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rliberty3-Newcomer
3-Newcomer
June 7, 2015
Solved

Is Windchill a good solution for non CAD document control? IE, quality documents, procedures, manuals, work instructions, etc.?

  • June 7, 2015
  • 4 replies
  • 2437 views

We have Winchill 10.2 and love the functionality for CAD data but we're working on documenting and implementing our Q/A manual, SOPs etc. I am tasked with document control and would like to enjoy/apply the WC CAD data control to our non CAD documents, such as check in/check out, permissions, rev control and archive. Is WC a good solution for document management or would SharePoint be better or?

Best answer by kpritchard

Windchill will control and manage your non CAD Documents very well.  It does lack somewhat in terms of a presentation layer which is where applications such as SharePoint tend to get some traction.  As I recall, SharePoint comes in two flavours and you may need the "enterprise" (not sure if that's the real brand name) version to do much of the functionality you're looking for.

I do see the following as benefits to managing in Windchill;

  • Unique identification (Numbering) of Documents
  • The ability to create a Document Structure (similar to a Part Structure/BOM)
  • Establishing linkages through Document relationships
  • Effective Date capability
  • Common Change Environment.  There are a couple of aspects to this... if you use Change Management, Problem Reports are very powerful, and you can move towards a single process/mechanism for Change in your Organization.  Further, Product Change may actually drive changes to SOP's and other Administrative Documents.  Being able to analyze impacts and execute in a common environment is powerful.

4 replies

P
psingh-81-Visitor
1-Visitor
June 8, 2015

Hi Ross

I have worked on a couple of implementations doing exactly what you are looking for. Desktop integration, an important part Windchill 10,  works like charm for Non-Cad documents. I am not too sure if Sharepoint provides you the ability to have complex workflows as well as integrations with other training systems that Windhchill can.

If you can elaborate a bit on your requirements, it will be really helpful in answering the questions. It really depends on what you are looking for. All I can say for now is Windchill works very well with Non-Cad documents.

    P
    psimha1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    June 8, 2015

    I would suggest Windchill for documentation of Non-CAD objects too, rather than share-point. This is because of below cited points:

    a. Ease of creation of folders in windchill environment.

    b. Ease of creation of sub-folders within a main created folder in windchill environment.

    c. Ease of checking in the required documents into the folders and sub-folders created.

    d. Adding the required folders and sub-folders links to Favourites for your quick access.

    e. Creation of work-flows for processes like Check-in, Check-out, revisions.......

    f. As Mr. Pradeep Singh has pointed out, please be a bit more specific on your requirements.

      R
      rliberty3-NewcomerAuthor
      3-Newcomer
      June 8, 2015

      With object initialization rules we already create folders,
      templates etc. with each new “Product” but have seldom used them for lack of
      knowledge. Now we’re getting ready to implement our top down quality control and
      standard operating procedures manual. Before our go-live we need to implement document
      control for the quality manual, the level 2 procedure documents, the level 3
      process documents and level 4 data recording (check sheets etc.) documents.

      Before making the recommendation/decision to use Windchill
      as our document control solution I am hoping to find a real world application
      by a real world user also to get advice/recommendation from someone not selling
      a specific solution.

      1. We already have Desktop Integration on all our workstations
        so I think we have a good bit of the infrastructure in place, we so far only
        lack the commitment and confidence to go with it. Hence my reaching out to the
        gurus (That would be you guys) J
      K
      kpritchard1-VisitorAnswer
      1-Visitor
      June 8, 2015

      Windchill will control and manage your non CAD Documents very well.  It does lack somewhat in terms of a presentation layer which is where applications such as SharePoint tend to get some traction.  As I recall, SharePoint comes in two flavours and you may need the "enterprise" (not sure if that's the real brand name) version to do much of the functionality you're looking for.

      I do see the following as benefits to managing in Windchill;

      • Unique identification (Numbering) of Documents
      • The ability to create a Document Structure (similar to a Part Structure/BOM)
      • Establishing linkages through Document relationships
      • Effective Date capability
      • Common Change Environment.  There are a couple of aspects to this... if you use Change Management, Problem Reports are very powerful, and you can move towards a single process/mechanism for Change in your Organization.  Further, Product Change may actually drive changes to SOP's and other Administrative Documents.  Being able to analyze impacts and execute in a common environment is powerful.
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