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Engineering Change Notices / New Part Introductions & OnShape
Design_Bro
Member Posts: 25 PRO
I'm currently working on our ECN process and NPI process and would love to know how any of you, specifically at smaller businesses have integrated OnShape with your process.
Our current process is very rudimentary, a google sheet and doc that we fill out manually and send out. Is there a better way? Suggestions?
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Answers
That's what we do, but using a template in MS Office 365.
There is no integration between OS and any other system at my company. We have an ERP system and had 2 companies come in to show us how to integrate OS with it. They were both outrageous money, something like 10-15k per year. Way more than OS, and I think more than the ERP system.
We are a very small startup, with only 3 CAD licenses.
Currently, for our internal ECN and NPI processes, we really only use the Released management fuctions but have two custom properties: one for "Approvers" and one for "Approval Date," as we require external customer approval frequently. We also have a custom property for the ECN/NPI reference, which is shown in our revision table.
The details of an ECN/NPI are tracked using Smartsheet forms, which monitor reference numbers, stages, and other relevant information.
One of the challenges we face with Onshape is that to have non-CAD users (such as approvers) involved in the approval process, you need to have an Enterprise account. However, since we need approval from many external customers, this setup doesn’t work for us, and we’ve had to find workarounds.
A little off topic but additionally, from my past experience, very few PLM/MES/ERP software providers cater to SMEs without requiring a large upfront commitment. Most providers I’ve contacted expect a minimum purchase of five licenses, which makes it difficult for small businesses like ours. Even Arena, which integrates well with Onshape, has this same limitation, and that’s been quite disappointing.
Sounds like I'll have to do a bit of digging, but (cloud platform of choice) is probably the best bet for us. I may be able to cobble something together; but sure, was hoping this was one of those scenarios where some rando on GitHub has a nice solution for small companies / groups for ECN and NPI.
Thanks gents.
There is a real gap for SME and startup companies indeed. What probably most smaller businesses need is a kind of PDM+
Or a PLM- kind of an Arena without the need of Onshape enterprise and expensive PLM functionality. Just managing BOMs and ECO/ECN with also non CAD items. Few years ago Onshape made a sneek peak how a solution like this could be like. But then came ARENA and the concept was ditched.