CAE DS Product data management, document data management systems and concurrent engineering

Product Data Management

Introduction to Product Data Management

Product data means in this context in principle all the information that is somehow
relevant to the product. Under here are examples of product data [Philpotts, Martio]:

Product configurations
Part definitions and other design data
Specifications
CAD drawings
Geometric models
Images (scanned drawings, photographs, etc.)
Engineering analysis models and results
Manufacturing process plans and routes
NC-programs
Software components of products
Electronically stored documents, notes and correspondence
Audio and live video annotations
Hardcopy (paper-based and microform) documents (by reference)
Project plans
Price catalogues
Purchase orders
Bill of materials
Etc.

Product data management (PDM) is a tool to manage all the abovementioned product
data and also product development process. PDM systems handle the masses of data
and information required to design, manufacture and/or assembly products and then
support and maintains them. [Philpotts]
There are other terms which are more or less synonymous with Product Data Management. These include Engineering Data Management (EDM), Product Information
Management (PIM) and Technical Data Management (TDM) just to mention few.
PDM however is the established generic term, and it encompasses all systems which
are used to manage product definition information.[Philpotts]
PDM as a term shouldnt be confused with term product management. That term also
includes business aspects, such as marketing, product policy and the introduction of
new products. [Peltonen]
Brief History of PDM
PDM systems were first developed to manage and to control the massive amount of
electronic data that were created by CAD/CAM/CAE systems. Engineers and designers were spending too many working hours searching for the information.
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CAE DS Product data management, document data management systems and concurrent engineering
PDM became essential especially for managing assembly information when parts
were designed on different CAD systems. Local data managers in CAD system could
handle data for that system, but putting it together with other systems data caused
problems. PDM system linked together with other applications did very good job
managing data in enterprise wide basis.
The PDM capabilities were expanded to cover; in addition of design and engineering
department, the purchasing, manufacturing and product support departments.
The internet made PDM systems even more popular, because it provided universal,
inexpensive and accessible use interface for it. [Lee]

Who is using PDM?

Typically the PDM users have been designers and engineers. But PDM systems have
expanded to include people in many other areas, including manufacturing personnel,
project managers, and administrators, as well as those in sales, marketing, purchasing,
shipping, and finance. This makes it possible for those people who are usually left out
of early phases of product design and development to participate. [Miller]
PDM is useful for companies in every industry segment that design and manufacture
products. These segments include for example: [Philpotts]

Aerospace
Automotive: assembly and components
General mechanical manufacturing
Electrical and electronic products
Computer manufacturing
Defence industries
Oil and gas exploration and production
Chemical and process engineering
Food and drinks industries
Pharmaceuticals
Power generation
Construction companies
Transport operators; road, rail, sea, air
Utilities: electricity, water, telecommunications
Design and management consultants
Central and local government.

PDM Functions and features

The classifications of PDM functions vary a bit depending on the sources. PDM system itself doesnt produce information or solve problems it enables companies to
function more efficiently. PDM systems range from simple of-the-self packages to
complex fully tailored systems. [Gascoigne]

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CAE DS Product data management, document data management systems and concurrent engineering

Figure 1:

A functional view of a PDM system. Based on [Gascoigne]

The most important tasks of PDM system is to move, store and control information.
To make this possible, it needs to have basic set of functions. These functions
are:[Philpotts]

An electronic vault or data repository

A set of user functions
A set of utility functions

The functions that are defined under here are presented in terms of ideal PDM
system. In real life, the functionality that companies need depends on many things,
such as systems already in place, organization, type of products etc.
Electronic Vault
PDM system uses an electronic vault as repository to control all electronic product
data. Some of the data is stored within the vault and some of it can be externally
generated. In both cases users dont need to know the physical location of data, they
use PDM to access the product information through password protection.
There are two types of data stored [Philpotts]:
1.

2.

Product data, which is produced by various applications as CAD, CAE etc.

