Arena PLM + QMS
Arena, a PTC businessReviews from AWS customer
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Best Overall Value for everything PLM
What do you like best about the product?
Arena does a great job of doing the necessities right such as:
1) BOM Management
Creating Multi level BOMs and outlining components in a BOM is simple
2) Supplier Management
Keeping track of all Suppliers in the system along with granting approved suppliers access to the system is a huge plus
3) Part Creation
Simple & Consistent no matter what type of part you are creating. Configurable attributes depending on the category
4) QMS
Changes & Quality module are highly customizable and can link well to each other
5) ECO Management
Tracking the changes to an item that are within a change is easy to do with the Redlines function.
Notifications can be configured when an ECO is not approved with a certain amount of time
1) BOM Management
Creating Multi level BOMs and outlining components in a BOM is simple
2) Supplier Management
Keeping track of all Suppliers in the system along with granting approved suppliers access to the system is a huge plus
3) Part Creation
Simple & Consistent no matter what type of part you are creating. Configurable attributes depending on the category
4) QMS
Changes & Quality module are highly customizable and can link well to each other
5) ECO Management
Tracking the changes to an item that are within a change is easy to do with the Redlines function.
Notifications can be configured when an ECO is not approved with a certain amount of time
What do you dislike about the product?
User Experience can feel a bit wonky at times since certain actions take multiple clicks to get to your desired information.
Sometimes it feels like there is a bit of information overload when viewing items or changes in the system for new users.
Sometimes it feels like there is a bit of information overload when viewing items or changes in the system for new users.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Arena is helping us keep an accurate BOM and track where key items are used across multiple BOMs.
The Projects Module is useful for storing key information throughout the Product Development lifecycle.
Tracking numerous changes across different product lines is possible with Arena as you can have different types of changes that occur to an item at the same time.
The Projects Module is useful for storing key information throughout the Product Development lifecycle.
Tracking numerous changes across different product lines is possible with Arena as you can have different types of changes that occur to an item at the same time.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Arena PLM is a good choice because of the amount of flexibility and customization the system gives you.
Attributes for Changes, Items, Quality, and Projects are all highly customizable.
Enabling Access Policies is a huge benefit as you can govern what information users have access to.
Attributes for Changes, Items, Quality, and Projects are all highly customizable.
Enabling Access Policies is a huge benefit as you can govern what information users have access to.
Used for quality documentation and project report submission
What do you like best about the product?
User interface, documentation capability, easy navigation and easy submission for approval
What do you dislike about the product?
Features are not bad. It could have been better. I wish there was a feature where I can easily go from one document to another by simply clicking the reference document instead of having to search it from the search bar.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I mostly route document change orders to get feedback and approval of protocols, reports, SOPs, and drawings. The most valuable benefit of this platform is that users can get approvals or disapproval easily.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
I would highly encourage people to at least try it to see if this works for you or not. This may not be an all in one platform, but this has almost all basic features needed for a proper document control.
Great to manage BOMs
What do you like best about the product?
Easy to setup, manage and control BOM's across the organization
What do you dislike about the product?
Every few months Arena asks to change password.
when loading files, Arena doesn't recognize what kind of file it is, drawing, CAD, etc.
when loading files, Arena doesn't recognize what kind of file it is, drawing, CAD, etc.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Managing BOMs within the organization.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
integrate with Solidworks PDM
I like arena for using test procedure as reference. Its neat and awesome
What do you like best about the product?
there are a lot of ways to find what you are looking for as reference like you can choose category and another window will pop up and you will choose test procedure or schematic or mechanical assembly etc. its easy to use as well
What do you dislike about the product?
the password you need to reset every 2 months
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
database and centralize reference so you can use it anywhere as long as there is internet
Recommendations to others considering the product:
for those who are looking for QMS service you should try this one its very convenient and easy to use
Arena PLM is a robust platform for engineering and quality control.
What do you like best about the product?
Change control is easy to understand and pick up.
What do you dislike about the product?
Historic Arena databases require some special controls and attention.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Medical Device PLM on one platform for change control and engineering management activities that are easy to share with other Arena users/suppliers/consultants.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
This system works well and is easy to implement.
Good user interface supports compliance
What do you like best about the product?
THe user inferface is very intuitive. This minimizes training time for new employees starting out using the system. We are a small start up with a limited number of products, I have used other QMS/PLM systems in the past , and while they were more comprehensive, they were very difficult to learn.
What do you dislike about the product?
Limited packaged reports causes me to resort to downloading data to excel to manipulate the data. Hoping the summer 2020 update is the answer I need.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
As a start up we had a blank slate and managing part numbers, documents , revision control , and CAPA was easy to do while we concentrated on the starting up manufacturing.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Look at ease of use, can be more important when it comes to compliance. Not yest the most comprehensive solution, but I am encouraged by the continual improvements and additional functionality with each revision.
Very intuitive and easy to use.
What do you like best about the product?
Easily being able to view multiple BOMs at one time, and the attributes tied to a part. I also like the ability to export as much or as little information as I want about a part or multiple parts
What do you dislike about the product?
not being able to see multiple where used at a time.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
documenting engineering changes and being able to control documents and documentation for manufacturing.
Extremely powerful business software
What do you like best about the product?
What I like best about Arena is it is very easy to use and search items in the archive. Arena is very well organized and easy for new users to get up to speed on how to pull part numbers and save files.
The BOM structure handling is very well setup in this system. I also like how all files are dependent on each other when they are linked in a bill of materials structure, and can't add or remove components without updating this structure, so it forces everyone to take their time when making changes to released parts. I also like the ability to search older changes and mine data.
That greatly helps me to determine if parts come in that were made wrong, I can go back and look to see why we made each change in the past so that we dont accept parts that will not function properly.
