Drawing Stamp

[CAD_Man]

We are trying to standardize on what verbiage we use to indicate that a drawing has not been released for production. We have 8 designers whom all have there favorite.

Historically, one of the following:
PROTOTYPE
Pros - Clearly states the intended use of the part and usually, the state/phase of the design.
- More commonly used industry term?
Cons - Our culture here id to use the term "Development" for pre-production efforts. "The parts are still in Development." "These are all Dev assemblies" "This is being charged to Development"
- Vendors see "PROTOTYPE" and even if we request a volume quote for production, they feel the design is not complete and will either jack up the price or "no quote" it.
DEVELOPMENT
Pros - Clearly states the intended use of the part and usually, the state/phase of the design.
- Matches our cultural terminology.
Cons - A "Development" drawing could also be a drawing TYPE(a drawing delineating formed sheet metal is known as a development drawing).
- Vendors see "Development" and even if we request a volume quote for production, they feel the design is not complete and will either jack up the price or "no quote" it.
PRE-PRODUCTION
Pros - Clearly states the intended use of the part and usually, the state/phase of the design.
- Matches our cultural terminology.
Cons - Vendors see "Development" and even if we request a volume quote for production, they feel the design is not complete and will either jack up the price or "no quote" it.
PRELIMINARY - NOT FOR PRODUCTION
Pros - This is Purchasing's preferred method.
Cons - We may also use this stamp if a drawing which has been released for production is being revised, and we send the drawing out to the vendor to gather quotes and Mfg feedback. So we could send a drawing at Rev "B", but it hasn't been released yet and is therefore considered "PRELIMINARY - NOT FOR PRODUCTION"

Thoughts?


Chris Wilson
Engineering Services Manager

Certified SolidWorks Professional
Certified Enterprise PDM Administrator

 

[drawoh]

CAD_Man,

Why not clearly tag the drawings that have been released for production? Anything lacking the tag/stamp/signature is suspect and to not be used. As you note, there are multiple reasons they are not good.

I mark my preliminary drawings with the word "PRELIMNINARY" and the latest update date.

--
JHG

 

[MadMango]

Everything is a Prototype until it has been released to Production. To alleviate interpretation errors, we use numerals for Prototype revisions, and letters for Production revisions, there is no verbiage.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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[3DDave]

I'm ambivalent about this because the procurement process should tell the supplier to either make or not make an item.

However, a lot of suppliers are stupid. If there is nothing on a drawing to indicate otherwise they will sometimes use the version submitted for quotes instead of the one that is submitted with the contract, even if the contract specifies a particular release version.

However, the stupid doesn't end with the quote version and the same suppliers will continue using revision A after a new contract with revision B is sent to them, so no matter what one does at the outset stupid can still foul things up.

A service that Adobe used to offer was a validation server for PDFs that would allow only those with a password to open a PDF; and that password could expire, preventing anyone from opening a PDF after a certain date or that access to the PDF could be cut off entirely.

It was supposed to be used to prevent proprietary information from being leaked, but it also made sure out-of-date information could not be used.

PRELIMINARY is my general favorite, though I think IN-WORK is less typing for a similar result. Some use ONLY FOR QUOTATION if that applies, I guess to make sure the supplier doesn't send in a part with an invoice.

Any supplier is going to have a concern over the price if they are bidding on anything that isn't ready to go. An additional way to deal with that is to talk with them about the sorts of areas that are unsettled so they know how much the final document might vary from the current state. Confirm the material, the overall fabrication method, and the typical number of features and general size and anything else you can get the supplier to confirm has a large effect on the quoted price.

 

[JNieman]

I second MadMango. Our process is identical. The last firm I worked for, their process was identical. The owners carried that process over from a previous place of employment with a much larger engineering firm.

Everything is preliminary until it isn't. There is no significance, I can think of, between "pre-production" "prototype" and "development", as far as the drawing goes.

If your standards and processes have significant difference at 4 different statuses, I would examine whether those standards have any added value or simply added extra meaningless verbiage.

 

[ctopher]

I third MadMango.

Chris, CSWP
SolidWorks '16
ctophers home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[looslib]

Same as MadMango except reversed, Alpha for Prototype then Numeric for Production.

"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[Nescius]

For any drawing that's not in a state of completion. I use whatever plain english that suits the situation, hand-written in ink, in at least two places, then bathed in yellow highlighter. I then make a photocopy for myself, to record what I have unleashed upon the shop floor. Any drawing that's not THE drawing is poison.

Now, we do have completed, safe developmental drawings. Drawing Rev level is defined as X000, then X001, then X002....X means "anything that's not production". When a part is released for production, a new drawing with rev level 000 is created. The drawing may then progress to rev 001, 002, etc.

 

[KENAT]

We use similar to MadMango, I also set up a 'stamp' as a standard note that appears on all templates initially:

PRELIMINARY DRAFT
THIS IS NOT A RELEASED DOCUMENT

This note is primarily intended just to cover us internally though I suspect many colleagues don't change it until deleting it for release.

If sending external I'll use either:

PRELIMINARY DRAFT
THIS IS NOT A RELEASED DOCUMENT
PROTOTYPE MANUFACTURE ONLY
DATE LAST MODIFIED %{Modified}
ENGINEER:
EXTENSION:

or

PRELIMINARY DRAFT
THIS IS NOT A RELEASED DOCUMENT
TENDER PURPOSES ONLY
DATE LAST MODIFIED %{Modified}

The %{Modified} inserts the save date of the document in case someone forgets to increment the Rev (we have no formal control process on numeric 'prototype' revs so mistakes often occur with it being left up to individual engineers).

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