Data Skills You Need for the Digital Factory

Imagine a world where data flows with no glitches among your project and systems (e.g. computerized maintenance, information models), whether cloud based or on premises. It would be ideal if your projects were always on track, your entire workforce seamlessly shared data in real time, and workers made the right decisions every time.

Companies are hindered in achieving this ideal by the quality of the data used to make decisions. Too often data collection has been done in a way that skips critical attributes or doesn’t harness knowledge that could be beneficial in the future.

When information is of poor quality or even missing, it impacts facility operators, insurers, risk managers, IT and security staff, auditors, and executives. Further, if information is not collected along the way, it can take months or even years to retrieve, recreate and collate information into a database that an operations team can use for safety, quality and cost-efficient facility operations.

A data strategy is an important part of a manufacturing operation. Before a project even begins, it should be decided what information will be useful after that project is finished.

Investing in skills development around data collection, analysis and management can help your team better handle current and future challenges in their job. Such skills development is critical to success.

From assemblies and drawings to interoperability, parts and presentations, check out this blog to see the Inventor features that can speed up your manufacturing design workflows.

There are examples in the industry to learn from. Some manufacturers have found the key to making good data decisions.

As described in an Autodesk customer story, a battery electric vehicle manufacturer in Canada is using Autodesk Inventor and Vault in its engineering, design and manufacturing processes.

Inventor is used for 3D modeling, documentation and simulations. Using Inventor also enables sharing of 3D models, so a team can work collaboratively to optimize a model using multiple views.

Vault is used for data management. During testing of prototypes, Vault can keep track of model revisions. It also enables the design intent to be translated correctly for fabrication. In the customer story, it was explained that Vault allowed the company to completely eliminate paper in its design, engineering and production workflow.

PowerPack for Inventor runs on top of the Inventor platform. It enables manufacturing industry users to increase control and automation within Inventor. They can speed up everyday modeling, increase productivity and improve workflows within the Inventor workspace, including:

•    Increased automation of exports to different formats, empowering manufacturing data.
•    Improved assembly and part data, ensuring clear and effective component information.
•    Enhanced drawing and header change management.
•    Better bills of materials exports based on complied materials setups.
•    Cleaner model workspaces with visibility controls.

PowerPack for Inventor assists in the manufacturing process with significantly improved creation and export of design information.

Since project management moved onto the internet in the 1990s, multiple industries have been amassing data that gets used after their projects in various management and modeling systems. Having a data strategy and skills in effect automates the collection and handoff of quality data in a way that makes it useful long after a project is completed.

You can learn more about PowerPack for Inventor in the free download: The Ultimate Guide to Autodesk Inventor.