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 just need something that helps you design and document a prototype, or turn your parts into BOMs.

For people like you, we created PartsList.

Why PartsList?

In the last year, we noticed a lack of engineer-focused systems that individuals and small teams could use to document and share their designs. We hope to change all that with PartsList—a new cloud application that makes it easy to document, organize and share BOMs.

PartsList is a low cost tool for engineers who just need to find parts, document a BOM and get it to doc control (or a partner, vendor or friend). Since we launched in January, we’ve been getting an enthusiastic response, and a lot of early traction, which has been really exciting to see.

As the product manager of PartsList, I’d like to give you a tour of PartsList, so you can see how it can help you get your prototype built. At this point in time, we’re letting new users try PartsList for free, so if you think you might be interested, set up your account today.

What are some cool things you can do with PartsList?

When we created PartsList we had design engineers in mind.

The use case for PartsList begins with an engineer who needs to get his/her full circuit design from EDA or ECAD documented. (Or an engineer who needs to document a napkin drawing, reference BOM or a parts list in a spreadsheet.) From there, PartsList can be used to:

Complete the documentation process for an existing bill of materials

Export a BOM from ECAD, import it into PartsList and use Autofill to collect datasheets and vendor site information for your entire BOM in one click. For any given part, all you need is the manufacturer and manufacturer number to capture the rest of the information—including datasheets and links to purchase—with the click of a button.

When you’re done, export the BOM to CSV or PDX to share it with whoever needs it. (And if you’re unfamiliar with PDX, here is more information on how you can use PDX to share build packages.)

Consider multiple critical component contenders

PartsList comes with PartSaver—a bookmarklet that you can use to capture and save critical part information with one click. If you’re browsing parts online, you can use the PartSaver browser button to capture critical component information—including datasheets and vendor information, and make comparative evaluation easy.

Create a new Bill of Materials

If you want to start a BOM from scratch, you can find the parts individually online, and use PartSaver to capture all the data into a unique list.

It’s also easy to build out a napkin-drawing or sketched BOM with PartsList. Just load the basic information—part number and manufacturer—into PartsList, select Autofill and PartsList will pull the rest of the information you need to complete your BOM.

If you have a BOM in EDA or ECAD, or a reference design from a partner or manufacturer, you can import the old design to PartsList, remove the components that you want to replace, and use PartSaver to clip replacement parts.

Create a new part request form

PartsList gives you a full list with supplier item information, which can be passed to document control for creation of internal part numbers and inclusion of parts into another system—if you have access to PLM, or an ECAD library.

It’s never too early to be organized

If you’re an engineer at an early-stage startup, two guys in a garage building a prototype or even a serial inventor with a ton of ideas to document, a comprehensive cloud PLM solution might feel like a bit much. But if you want to be prepared when it’s time to scale, it’s never too early to adopt a simple, effective way to collect part data, as well as build and share simple BOMs. So I hope you give PartsList a try.

For more information:

Try Arena PartsList for free today

Your right-sized BOM management toolkit in the cloud

Arena PDXViewer-display PDX build packages in an easy-to-read, navigable format

In 2011, Gartner released a report describing how heightened economic pressures and increasingly complex products are driving manufacturers to seek more cost effective, collaborative product lifecycle management tools in the cloud. Autodesk recently referenced this report when discussing its move to the cloud PLM space.

From our position as the most established and trusted cloud PLM company (eleven years and counting!) it’s nice to see the industry finally getting excited about the cloud’s potential to bring BOM management software to the next level.

In the original 2011 report, Gartner surveyed manufacturers about their experiences with traditional (on-premise) PLM systems and found there are many places where on-premise systems fall short. Here are some interesting findings mentioned in the Autodesk write up, and the three trends I observed that may explain why the cloud is growing in appeal.

#1: Traditional PLM tools are stressful and expensive.

According to the report:

“The unnatural organizational changes and reengineering of internal processes required to deploy traditional PLM tools cause significant stress and unnecessary spend. While some change may be expected, PLM should accommodate and mirror a company’s best-of-breed processes, not the other way around.

