trying to find an engineering data management system

[JimKeifenheim]

I work for an HVAC company and we are trying to find an engineering data management system that can manage part parameters like height, width, length, diameter, weight, temperature, capacity, pressure, velocity, volume, etc. We need it to do the following:
• Access the data from an application (software programmer can access data)
• Import data into system from external systems like SQL Server, Excel , etc.
• Access the data internally and externally through web services.
• Manage categories like filters, blowers, coils, compressors, etc.
We already have Autodesk Vault Professional for storing CAD information, but it does not fit the above requirements.
Can anyone help us find such a system or point us in the direction were we can find such a system?

 

[MikeHalloran]

I'm aware of an engine dealer who bought a POS program in 1972 to manage counter sales and such. The hardware it ran on is long gone; now it runs on multiple layers of simulation on modern hardware. Over the decades, the program has been adapted/ modified/ hacked by programmers/ idiots of widely disparate skills, and is used to run the whole business. They are still in business only because the POS system is also a POS in another sense, and makes it impossible to figure out how much money they are hemorraging/ embezzling/ just plain losing.

The managers there would assert that their custom 'AS/400' software does everything you ask. They would be wrong, but no one contradicts them because they sign the paychecks.

My engine dealer friends' database is cripppled in several ways:
- Records were entered by people of disparate skills, so misspellings are rampant, product descriptions are inconsistent and often wrong, and much information is in the worng field or just absent.
- They used other people's part numbers as is. ... but their original system couldn't handle special characters like spaces or lower case letters, so new numbers were invented on the fly, and don't follow any standard.
- They never wrote down a standard procedure for doing anything, and never published a data dictionary, or any other documentation for use or training. The users trained each other over the years.
- The original defined record fields were way too short, so additional fields were roached on over the years. This was painful because each screen on a user's terminal was produced by aa separate program or module, so every module had to be rewritten for every change. ... and every programmer did it differently.


IOW, custom software, and software adapted for other than its intended purpose, is likely to be a disappointment, and it's going to be more expensive than you can imagine.

So if anyone says, "We'll just whip up an Access database. Coupla days max", don't get into a discussion about it; just shoot them.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[MartinShane]

Mike, if we built engines I might think you were talking about my employer.

Good intentions aside, our ERP/MRP system was hastily purchased, clumsily integrated, and constantly bent to try and fit our business after the fact.

Unfortunately, I can't offer any real advice on what might work, but just echo Mike in saying be very critical about seeing if an existing (or proposed custom) product will meet your needs, and that a thorough implementation plan is developed and in the hands of someone with the technical ability and authority to make sure it gets followed.

 

[Fugeguy]

"our ERP/MRP system was hastily purchased, clumsily integrated, and constantly bent to try and fit our business after the fact"

I think that is just how such systems are implemented...

 

[Sparweb]

I've seen both: the custom-made Access database written by an employee, and the million-dollar ERP that still doesn't fit the company no matter how they try to bend the company around it.
I'm beginning to think that the only two things that can do what you want are a human brain in a jar on your desk, or to upload all of your proprietary data to the internet and let google search all of these inquiries.
If anybody knows of a more practical way, their suggestions would be warmly welcomed!


STF

 

[MintJulep]

Such systems fail because the OP is unfortunately typical of the Software Requirements Specification that goes along with the the PO for the system.