Documentation and manufacturing process control are in our roots.

As with Perideo MPM, Perideo DCS came into being by way of necessity, and because all the commercially available systems were either too inflexible, or too expensive. The two products were developed separately, at different times, and are now being folded into one cohesive ecosystem.

Perideo ERP/DCS

Document Control System

Engineering Document Authority Without the Manufacturing Overhead

Manufacturing organizations need document control.

So do many organizations that do not manufacture anything at all.

Engineering departments, design firms, technical-service organizations, product-development groups, MRO engineering teams, and other organizations may need rigorous control of drawings, specifications, revisions, approvals, and product structures without needing purchasing, inventory, production scheduling, shipping, or the other functions associated with a complete manufacturing ERP system.

For that reason, Document Control is being developed as a distinct functional domain within the Perideo ERP architecture.

It may be deployed independently as:

Perideo ERP/DCS

or together with manufacturing-process functionality as:

Perideo ERP/MPM+DCS

What Is DCS?

A document-control system should do considerably more than provide folders in which PDF files can be stored.

An engineering document exists within a network of relationships.

A drawing may:

• Define a part.
• Be superseded by another revision.
• Reference specifications.
• Be affected by an Engineering Change Notice.
• Appear within an assembly.
• Be associated with a bill of material.
• Be approved for one purpose but not another.
• Become obsolete while remaining historically important.
• Serve as the governing technical authority for manufacturing or inspection.

Perideo ERP/DCS is intended to preserve those relationships explicitly.

Documents and Records

The planned system will manage relationships among technical records such as:

MDL — Master Drawing List

The authoritative index of controlled drawings and their current status.

ECN — Engineering Change Notice

Records proposed or authorized engineering changes and their effects.

DCN — Document Change Notice

Controls changes to managed documentation.

PL / BOM — Parts List / Bill of Material

Defines product structure and the relationships among components and assemblies.

SPEC — Specification

Connects specifications to the items, processes, documents, and requirements that invoke them.

Additional controlled records may be incorporated according to the organization's requirements.

Document Authority

The central question is not:

“Where is the file?”

The more important questions are:

• Is this the authoritative document?
• Is this the current revision?
• What did it supersede?
• Who approved it?
• When did it become effective?
• What other documents does it affect?
• Which parts or assemblies depend upon it?
• Where is this item used?
• Which engineering change produced this revision?
• Is the document released for its intended purpose?

Perideo ERP/DCS is being designed around these questions.

Connected Engineering Information

A user looking up a part or drawing should not encounter an isolated PDF.

The system should present the relevant engineering context:

Part
↕
Drawing
↕
Revision History
↕
Engineering Changes
↕
Specifications
↕
Parts Lists / Bills of Material
↕
Where Used / Next Assemblies

The objective is to make the authoritative technical definition intelligible as a system rather than as a collection of files.

Standalone Where Appropriate

Perideo ERP/DCS does not require deployment of the complete manufacturing system.

This makes it suitable for:

• Engineering organizations
• Product-development groups
• Design departments
• Technical documentation groups
• MRO engineering organizations
• Configuration-management environments
• Companies whose manufacturing is performed entirely by outside suppliers

These organizations may require substantial engineering-document control while having little or no need for manufacturing execution functionality.

They can deploy Perideo ERP/DCS independently.

Integrated Where Manufacturing Requires It

For manufacturing organizations, document authority and manufacturing authority eventually converge.

A work order cannot be considered fully defined if the governing drawing revision is uncertain.

An inspection operation cannot establish conformance if the applicable specification is ambiguous.

A production change cannot be safely implemented if the corresponding engineering change has not been released.

This is where Perideo ERP/MPM+DCS becomes particularly valuable.

The manufacturing system and document-control system can operate from the same authoritative information model rather than relying upon synchronization between unrelated applications.

Engineering defines and releases the requirement.

Manufacturing acts upon the released requirement.

Quality establishes conformance to the requirement.

The system preserves the relationship among them.

Part of the Perideo Platform

Perideo ERP/DCS is being developed as part of the same secure operational architecture as:

• PChannel — business collaboration and messaging
• SMFX — Secure Message and File Exchange protocol
• PSX — Perideo Secure Exchange
• Perideo Secure Enclave — documented secure deployment architecture
• Perideo ERP/MPM — Manufacturing Process Management

For security-sensitive engineering organizations, this creates the possibility of maintaining control from the moment technical information enters the organization through its use, revision, communication, and eventual disposition.

Coming from Perideo

The original Perideo DCS concept grew out of practical engineering and manufacturing document-control requirements.

The forthcoming Perideo ERP/DCS carries that experience into the new Perideo ERP architecture.

The goal remains straightforward:

Make the authoritative engineering definition easy to find, difficult to misunderstand, and possible to control.