Business partners familiar with core business processes and companies’ in-house experts are strong resources well positioned to make the right organizational adjustments during a move to Enterprise PLM; but only if the Enterprise PLM solution can very easily adapt to their processes and practices.”

#2: Cloud PLM tools help reduce cost and cycle times.

According to the report:

“New licensing models and deployment methods, such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud computing, may substantially reduce the cost and effort required to get up and running with Enterprise PLM business applications. In fact, SaaS deployment methods may become the new norm for Enterprise PLM. As the Gartner research featured here recommends, “Manufacturers should be more open to the idea of PLM software delivered as a service than they currently are.”

#3: Increases in product complexity means that more departments within a given organization will require fast and reliable access to PLM tools.

According to the report:

“Recent sudden increases in product and project complexity are causing more departments outside of Engineering, such as Planning, Procurement, and Quality, to seek Enterprise PLM business solutions that are powerful and integrated. Teams within these departments need access to Enterprise PLM that enables fast and accurate information management and collaboration throughout the entire product or project lifecycle. The Enterprise PLM business solution for these departments need not derive from existing engineering-centric PDM systems, but must instead connect with them to facilitate the collaboration and process workflows appropriate over the full lifecycle of the product.”

It seems like the cloud software solutions are finally poised to see wide-scale adoption, and we couldn’t be happier. Do you think this report is right on in its assessment of manufacturers’ needs?

For more information:

What’s next in manufacturing? Some trends for 2012

Cloud PLM – finding its place in manufacturing organizations

Design in the cloud

After 11 years of delivering cloud BOM and change management solutions, I can tell you that cloud is being adopted by manufacturers—and at faster rates than ever.  The idea that cloud-based solutions lack security is quickly becoming outdated, and as all types of cloud software become accepted—even by non-computer people—this trend will only continue. Whether for business or personal data management, cloud is the future.

The changing world of data storage—from 1988 to now

Perhaps some of you can relate to this story. Back in 1988, I used to have a set of floppy disks for transferring and backing up my college projects. This was a mostly reliable system, but the night before a large project was due, I discovered, to my utmost horror, that a critical floppy disk had gone bad and my code was unreadable.

In that moment, all I could hear was the whirring of the drive and the thumping of my heart.

In a flash, I was running as fast as I could to my classmate’s room to see if he still had the other disk I had given him for safekeeping. Thankfully, he did.

A moment later, floppy in hand, I stood grinning ear to ear. A successful 1988 backup story.

Twenty-three years later, floppies are a distant memory, and I rely on the cloud to back up all my personal data.  Since I started using the cloud-based application BackBlaze.com for data storage, I have lost things multiple times—but have always been able to recover my data without breaking a sweat. I no longer purchase floppies, and I no longer worry that hardware issues will impact my code. Because of the cloud, the way I manage and back up my personal data has been completely transformed.

I tell this story because I think it relates very closely to what we’re doing at Arena for manufacturers. In the same way that cloud-based solutions have transformed the world of personal backups, I believe that easy-to-use cloud-based BOM and change management solutions are transforming the way manufacturers do business.

Why cloud-based solutions are a viable option for today’s manufacturers

As floppies were eventually replaced by more elegant cloud-based options, on-premise product management solutions will soon have a hard time competing with the security and convenience of the cloud—especially when it comes to sharing data securely with outside partners.

Consider this—a manufacturing business needs to create, manage and share lots of design files with multiple individuals inside and outside of the company. To accomplish this with an on-premise system, you must purchase software licenses as well as invest in infrastructure and hire an in-house expert to make sure the various data inputs are always backed up and archived. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to maintain business continuity. With an on-premise tool, supplier and partner access is only possible if you have a certain level of in-house IT sophistication and capacity—and can ensure that individuals outside the company are securely accessing the right set of design documentation and data.

On the other hand, cloud-based PLM solutions provide the same level of functionality as a traditional PLM application, can be accessed anywhere, are more accessible to suppliers and partners and are kept updated automatically. Additionally, cloud-based PLM solutions require a smaller initial investment and are much cheaper to maintain. And as more manufacturers sign up and more features become available, cloud-based solutions will continue to drive down the total cost of ownership in a continuous cycle.

