MAY 2006
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PDM special: Product Data Management and ERP integration Cover.indd 1
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SOFTWARE REVIEW | KEYTECH PDM SUITE
KeyTech PDM Suite KeyTech PDM Suite offers data management for the SolidWorks community. Al Dean investigates what sets this application apart from the rest. WHEN LOOKING AT the world of Product Data Management (PDM) and the integration of business processes with the core tools found in today’s 3D product definition systems, there are two types of vendors - those that pay cursory attention to the integration with these workhorse systems, and those that take a much more holistic approach. Founded in 1994, KeyTech falls into this latter category and has been developing a range of products for the data management and ERP integration market for many years. With its background servicing the SolidDesigner and ME10 user community, the company took the decision to move into the SolidWorks market in 1996 – as the shift towards lower cost, PC platform, mainstream modelling systems were taking off. The past few years have seen the company’s offering expand to focus on many areas of data management that other systems don’t cover particularly well. So how is this comprehensive product configured and delivered to the market? The core of the solution is the KeyTech PDM Suite data management system. This provides an organisation with all of the data management technology that is required to maintain product design information and manage the data associated with that process. The system is tightly integrated with SolidWorks, but can also operate in a multi-CAD environment (including tight integration with AutoCAD and ME10) as well as Microsoft Office and some leading eCAD systems such as PADS and EPlan. This base level product provides version/revision-based Item and Document Management functionality, as well as Change/ReleaseManagement that most users come to expect from a PDM solution. It allows you to define standardised project folder templates that can be reused, affords easy access to all the usual search and retrieval functions and allows you to conduct your CAD work in a controlled and managed environment. Here, I’m thinking about the ability to perform relationship searches for specific parts and sub-assemblies to discover the impact of design changes to not only parent assemblies (critical where parts are shared between projects or product families), but also to discover how changes could affect child/where used relationships. The system also has a wide range of support for 2D data and can happily mix and match the two data types (2D and 3D), so, you can handle both easily, whether that’s for current design projects or for managing legacy data.
Tight integration What’s interesting about the KeyTech PDM Suite is the manner in which it is integrated very tightly with
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the various CAD systems. To take the example of the SolidWorks implementation: while other systems will support and manage part, assembly and drawings capabilities, KeyTech PDM Suite allows the user to take full advantage of the various application-specific capabilities with the system. Here, I’m thinking about configurations within parts and assemblies, mirrored parts and such. KeyTech PDM Suite can manage the use of these capabilities and ensure that your data is handled in the most efficient manner possible. The management of configurations within SolidWorks is a particularly difficult task, especially for file-based systems. The reason for this is that they represent multiple parts, all of which require separate version and release control – but they are stored within a single file. The development team has managed to side-step this issue and individual configurations can be managed and referenced as single entities. Another example of its integration with application-specific functionality is the ability to take advantage of the multi-body technology within SolidWorks. This allows you to concentrate a large assembly (or group of sub-assemblies) into a single part file, within which each part is held as a body of geometry (the benefit being that the multi-body representation is much more efficient). KeyTech PDM Suite supports this feature and allows you to switch between the full, individual part definition and the multi-body version at will, whilst managing the whole process. This means that the loading and inspection of assembly files can be made much more efficient, but
Written by Al Dean users can still retain the control and management required to work effectively. As with all good data management tools, the base level offering allows you to make the most of the data that you define in your CAD system, whether that’s for the automatic population of title blocks in drawings, or the conversions of drawings to popular file formats. The latter is done with the Image Server module, which is used to automate the creation of neutral files when a CAD file’s status or revision changes. It outputs pretty much any file format whether that’s a TIFF, HPGL plot file, PDF or eDrawing. Interestingly, this tool can also be used to create the multi-body representations of sub-assemblies we discussed earler. Another interesting feature is the ability to have the system inspect a Bill Of Materials (BOM) and collect together all of the drawings and documentation that relate to that BOM, then have the system efficiently handle the reproduction. This is something that would take a great deal of time in many other systems.
The system is tightly integrated with SolidWorks and in addition to standard part, assembly and drawing management can take full advantage of the various application-specific capabilities within SolidWorks, such as configurations within parts and assemblies, and mirrored parts.
