Have you ever tried to plan a big event with multiple co-planners? My siblings and I were recently tasked with planning our parents’ 50th anniversary party. We had choices to make on a guestlist, invitations, location, décor, menu, and entertainment. We had lists, floorplans, vendor details, schedules, addresses, photos, etc. This effort was more difficult because we live in three different geographical locations. We needed a centralized system to gather, sort, and assign tasks for everything that needed executing to ease the pressure that comes from organizing events from all over the place.
The scary truth for most organizations is that documents are all over the place…but it’s chaos on a way bigger scale and with way more risk. Duplicates are buried on individuals’ hard drives and email inboxes, and there are paper copies on desks, in vehicles and out on the plant floor. On the network, they’re buried in complex folder structures where each department or discipline has their own organizing principles. If you’ve grown by acquisition, these challenges are magnified, as each organization had their own way of managing information. The capability to work together on documents with ease, efficiency, and control can deliver big results.
Managing engineering documentation in a plant or facility environment that’s constantly changing is a high stakes challenge. Maintenance and operations teams require fast access to accurate as-builts and equipment drawings, even as capital project and construction crews work on changes in the same facility. Collaboration is key. An engineering document management (EDM) platform can connect teams and simplify document access, control, and collaboration. It enables organizations to drive best practices and standards while delivering the essential foundation needed for operational excellence and digital transformation.
Innovation, speed, and quality are essential for nearly any business to thrive. With Adept, you can give your workforce a common platform for document collaboration and worksharing that brings departments, remote sites, and external partners together. Adept offers:
- Workflow automation. Organizations function better when documents flow through the correct processes automatically. Time-based alerts and notifications help to identify bottlenecks to keep schedules on track.
It’s critical that we all have ready access to the same information, so that drawings and other engineering specifications are easily shared and controlled. For example, we need to make sure that if a part number is going to be made in Germany they’re able to pull the engineering drawing, with exactly the same revision level and with all the proper specifications that will allow them to make exactly the part that is needed. We need to ensure that happens.
—Victor Melendez, Corporate Development Director, Ruhrpumpen
- Built-in version control. Easy access and sharing of the latest document version reduces safety and reliability concerns, change orders, compliance issues and wasted time.
We needed to start moving our data into different areas to be managed by the right people and then give access to all the people who need it — but in a controlled way. That’s one of the areas where Adept is really enabling us. It’s allowed us to do these kinds of global administration that would just not be possible in the past.
—Jenny Knox, Project Manager, Ruhrpumpen
- Visualization and markup for non-CAD users. EDM makes it easy for those on the plant floor or in the field to find, view and markup virtually any document including drawings, models, specifications, etc.
In addition to the customer’s example of savings from Adept’s replication (at right), its enterprise implementation has consistently led to 20 – 30% increase in workforce productivity. Capital engineering projects consistently overrun on cost and schedule. When manufacturers utilize a centralized platform for collaboration and ensure the right people have access to the right information, projects run efficiently, and timelines are met or accelerated.
Have you considered what your engineering documents are really worth to your manufacturing organization?
