Using ProductView as an Essential Business Process Enabler - A 10 Year Success Story

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Brief History – years 2000 >> 2010
2000 – Intralink 3.1
2001 – First use of Division ProductView
2002 – Assembly Instructions (Drawing views) via Pro/Process
2003
2004 – Gradually increased usage of many tools/functions
2005
2006
2007 – Windchill PDMLink 8.0, Integral ProductView
2008
2009 - Windchill PDMLink 9.0
2010 - Windchill PDMLink 9.1

Brief History – year 2000
Killing Trees As Fast As We Could…
Designers provide “original” prints to Document Control
“Document Control” = 7 busy full time people
Major investment in managing rubber stamps
Paper file cabinets as far the eye can see
red-stamped “OFFICIAL” copies of drawings and documents
Major photocopy & distribute operation, 5 facilities
Distributed “Control Files” with OFFICIAL distributed red-stamped copies
Heroic efforts to continuously ensure all up to date
Users request OFFICIAL copy if not in Control File

Brief History – year 2000, cont.
Implemented Intralink 3.1
ALL product data: Pro/Engineer & other CAD, MS Word, artwork, etc.
Had brief demo of ProductView by PTC
Seemed kind of interesting
Not at all clear what it was, what it did
More investigation, demos, study
Yes, this can probably help us a lot
Purchased server license and 4 PV Standard Client licenses

Brief History - 2001
Installed Division ProductView server, integrated with Intralink 3 server
HUGE effort to get all working and stable
50% of one administrator’s time for 6 months
Daily cussed out those that wrote the install/configure doc’s
Daily wore out tech support
Started Publishing Pro/Engineer drawings (only)
ProductView client installed on a few users’ computers
Those Users now can access / print Pro/E Drawings
Minor interest & excitement
ProductView client installed in conference room
Demo for large audience during critical design review
Moderate interest and excitement

Brief History - 2002
Watermarks
Discovered this essential piece of the puzzle
Watermarks held the power to eliminate the Doc Control “push” mode
Key concept: Watermark depended on Drawing STATE
Took a month to get all configured and working
Wore out tech support again
A few test users authorized to print OFFICIAL copies from their computers
Watermarks took the place of Official red stamp
Had to validate / had to update standard procedures
Major interest and excitement!!

Brief History - 2003
It starts to snowball…
Each day another user says “I don’t know what the guy next to me has but I want it please…”
Purchased 10 more ProductView client licenses
Flex-LM – not very many needed to support all
Within 3 months, standard is for each user to print Official Pro/E Drawings

Brief History – 2003, cont.
Uh oh - major problem…
Official copy from ProductView doesn’t match Official copy in File cabinet with red stamp
Investigation
Root cause: Designer printed, gave to Doc Control, then changed, then checked in
Major procedure change…
No more printing masters from Pro/Engineer!!
Viewable accessed via ProductView is the master
For all Roles: Designer, Checker, Doc control, Buyer, Inspection, Field Service

Brief History – 2004
Things get smoother / more efficient
Designers required to ensure that viewables publish correctly
Checkers required to access via ProductView
Checkers start to use Annotations, not red-mark paper
Users also start to discover 3D viewables

Brief History – 2004, cont.
Drawing Overlay discovered
The absolute best tool!!
Changes clearly identified in color with little effort
Checkers standardize on using Drawing Overlay
Buyers also taught to generate Drawing Overlay
Send images to suppliers explaining changes

Brief History – 2005
Usage extended …
Tech writers taught to obtain images from ProductView as needed
No more requesting from Pro/Engineer users
Increased use of annotations during design reviews; virtually no paper now
Doc control down to 4 people, 1/3 of the original file cabinets
Watermarked prints for all quotes; all tied to specific iterations w/no additional effort

Brief History – 2007
Windchill implemented
Migrated from Intralink 3.4
Invested in Doc Collaboration Option
Can now publish Word documents just like Pro/Engineer Drawings
Scanned all remaining paper drawings and documents (80,000) and added to Windchill

Brief History – 2007, cont.
Doc control “push” function eliminated by end of the year
No more photocopies
Down to 1 file cabinet
Down to 1 person

Brief History – 2008
Manufacturing installs computers at every work station
No more paper assembly drawings; access and use via ProductView
Pre-requisite: Assembly instructions using Pro/Process module of Pro/Engineer
Formatted to fit standard monitor
Distributed “Control files” eliminated by end of the year (no more paper)

Brief History – 2009 /2010
ProductView client installed on ~ 900 computers, 18 facilities
No more a concept of “document control” (no longer needed)
Continued refinement of usage, processes with upgrade to Windchill 9.0, then 9.1

What Allowed All This to Happen?
The master is in Windchill PDMLink, not in some other document control system
Eliminate red-stamped paper “originals”
The master is the electronic published viewable, available via ProductView
All drawings and documents treated alike (Pro/E drawings, Word doc’s, etc.)
All users given needed access to Windchill

What Allowed All This to Happen?
Watermarks essential:
Correct watermark required on every product document used for business purposes
Watermark differs by Drawing / Document state (e.g. In Work, Released, Obsolete)
Watermark includes essential database info: Number, Version, User, Date accessed
Note: No way currently to apply watermarks to data managed by ECAD Work Group Manager

What Allowed All This to Happen?
Correct Watermark (Released state) also required on all drawings / documents “red-lined” for changes. Example:
Specific change need for a Revision B drawing
Rev B drawing obtained from ProductView with watermark, then “redlined” (electronically or in ink)
Watermark confirms that the “real” Released Rev B is the starting point for the proposed, then approved, then implemented change

What Allowed All This to Happen?
Additional productivity tools in ProductView
Drawing Overlay
Annotations
Etc.

Summary
Electronic Masters in Windchill (verified published viewables)
Require that documents on which you do business are viewables with correct watermarks
Implementation takes some real effort – setup and ongoing
Take advantage of other ProductView tools once viewables are available

Pictures / Demonstrations

It takes effort & nurturing over time, but worth it