Using version or revision in drawing?

[OM]

Hi,

We are using revision only in our drawings, till we implemented Windchill 9.1.

Now, our consultants are strongly suggesting us to mention version in drawings instead of just revision.

Also everytime we change our drawing, they want us to iterate it for version & not to revise it.

As per them revise a part only, when there are major changes.

This is very confusing situation for others, as one day we are releasing version 0.1 to plant and our next release can be 0.4, now at plant level everybody is confused where are the missing on as they are not the part of PLM till now.

Can anyone help me on this?

[HugoHermans]

It depends on what's driving your business, documents or articles. When articles are the driving objects, you can restrict your revise-promote procedure to articles only. But when documents are (still) in the driving seat, you will have to revise-promote the documents. To cover this (historical) situation, you can implement procedures that keeps revisions and life cycle states in sync with each other.

My 2cents, Hugo.

[MikeLockwood]

These are core and key concepts for how PLM is used - and affects many related business processes and user procedures. Really important to fully think thru them, make good decisions, document very carefully, then train users and fully enforce.

Our thoughts after 5+ years using Intralink 3.x and 5 1/2 years using PDMLink:

1. The world outside Windchill operates on Revisions, not Versions. Pretty much everyone refers to the data related to a box of parts, or a quote or a lab test, or a design review, etc. as "Rev B" and not "Ver B.2."

2. It's necessary to set up configurations such that you "finish" a Revision prior to creating the next one. The last Iteration of each Revision has to be the ONLY one on which you do anything outside Windchill. This requires that Modify permission by state be mutually exclusive from Revise permission by state. You allow new Iterations at the working state, then once the state is changed, no more Iterations. You also only allow Revise from a state at which no more Iterations can be created. Working backwards, this ensures that any reference to "Rev B" from outside WIndchill is always to the latest (static) Iteration at that Revision.

3. It is very, very helpful to identify for CAD the 3D Model shown on Drawings, and populating Drawing tables. For this reason, we map the primary Model's Version (not just Revision) in Drawing formats. Example: B.2 Drawing retrieved as stored could be displaying the geometry in B.4 PRT. But, the latest of that PRT could be B.5. It's important to publish (to ProductView / CreoView) using AS STORED.