Cloud-based PLM solutions facilitate true out-of-the box collaboration between manufacturers and their global supply chains, and all-in-all, provide a much more elegant solution for product data management. When discussing cloud solutions, there may still be a few lingering technology issues we need to overcome, but they are all addressable technology issues. As consumers have had their daily lives transformed by solutions like Gmail, Backblaze and others, I feel it’s only a matter of time before cloud-based BOM and change management solutions become a widely accepted tool for manufacturing organizations.

Thanks so much Oleg for asking the question that inspired this post, and for getting the dialogue going. We appreciate how you consistently explore thought-provoking and interesting PLM topics.

In the early 1990s, as CTO of an underwater video equipment manufacturer, Eric and his team used spreadsheets to manage their product data. But their market demanded frequent product updates, and it quickly became evident that Excel could not provide what they needed. Eric came to see that how well his company managed product information – especially the bill of materials (BOM) – was the critical factor in whether it would sink or swim. He made similar observations over and over again in subsequent organizations, and he also began to see the equally vital importance of having a way to share clean, complete product information with external partners.

When he couldn’t find a good solution for managing BOMs and sharing them with supply chain partners, the idea for BOM management in the cloud was born. In this new 4-minute video, Eric Larkin takes viewers on a quick trip through the “a-ha” moments that led to the founding of Arena. Enjoy!

Full disclosure: The article does mention Arena customer Mobius Photonics and Arena bill of materials (BOM) management software, which has always been offered in the cloud. But the bigger question examined is whether there are cloudy skies ahead for CAD and CAE tools. The article acknowledges the traditional reasons for skepticism about that possibility, including availability of the bandwidth and CPUs needed to deliver “the performance and interactivity required for data-intensive, graphically demanding CAD and CAE applications.” It concludes, however, that cloud-based solutions will at least have a place in the design tool mix of the future.

Particularly interesting is a brief discussion of some of the ways Autodesk is leveraging the cloud to offer new solutions. Read the full article to learn more.

P.S. Not surprisingly, the cloud is a topic that’s near & dear to our hearts. Feel free to check out some of our previous posts on the subject:

Cloudy…with a chance of clearing

Dear SolidWorks, Welcome to the cloud

Dispatch from SolidWorks World: Solid clouds?

You can also learn more about the advantages of on-demand software-as-a-service (SaaS) (i.e. cloud-based) solutions on our website.

Read Clearing Up Cloud Computing — Before It’s Too Late for Kenneth’s complete definition of cloud computing and his thoughts on where cloud solutions are best applied.

Thanks for helping clear things up, Kenneth!

The browser, using a plug-in, allows collaborators to perform some common operations–they can view, rotate, slice and even comment on the design. It’s unclear at this time how licensing will work, but I’m sure we’ll hear before the service launches later this year.

Product Data Sharing sounds like a great step in helping designers and others collaborate on drawings. I can see how it can cut down on design and collaboration times, especially for team members in different locations.

[Warning: shameless marketing plug ahead]

On behalf of Arena (a long-time SolidWorks partner), I’d like to welcome SolidWorks to the cloud. It’s a fine place, even though its name changes every few years (anyone remember On-Demand? SaaS? Single-instance-multi-tenant?), and I think PDS will be very happy there. I also think our customers will find a lot of utility using this complementary cloud-based tool in conjunction with Arena collaborative BOM and change management.

[End of shameless plug]

That’s it for me from SolidWorks World 2010. Be sure to check out pictures from the event on Flickr.

What? You can’t do that!!!  CAD will NEVER work on anything but desktop computers.  Right?

Apparently, Dassault’s vision is expanding from “professional designers” to all “professionals.” Interesting vision–and an interesting demo.  We got a real-time view of what it would look like to view a 3D model–in real time–with a browser.

SolidWorks, welcome to the cloud.

Looking forward to Day 2’s keynote speaker: that guy who sunk Titanic.

Until then…