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KEYTECH PDM SUITE | SOFTWARE REVIEW To take things further, KeyTech has created a number of add-on modules that can extend the use of your core design data and the management or enterprise processes that it supports. The BOM module allows you to take the assembly and product structure held within the KeyTech database and automatically create Bills of Materials. For those looking to implement Data Management as an enterprise-wide solution to manage much of the product development and manufacturing process, workflow management is something that’s essential to the process. The WFLOW module allows you to define your own specific workflows for the management of projects and how information is routed through the various personnel and stages within the project’s lifecycle.
Data classification For those looking to make use of classification methods, there’s an additional module that allows you to define a hierarchical list of classification nodes which can not only be defined manually, but also linked to extract, or even drive, specific parameters within the CAD model. For those that haven’t come across classification methods before, it allows an organisation to store very specific information about entries within a data management system (whether that PDM, PLM, or ERP). That information is then made available to anyone who wants to search for specific entities. Classifications can relate to almost anything as they are purely text or numeric strings, but when handled intelligently they can improve
search accuracy and can repurpose data for a wide variety of ‘consumers’. For example, while a purchaser might want to find information pertaining to all purchased parts, an engineer might be looking for a specific connector. The use of classification allows the user, whatever their role, to find that information effectively.
Extending data reach One problem that many organisations are looking to PDM to solve is how they give data access to noncritical or non-decision makers. To assist with this, the View module allows anyone with the appropriate access rights to view project data in a controlled manner from a web client/web browser. Stepping that up to deal with multiple locations, there are a number of tools within the KeyTech offering that allow the user to handle both multiple databases and geographically dispersed development teams. Here, the user has two options for implementation, and the selection of which will depend entirely on how your originations works, what IT infrastructure is in place and of course, the results you’re looking to achieve. The two options are split between using a Distributed File Server and a Federated Data process – so let’s explore the differences between the two. Distributed File Server: This approach is intended to be used when the organisation wants to maintain a single database (such as MS SQL or Oracle) but to also provide each location/site with online, real-time access. As you’d expect, the process is controlled and data access is handled using metadata, as are any
reconciliation issues that arise. The metadata (which is the lead controller for the management process) is handled at the central database, while the data that underlies that metadata (such as the parts, assemblies, drawings/documents etc) is stored and updated locally. Federated Server: If you’re looking to maintain several databases, one at each site or multiples in one location, then the KeyTech Federation Server is perhaps the better option. In contrast to the DFS method, federation server ensures that both metadata and design data/documents are provided in each local database at each location and updated by the Federation-Server, respectively.
External service provider While distributed and federated databases are excellent for maintaining contact between in-house departments or teams within your own organisations, in today’s outsourced world efficient communications with your suppliers and customers are essential. There are several technologies and deliverable modules within the KeyTech range that assist with this process. The first I want to discuss is the External Service Provider module. This allows you to select a group of documents, whether that’s a part, an assembly, or drawing, it doesn’t matter. This can then be checked out from the database for use by a third party (such as a supplier). Also, if your supplier is going to create additional data, you can, at the same time, reverse part numbers for the data they send back. You can then
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KEYTECH PDM SUITE | SOFTWARE REVIEW communicate that data to your suppler, who can use it within their own CAD system and create the parts they need. Along with the raw data files, a small application is provided which allows the supplier to define the metadata they need to for each data-file before it’s passed back to you. When you receive the data back, the system automatically checks-in any files generated or changed by the service provider and continues the management process (with revision control, if needs be).
Multi-language support One area that I found particularly interesting was the multi-language tools that are available in the KeyTech PDM Suite range. While the majority of software vendors provide localized versions of their software, very few allow true multi-lingual working – let me explain. KeyTech’s system has been built to support multiple languages, not just different localized versions of the interface. Yes, KeyTech’s PDM Suite can be delivered in pretty much any language required, but when you look into how it works, it’s much more intelligent and far reaching. When you define any items within the data fields, you can switch on options to create multiple representations of that data. For example, when filling out the metadata for a single part, your part number is always going to be the same, but the description, classification etc can vary between countries. What KeyTech’s system allows is different language representations for each data entry. This is also true of both drawing notes and title-blocks. You can store multiple language versions of the same drawing but the management system views it only as a single data entity in the database. While it may take a little longer during the creation cycle, for those viewing and interacting with the data, it makes things much more efficient. When defining user access, each user is given a language preference and this reflects how the data they view is displayed. As an example, a Swede will be able to
KeyTech PDM Suite includes multi language support as standard, which means different language representations can be assigned for each data entry.
search for parts using a Swedish description field, view drawings with the title block and notes in Swedish, while a Dutch contractor working in the UK can access the same data and have it displayed in Dutch, rather than the local preference.
