This is the second
of a four part series on change management with SolidWorks
Enterprise PDM. The first part was an introduction to this
series. The focus here is change notices, which could be an
engineering change notice (ECN), request (ECR), order (ECO), or
similar. It does not matter what you call it. The EPDM
configuration is typically the same.
Critical configuration components include a document
representing the change notice, a File Card capturing Variables, a
Template to kick off the change notice, and a Workflow managing the
states and document routing (Notifications). I am not going to
cover all details of each topic. Refer to the online help or your
EPDM Administration Training Guide for that. This is merely going
to give you direction.
Let's start with the change notice document. I prefer to use a
Microsoft Word document because variable mapping is easy and it
formats well. Word also has great built-in form creation tools. If
you don't have an existing change notice document in electronic
form to start with, create a new Word Document and just put some
header info in it (e.g.: title and fields for the change notice
number and description) and then move on to the heart of the EPDM
configuration portion. Save the document in you libraries/template
location of your vault. This is the source file for your EPDM
Template.
Next, create a location in your vault where the working change
notices will reside (e.g.: c:\MyVault\Change Management\ECNs).
Create a File Card in that folder mapped to the proper file
extension. You will probably capture at least the document number
and change description here. Most variables used on the card should
be mapped to the document.
Now create a workflow used to track the stages of the document.
The states could be as few as four: Initiated, In Review, Approved,
and Rejected. Some companies may require more, but I prefer to keep
it simple (The Word document could contain a lot of the approval
checks instead of trying to to put all the logic in the Workflow).
Use EPDM Workflow Notifications to inform team members it is their
turn to look at the document and do something.
Use an Enterprise PDM Template to kick off the change management
document. Have it grab the file from the libraries/template
location and store the working file in the destination mentioned
earlier. I almost always use Template Variables to capture the
description and some other data, but I don't always use a Template
Card. Template Cards are good when you need sophisticated forms to
guide and give users instructions. A serial number tied to a
Template Variable should be used here to generate your change
notice number. I also use the change notice number and description
in the file name.
Finally, go back and finish your change notice document
including mapping variables from the document properties to the
contents of the document. This video I put together a while back will
help with mapping variables for Word Documents.
That's it without getting into all the details. Good luck and
let me know if you have any questions. Next stop is managing
Redline Markups with EPDM.
Click here to read on to Part 3 - Change
Management with EPDM (Redline Markups)