Erp

A recent r/engineering thread on EBOM-to-MBOM translation collected 134 upvotes and 81 comments. The answers split into two camps: “PLM would fix this if companies actually deployed it properly,” and “our team of eight doesn’t have budget for PDM let alone PLM.” Both responses miss the same root cause. The problem starts in how SolidWorks generates an EBOM and what that structure cannot express that manufacturing requires. What SolidWorks Actually Gives You When you insert a BOM table into a SolidWorks drawing or export one from an assembly, you get a direct reflection of the assembly tree. Each component becomes a row. Sub-assemblies appear as parent items with children. Quantities are instance counts. ...

SolidWorks PDM is doing what it was designed to do: managing file versions, controlling access, and keeping your CAD data from becoming a chaotic mess of part_v3_FINAL_real_final.sldprt files. Most teams that implement it see immediate benefits in file control. But then the engineer emails the shop floor a DXF with a hand-typed filename. Procurement is working from a BOM that was exported two weeks ago. The fabrication team has a different quantity listed than what’s in the current assembly. PDM didn’t prevent any of this. ...