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Reply to Reason 41. To improve service to customers, both external and internal, the barriers between different departments have to be removed. Many of these barriers were built to make it possible for each department to be relatively independent, and thus organize itself to work as efficiently as possible. In the future, the company has to act as a whole, not as a group of independent departments, and the aim will be to improve the effectiveness of the overall company, not the efficiency of each individual department. Replies to reasons 43 - 44. The concepts of EDM/PDM are very easy to understand, and many people believe they are correspondingly easy to develop and implement. However, engineering computing professionals are employed to support Engineering, not to demonstrate their skills at redeveloping the wheel. There are many EDM/PDM systems available on the market, some of them containing over one hundred man-years of development work. It is extremely unlikely that even the most brilliant engineering computing group is going to develop, within reasonable time and cost limits, an EDM/PDM system that offers functionality anywhere near that of systems currently available on the market. Replies to reasons 45 - 46. Many people in engineering computing organizations find it difficult to get enthusiastic about EDM/PDM systems, and they consider them to be unattractive, technologically backward, and irrelevant to the real needs of engineers. Some people are unsatisfied by the metadata approach, and feel that an engineering data management system should know everything about all the bits and bytes, not just a few selected attributes. Others feel that EDM/PDM systems have little to contribute to improving new product development cycles, and that rather than investing in EDM/PDM, a company should invest in systems that can be directly linked to improving the productivity of engineers. However, in practice, EDM/PDM systems do have a major impact on improving engineering productivity. Their overall impact is a lot greater than that of a few more MIPS. They free engineers from a lot of overhead tasks, leaving them free to concentrate on more interesting and value-adding activities. Replies to reasons 47 - 49. Past mistakes shouldn't be allowed to hinder progress. Ways can always be found to get the EDM/PDM message across to management without pointing a finger at the 'guilty'. Replies to reason 50. If people are unaware of the benefits of EDM/PDM, they should be made aware of them. They should be shown examples of the use of EDM/PDM by other companies, in particular, use by competitors. Reply to reason 51. If you would like to do EDM/PDM, but other people don't want to, you should explain to them why it is so important. Tell them how the benefits such as reduced product development cycles, increased quality, fewer and faster engineering changes will improve their working life. Reply to reason 52. If you would like to do EDM/PDM, but don't have the power to impose it, you need to identify those around you who do have the power and convince them of the need for EDM/PDM. Reply to reason 53. If you would like to do EDM/PDM, but don't think you have any influence, think again. Talk to your colleagues, help them understand the advantages of EDM/PDM. Once they have understood, you will no longer feel alone and without influence. Together you will be able to spread the EDM/PDM message. Before long, EDM/PDM will have so many supporters that implementation will occur. Reply to reason 54. If you can't do EDM/PDM because it's not in the plan you have to follow, then you need to explain the importance of EDM/PDM to the person who set the plan. It's unlikely that the plan specifically excludes EDM/PDM. Most likely you can bring about some change. Perhaps only a small EDM/PDM project can be slipped into the 'other activities' section of the plan, but this will be a good start. Reply to reason 55. You would like to do EDM/PDM, but don't have the resources? Be serious, how can you possibly not have the resources for one of the most important technologies of the 1990's. Perhaps you need to adjust your priorities. Start by cutting out some of the waste, and you'll soon have the people, time and money for EDM/PDM. Reply to reason 56. You would like to do EDM/PDM, but don't know how to cost-justify it. Almost an acceptable reason, but if you read the EDM/PDM Newsletter's publications you will overcome this problem. Replies to reasons 57-58. Unless your company is out of business, it's never too late to start EDM/PDM activities. It may be too early to implement EDM/PDM, but it's never too early to start making people aware of EDM/PDM's benefits. Reply to reason 59. Some people would rather reinvent their own EDM/PDM system than find one that's available on the market. Others would rather reinvent the reasons for using EDM/PDM than use other people's reasons. Fortunately, this is less expensive than reinventing an EDM/PDM system. Usually it strengthens beliefs in EDM/PDM and leads people to become fervent supporters of their own EDM/PDM cause. Make sure that the reasons are reinvented by a team and not by one person unable to make the dream come true. |