SOLIDWORKS Manage
Product development and lifecycle management software
What is SOLIDWORKS MANAGE?
SOLIDWORKS Manage is an advanced data management software solution for product development and lifecycle management. Built on a SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional backbone, SOLIDWORKS Manage brings powerful reporting, item management, project and process management, and Bill of Materials capabilities to your product development and release processes.
WhO Needs SOLIDWORKS MANAGE?
SOLIDWORKS Manage enables users to collect and centrally control designs and manufacturing data distributed throughout Windows directories, share drives, and disparate software solutions. On a single platform, SOLIDWORKS Manage makes coordinating and collaborating on various activities within the product development process effortless.
SOLIDWORKS Manage is an advanced data management software solution providing similar functionality to a PLM system. Traditionally, SOLIDWORKS Manage is the next step up from SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional and users benefit from the advanced capabilities built on top of the SOLIDWORKS PDM backbone.
Tools
Product Data Management (PDM)
Product Data Management (PDM) software streamlines the management of 2D and 3D CAD files, enhancing collaboration and efficiency for engineering and design teams.
- Manages native 2D and 3D CAD files.
- Provides a database-driven environment for design data.
- Enables collaborative work on the same dataset.
- Reduces time loss from reference management and revision control.
- Saves time by automating data management tasks.
- Prevents hours spent fixing broken CAD models and tracking lost references.
Document Management
SOLIDWORKS Manage offers robust document management capabilities, providing record-level version and revision control for all file types that centralize and secure product documentation.
- Provides record-level version and revision control.
- Manages large quantities of file data.
- Tracks, controls, links, and manages file lifecycles.
- Covers any of the functional group's file management needs.
- Centralizes control and lifecycle management of document records.
- Collects, controls, and links product documentation in a secure environment.
- Managed by a centrally-located relational database.
Records Management
SOLIDWORKS Manage records management enables the creation and tracking of non-file-based records, centralizing related data and enhancing connectivity within product data records.
- Manages non-file-based records.
- Collects and references all related data under a single database record.
- Manages multiple file attachments and relationships.
- Records have attributes, can have BOMs, and link to product data records.
- Used by engineering and operations departments in BOMs.
- Tracks data from quality and engineering departments.
- Connects data typically buried in spreadsheets to product data records.
Bill of Material (BOM) Management
SOLIDWORKS Manage offers a comprehensive Bill of Materials (BOM) management toolset, integrating CAD and non-file-based records to enhance database-driven, record-centric BOMs.
- Integrates CAD and non-file-based records.
- Transitions engineering BOMs from Excel to a database-driven system.
- Supports both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ BOM management workflows.
- Facilitates CAD-driven BOM management.
- Features include BOM comparison, export, and reporting.
- Includes variant configuration that enhances connectivity between Engineering and Manufacturing BOMs.
Process Management
Process Management in SOLIDWORKS Manage offers extensive workflow, approval, and decision-making capabilities, streamlining various business processes and product development tasks.
- Manages workflows, approvals, and procedural decisions.
- Configurable for various business processes (e.g., engineering change management, problem reporting).
- Allows easy creation of tailored workflow routes with a Visio-style interface (no programming required).
- Applies process controls to product data records, BOMs, and documents.
Task Assignment
SOLIDWORKS Manage allows for comprehensive task assignment and tracking, integrating tasks with various product data records and providing dashboards for enhanced accountability and project management.
- Assigns and tracks task completion across the platform.
- Tasks have creators, owners, and assignees; can be ad-hoc or linked to product deliverables.
- Linked to various product data records (CAD data, files, BOMs, workflow states, and project stages).
- Dedicated dashboards with calendars, timelines, and overview capabilities.
- Facilitates accountability and time management for the product development team.
- Supports project management with calculated time roll-ups for phase and milestone goals.
- Tasks tied to workflow stage completion as gate-management conditions.
- Users report completion and status updates.
Project Management
SOLIDWORKS Manage offers integrated project management with powerful project and time management tools, enhancing project deliverables and reducing time-to-market.
