What Is Product Data and How to Manage It?

Have you sat down in your living room and stared at your air conditioner, wondering how it came to being? Well, that air conditioner was once a product and a project a manufacturer was working on day and night to see its fruition.

How did the manufacturing company manage to bring all the details together? The dimensions of the product, the components, the manufacturing process, etc. were once product data on a piece of paper!

Through product data management, any idea of a product is easily brought to fruition. The engineers and manufacturers will follow the details on the product data-sheet to develop the physical products.

But your company cannot handle everything by itself. You need to outsource some services so that you concentrate on the core business of your company.

So, what is product data, and how can you manage it? Let’s find out below.

The Genesis of Product Data Management (PDM)

You already have a glimpse of what product data management is. Before we delve deeper into what it entails, you may want to know where and when it started.

Stop traveling back deep into the old days. Product data management isn’t that old. It is more of a recent practice than it is an old development.

Before its realization, product design for sophisticated products was carried out by different teams. This whole process was marred in a lot of confusion and a delay in product development.

With time, organizations realized that centralizing the whole process was more effective and fast. Centralization meant there would be seamless communication and reduced likelihood of failure.

Today you only get to see a product’s masterpiece version and not several versions of the same product doing rounds in the market. This is because centralization has helped bring together all the product ideas and build up a single outstanding masterpiece.

And with the advancement of technology, the process became even easier. It is easier to store data and refer to it whenever you want it. There are also better tools to help you protect your data from cybercrime.

Managing Product Data in the Modern Times

Thanks to technological advancement, it is much easier to manage data in the modern days than when PDM was first discovered. With the help of PDM software, you can achieve better results in the following ways.

• PDM software helps you to keep track of the repetition of artifacts and the detailed interrelationships between them
• Easily release the necessary engineering documentation to participants in other departments such as procurement, manufacturing, etc.
• Safely coordinate and consolidate artifact progress and developments between individuals and teams

Handling product data management may need the help of professionals. Those that are equipped with product data management tools such as pim and excel.

How PDM Software Simplifies Product Data Management

All PDM software does is simplify your product data management experience. It ensures that you achieve this once tiresome and demanding critical procedure in an organized and traceable manner. Here’s how it helps achieve simplicity.

It Allows Check-in and Check-Out to Get and Update Product Data

The check-out action allows you to download the latest or specific version of a product in your catalog when using the PDM software.

On the other hand, the check-in action helps you upload a new set of data of a given product in your catalog.

This feature works this way: Assuming your company is manufacturing a motorcycle. Every team involved in the manufacturing and assembly process should already know what the final product should look like.

With the help of PDM software, every partisan group inclines to the product’s needs and specifications, and no one tries to divert from the main guidelines.

When someone forgets what he/she needs for a particular process, he/she checks-in and out to refresh on what they need to progress.

All these progress and changes in your products’ data are captured and updated in real-time. No delay, reduced error margin, and outstanding products become the order of the day with PDM software.

You Can Now Mine Product Data to Create Derivative Ones

PDM software makes it easy to access assemblies from MCAD software and layouts from ECAD software. With this data, you can generate the Bill of Materials you need in PDM software for effective product management.

PDM software also has the functionalities you can use to manage ECAD product data, software product data, and simulation product data.

It Exposes Product Data to Non-Technical Stakeholders

Using PDM software, you can easily reveal products to non-technical stakeholders during the product development process.

This information is usually the one created using technical software that the non-technical staff lack access to. By sharing such data, you easily include every significant party in developing the product for greater results.

You Can Easily Search for Specific Product Information

Thanks to PDM, you can now easily find and reuse products by texting their specific names or shapes in the search box. The need for recreating new data for a product you already have in your catalog is now a forgotten struggle.

Share Product Data Safely With External Stakeholders

There’s no need to worry about your data’s safety once you start sharing with your external stakeholders. PDM software allows you to do so safely in a fast and convenient process.

You can grant your suppliers, customers, and partners access to your product data using this function. Based on the type of information and the stakeholder you are sharing with, you can choose to share as view only or editable access options.

PDM Is Here to Stay

If you are imaging the future of product data management, then you should be doing so with PDM and PDM software in mind. Every product you have admired today is a result of excellent product data management.

Companies that are already using PDM software understand how easy this new technology has made their production work. It is evident; more companies will be incorporating this new technology in the future.

If you need more help with your business, you can always read more of such articles available for you on our website.