Metadata and Parameter Management Streamlining

[wbottis]

I have been working with Pro/Creo for 15 years and what I see as being the number one cause for organization bog-down and recurring costs associated with this software suite is the amount of time it takes to manage metadata and parameters.  This includes renaming files and updating parameters, titles, material properties, folder assignments, and more in order to conform to organization rules and standards.  Confusion by users regarding whether the data can be assigned, renamed, changed, or updated in the model tree, in a workspace list, upon initial creation of a part or assembly, or in Common PDM is rampant.  Some data can be managed in all four environments/dashboards and some can only be managed in one.  Some data requires database "checkin status" and some requires "checkout".  There are those parameters that users do not seem to have authority to change at all and there are some parameters that are simply redundant and should be made to be the same across related parts, assemblies, and drawings by default or through relations.  Workspace lists accessed through the embedded browser contain columns of data with no header labels, resulting in further confusion as to what the column represents and columns of data also seem redundant.  It almost seems like PTC ran out of time to finish this part of the software and never returned to it.  Instead, they expanded the software suite to include applications that also seem incomplete and that list is growing.

Solution: Enhance the Creo software (incrementally if necessary over a period of builds) to allow the engineer or designer to manage everything in the graphics window and model tree so that all aforementioned data management can be dealt with "on-the-fly" with checkout status by double clicking the field in the model tree, entering the data, and pressing enter, done.  Allow the user to make changes to any of these parameters even after initial checkin, so they aren't required to then navigate to and make corrections in Common PDM.  This enhancement should not preclude data management administrators who are not familiar with or do not have access to Creo from changing and managing any data in Common PDM.  Any redundant parameters should be made to be equal through relations or some other equivalent.  Example includes the parameters 'Name', 'Title', 'Number', 'Filename'. 

Consider this proposal in the context of hundreds of engineers and designers in an organization who are managing hundreds of large assemblies, hence tens of thousands of parameters, and the implications on eliminating the recurring labor costs associated with using the current approach.  Not to mention the cost avoidance by allowing engineers and designers to be free now to do their job of technical problem solving, designing, performing tolerance analyses, checking thread compatibility, brainstorming and optimizing designs for DFMA or otherwise, etc. instead of data management and repetitive, wasteful data accounting activities.  Pitch this to the multitude of your corporate customers and see what they say.  I think it's a no-brainer selling point.  Thank you for your time and consideration.