Examples of this data are 3D-models, drawings, specifications and maintenance records.
Meta-data, which is data about data. In PDM systems meta-data is the data
relating to PDM controlled information. Meta-data is stored into PDM database and it upholds the functions performed by the PDM system.

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CAE DS Product data management, document data management systems and concurrent engineering

User Functions
These functions are divided into five categories [Philpotts]:

Document management
Document management together with electronic data vault ensures that
product data is protected, up to date, correct and retrievable.
Workflow and process management
Workflow and process management define and manage product configurations, part definitions, relationships between data and data versions. It also
controls review and approval process of product data. This enables PDM to
record every step in process.
Product structure management
Product structure management facilitates the creation and management of
product configurations, part definitions, part relationship attributes, bill of
materials and ability to associate product definition data to parts.
Classification
Classification of parts according their attributes provides tools for searching
and retrieving standard parts and existing product data. This is more efficient
than looking parts from manuals and catalogues. It also helps designers and
engineers not to re-invent wheel repeatedly.
Project management
Project management provides work breakdown structures and schedules resources.

Figure 2:

Example of process management and workflow.

Utility Functions
Utility functions support the user functions mentioned above and also simplify the
use of system for users. Utility functions include [Philpotts; Gascoigne]:

Communication and notification

Handles communications within PDM system and also provides interfaces to
external e-mail systems. The automated on-line notification of critical
changes/events to all concerned parties, will help to keep everyone informed
about state of the project.
Data transport
Provides tools for moving data between applications, from one user to another.

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CAE DS Product data management, document data management systems and concurrent engineering

Data translation
PDM system can provide predefined tools for data translation. These tools can
be used to convert data between applications and to formats for various display and output devices.
Image services
PDM system treats different images (raster, video etc.) same way as any other
data. System provides viewing capacity for reviewing and mark-up capabilities that will enable wider audience than before to participate project
easily.
System administration
PDM system provides system administrator tools to monitor, customize and
manage system. These functions are typically:
o access and change permissions
o authorizations
o data back-up and security
o data archive.
Most systems are tailored to conform corporate standards and to make their
usage as efficient as possible. This often includes tailoring the user interfaces
to show relevant data to different users.

Figure 3:

Tailoring the interface for the different users.

Who provides PDM software?

According the Wikipedia, most large CAD vendors have some kind of PDM offering.
For example Autodesk has PDM functionality built into the CAD system. PDM systems can be industry specifics, for example textile CAD or not industry specific and be
able to handle different CAD systems simultaneously.

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CAE DS Product data management, document data management systems and concurrent engineering

What are the benefits of using PDM?

As a commercial application, PDM system needs to offer significant benefits for its
use. PDM systems are becoming increasingly important especially for manufacturing
companies because shortening product life cycles, growing product complexity and
the need for a large number of product variants. [Peltonen]
The PDM system provide benefits in a number of areas: [Miller,Philpotts]

Enhanced co-operation:
PDM system enables people, who are often left out of early project phases,
possibility to contribute to product design and development. The results are
faster work, fewer errors, less redundancy, greater cooperation, and smoother
work flow. This leads to bottom-line cost savings and time reductions. The
PDM system provides a platform through which geographically remote teams
can work together.
Integration tool:
PDM acts as integration tool connecting many different areas. This means that
it makes product data available throughout the enterprise, so that the right information is available to the right person at the right time and in the right
form. This can form a basis for organizations to restructure their productdevelopment processes and implement initiatives such as concurrent engineering and collaborative product development.
Faster Processes:
As data is available whole time, there is no loss of time for waiting the right
document to reach right person. Also time spent for searching correct document is reduced.
Improved Productivity:
Users of PDM dont need to reinvent wheel, as they easily find out if it is already invented. This increases productivity of designer.
Improved Control:
PDM systems ensures that the current data is available, so that the problems
of working with old data are avoided. PDM system ensures that the only right
persons can access the data and change it. Also it makes easier to handle large
products where the amount of product data can be immense.
Easier access and use:
PDM system can provide interface, where users can see for example 3D model
without having to use the right CAD program and review it.
Improved Searching and Retrieving Information:
Using meta-data in search criteria means that search and retrieval of data can
be much focused.