The BOM structure handling is very well setup in this system. I also like how all files are dependent on each other when they are linked in a bill of materials structure, and can't add or remove components without updating this structure, so it forces everyone to take their time when making changes to released parts. I also like the ability to search older changes and mine data.
That greatly helps me to determine if parts come in that were made wrong, I can go back and look to see why we made each change in the past so that we dont accept parts that will not function properly.
What do you dislike about the product?
There aren't that many things that I don't like.
The one main thing for me is the search option sometimes doesn't bring up everything in the system, especially when searching for explicit things, for example for us, when I search fasteners in our system, for some reason I always miss something that is in there and end up creating a new part number for fasteners that already exist in our system.
The one main thing for me is the search option sometimes doesn't bring up everything in the system, especially when searching for explicit things, for example for us, when I search fasteners in our system, for some reason I always miss something that is in there and end up creating a new part number for fasteners that already exist in our system.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
There are multiple benefits that we are seeing now that we have this software. One major benefit is the ability to keep all of our data in one place globally. I can go in and look at drawings and pull parts from other sites, and easily work remotely on other projects that are in other countries. The other benefit is archiving all of the changes that we have had in the past, and the structure of those changes that forces the user to input why they are changing the part so that this data can be mined in the future to avoid wasted time so that engineers can learn from mistakes and build upon designs.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
The advice I have is that you aren't going to find a software that is better than this. I have been in engineering for a long time, and have managed a post-market engineering department in the medical device industry, and I really wish we would have had Arena at that site, because this is so much easier to use than what we had there.
The other PLM software that is out there has no comparison to Arena, it is like comparing microsoft paint to solidworks for 3d modeling.
The other PLM software that is out there has no comparison to Arena, it is like comparing microsoft paint to solidworks for 3d modeling.
Good, self-validated cloud EDM/PLM, but poor sales quality and lack of business workflows
What do you like best about the product?
The overall package is very good as a cloud solution/QMS/PLM/EDM as a Service. Many features and settings that you'd expect are available. The support is excellent! The help desk is prompt and courteous and our customer success manager Lori is a dream. Overall the ECO process is very workable with the ability to auto-route approval flows--Very powerful. On top of all that, they validate each cloud release for you so you only have to validate your use of the software. Very very helpful and an overall reduction in overhead.
What do you dislike about the product?
The Sales group at Arena is pretty shady. They changed our representative and the new one did not honor our original negotiations for our renewal; and since you're already in their system, it's pretty hard to do anything except pay more for the same or less level of services, if any disagreement is had. That being said, the support is excellent! The help desk is prompt and courteous.
Another issue is the general lack of workflows both for business processes to be integrated into the ECO process and also to guide employees through the data entry process to ensure good records and adequate, searchable data.
Ex 1: ECO's can't be approved and then, before becoming effective, cycle through additional post-approval processes (such as going to the finance team, supply chain, or training team, etc for additional processing/part movement before becoming effective and publicly the current revision.)
Ex 2: Change requests do not directly flow into an ECO and are a separate thing that dotted-line links to one or more ECOs but do not have a clear path for automated group approval and promotion to ECO --- aka files are not easily brought forward from a request to a change.....its all manual file movement and attachment.
Inventory dispositions are not yet searchable via web interface, only the API, but Arena continually is updating, so it may be a matter of time.
Lastly, there's not a great way to iterate designs....this is a general industry problem of current software in general (you have a production released BOM, but I want to "freeze" and release a design version of that same design which modifies a few things....it will eventually replace the original as the next revision.......there is no easy way to do this without pulling new, temporary item numbers to release those, test them, and then fold them back into the existing revision....
Another issue is the general lack of workflows both for business processes to be integrated into the ECO process and also to guide employees through the data entry process to ensure good records and adequate, searchable data.
Ex 1: ECO's can't be approved and then, before becoming effective, cycle through additional post-approval processes (such as going to the finance team, supply chain, or training team, etc for additional processing/part movement before becoming effective and publicly the current revision.)
Ex 2: Change requests do not directly flow into an ECO and are a separate thing that dotted-line links to one or more ECOs but do not have a clear path for automated group approval and promotion to ECO --- aka files are not easily brought forward from a request to a change.....its all manual file movement and attachment.
Inventory dispositions are not yet searchable via web interface, only the API, but Arena continually is updating, so it may be a matter of time.
Lastly, there's not a great way to iterate designs....this is a general industry problem of current software in general (you have a production released BOM, but I want to "freeze" and release a design version of that same design which modifies a few things....it will eventually replace the original as the next revision.......there is no easy way to do this without pulling new, temporary item numbers to release those, test them, and then fold them back into the existing revision....
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We are replacing a paper process with a more easily managed and less overhead digital one. We are also using PLM as a vault for our design history and manufacturing documentation. It's overall a solid option for QMS and PLM.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Good cloud system-as-service option, but still an expensive licensing structure for entire-company access, as many users do not always access all the features. Many features are still under active development, so that's helpful.
Behind the times for updates
What do you like best about the product?
Web accessibility is key function for use across departments
What do you dislike about the product?
Software is far behind in mobile application support. So many times I need to be able to pull documents at remote sites, and not having an easy-to-navigate Mobile app makes the process much more difficult. It would also be nice to see a cad data plug-in for viewing cad models in the native Arena environment.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Sadly without the CAD integration tools and file preview, the software is nothing more than an expensive file management server. Looking to use the ECO process but will need to get up to speed with capabilities so we are using it correctly.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
I would only recommend if there is mobile application support as well as native file/CAD viewer tools built into the Arena environment. Without good changes, you might as well go with a fancy Excel sheet and save some money.
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