Adept PDM Implementation / Maintenance

I looked at Adept and EPDM, and they seem pretty equivalent.  One thing I didn't like about Adept is that their forum is locked, so you can't see discussions like this one. We are about to implement EPDM and I must say we are daunted by the number of setup choices and the amount of time it takes even for a "simple workflow".  We have 6 SolidWorks seats and my workflow is way simple compared to some I have seen (I posted image here Re: Grade my workflow ,and I have cut out a few states since this draft). We are moving from no PDM.

I think WPDM or DB Works Express would be a lot easier to implement - you still have the file migration issue, but you don't have nearly as many choices to make.  Apparently, with the power of EPDM and Adept comes responsibility.  If we had been on SolidWorks Premium or Professional WPDM might have been the way to go.

My advice is definitely pay for migration help (if you have more than a few thousand files).  And pay for some setup consultation, but you must spend some signficant time on the PDM Admin tool yourself (beyond training - we had 3 day Admin training), or you won't know how it really works... but you can probably figure out most changes you need to make, but that is just time later instead of up front time. And some choices are hard to undo.  Each of the components (file cards, pdf task, workflow, templates, etc) in EPDM is fairly simple, it is just the combination that is a beast. 

Also one of the big things you can't fully outsource is "what do you want?" this takes a ton of time and knowledge of how system and software functions to figure out.  2 weeks is unlikey to be the end of that process.  In spite of all that, if you are going to do PDM it is worth doing right. What is another $10,000 or another week of setup effort compared to a year or 2 years of smoother work following that? That's not the only way I look at it, I also think it sucks, but I hope it is true we come through this with a great system.

If I was to implement EPDM again (from a network folder based system), I would just move everything into the vault as-is.  That is easy.

I would not set up variables or data cards or workflows or part numbers or permissions to begin with.

We were doing many things manually before EPDM; there is no reason we wouldn't be able to continue manually in a vault environment.

After I had everyone content working inside the vault with checkin/checkout, then I would start looking at automating some of the things we do manually, and coding in the workflows (that we still dont *need*).

This is where all the implementation time goes, into automation.  I saw all these cool things EPDM could do and wanted to take advantage of it all right away.  Looking back I don't see a benefit to doing this.  Just made it a harder transition for all involved.

On the plus side, after you finally do get it set up, the end result is the same. :)

Hi Chuck,

I implemented Adept at the company I work for back in 2005 and have recently expanded our system by implementing Adept Explorer last year.

When I implemented Adept back in 2005 we did a pilot trial of the system first where I setup and configured the system to see how it worked and whether it was suitable for our needs. I learnt a lot from doing this and when we decided to fully implement the system I did the implementation myself with some assistance from Synergis Software. From memory we paid for 2 days consulting where I could contact their implementation team for any assistance if I got stuck with part of it. I found that this worked well and our implementation took about 2 weeks. I am based in Australia so getting Synergis to do the implementation on site was out of the question and by doing the implementation myself I can fully support the system.

We did get Synergis to perform a database conversion and file copy program from our previous EDM system. This part of our implementation cost about the same as our licensing cost. This involved converting our old system’s database information and placing it in Adept’s database and copying all files from the old system and placing them into Adept's libraries. We had about 55,000 files at that time. From the sound of it, you won’t need to do this.

If you are concerned about the implementation cost you could consider doing some of it yourself if you have the time and a little experience. Ask Synergis for the installation manual that comes with the software and have a look through it and see what you might be able to do yourself and then see what you could then get Synergis to do. Doing some of it yourself also teaches you how to administer the system and make changes like adding new users, libraries etc.

Regards,

Andrew Hallas

Design Engineer / CAD Administrator