Sharing Drawings or a BOM with a Tooling Supplier 1

[Finglas]

Im looking to improve the process we use for getting quotes for tooling parts. We currently save our SolidWorks drawings as pdfs and foward them to our supplier. PDM doesnt play ball however all the time and there are often revision errors that pop up for no apparent reason which slow down the whole process. Also, parts can be revved up at the last minute and we might need to requote which is frustrating for our supplier (who is very understanding but Id still prefer not to be giving them these type of headaches).

Im looking into using OpenBOM. Does anyone know if it is possible to share drawings with a supplier through this platform (have contacted them and awaiting a reply). The idea being we dont need to save drawings as pdf and it is more of a pull system as opposed to a push, i.e. we just tell the supplier the drawings are ready to view, please go ahead and quote for batch x in OpenBOM (share a link with them). Or can anyone recommend a more efficient method for the quoting process you have in place?

 

[SBaugh]

Sounds like you need to fix your PDM process.

We use SW PDM STD. Before a file is sent out to be quoted it goes through a review process to ensure its correct when it leaves. There are times we have to make a change and if it that happens we inform the Fab company of the change, only after it has been reviewed and approved. Then the PDF and the DXF are updated and resent out to the company.

I don't know if anyone that gets it perfect every time.

Scott Baugh, CSWP
CAD Systems Manager
Evapar

http://www.evapar.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[GRF]

If you are using PDM PRO you can setup the web version so your vendor could pull a copy of the PDF from the vault directly after you send them an email.

When you say PDM often has revision errors does not mean the solid has been updated but no one updated the drawing or are people not changing the revision of the drawing when they update? You might need to look at your workflows to modify that. I know we currently have a pretty loose workflow for "non-released documents" Pretty much we submit rev -01 through -99 for quote and to kick off tooling (most of our parts are injection molded or extruded). Once we get the tooling and solids matching we change to rev A to signify everything is released for mass production. After that proposed changes will get sent out as A-01 but if released will go out as B. Our work flow only changed revisions from - to A and then A to B and so on. It only handles the released revisions. We manually do the number revisions for now. I have not spent the time to figure out how to do the number revisions. It was much easier to set up the released and non-released stuff in PDM Workgroup, but when we changed to PDM PRO about 18 months ago I was told it is a pain in the butt to try and set something up like that and to just do it manually.

We also have tools that allow us to let the PDM vault create all our PDF's. If we release something it automatically generates the PDF as part of the release process. If we are working on a non-released change we can right click on the file in explorer and select "make PDF" and the vault will create the PDF and link it to the parent drawing. I have similar tools for .stp files as well.

 

[hendersdc]

My concern with any "pull" sort of setup is that, without a release process, you can't fully control what the supplier is building. Which can lead to a lot of cost or scrap.

What if I want to order revision B but the supplier still has the files for revision A and doesn't update them before building? How does the supplier know he needs to update the files?

What if I want to order revision B but also have updates in process for revision C, which the supplier pulls and builds to instead?

Without a release process, are you even using revisions? How are you keeping track?

Are you still planning on providing the supplier with a drawing pdf or with the native solidworks files only? If you only provide the native files, the supplier can unintentionally change them or use the wrong configuration and you would have no recourse because you did not provide a un-editable file that is the controlling document.