PLM Business Objects and Files vs Metadata in Aras

MarcL: PLM solutions need to store and control many different types of information such as Requirements, Specifications, Standards MCAD / EDA files, Viewables, software executables, BOMs, Packaging & Labeling, User Guides, pricing, market data and competitive information. Please describe how this is handled in Aras.

Peter Schroer:

Some of the items listed are clearly file based data.   The Aras Vault Server is file-format neutral, and is able to check-in / check-out  and version any format files including MS-Office, Creo/ProE, SolidWorks, Pads, ZIP files, executables, PDF, TIFF, MPG, MOV, GIF, JPG, etc.

Some of the items in the bullet list could be either file-based data or meta-data depending on the implementation objectives.  For example, Specifications, could be authored as Excel documents, and the Excel document managed within Aras, however, the preferred alternative is to use a data model for the Specifications (in Aras terminology, an Item Type) so that the data within the Specifications is stored in the data tables and available to reporting, analysis, searching, etc.

Most of our customers choose to implement business objects (Item Types) and forms for capturing these data, rather than vaulting the data as a file. It can always be exposed in Excel or another document type as needed.

Requirements, specifications, bills of material, formulas, competitive information, change notices, critical characteristics, standards and other PLM information are typically deployed in our ItemTypes rather than file based data.

An important aspect of the Aras model-based SOA technology however, is that this decision is not hard-coded.  Each company has a different optimal answer to the File vs Meta-data based storage decision, and over the life of a PLM deployment that decision can change.

Only the Aras PLM platform has the fundamental flexibility to handle these types of major implementation changes easily over time.

Tags: document management, File Vaulting, ItemType, metadata, Model-based, platform, SOA, Vault