Under the Hood

Tip Tuesday! Quality Management in Autodesk Fusion Lifecycle

Quality Management Powered by Fusion Lifecycle delivers the tools manufacturers need to collect and analyze quality data, track and communicate non-conformances, initiate corrective action, and respond to problems as soon as or even before they occur.

Features and Benefits

• Easy-to-use web-based inspection form that can be accessed from anywhere, right at the point of
  inspection
• On negative disposition, inspections automatically create a non-conformance record and appropriate
  team members are notified to take action
• Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) process allows teams to thoroughly understand the root cause
  of quality problems and initiate the appropriate course of action
• Complete Audit Trail throughout the Quality Management process
• Team members notified either as trends indicate the potential for failure or as non-conformances present themselves
• Mobile access enables field personnel to submit real-time results
• Built-in reporting tools for analyzing trends in quality metrics to prevent failures before they occur

Spoiler alert! There's a cool graphic showing how the various workspaces all tie together in this Autodesk Knowledge Network article: Quality Management in Fusion Lifecycle.

More into video?  See more about Non-Conformance Reports and Corrective and Preventative Actions.

- Michelle Stone

Using Validators in Fusion Lifecycle

Sometimes, you just need a little validation.  Fusion Lifecycle can help you out there.  A great way to ensure the information end users input meets predefined criteria is to establish validators when you configure the workspace.  They can be simple (requiring a value is set for a field, making sure if conforms to a specified date format) or you can get all fancy – set up dependency or uniqueness validators.  One that I find useful is the ‘Unique Combination of 2 Fields in a workspace’.  Imagine you have multiple product lines and multiple factories and want to make sure you only have one record for a given combination – a validator will help you out!

Another example – let’s say you have a severity field.  You can require if the user selects ‘high’, they must also fill out the description field.  And if you’re tired of not getting meaty details, insist that the description has a minimum length!

Ready to get a bit more advanced?  You can even use Regular Expressions to define what values are acceptable (a good best practice is to include a field description so the end user knows the rules).  Below is an example of setting up a field so that all entries start with either ‘C’ or ‘K’ followed by a zero then 4 digits.

Learn more about Field Validators on the Wiki and pop over here for some Regular Expression insight.

- Michelle Stone

Tip Tuesday! Being Descriptive in Fusion Lifecycle

Today’s tip comes from a customer I’ve been working with recently – I warned him I’d use his tip with the masses!  Although the descriptor field allows for up to 4 fields, he found that in some workspaces, his users actually needed 5.  His workaround?  Create a field that was the concatenation of two other fields and use that in the descriptor! Keep in mind you can’t use paragraph field types in the descriptor.

Example from my trusty ‘Tip Tuesday’ workspace:

The concatenation field is just the combination of the first two classification fields (this gets set by an action script in both the item creation and item modification behaviors).

Got tips of your own that you can share with fellow users? Consider contributing an article or screencast tip on the Autodesk Knowledge Network.

-- Michelle Stone, Product Manager

 

Back to the Basics: Fusion Lifecycle Admin 101

Is your New Year’s resolution to watch more Netflix and YouTube videos?  If so, you might want to add this to your list: Fusion Lifecycle Admin 101.  This was presented at AU2016 – it’s a great way to learn the basics of implementing your business processes in Fusion Lifecycle.  If you’ve been using Fusion Lifecycle for awhile, consider using this as a resource for training new admins.

Key learning objectives covered were:

• Creating workspaces in Fusion Lifecycle
• Enabling access to data aspects
• Managing access rights
• Managing workflows

One bit I found really useful (as I’m a Fusion Lifecycle admin myself here at Autodesk) was how Tony showed how he uses an Excel template when setting up security permissions.  This is a great way to document the permissions and groups.

He also reiterated one of my favorite tips – using left pane view filters to narrow in on information.

- Michelle Stone

Want more tips?  Join us for the year's first  PLM Talk on Tuesday January 31, 12-1PM ET. 

Tip Thursday! Smarter Workflows with Fusion Lifecycle

Good news!  The Autodesk University classes for 2016 have been uploaded.  So if you didn’t make it (or if you were there and missed some classes), be sure to check out the Fusion Lifecycle classes.  I was busy this AU manning the Answer Bar, so I’ll be sure to grab some popcorn and review quite a few of the classes myself!

