While things are slow fix what's broke

Looking for a silver lining in these slower economic times? Now is a good time to put in infrastructure in place to prevent the headaches you often run into when you are busy.

Think back to a recent time when you were doing 80 hour work weeks. How could this be prevented [okay lessened]? Perhaps there is some engineering overhead you could reduce….

• Looking for files…then once you found them, trying to determine if you had the latest and greatest?
• Printing and folding drawings?
• Getting corrections to the shop floor (or fixing mistakes when they didn’t get there in time)?
• Trying to find management to sign off on your change notice?
• Entering BOM information into your purchasing system?
• Making copies of files to send to suppliers?

The solution may include implementing a PDM system, writing some macros to automate repetitive tasks, adding more features to your feature library, improve your SOLIDWORKS settings, increase your purchased part library, taking a SOLIDWORKS class…

Let’s face it if you aren’t making product, it costs you money. Now is a good time to streamline the way you do things. Every change involves planning, implementation, and a learning curve. All of these are more pleasant to go through if you do not have a deadline looming.

You have to spend money to make money. I’m the Engineering Data Specialist Man, and I am here to help.