- Provides integrated task management, timesheets, Gantt charts, phases, milestones, and critical path analysis.
- Tied to projects and product deliverables.
- Eliminates the need for disconnected project management tools from documents or records.
- Keeps engineering projects and new product development ahead of schedule.
- Shortens the time-to-market curve.
Dashboards and Reports
SOLIDWORKS Manage includes a comprehensive suite of built-in tools, offering customizable dashboards and automated reporting without the need for programming or third-party integrations.
- Standard and customizable dashboards for charts, graphs, tables, dials, widgets, and gauges using DevExpress.
- No programming or third-party integrations are required.
- Live data from SOLIDWORKS Manage and PDM, with external system integration.
- Functions as a full BI platform.
- Automated, repeatable reporting tied directly to source data.
- Reports can be published on-demand or via workflow process stages.
The Top Five Reasons for Manufacturers to Improve Data Management
Today’s manufacturers face a host of challenges related to effectively managing product design and manufacturing data - not just within product development and manufacturing departments but across the greater manufacturing enterprise. How well organizations manage this data - and leverage it to support related functions - has a direct impact on a manufacturer’s ability to grow, as well as maintain and extend its competitive edge.
Read this white paper to not only learn the top five reasons why manufacturing organizations should improve their data management, but how SOLIDWORKS data management solutions will help them achieve their business goals by:
- Boosting productivity by automating manual, repetitive tasks and minimizing delays
- Improving product quality by eliminating revision errors and executing ECOs more efficiently
- Facilitating collaboration by connecting teams and linking product development with production
- Increasing organizational agility by shortening lead times and incorporating concurrent product development and manufacturing planning
- Inspiring innovation by more efficiently eliciting feedback from across the enterprise
Frequently Asked Questions
Both PDM and Manage use the same licensing tiers: Editor, Contributors, and Viewers. Editors are for CAD editors, Contributors are for non-CAD editors, and Viewers are for read-only records access. All license types are concurrent-use ‘floating’ networked global licenses.
To begin with, Manage comes out-of-the-box integrated into SOLIDWORKS PDM for full system, bi-directional access. The level of sophistication of this integration between Manage and PDM is orders of magnitude deeper than could be done with third-party PDM sy. Manage has total situational awareness and control over PDM. Integrations between Manage and third-party systems such as ERPs may be done with a variety of techniques. Manage comes with powerful built-in data transformation and extraction tools for point-to-point data pushes as well as an open SQL database for middleware-based extractions and transformation.
SOLIDWORKS PDM is a file-based system, meaning every action requires an accompanying file. SOLIDWORKS Manage is an added layer onto an existing SOLIDWORKS PDM environment that adds record management processes like reporting, process and project management, and item management.
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Standard
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Manage
- Manage and control your product development data with a secure file vault. SOLIDWORKS PDM manages all SOLIDWORKS file references and automatically updates them whenever you move or rename files, eliminating broken references.
- Quickly locate and reuse existing designs to save time and control costs. Instead of spending time locating prior designs on shard drives or recreating designs when you can’t find them, use SOLIDWORKS PDM tools to locate them quickly.
- Track design changes automatically and maintain a complete revision history with a standardized process that’s customized for your company’s needs.
- With SOLIDWORKS PDM your company’s sensitive and proprietary data is secure, up-to-date, and accessible with configurable security controls. User permissions can be assigned based on individuals, groups, or company role. Every change is tracked and unauthorized changes are eliminated.
- Ensure you are always working with the “right version” of a design with SOLIDWORKS PDM’s revision and version control capabilities. You can customize file naming and revision control schemes, maintain document history, and easily manage document versions to avoid the costly manufacturing errors associated with working with the wrong revision.
- Maintain a complete history of your product design, engineering, and development activities for reporting and auditing purposes.
- View eDrawings, SOLIDWORKS, and AutoCAD documents in eDrawings inside SOLIDWORKS PDM. With SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional you can view multiple other file types including MicrosoftOffice documents.
