Despite the fact that information contained within CAD design files is critical to design, maintenance and operations processes, the management of design files within South African industry has historically been left to those working in the drawing office.

However, the integration of information contained within CAD files into an over-arching ERP system needs to become a fundamental business goal, says Rob Cells, business development manager at Engineering Informatics. "Organisations need to become more aware that the information contained within CAD files is critical to product development and business processes," says Cells.

"That information must be integrated into the ERP system; design and product information is no longer exclusively captured in the engineering world, but readily available to sales, marketing, manufacturing, service, and maintenance personnel. Overall, the integration of CAD systems with ERP systems allows companies to greatly reduce development effort and costs, improve time-to-market, and ensure quality." The integration of CAD files into the ERP system, such as SAP R/3, takes place on two distinct levels:

* CAD drawings can be linked to associated data, such as equipment masters and work orders, within the ERP system. Maintenance and work order staff then simply need a click of the mouse to view the design file for any particular piece of equipment - the CAD file is an essential component of the work package.

* Integration allows the CAD designer to log onto the ERP system via the CAD package to find whatever information is required. The business overhead of searching for relevant data is greatly reduced. The designer is able to choose drawing objects within the CAD design and link those object to records within the ERP system. Any person working with that drawing can access full ERP information via the object link of any of the component parts within the design.

Integrating CAD files

The first step in integrating CAD files with ERP is a thorough analysis of the current methods of operation, says Cells. "The first, vital step is the current state analysis. This is where we examine the current system and processes - how the drawing office is run, the management of drawings, who holds master copies, how long it takes to respond to drawing requests, how many copies of each drawing are produced, how many versions are produced and how often they are updated."

"Based on our experience we then examine what ERP technology can offer in terms of business process improvements. Our mix of business and technical knowledge allows us to define the gaps between the current state and the potential that ERP technology offers." The most time consuming and error-prone phase of integrating the functions of the drawing office with an ERP system is converting legacy documents into electronic format. Often this process is outsourced, as it is a specialised function that may well require the conversion of large numbers of legacy documents.

"Once we have the documents in electronic format we then automatically import all the drawings and populate the indexes in the ERP system for all those drawings," Rob continues. "If the drawings already contain links to other information we automatically recreate those links - often drawings form part of an existing hierarchy, and it is vital that the hierarchy and referential integrity of documents are maintained." Once all documents have been converted into electronic format and imported into the ERP system the groundwork has been laid for a drawing office that functions as an integral part of the ERP system. Data is drawn from a single, consistent source, changes to documents are controlled, tracked and audited. In short, the drawing office is efficiently and electronically controlled and managed.

"Once the integration is complete, the benefits are substantial," says Cells. "Firstly, information is not duplicated. Drawings are immediately available to the user. By using direct CAD application integration to the ERP system, the work output of the design departments is integrated immediately into the complete business process flow."

The bottom line benefits of this sort of integration and streamlined communication are the tight integration of CAD systems with ERP systems, accelerating product development through integrating engineering and design into the business processes. In addition, formerly independent technical environments are bound together while further enhancing the work efficiency of the individual design engineer.

Engineering Informatics

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