Arena
It’s no surprise that outsourcing has changed the global manufacturing landscape over the last several decades, for better or worse. Outsourcing allows manufacturers to competitively price and scale up and down quicker, but with the diminishing number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S., it has become controversial in some circles. One lesser-known consequence of outsourcing [...]
I’d like to take you on a journey through a world without product data exchange (PDX)—where OEMs and CMs rely on manually created print packages and zipped electronic files to share product information back and forth. Maybe this is the world you already live in. A journey through the dark days of file sharing In [...]
If you’re part of an organization that’s scaling to production, we’ve got you covered with our scalable cloud PLM solution. But what if you’re just starting out? You need to capture and document parts, but without changes and a supply chain to manage, you may not be ready to implement a full-service solution. You may [...]
If you’ve ever managed an interdisciplinary manufacturing project (one that involves engineers, purchasing, production and contract manufacturing groups) you’ll know what I mean when I say each discipline speaks its own language. When you’re dealing with engineers you’re talking CAD and design; when you’re working with purchasing and production you’re talking ERP and SCM. And [...]
We’re offering something new at Arena—single-user, lightweight BOM management. Let me explain. We’ve come a long way since our early days as BOM.com, and today Arena is used by thousands of manufacturers around the world. And while we’ve solved the problem of capturing, communicating and controlling product data for small to midsize organizations with our [...]
Although a solid change management process is absolutely necessary, it’s easy to fall into an overly complicated, unnecessary or misunderstood engineering change request (ECR) process—especially if your process lacks purpose. In some cases, by the time you craft the ECR, add in the appropriate documentation, talk it over with the product engineer and send the [...]
This is our last blog post of 2011! Happy (almost) New Year! All I have to say is, where did the time go? From the earthquake in Japan, to the floods in Thailand; from the robot takeover at Foxcon, to the growing onshoring trend, 2011 was certainly a crazy year. I really appreciate everyone who [...]
Companies making the strategic decision to outsource manufacturing or design services face a variety of challenges—from securing the best pricing, to creating a strategy that works across several different product lines. In the past, we have shared tips for setting up outsourcing partnerships. But establishing those initial relationships is just the first hurdle—over time, there [...]
The point of purchasing a PLM or PDM system is to simplify and centralize your BOMs and other product data. But once your BOMs, Items, AMLs and associated content exist in a structured format, you are faced with a new problem—how do you share your data with vendors and internal players who aren’t plugged into [...]
Throughout our many years of working with manufacturers and their supply chains, we have developed quite the collection of BOM management resources. Today I wanted to do a bit of a round-up, and share some of our most popular “BOM” blog posts and downloads from the Arena website. Enjoy! And if you have any additional [...]
