Data management in an badly-organised company. 5

[daveparkinson]

Morning all,

Some of you may recall that I have asked about document management in the past (along with many others), and I got some great advice when I did. But this time it's a little different.

Over the past year or more, I have adopted Workgroup PDM (as a solo user), which was a great move. I have introduced a project based part numbering system which is mostly a dumb system. I'm happy with all of this.

My problem is this....

I work for a project based company. We build products for commercial vehicles (tipper bodies, trucks with cranes on, coachbuilding etc.), 50% of the products are drawn on SolidWorks (although most of the time not completely) and 50% are made up on-the-fly in the workshop.

A lot of the time I have some parts of an assembly, but then no clue how the rest was made. Other times I'm given a sketch with the description "Steel plate", "Gusset for Peter" etc. Asking the individuals for more information about the part usually gets me nowhere.

The problem is exacerbated because I am the solo draughtsman across two locations. If it were one location I might be able to go into the workshop and retrospectively create all the models on SolidWorks.

I've just realised that this is turning into more of a rant than a question, oh well...

Is anybody else in a similar situation? If so, how do you organise your work? What do you do with parts that are one-off's and will never be used again? What do you do when all you have of an assembly is a subframe and none of the superstructure (or your equivalent)?

I get a lot of satisfaction when I've created an product on SolidWorks, when I know it's done right, and when I know I can rely on it in the future. Unfortunately, these assemblies make up about 10% of my entire PDM vault. The rest is half-finished products, miscellaneous brackets and what not etc. I'm tearing my hair out! Every day feels like a battle.

Best regards folks,

Dave

 

[kellnerp]

It sounds like you have some sound thoughts on how to arrange that which you have control of. It is what you don't have control of (and it sounds like nobody does) that is causing a lack of documentation.

I work for a project based company. ...snip..., 50% of the products are drawn on SolidWorks (although most of the time not completely) and 50% are made up on-the-fly in the workshop.

How is the finished product specified? Is there a layout during the quote phase?
Who designs the parts that are drawn in SolidWorks? Is design in your job description?
Who designs the parts made-on-the-fly parts? Is design in their job description?

A lot of the time I have some parts of an assembly, but then no clue how the rest was made. Other times I'm given a sketch with the description "Steel plate", "Gusset for Peter" etc. Asking the individuals for more information about the part usually gets me nowhere.

Is it in your job description to know how the parts are made?
Is it in their job description to provide you fully dimensioned sketches?

The problem is exacerbated because I am the solo draughtsman across two locations. If it were one location I might be able to go into the workshop and retrospectively create all the models on SolidWorks.

If you had to draw all the parts, would the shop be able to get the projects built on time?

...until the two chaps at the top see it as a problem

The old "two chaps at the top" (2CAT) problem. The two chaps have one thing on their mind, making money. The disconnect probably comes from the 2CAT job description for you which is, "Document everything that rolls out the door." While you might agree with that, you have to realize that that is as far as it goes in 2CAT minds. This business sounds like a garage industry that has grown beyond the bounds of the system that got it started. Even if you found a way to get the shop to cooperate with you for the present, the problems would only come back as more draughtsmen were added. Another problem with the shop that you don't realize, and this goes for 2CAT too, is that the shop folks probably aren't as adept at sketching as you might need or think they should be. If they were sketching at a drawing standard then you wouldn't be asking. Unwritten standards don't work well when adding new people to the organization.

Just how you approach 2CAT on how to improve their money making process is anybody's guess. You will have to make a case for either adding another draughtsman/designer or enforcing a policy of don't build without prints. The latter might work if you can show that waiting for prints will make the shop faster. Likely it won't because they probably wouldn't know how to build to print if they can't make decent sketches.

If you decide to tough it out you will eventually find that you can build a library of the simple sketch parts they are handing you and perhaps make a case for the shop to use the parts they built in the past. That is probably what they are doing anyway. Put them in a book and give it to them. Let them pick from the catalog. Make friends with some key people in the shop, especially the off-site shop. You need allies to get the job done.

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