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CAE DS Product data management, document data management systems and concurrent engineering

Integration between PDM and Other Systems

To be truly useful, a PDM system must work together with other systems which will
exchange data with it.
PDM and Document Tools
The user of PDM system doesnt usually use PDM system to work with document
files. Document tools are used for this. It is convenient if at least the most common
PDM operations, such as checkout and check-in, can be carried out directly within the
document tool. This way the user does not have to switch between the document tool
and the PDM system. [Peltonen]
Interface is required between PDM systems document management functions and
document tool. It is possible to avoid developing this interface individually for all
combinations of document tools and PDM systems by using the Open Document
Management API (ODMA) standard. [Peltonen]
Essentially ODMA defines an interface that allows the open and save operationsof a
document tool to fetch a document file from a PDM system and save a modifieddocument file back to the PDM system. ODMA also defines a number of document
attributes, such as the name of the user who has checked out the document, the time
of the check-out operation, the name of the latest version of the document, etc. A
document tool can inquire which attributes are supported by the PDM system and
then read and write the available attributes of a document. [Peltonen]
PDM and Other Systems
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is one of the systems which can be integrated with PDM.
If a company has both a PDM system and an ERP system, data must be shared between the two systems and this can cause problems. For example, the parts list of a
product is needed in both systems and perhaps also in other systems such as CAD. To
make sure that data stays consistent, it is imperative that one of the systems is chosen
to store the master copy and decide how the modified data is transferred to other
systems and back. [Peltonen]
Other systems such as Customer Relationship Management CRM and Material Requirements Planning MRP are also possible to integrate with PDM.
Product Lifecycle Management PLM is controversial term when talking about PDM.
Most sources state that PLM is category which encompasses PDM. [Orr, Craffey]

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CAE DS Product data management, document data management systems and concurrent engineering

PDM Standards
PDM systems are designed to comply with set of industry standards. These standards
include IGES, TCP/IP, DXF etc. and other national and international standards.
One standardization effort is the international standard for the Exchange of product
Model Data, officially known as ISO 10303 and generally referred to as the STEP
standard.
The scope of the standard is very large because the goal is to develop a standard for
the representation of all data related to products. Other standards are PDES and CALS
initiatives. [Lee, Philpotts, Peltonen]

References
Craffey, M. Whats the difference between PDM and PLM? www-document
http://www.cshare.com/selfservice/supportdocs/resource_center/PDM_PLM_Differen
ces.pdf
Gascoigne, B. PDM: the essential technology for concurrent engineering; World Class
Design to Manufacture Volume 2 Number 1 1995 pp. 3842 MCB University
Press ISSN 1352-3074
Lee, K. Principles of CAD/CAM/CAE Systems. Addison Wesley Longman inc. 1999.
ISBN 0-13-178454-4
Martio, A. Tuotetiedon hallinta, Helsinki University of Technology- SoberIT. Report.
Miller, E. What is PDM, mechanical Engineering Magazine. www-document:
http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/membersonly/october98/features/pdm/whati
s.html
Peltonen, H., Concepts and an Implementation for Product Data Management. Acta
Polytechnica Scandinavica, Mathematics and Computing Series No. 105, Espoo 2000,
188 pp. Published by the The Finnish Academies of Technology. ISBN 951-666-538-1.
ISSN 1456-9418
Philpotts, M. An introduction to the concepts, benefits and terminology of product
data management; Industrial Management & Data Systems 96/4 [1996] 1117, MCB
University Press, ISSN 0263-5577
Orr, J. Joel Orr Commentary: PDM? PLM? What? www-document.
http://www.machinedesign.com/ASP/viewSelectedArticle.asp?strArticleId=60639&str
Site=MDSite&catId=0
Wikipedia, free encyclopedia: Product Data Management, www.wikipedia.org

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