- Save time and reduce development costs through design reuse by quickly finding needed data across a range of file types using the powerful searching tools PDM offers. You can quickly perform file content searches on multiple data types (such as CAD files, Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Outlook emails, and images) and locate documents using a range of search criteria (including name, date, metadata, and workflow status).
- Reduce the time to complete design approvals and Engineering Change Orders (ECO). The product development process is graphically represented through an easy-to-use flowchart interface. Engineering change documentation and change approvals become completely electronic with SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional.
- Maintain, manipulate, and leverage Bill of Materials (BOM) information to support downstream applications and systems. Create individual BOM objects from existing CAD file structures that automatically update in parallel with design changes, eliminating manual updates and required when using spreadsheets. Connect your CAD data with your ERP or MRP systems, enabling you to easily update BOM information in other businesses applications. BOM information can be customized using templates to meet the needs of different users and groups.
- Facilitate compliance with government regulatory requirements and industry standards. SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional can bolster compliance for several types of regulatory requirements, including: FDA, RoHS, ISO 9001 and 14000, ANSI, and others..
- Create and maintain a single data location and vault that can be accessed by users worldwide to store and retrieve files. In addition to preserving a secure backup of product design data, secure file vaulting eliminates multiple sources of information, duplicate files, and unsynchronized revisions. SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional can be customized to meet the specific needs of your organization.
- Collaborate throughout your organization while keeping people connected, current, and working on the same set of data. Create and maintain a single data location and vault that can be accessed by users worldwide to store and retrieve files. Configure the SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional system to automatically notify users when documents have progressed through various states or stages in the electronic work flow you establish. Automatically create many types of neutral file formats from SOLIDWORKS and other file types.
- Save and share search criteria as “favorites”, providing you with instant access to common searches.
- View multiple documents in the Preview window.
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SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional provides one convenient, vaulted
location where colleagues can store and retrieve company data.
Efficient file storage and retrieval enables millions of files to be
managed effortlessly.
- Save time and effort communicating by configuring SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional to automatically create neutral file formats.
- Use serial numbers to assign automatic names to files and folders, to assign unique IDs to items, or to add unique running values to card controls. You can set up any number of serial numbers in each vault. Item Number serial numbers are defined by default to generate unique item IDs.
- Map variables to both predefined properties (such as Title and Author) and custom named properties in SOLIDWORKS files. If a SOLIDWORKS file contains configurations, the configuration names appear as tabs in the data-card. Configuration-specific values are shown in the corresponding tab.
- SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional can import variable values from an XML file into a vault database. In the vault, existing files or items that match import criteria acquire the values at specified points in the file work flow. Create an export rule to export SOLIDWORKS PDM BOM variables that can be read into ERP systems.
- SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional provides the tools and capabilities that your enterprise needs to keep people connected, up-todate, and working together, regardless of location. This global connectivity supports the distributed collaboration essential for reducing engineering development and accelerating time-tomarket.
- Enable staff and partners to contribute through web-enabled portals from various connected devices including smart phones and tablets.
- Automatically facilitate multiple required approvers with parallel transitions.
- SOLIDWORKS PDM can automatically send email notifications to alert users of changes to projects or requests for them to take actions.
- Provide critical information to help teams focus on important tasks, and provide an overview of resource capacity for better planning and utilization. Manage project stages, time lines, and milestones along with resource utilization and capacity. Utilize user tasks and time sheets to automatically track progress.
- Streamline business processes, automate document creation and bring together all involved stakeholders for new products, from sales and marketing to production and support. Configure states and decision points for all types of business processes such as Engineering Change Requests (ECR), Orders (ECO) and Notices (ECN), transmittals and approvals.
- Create, edit and compare complete bills of materials (BOM) by associating items, files and free text. Manage product variations for different use cases and applications. Drive SOLIDWORKS drawing bill of materials and item numbers directly from system data.
- Provide users with the knowledge they need to work more effectively by utilizing tasks and calendars.
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Create and distribute interactive graphical dashboards to display
critical information. Configure reports to company
SOLIDWORKS Services:
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- Increase Your Earning Potential
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- Smaller Classes with Focused Attention
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