One class I was able to attend was PL21304: Smart Workflow: Adding Business Logic to Your Fusion Lifecycle Workflows with Scripting. I jotted down a few notes from the class.  A good rule of thumb to use when writing scripts in Fusion Lifecycle is to limit them to one page.  If it goes beyond that, consider using a library script or rethinking your approach.

Another tip was to make sure any validation script messaging is detailed enough, so that the end user knows why the transition didn’t occur.

-- Michelle Stone

Tip Tuesday! Getting your Product Data in Fusion Lifecycle

Today’s tip comes from an Autodesk Community post – a user was getting a BOM import error on Unit of Measure Column.  He did some self serving by finding the answer in Help...

I found the solution I was looking for in the Help Guide under 'Export a BOM' > 'Re-importing Exported data'. See below:

"If you plan on re-importing a Unit of Measure (UOM) field in your Item Details tab, select a BOM view that includes the field with UOM values from the Item Details tab instead of the Unit field in the Bill of Materials tab. The Unit field in the Bill of Materials tab shows the Unit Abbreviation value while the Item Details tab shows the full Unit Name. Only the Unit Name can be mapped in an import, and so it is required to make your reimport successful."

I covered this several years ago on the blog, but figured it was worth bringing up again – especially since for folks who are new to Fusion Lifecycle, getting your product information into the system is one of the first things you’ll do. 

Lastly, yes, yes, I have another AU plug – but this time for something different. I came across a track geared towards smaller companies that are trying to scale up manufacturing, find funding, establish business models, as well as stories from companies on how they made it. 

If you fit this bill, check out the “Hardware 2.0: How to scale your Startup” classes.

-- Michelle Stone

Tip Tuesday! Back to Bring You More Autodesk Fusion Lifecycle Tips

I’m back at it after a nice summer off to spend with my kiddos.  It was a nice digital detox and break from PLM (for the most part), but I did miss you guys!  As I’ve been catching up, I came across a great set of tips from one of our Fusion technical specialists, Marc Sauro: Thou shalt master the shortcuts…  He covers some great ideas about making your Fusion Lifecycle user experience better by using some simple web browser tips and tricks.

For anyone that’s done a screen share with me, you know I’m a BIG fan of the ‘open link in new tab’ one.  I tend to have a tab open for each of the main workspaces I frequent.  It’s also really helpful when you’re doing your initial configuration of the system – one tab for the workspace manager and another for the front end so you can check your changes live.  Or even better (if you have more than one monitor) – I like use the open in new window:

All these little tips and tricks speed up your ability to use Fusion Lifecycle – thanks again Marc for sharing! 

--Michelle

Go Ahead - Play Favorites

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today I've got a simple tip with regards to reports.

1. Do you have favorite reports you need to reference often?
Well, you can view up to 9 on the dashboard but perhaps you don't want this particular report on your dashboard all the time.

2. I want to access a favorite report but not on the dashboard?
Save a favorite in your internet browser and voila! You can access the report on the fly!  I use Google Chrome.

Tip Tuesday! Pinning Down Details about BoM Features in Autodesk Fusion Lifecycle

Today’s tip comes from a recent Bill of Material webinar run by our own Gavin England. Did you know you can pin a specific item revision to a BoM? Pinning allows you to hard code the use of a particular revision of an item in the context of a particular parent assembly.  Another great ‘Did You Know?’  If you add a superseded revision of an item to the BoM, that item is automatically pinned.

Gavin also pointed out some of the use cases for setting date effectivity and using revision pinning:

•Manufacturing: Understanding of when a new component is to be phased in, allowing better planning

•Sales: Visibility of when a configuration of a product will be available for customers to order

•Service: Visibility of the configuration of a specific product on a customer site, delivered on a certain date

•Quality: Traceability of when a BoM changed and the BoM configuration on a certain date

•Engineering: Ability to immediately revert back to a prior revision of a component in an emergency

You can always learn more about Bill of Materials in our Help!

--Michelle

Photo: Chris Hsia