Part Tracking with Solidworks 1

[bluesman0007]

Hello,

I need some ideas or advice on how to give my boss the information he wants to see. We do a lot of special parts for all types of machinery. Our CAD files are filed By customer, then by the particular machine, then the filename.

We made a part in '04 and the customer needs another part just like we did in '04. The drawing shows the '04 date and I release it to the shop. He wants to know every time we have run that part through the shop for that customer. We don't have any manufacturing software, we are a small company with a lot of machinery. Short of putting a date on the drawings every time we manufacture the part is there anything else we might consider? Not familar enough with PDM to know if it would somehow keep track for us. Any ideas?

Dennis

SolidWorks 2007 SP2.0
Windows XP Pro, Pentium4 3.00GHz
1.5 GB RAM, Nvidia FX500
Logitech Marble Mouse, CadMan

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Personally, I would not try to use SW for that. I'm sure there are ways (per your example) to do that, but that's not what SW is for.

Does your company not keep customer purchase orders, or sales records, or work orders? A separate database (Excel or Access or ???) could be used to keep track of repeat orders.

 

[bluesman0007]

Thanks for the response CBL,

We are small but do quite a few jobs even building QDC systems and large assemblies but we have job folders per customer and nothing is really computerized. We get the order, the job gets a folder and I cad the required drawings to complete the job. Maybe I can look into an order entry system of some kind.

Dennis

SolidWorks 2007 SP2.0
Windows XP Pro, Pentium4 3.00GHz
1.5 GB RAM, Nvidia FX500
Logitech Marble Mouse, CadMan

 

[fcsuper]

You can set something up in Excel...one excel file for each machine, or a master file, or both. Or maybe use a program like FileMaker Pro, where you can build and use the database as needed with a cleaver interface for easy of use.

Matt
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA

http://sw.fcsuper.com/index.php

 

[MN5520]

The link below is for an ERP manufacturing software. For a single user the license is FREE. It sounds like your company may benefit from at least a single seat and definately can't beat the price.

Includes:

MRP & Scheduling
Bill of Material
Make Jobs
Inventory
Lot & Serial Control
Purchasing
Sales Orders
Accounting Suite
SQL Database

http://www.dbamanufacturing.com/

Brian
SW 2007 SP2.1

 

[bluesman0007]

Thanks everyone,

This will give me a start, MN5520 I would like to talk the boss into something like this although it might be overkill. When you aren't tracking at all anything might seem like overkill.

Dennis

SolidWorks 2007 SP2.0
Windows XP Pro, Pentium4 3.00GHz
1.5 GB RAM, Nvidia FX500
Logitech Marble Mouse, CadMan

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

MN5520 ... I am currently trying to find time to evaluate DBA Manufacturing. Have you had experience with it?

 

[Standing]

Just an idea:
SolidWorks has in the tree a Design Binder in Micro$oft Word. Keep a chart in there with the information you required.
e.g.
123456.slddrw at Revision 10-02 on 01/12/2007 was made by ABC company.

Three years from now when the drawing is at Revision 22-09 you can check out of SolidWorks PDM Vault the “As Built” condition of 123456.slddrw at Revision 10-02 on 01/12/2007.

You can now open the latest Revision 22-09 add a note:
123456.slddrw at Revision 10-02 on 01/12/2010 was made by ABC company.
Then save it to the vault as Revision 22-10.

This will work, however you will still have to depend on people to enter the data. When someone forgets or is in a rush and does not enter the notes the system will fall apart.

Good luck,


Bradley
SolidWorks 2007 SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400

 

[ctopher]

I like the Design Binder, very useful tool.
I would not use SolidWorks as a tool to track parts for a company. There are software around to handle that. It also should not be an engineering job anyway. The purchasing/QA departments should handle this, and they should not have access to SW.

Chris
SolidWorks 06 5.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 10-27-06)

 

[Standing]

I agree with Chris


Bradley
SolidWorks 2007 SP2.2
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400

 

[rltw]

I have a question regarding the design binder...

If I add items to the binder, like parasolids, Excel sheets, etc - will the be saved with the .sldxxx (... sldprt, sldasm, etc) files? For example, if I save that file and send it to another user will those files be viewable and editable on his machine - assuming that our computers are not connected in any way?

 

[ctopher]

yes

Chris
SolidWorks 06 5.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 10-27-06)

 

[Standing]

Chris,
Thank you so very much. None of us ever thought that the Design Binder could hold anything other than the Word Doc that came with it. Never thought to look either.
A star for you.


Bradley
SolidWorks 2007 SP2.2
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400

 

[ctopher]

Thanks Bradley.
I use it for adding info like WORD/EXCEL docs, internet links, pics, and just about anything that would be useful.
It is also good for adding tool/machine info for the machine shop.

Chris
SolidWorks 06 5.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 10-27-06)