A blog by Oleg Shilovitsky
Information & Comments about Engineering and Manufacturing Software

Bad PDM experience? After all, it is CAD systems’ fault…

Bad PDM experience?  After all, it is CAD systems’ fault…
Oleg
Oleg
4 May, 2015 | 2 min for reading

bad-pdm-experience

PDM. Product Data Management was one of the topics engineers are really hating. It was always about slow implementations, complex user experience, slow check-in and check-out, unsupported CAD versions and many other things. The relationships between PDM and CAD vendors aren’t simple either. I shared some of my thoughts about that in my blog – How CAD vendors “murdered” PDM business.

So, what is the root of PDM complexity? Actually, it goes deep to the nature of CAD system. Jon Hirschtick, founder of Onshape, speaks about PDM complexity in his last blog – Say Goodbye to CAD File Checkout & Copies. Here is my favorite passage

REMEMBER: IT’S NOT PDM’S FAULT. Even when engineers and designers love their CAD system, the odds are high that they’re grumbling about their PDM. I frequently hear the word “hate” come up in conversations about PDM, regardless of vendor or brand. But as frustrating as file checkout and file locking can be, it’s not PDM’s fault that you’re angry.

Traditional CAD systems were never designed for distributed teams. We know because we built traditional CAD. It used to be that a product was designed and manufactured under the same roof. Today, the design and manufacturing chain is often distributed across the country or even across the world.

Jon’s blog post made me think again about how cloud can transform engineering environment and solve some very painful engineering problems related to collaboration. It took me back to my post – Cloud PDM can make file check-in and check-out obsolete from last year. The power of cloud technologies can eliminate complexity of data transfer and scenarios. I was talking about PDM, but cloud CAD can take it even future by eliminating the need to transfer files to the desktop and operate from any device.

What is my conclusion? Cloud technology will change the traditional workflows of engineering systems. It is related to the amount of data moving between desktop and servers as well as the way system and people are accessing information. In my view, cloud technology can bring a paradigm shift and will allow engineers to focus on their work and less worry about check-in, check-out and data complexity. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
4 May, 2025

Back in 1992, Bill Clinton’s campaign faced a tough political climate. His team needed a simple, focused message to cut...

9 April, 2012

You may think everything is going faster these days. Instagram acquisition earlier today proved how disruptive and fast can be...

30 September, 2009

I think, we’ve faced many changes during past few years related to how enterprise software is going to be implemented....

17 September, 2014

Earlier today at Accelerate 2014 in Boston, Autodesk PLM360 team provided an update about PLM360 product, technologies, as well as...

4 March, 2013

It is almost 2 years since Dassault Systems completed the transaction to acquire and integrate IBM PLM operations into DS....

20 July, 2009

Short prompt – I’m looking on definition of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Product Information Management (PIM). Product lifecycle management...

16 September, 2013

Application integrations is a complicated topic. Especially when it comes to enterprise. I can confirm decades of different attempts to...

15 July, 2009

Interesting and intriguing sneak peek of SharePoint 2010 video… Looks like creators of SharePoint is trying to provide major pain...

20 May, 2009

Interesting thoughts by Stephen Arnold related to On-Premise vs. SaaS software based on SAP case.  Also link on Understanding SAP’s Business...

Blogroll

To the top