One of the common impediments to manufacturing change is the ability to determine what will be impacted if a component is changed. Has it been used in other designs? Has another co-worker used it in their designs. Can a change be made that may impact the function of another design different than the current one I am addressing. Change Impact awareness can rapidly determine if new part numbers need to be created for the application at hand. Take a look at this video for an example of the Impact Analysis tools in Autodesk Vault and ProductStream.
Contributed by Ben of the INCAT CAD Geeks
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