August 1996 € Volume 6 € Number 8
Letters
To the editor:
Dick Bourke, in his June 1996 article "Integrating PDM with ERP,"
has done us all a great service by opening the kimono to the gulf between
how design folk see configuration management and how enterprise resource
planning (ERP) systems approach design change implementation. The "turf
wars" not only have begun, but they have been fought, to my knowledge,
for more than 50 years.
The cold fact is that engineers think in terms of drawing revision with
revision letters while planners, for the most part, think in terms of effectivity
dates. Each of their respective systems thinks the same way. Therein lies
the problem.
However, it is unrealistic to think that bridges or software overlays will
solve the problem. ERP systems normally carry revision code as a reference
field and many implementations even choose not to populate this field. Indeed,
in many cases, it is not possible to see line-item revision status on BOMs,
work orders or purchase orders as a standard process. Further, in today's
time-based, total supply chain competitive world, predicting effectivity
dates "n" weeks ahead is an impossible task.
Until the time when engineering and manufacturing are marching to the same
drummer with the same song sheet (the single, common bill of material),
we need a human being in the breach. This person, either an engineering
type with planning experience, or a planner with engineering change experience,
should be charged with maintaining data integrity so that revision control
and planning effectivity are kept in synch with each other. If this smacks
of CIRM, so be it.
The problem becomes even more difficult in this era where the cost of MRP/JIT
systems has come down to the point that almost all manufacturing companies
can afford to join the party. Their entry level or mid-range systems only
give lip service to the issue of part and BOM integrity. Perhaps Dick will
address this issue in a future article.
-- Donald N. Frank,
BSEE, CFPIM, CIRM
President, D. N. Frank Associates
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