Engineering ECM can help connect Engineering to Business

One would expect that an Engineering Enterprise Content Management ECM system would be used to store engineering documents.  And of course it does.  An engineering repository for electronic documents is agnostic to the authoring application and the electronic file format that data is stored in.  Any kind of engineering data can be stored: AutoDesk’s AutoCAD, PTC’s Pro/Engineer, AutoDesk’s Inventor, CATIA, SolidWorks, Unigraphics, Lattice3d, or CoCreate — none of these present a problem.  Data stored from these applications can slice and dice any size and shape of 2D or 3D model.

But the ‘E’ of ECM is for ‘Enterprise’.  Engineering ECM systems can provide the infrastructure for sharing engineering departments to other organizations of the enterprise.  Standard engineering documents define and specify such things like geometric relationships and finite element models, but an engineering ECM system allows much more in the way of documentation and support information that can be captured and stored.

Consider the requirements, specifications, preliminary designs and process descriptions.  There are memos, email, notes and correspondence between not only engineers, but also with members of the sales, marketing, quality assurance, manufacturing and services teams.  All of this information can and should be stored within the central repository.  A clear benefit of Engineering ECM is that the central knowledge repository saves time in locating and researching information, it can provide background information that can better communicate designs, it provides the context for the thought process that went into the design, and it helps in making better design decisions.

Engineering is only one prong of the total business operation, and all too often the engineering “jewels” of the company remain isolated within engineering.  Engineering ECM changes that.  Not only can the engineering ECM system provide secure enterprise-wide access to documents across all departments, but an engineering ECM system can let all business unit members view and collaborate on engineering designs and processes.

A critical component of the engineering ECM is the viewer.  Universal Viewing allows any repository user to view and examine complex 2D and 3D CAD models, no matter what format the original data was authored in.  The Universal viewer breaks down a huge barrier that often restricts who engineering data can be distributed to.  The Formtek View product is an example of a well-integrated browser-based Universal Viewer.  Collaboration tools integrated with the repository allow users to securely provide comments and input to the design process and also to participate in both ad hoc and structured workflows.

Clearly the benefits of engineering ECM to engineering aren’t limited to the engineering department.  The central repository of Engineering documents allows secure sharing of information across the entire enterprise.