Parts and Documents are two different objects in engineering, product development and manufacturing. While “part” usually represents physical object, “document” usually represents specification, drawing or 3D model of part. Even it it sounds obvious, Document and Part management is not an easy and simple task.
In my post – How to manage Document versions, revisions and Part numbers, I’ve been mostly speaking about the need to have separate numbers for documents and parts. I also mentioned that bad practice to use the same numbers for both document and part, can lead to significant complexity and mistakes. At the same to implement a system or multiple system to manage Documents and Parts is complicated. Below I described potential three typical configurations you may find in companies related to document and parts management.
No PDM
Even PDM is not very new technology, you can still see many companies that not using PDM. If this is a case, you have a good chance to see documents (CAD and non-CAD) spread out in the network and shared drives. Without centralized document management system, a company is creating numbering convention how to provide document numbers. A good chance that you will see lots of Excel spreadsheets to be used for Parts and BOM management. Very often, a company will be using similar number convention for parts and mix it together with usage of OEM and supplier part numbers. You can also see homegrown system to manage Part Numbers in a separate database.
PDM + ERP
This is very typical situation where engineering and manufacturing are splitting responsibilities into silos. Engineering department is using PDM system (very often from the same vendor as CAD system) and manufacturing (as well as rest of the company) is using ERP system. Within this schema, PDM system is taking control of documents. Document numbers usually generated by PDM system according to predefined naming convention. Item masters and parts are managed by ERP. The complexity of this model is to link between documents in PDM system and parts/BOMs in ERP system. In most of the cases, the integration between them is manual or using batch import/ export procedures. Optionally, PDM system can manage parts (typically engineering parts).
PDM + PLM + ERP
It is not unusual to see both PDM and PLM systems co-exit in the same company. Similar configuration can be achieved by combination of PLM and ERP system. In the last case, PDM module is part of broader PLM offering. The specific characteristic of this type of environment is management of parts and engineering BOMs in PLM system. Sometimes, you can see PLM systems is responsible also for manufacturing BOM management. This configuration provides the most consistent way to interlink between Documents and Parts. Both numbers are available in PLM system which can use them. The weak part of this configuration is complexity of integration between PDM/PLM and ERP. Synchronization of Part Numbers and Document Numbers among all systems is a challenge that may potentially lead to data inconsistency.
What is my conclusion? The information about documents and parts is located across organizational departments and systems. At the same time, to manage them in a consistent way is very important. Regardless on the number of systems and the way to manage Document Numbers and Part Numbers to keep them separate and maintain linkage between them is the first priority. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
