Using charts to eliminate amount of drawings?

[mrspetos]

im looking to hear the pros and cons of using charts to reduce the number of drawing files. my main concerns are increased incorrect of reading the chart incorrectly verses a standard print and controling charts verses individual drawings.

for the systems that use charts, what is your standards for labeling dimensions?

 

[IFRs]

In charts, I call the dimensions "A", "B", "C", etc.

Our drawings have the "A", "B", "C" as dimensions and we insert a Word table with the answers (generated by other software and copy/paste)

 

[MikeHalloran]

The resulting drawing is sometimes called a tabular drawing.

In addition to the danger associated with reading the wrong row and making erroneous parts, there's a risk that someone will synthesize a new part that can't actually be made, and that may go undetected until you actually try to make some, because the picture doesn't look like the part in all possible variations.

Some companies don't allow them at all, not for those reasons, but because their MRP/ production control/ inventory/ planning/ whatever systems can't deal with 'dash numbers', or variant parts. I.e., it may not be possible to have one drawing number associated with multiple part numbers.

-Mike-

 

[borgunit]

This can work, but in our experience, we have gone away from it. Not because it is not useful, but because at the end of a job completion, we submit final drawings to our customers and they do not accept this method of numbering. They want a unique numbers to descibe each part (their own numbering system). Internally, we had no problem with charting parts/drawings but we knew how to handle those cases; others may not. Good luck.

"Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right "
.. Henry Ford

 

[IFRs]

We do it only for in-house fabrication drawings for parts that are "standard" except for length and/or hole locations. SOme jobs have 50 of the "same" part cut to different lengths. One drawing is far superior to 50 in this situation.

 

[mrspetos]

thanks everyone for your input. i started charting some drawings and it seemed to be working well so far. they are for the most part internal drawings, ocasionally we send prints for qoute to an outside source. thanks again