How are you using Arena PartsList?

We talked last week about how manufacturers use the new Distributor Selection feature of Arena PartsList to ballpark costs with a single click, saving time and effort in the design process. That’s just one of the many ways people use PartsList—one of the interesting things about a tool designed to be lightweight and flexible is seeing the unexpected ways people use it to more efficiently manage parts in their own unique situations.

From independent inventors to large established manufacturers, we’re finding that people continue to find new uses for PartsList as they develop products for manufacturing. Here are some of the use cases we’ve seen, and we’d love to hear from you about how PartsList helps you and your team:

• Rapid part research: As you design and source parts for your product, it can be difficult to keep track of all of the various options you’re considering. You might find the perfect component from one distributor, but they’re out of stock and you’d like to note some alternates. Because PartsList updates component information in real time, you can save hours of research sourcing those alternatives—hours better spent designing your product.

• Keep track of lead times: When you’re innovating quickly on your product design, you can’t afford delays from unexpected long lead times. PartsList works with Octopart, a search engine for electronic parts, so critical information on lead times—as well as up-to-date cost and availability—is right at your fingertips.

• Datasheet management: How many times have you downloaded a datasheet to your computer, put it in a folder on your desktop and then found yourself unable to locate it? With PartsList, datasheets are automatically captured and stored with the relevant part data. No more searching through stacks of files all named “datasheet.pdf”!

• Integrate with spreadsheets: Early-stage companies may not have invested in a full PLM system such as BOMControl yet, but still want the ability to create and share a bill of materials (BOM) with their design and manufacturing partners. PartsList imports from and exports to CSV files so you can share spreadsheets with your full team. This is a great option if you’re working with ECAD or EDA systems too!

• Order management: With the new Distributor Selection feature, you can pull cost and distributor data for every part on your list, and then group by distributor for easy reference when you place orders.

These are just a few of the ways we’ve seen manufacturers of all sizes work with PartsList. Let us know how it works for you! Add your comments below or email us.