Advice about how to return data to PDM

[mp3-250]

I am looking for a opinion or a tested way to handle this issue with EPDM.

Our Deptartments are asking to be able to pack-and-go some PDM data and outsource the job to external designers and design offices to finish or modify our projects and return them to PDM once finished. Externals are cheaper, but equiped at bare minimum and not able to afford PDM.
At the moment the process is complete anarchy and some data ends up somewhere outside the vault, so this needs to be fixed somehow and in a decent way.

I was thinking about the simplest concept to do it:
1. checking out the data to be outsourced (not even done atm)
2. pack and go them and outsourced
3. when the data come back run a sanity check on the file properties cleaning them up outside the vault
4. replace all the variable with the one from the corrispondent checked out files in the vault
5. overwrite the checked out file in the vault with the new one from outside the vault
6. check in the file (file version increase)
7. new files in the vault are reset by our default workflow so no need too much effort

This process while viable for a few dozen of files must be automatized, or replaced by a better workflow.
It is only a raw idea at this stage.

One drawback for assemblies is that their files and subassemblies could be in a lot of different states, not necessarly locked and I likely won't be able to roll the outsourced assembly back, as our legacy workflows saves permanently only official releases and we have a very small cold storage (10 versions).


thanks in advance

[jcapriotti]

I don't recommend this if you have a complex product and process with lots of changes happening. Our company forced us to try this years ago and it as a major flop. We spent more time gathering the files, packing them up, sending them to the remote group, then receiving them, checking that everything was ok. There was a 12 hour time zone (US to India) difference so questions back and forth were often delayed a day. The external company also seemed to have a constant turnover of new people so they were constantly training resulting in more errors.

The 'hourly' saving the uppers management touted quickly dissolved. There were multiple errors in the work, the external groups "repository of copies" quickly became out of date resulting in errors when added back to PDM that they didn't see.

That said, management still pushes this and have since opened our network and PDM to external contractors via VPN. This alleviates some of the problems. This time, they chose a company with a similar time zone (South America). Challenges are latency, we don't have replication local to them, and language barrier.

This all depends on how complex the product and process are and the abilities of the external group. Ours is extremely complex and requires constant communication.

[mp3-250]

Thank you @jcapriotti .

Unfortunately VPN is not an option for various reasons.
We already have some data (some GBs) that was packed out the vault and trying to figure out how to make it useful again.

[Diaval]

You could look at using Branch and Merge for these cases.

1. Branch the files to a separate folder in PDM - ensure all files that should be modified and any references they rely on are branched
2. Pack and Go the branched files and give these to the outsource company.
3. When the files come back, check out the branched files and copy the updated files over the branch files.
4. Verify that the files are working ok in the branch.
5. Merge the files back to the source - During the merge you can select which branched files should overwrite the source files and which files you may want to keep using the original source (eg for files that did not change in the update)

There are merge settings in the user settings where you can specify how to handle variables in the merge. You can select to use values from the source file or from the branch file. In your case, you will probably want to set it so that it will take the source file variable values so you don't have to worry about these getting changed by the outsource company. These settings will also allow you to keep the source file revision on the merge so that your revision history stays intact.

[the_h4mmer]

I second the branch and merge option. I had a conversation with people about this at a previous job and pushed back on the idea for the very reasons that @jcapriotti brought up, plus there would be an opacity to the design intent as the version history would show a huge step change (which could be addressed with good documentation).

[mp3-250]

Thank you for the feedback. I need to look into the branch and merge for our needs.
Anyway it looks a lot better than the current state of things, but my main concern is who is going to handle branching and merging as the PDM literacy of our engineers is bear minimum and the vault is quite a mess.

[bnemec]

Thank you for the feedback. I need to look into the branch and merge for our needs.
Anyway it looks a lot better than the current state of things, but my main concern is who is going to handle * as the PDM literacy of our engineers is bear minimum and the vault is quite a mess.

I feel ya!

[AlexLachance]

At the moment the process is complete anarchy and some data ends up somewhere outside the vault, so this needs to be fixed somehow and in a decent way.

I don't use PDM, but why does "some" data end up somewhere outside the vault..? Newly created files by them..?

[mp3-250]

I don't use PDM, but why does "some" data end up somewhere outside the vault..? Newly created files by them..?

Copy and paste or Pack n go outside the vault on some Dept. server (with documents or other stuff), quite a lot on personal workstations desktops for what I saw. Then sent to other Depts or suppliers.

[AlexLachance]

Copy and paste or Pack n go outside the vault on some Dept. server (with documents or other stuff), quite a lot on personal workstations desktops for what I saw. Then sent to other Depts or suppliers.

Why can't they be brought back in afterwards...? Does it need to be done manually? Can't something go through your item list using a True/False argument and compare the item number to existing ones inside the Vault to know if they are there or not and add them if they aren't..?