http://www.razorleaf.com Innovative Process Solutions. Bottom-Line Results. Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:36:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/rightsizing-your-licensing/ http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/rightsizing-your-licensing/#comments Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:30:56 +0000 bethb http://www.razorleafcorp.com/?p=639 When making an investment in a business system, most people’s primary concern is the up-front cost of the software license, however, there are a number of additional factors that are also very important in the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), such as training, implementation, hardware, and staffing and administration. Nonetheless, the most obvious system-related cost [...]]]> http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/rightsizing-your-licensing/feed/ 0 http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/enabling-%e2%80%9cjust-enough%e2%80%9d-access/ http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/enabling-%e2%80%9cjust-enough%e2%80%9d-access/#comments Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:06:20 +0000 bethb http://www.razorleafcorp.com/?p=609 Most manufacturers already know what they need to share with suppliers and customers, they just don’t know how, or perhaps better said, don’t know the best way to share that data. That data is probably drawings, or perhaps a rendition of a drawing, product information, product structure or BOM information, etc. If you have implemented [...]]]> http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/enabling-%e2%80%9cjust-enough%e2%80%9d-access/feed/ 0 http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/the-life-of-a-bom/ http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/the-life-of-a-bom/#comments Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:46:22 +0000 bethb http://www.razorleafcorp.com/?p=591 Many mechanical design companies think of the bill of materials (BOM) as a report of the components used in their design. Increasing levels of design sophistication and higher levels of cross-departmental communication has lead to a different view of this piece of product documentation. Actually, the piece of documentation isn’t viewed differently, but its contents [...]]]> http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/the-life-of-a-bom/feed/ 0 http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/options-pdm-multi-site-architectures/ http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/options-pdm-multi-site-architectures/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:39:42 +0000 bethb http://www.razorleafcorp.com/?p=566 Most engineering and manufacturing businesses that need PDM expect they will need multi-site capabilities in their PDM system someday due to geographic expansion, mergers and acquisitions, etc. Just because a PDM vendor says they support multi-site functionality doesn’t mean they have the right architecture for your situation. To help you understand the options [...]]]> http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/options-pdm-multi-site-architectures/feed/ 0 http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/dash-numbers/ http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/dash-numbers/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:26:33 +0000 bethb http://www.razorleafcorp.com/?p=548 In today’s 3D CAD world, we have to question many of the “rules of thumb” put in place over the course of many years of 2D drafting. One challenge worth proposing relates to the concept of dash numbers for representing families of parts. While dash numbers have a place in many design environments, the use [...]]]> http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/dash-numbers/feed/ 0 http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/pdm-versus-erp/ http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/pdm-versus-erp/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:16:29 +0000 bethb http://www.razorleafcorp.com/?p=537 Since the introduction of the document/file management capabilities in ERP/MRP systems in the 1990’s, the debate has raged about where to keep product data. It is hard to argue with the fact that manufacturing needs access to drawings, specifications, and other technical information to be able to produce a company’s product. Conversely though, [...]]]> http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/pdm-versus-erp/feed/ 0 http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/think-outside-the-box-company/ http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/think-outside-the-box-company/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:07:34 +0000 bethb http://www.razorleafcorp.com/?p=524 You analyze your processes, you tweak them, you redesign them, you implement improvements, but all you get is a meager return on your invested efforts. While you may have benefited from redesigning your internal processes, it doesn’t take long to realize that in most cases, it’s not your delays and errors that are the most [...]]]> http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/think-outside-the-box-company/feed/ 0 http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/flow-manufacturing/ http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/flow-manufacturing/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:57:05 +0000 bethb http://www.razorleafcorp.com/?p=507 Some attention has been paid to the application of Lean Manufacturing principles in the back office (for example, “Lean Thinking” by Womack and Jones), but there are not many engineers who understand the lean concepts well enough to apply them to their design and other engineering processes. One aspect of Lean Manufacturing is especially interesting [...]]]> http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/flow-manufacturing/feed/ 0 http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/plm-participation-versus-integration/ http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/plm-participation-versus-integration/#comments Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:24:15 +0000 bethb http://www.razorleafcorp.com/?p=483 If your company uses CAD tools and if those CAD files are managed by PDM software, then you already know the benefits of PLM integration, meaning programmed interactions between PLM elements whereby the data management system understands and interprets authoring tools’ internal data structures. Without integration, it would be nearly or completely impossible to manage [...]]]> http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/plm-participation-versus-integration/feed/ 0 http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/configurations-part-families-item-numbers/ http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/configurations-part-families-item-numbers/#comments Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:02:22 +0000 bethb http://www.razorleafcorp.com/?p=454 The origination of the configuration/part family feature in CAD tools is certainly interesting. There are some very elegant uses of configurations like showing a sheet metal part in the bent and flat states. Then there are abuses, like the bearing part with 431 unique part numbers, each with a simplified and detailed configuration for a [...]]]> http://www.razorleaf.com/2009/04/configurations-part-families-item-numbers/feed/ 0