Hello all.
I just wondering for those who use EPDM is it worth the extra cost?
What is the extra cost? (£)
Can it link into programs like Sage?
How does it affect your company? Does only the engineers use it or does other departments like purchasing use it... How much can they get from it?
John
I don't know what Sage is, but if it's an ERP system of sorts, yes and no. EPDM has the ability to export data via XML, but it currently does not have the ability to import.
The return of investment for EPDM for our company hasn't be broken down into dollars and cents, but it's not just engineering that use the system. Manufacturing, service, purchasing, engineering, inventory control, documentation, and vendors use the system. It's probably paid for itself in the time it has saved engineering by not having to send vendors drawings. Not to mention the cost savings on printing and paper internally.
As for what you can expect to get out of it: you're only limited by your imagination. One can attach as much meta data as one wishes to each document/item, so you can use it to track things other than parts and drawings. It's like anything though; you get from it what you put into it.
For us, we use it to obviously handle our models and drawings, but we also use it to track engineering changes. That evolved over time; first I built a standalone application that interfaced with EPDM, we ditched that and used Excel files within the vault, and we then moved away from that and are using a web based application. As our processes evolved we still use EPDM as the primary source of information. While I cursed and swore about SolidWorks advertising that EPDM would handle ECN's out the box, I'm grateful that it is flexible enough that I can roll my own solution.
I'd also like to mention that the EPDM group from SolidWorks is very active with their customers who use the product. They listen and are genuinely interested in how they can improve the product. It's nice to see.
So is it worth it? If you're a one man shop, probably not. If you're a manufacturing shop, maybe not too. However if you need to track changes to parts and have been asked for a drawing more than once last week, yes.