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We'll be able to make better departmental and project plans The EDM/PDM system will provide information about past plans and activities, such as how long they should have taken, how long they took, and where problems occurred. It will also provide information about the future availability of engineering resources. These two types of information - about the past and about the future - are what we need to make good plans for the Engineering department. We'll be able to make more reliable estimates of project costs and times For a particular project we'll be able to refer back to similar projects to see what kind of resources were needed, how much time projects took, how much they cost, and the extent to which they followed the plan. We'll use this information to provide better estimates for future projects. Use of EDM/PDM will make projects easier to manage Automated reporting on project progress is faster, cheaper and less liable to suffer from transmission and transcription errors than manual reporting. With the right information available, projects will be easier to manage. We won't need to go hunting through printouts every time we need some data. We'll be able to run tasks in parallel and get work done quicker With EDM/PDM, we'll know what's happening on a project, and we'll be in control. We'll do things that were too risky without EDM/PDM because we weren't sure of the status of different tasks, we didn't know how much progress had been made, and weren't sure of the value of information until a task was finished and a design released. With EDM/PDM, status will be clear, even down to the level of individual sub-tasks and information elements. We'll be able to run tasks in parallel and allow for partial release. We'll be able to make sure the right process is followed Once we've identified the best engineering process, we'll want people to use it. Without EDM/PDM it's hard to know what people are doing. We can't look over everybody's shoulder. The EDM/PDM system will tell us what's going on - and signal any divergence from the planned process. We'll improve communication between managers and engineers It will be much easier to get information to people in the process. Press a button and the information will go out over the network to everyone who needs it. They will be able to respond immediately over the network. This will be much more effective than the current situation where we can only communicate to everybody at the weekly Monday morning meeting. We'll be able to improve the distribution of tasks to engineers The system will be aware of the tasks that need to be done and the current assignments and skills of our engineers. It will make the best assignment of tasks to engineers, then send the tasks and related information over the network. Use of EDM/PDM on our projects will result in benefits for the whole business EDM/PDM will bring our projects under control. We'll improve performance on release management, change management, version management and configuration management. People will be able to access information faster and re-use existing information. As a result the project will be cheaper and quicker, and the product more likely to meet customer specifications. Everyone will be a winner. We'll be more aware of what's happening on a project. We'll be able to make better decisions Without EDM/PDM, it's often difficult to know what's happening on a project. Some people just don't want to tell you what's happening. Others would tell you, but they don't know what you want to know. The system will automatically provide status information, and periodic and on-demand reports. With all the information that the EDM/PDM system provides, we'll have the facts to take the right decisions. We'll be more responsive to change The EDM/PDM system will keep us up-to-date with project progress, so if a client wants to change the specs we'll find it easier to respond. We'll know the exact situation of the project. We'll know what needs to be done. We'll decide what to do and then send out, over the network, the new plan. Without EDM/PDM this would take weeks - and create chaos. With EDM/PDM it will happen quickly and smoothly. We'll be able to coordinate projects better Without EDM/PDM it's difficult to coordinate a project. You don't know who's doing what or when they will finish. When you have to change the plan you're working in the dark. With EDM/PDM, these problems go away. You have the information. You're in contact with the team. You know what you're doing. You lead the project. Without EDM/PDM it's very difficult to manage several projects together. If you change something on one project to help another, you often finish up slowing them both down. The EDM/PDM system, with detailed knowledge of all projects, will make it easy to manage several projects. We'll have a way of saving corporate know-how for future use The EDM/PDM system will classify and save information created at great expense during each project. On future projects we'll be able to refer back to this and understand what was done and why it was done. We'll be able to make the best use of our corporate know-how, perhaps even re-use information. We'll make better use of resources. We'll improve quality, cut costs and cut development cycles There's a real business benefit to using EDM/PDM. We'll do things at the right time in the right order. We'll overlap them when we can. We won't waste time because some information or some person isn't ready. We'll save time, and cut out the waste. We'll finish ahead of schedule and under budget. We'll work better with other departments, suppliers and customers Without EDM/PDM, we may not know what's happening in Engineering, so it can be difficult to work with other people. We can't tell them we don't know what we're doing, so have to slow them down until we find out. With EDM/PDM, information will be at our fingertips, so we'll work better with other groups. We'll be able to implement change to business processes Without EDM/PDM we don't master our processes. They just run themselves, and it would be dangerous to try to change them. We don't understand exactly what's happening, so any change could be risky. We'll need to clarify the processes for EDM/PDM. Once they're clear, we can start to improve them. |