That's life workin' for a biiiig company....

They are being driven by ISO9002 standards... It won't change.

--Bob

Chen Xiao Fan wrote:

>Very interesting reading. Creating the part list really takes a 
>lot of time for me. My company is a medium-sized company and the 
>schematics and layout package (P-CAD 2002) is not linked to the
>ERP (Movex on IBM AS400). It is a headache to look into the
>system to see the availability of part in the store and the
>cost since you need to remmeber those cryptic command on the
>Movex system. Just hope they could link this together. You
>know we have 6-digit part numbers and they just start
>to standize on nameing of the component. And they are going 
>to upgrade the ERP system to be web based. But it is much
>slower than the old terminal based program. :(
>
>When we want to get a new part, we need to request the part
>samples, the quotations through the help of the purchasing
>department. We need to creat the datasheet, ask the layouter
>to create the EDA library. All need to be stored in the 
>engineering document manage system (EDM) and need at least
>two levels of approval.
>
>So it is true in effect, all the processes are driven from the 
>designers schematic (and the part list from the schematics).
>But I just think this takes too much time and should put too
>much administrative efforts to the design engineer. Can it
>be handled at least partially by the "product engineering 
>department". Does someone else have a better approach?
>
>Xiaofan
>
>  
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Kenneth Lumia [mailto:klumia@adelphia.net]
>>Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 1:58 AM
>>To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
>>Subject: Re: [EE] Pull-up/down resistors
>>
>>--- short reply ---
>>It's not really a question of the amount of business.  Most schematic
>>software allows you to add text (such as internal part numbers) that
>>can be hidden on the actual schematic, but is picked up by other
>>software to automate tasks further down the chain.
>>
>>---long reply----:)
>>It must be the design engineer's responsibility to generate the parts
>>list as only the designer knows exactly what is needed.  This is
>>generally done indirectly and automated as far as possible.  For
>>example, at a previous employer, all of the systems were linked
>>together.  As the designer, I would create a schematic on a Sun
>>Workstation using Mentor graphics schematic capture.  The
>>schematic software was linked to a database that held all the
>>parts that the company used, so in effect, I couldn't add a new part
>>with unknown vendors to a schematic.  If a new part was needed,
>>I would generate a new parts request that got every one involved,
>>from purchasing, production, safety, layout, etc. to verify that the
>>new part was acceptable.  Once approved, it could be added.
>>When the schematic was complete, it would be sent to the layout
>>people.  They would layout the board (after several go-arounds with
>>me for placement and general routing instructions).  Once complete,
>>the software would magically create a BOM with reference designators,
>>parts quantities, etc.  This would get sent to purchasing to
>>"load requirements" into the purchasing system based on projected
>>demand and production ramp-up.  Unless the company is really small,
>>purchasing is automated with the vendos/distributors.  This used to be
>>called EDA purchasing, now I think its under the heading B2B.  The
>>net effect is that the parts are automatically ordered based on lead
>>times for each part and humans really only need to be involved if
>>there is a problem (such as parts shortages). This used to be called
>>JIT (or JTL if you liked to complain).  As far as production goes, the
>>layout people send the files to production.  Production runs another
>>software application that generates XY coordinates and rotations
>>for each part.  They don't use the reference designators at all. Most
>>boards are too tightly packed to fit them on the silkscreen. Similar
>>files are sent to test engineering to build test heads for 
>>electrical test.
>>Even the production techs fixing the ocassional error don't 
>>normally use
>>the ref des.  They run on xy coordinates that feed back into 
>>a database.
>>
>>Automating and using good processes goes a long way to avoiding
>>errors.  Then, when an error does occur, it happens on all 
>>units of that
>>build.  Much easier to correct than an occasional "hand 
>>stuffed" board 
>>error.
>>
>>In effect, all the above processes are driven from the 
>>designers schematic.
>>
>>Ken
>>    
>>


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