How to use change management for greater transparency

Do you use CAD and ERP systems in order to work more efficiently? Great. But unless the two systems are able to communicate, you're not utilizing this combination to its full potential. Find out how you can give your business a leg up by integrating CAD and ERP systems. 

If you’re looking to harmonize the processes between design and production, you should give some thought to cross-system process implementation. When the two systems communicate with each other across departmental divides, not only do you increase transparency, you also save time. An important component of this is change management. 

If a design engineer locks a drawing in order to modify it, this action is initially limited to the CAD system. Next, he’ll need to notify the relevant departments either verbally or by email. 

With intelligent CAD and ERP integration, this work step is eliminated: When a drawing is modified, the corresponding process is automatically adjusted in the ERP system. As soon as the design engineer locks the drawing, Sales knows that the given article is no longer sold. 

Change notices let design engineers know as soon as technical drawings need to be adjusted. The associated information (type of change, components affected) is included in the notices. So, the information is immediately available with no digging required. 
 
At the same time, a change request is created for each product modification. It includes the task list, which defines the jobs of the departments involved. The system tracks and documents the execution of the individual tasks. This way, the design engineers are always up to date on the latest change status.

The purpose of revision management is to traceably and comprehensibly document changes to documents. This ensures that the data contained in the system is kept consistent. 

The usage check function is used to determine which areas a drawing is used in. The information acquired helps determine if the entire production structure, the assembly or only the individual part must be adjusted. 

Another advantage of revision management is that all the documents in circulation that are linked to a drawing will automatically be updated to the latest revision status. The modified documents can then be efficiently distributed.