Enterprise tracks inspection records

If you work for a company that needs to inspect your designs periodically after they are built, SOLIDWORKS Enterprise PDM can be a great tool to help you keep track of these inspections.

Most people’s first reaction would be to simply “Paste as Reference” the inspection record sheet to the inspected part. However to do this, after every inspection you would need to check out the part – typically creating a new revision of the part. Since an inspection shouldn’t bump the revision of the part, I don’t think this method is very logical.

Instead, create an item associated with the part and attach the inspection records to this item. Thus, the history of the item is the same as the inspection history of the part! You can easily see how many times the part has been inspected, dates, inspector, findings…

Wait there is more! If you include information on your item card such as how often this component needs inspection, Enterprise PDM can be used to help you schedule your inspections. Imagine a radio button on the card that reads: “This component needs inspected every: 6 months, 1 year, 2 years…” Now finding all components that are due for inspection is never more than a quick search away.