ERP Integration While the tools we have discussed are ideal for implementation as a product data management system, perhaps one of the biggest strengths of KeyTech’s offering is the ability to create intelligent links with the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that are most commonly found in similar organisations. KeyTech has many years of experience dealing with the PDM/ERP implementation process and this has greatly influenced the manner in which its own offerings can be integrated with the likes of SAP, BANN, Axapta, Attain etc. Essentially, once you’re at the point in a product development project where you need to publish your existing data to your ERP system for inspection by purchasing, planning and production, KeyTech allows you to do this directly, without too much fuss. What this means is that all of the master data in both systems is only ever entered once and can be pushed back and forth between the Business system and the PDM system (and the appropriate departments). Other benefits are that ERP users can gain access to the drawings, technical information and item meta-data, as well as volumes, weights etc. Of course, if a part or sub assembly in a design requires change and goes back into a different release status, the ERP system will know about this, therefore controlling and ensuring the business is in sync with what is happening in engineering.
Conclusion KeyTech has been in the 3D design software and data management business for many years and its next generation of solutions that have emerged from those decades of experience show two key things. Firstly, the company has a deep understanding of the requirements of the using organisation. Here, I’m talking about the level of integration with 3D product development systems. While the demonstration and discussion I had with the team in Germany centred around its offering for the SolidWorks community, it’s clear that the work it has done with other vendors has a similar depth of attention to detail and process/functionality support. If you look at the manner in which the system integrates at a core level with SolidWorks, it’s clear that the KeyTech PDM Suite is a system that can support every feature and function that makes a system like SolidWorks powerful. Here, I’m thinking about full support of configurations within both parts and assemblies, the tools to take advantage of working with multi-body parts as efficient representations of assemblies and such. Even the tools provided by SolidWorks (PDMWorks) would struggle to take control of these ways of working and manage them efficiently, so the fact that a relatively small developer can do is incredible. Secondly, the company’s work over the years to integrate the often disparate worlds of PDM and ERP
KeyTech PDM Suite is able to integrate with business process management systems, like SAP and BAAN.
shows through and the fact that you can create intelligent links between the two mission critical systems is a rarity whoever you talk to – and perhaps what’s most impressive is that this can be done without having a major IT budget to play with. Many organisations have these two disparate systems operating in tandem and for most, rework, data re-entry and redefinition of data is a major problem and obstacle to making the most of their investment. One thing I haven’t mentioned throughout this piece is PLM. If you take that most misused terminology at a core level, then KeyTech’s solution offers exactly that, the ability to conduct product development and production in a secure and managed environment is eminently achievable, without having to re-architect your business process and workflows. Perhaps the KeyTech PDM Suite is best surmised as a tool that allows you to connect the different teams, parties and data sources involved in the product creation and production process, allowing everyone (engineers, managers, external suppliers etc) to gain access to the data they need, in a controlled, secure and most importantly, efficiently managed manner. One thing to point out is that SolidWorks is still dragging its collective heels when it comes to doing anything with its data management offering. The word is that something is brewing, but as ever, we’ll have to wait and see what form that takes. Even its own PDMWorks product is a small workgroup solution and a not particularly capable one at that. KeyTech PDM Suite might be a third party application, but looking at the level of integration into SolidWorks, it would put any in-house developed system to shame. In addition, many organisations are now looking to adopt data management as a method of controlling the design process, but those same people are also looking to integrate that PDM solution with business process management systems, like SAP and BAAN, and a system that can handle both things equally as well is rare. If you’re a SolidWorks user and are having data management concerns (either through no system or with your existing system) then KeyTech PDM Suite is truly worthy of investigation. And if you’re looking for ERP integration, then the case for closer examination is made even stronger. ■ Product
KeyTech PDM Suite
Supplier
KeyTech / Keynetic Applications www.keytech.de / www.keynetics.co.uk
Price
From £650
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