits that could be implemented through considerable customization, along with intensive coding and services. However, managing the compilation of JAR files, Java settings, macros, writing custom interface codes, adapting SQL tables, and then integrating all of these elements before deploying them to users was not a problem. easy task. It normally took two to three weeks of installation to get the basic system components in place and set everything up.
This is how we obtained a large single PLM / PDM system, which met the customer’s needs defined at the start of the project. In many cases, the implementation team discovered during deployment that the company had already changed processes to accommodate a new market configuration, forcing them to modify the PLM system accordingly. , during a time-consuming operation.
This “monster of customizations and programs” designed by the best consultants in the industry (many of whom I have met over the course of my career) were then placed in the hands of knowledgeable sysadmins, who put themselves in the hands of months. training and trial and error to ensure maintenance and sometimes even modification of the system.
It was then that the dreaded release of a new version of PDM software took place, with many new features that users ALWAYS wanted to see immediately. The new version was deposited in front of the factory by a smiling account manager and his collaborators, in the form of heaps of boxes containing brand new CD-ROM cases.
In most cases, between 30 and 60% of the initial PDM project was then repeated in order to update all the code and adapt it to the new functionality. It was then necessary to restart the deployment of the whole. And let’s not talk about testing and modifying custom code, following failures in the testing phase, since it is always a good idea to test a new version before going into production.
Therefore, every year, the IT team performed comprehensive assessments to determine if the dinosaur PLM / PDM system needed to be updated, as the integration of new tools into the system resulted in heavy intervention from the staff. external services, was time consuming and resulted in high costs and associated risks.
I joined Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS in Germany in 2008, because I was attracted to a PDM product which, at the time, was certainly not (yet) capable of doing everything the “dinosaur” was capable of, but It was the first time in my career in the PDM / PLM industry that I had found administrative experience ready to use in PDM software.
SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional Admin Client controlled everything that could be configured in the software.
My dear colleague Christian Senn (at the time PDM technical manager) asked me a few questions about my goals, then installed and configured the PDM system on my laptop in three hours. It was even personalized for my specific use. Since then, I have used it on a daily basis to manage clients’ projects, CAD data provided by clients, contracts and many other tasks.
And now, almost 10 years later and after many versions of SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional, the administration paradigm for this product remains the same and continues to amaze new customers.
Time savings and money savings can be achieved by:
You can also integrate PDM Professional with ERP systems to avoid the following disadvantages:
With the new SOLIDWORKS Manage product, available as an addition to SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional later this year, I look forward to using the additional capabilities with existing customers and new users in our growing community.
I invite you to speak to a Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS reseller to find out how SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional could allow your system administration to benefit from a rapid update, taking advantage of the new versions included in the maintenance contract.
* Note: Standard Edition shipped with Microsoft SQL requires a CAL license for each client installation, unless a processor-based licensing format is selected.
