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Arena PLM and QMS

Arena PLM and QMS

Overview

What is Arena PLM and QMS?

Arena, a PTC business, helps companies to design, produce, and deliver innovative products with a unified cloud-based PLM and QMS platform. Arena understands modern product companies rely on distributed teams and global supply chains to develop products, ensure regulatory compliance…

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What is Arena PLM and QMS?

Arena, a PTC business, helps companies to design, produce, and deliver innovative products with a unified cloud-based PLM and QMS platform. Arena understands modern product companies rely on distributed teams and global supply chains to develop products, ensure regulatory compliance (FDA,…

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  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Details

What is Arena PLM and QMS?

Arena, a PTC business, helps companies to design, produce, and deliver innovative products with a unified cloud-based PLM and QMS platform. Arena understands modern product companies rely on distributed teams and global supply chains to develop products, ensure regulatory compliance (FDA, ISO, ITAR, EAR, and environmental compliance), and respond to customer demands.


Arena states that they have more than 1,400 global high-tech electronics and medical device customers. Companies with complex products comprised of electrical, mechanical, and software designs need a single system to collaborate in real-time. Arena enables every participant throughout the entire product lifecycle to work together–increasing visibility and traceability. This helps to accelerate new product development (NPD) and new product introduction (NPI) by streamlining processes, automating review cycles, and reducing errors to increase profitability.


Arena PLM and QMS Features

  • Supported: BOM Management
  • Supported: Engineering Change Management
  • Supported: Supply Chain Collaboration
  • Supported: Quality Management
  • Supported: Training Management
  • Supported: 3D Visualization

Arena PLM and QMS Screenshots

Screenshot of Arena Bill of Materials (BOM) Management. Indented BOM displaying "in production" item status.Screenshot of Arena Engineering Change Management.  Engineering Change Order (ECO) approval with redlines.Screenshot of Arena Projects. Project schedule with status and progress.Screenshot of Arena Quality. Quality process showing a Corrective Action Report (CAR) with the issue details, affected items, and resolution progress/status.Screenshot of Arena Requirements. Tracks requirements and related product development issues for a complete product picture.

Arena PLM and QMS Videos

Arena’s product-centric quality management system (QMS) software helps medical device manufacturers to deliver safe and compliant products to market faster. By connecting quality management processes to the product record, Arena helps distributed teams improve visibility and t...
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Arena PLM addresses modern product development challenges by bringing product information, people, and processes together into a single Cloud system to speed product development and commercialization. Through better visibility and enhanced collaboration, internal product teams...
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Arena PLM for AWS GovCloud helps companies that are subject to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ensure defense-related technologies are controlled, and, if exported, are done so only with proper export licenses.
Siemen's Teamcenter (also sold by SAP), Arena PLM & QMS, and OpenBOM are some of the most preferred product lifecycle management tools by users.

Arena PLM and QMS Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Oracle Fusion Cloud PLM, MasterControl Quality Excellence, and Teamcenter are common alternatives for Arena PLM and QMS.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.5.

The most common users of Arena PLM and QMS are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(333)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(26-50 of 201)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
April 29, 2022

Well worth it!

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Arena PLM and QMS is used in our organization for the following - Management of our product data (current product structures with component suppliers, updates and revision history, the linkage between different products, etc.). Direct link from Arena to the manufacturing site, which means direct up-to-date data without any emails etc. Direct link from Arena to our ERP system (inventory management, order-delivery chain management, etc.), which again avoids emails, etc.
  • An intuitive UI
  • Fast, basic operation
  • Easy search functions
  • "Where used" feature
  • ECO creation is a bit complicated
Arena is worth considering if your company has several products with components that are not manageable. If you feel that you can manage using those tools altogether then maybe Arena is not worth considering.
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Arena PLM and QMS is our official document repository for our entire company (a subsidiary of [a] much larger company).
  • Organization of documents and training assignments
  • Easily accessible (web client)
  • The search function is ABYSMAL. Does not return all items with the entered keyword.
This system is useful over a large organization where people might be distributed (different sites, working from home, etc.) It also offers the ability to assign and track training required by Arena PLM and QMS.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Arena is utilized across the entire company as a tool for housing, approving, and organizing documents. The platform is also used as the training platform at SomaLogic. This serves to capture business needs related to QMS per standards and guidances.
  • Workflows are intuitive and easy to use.
  • Training is linked to document revs.
  • Projects can be used to capture various elements of the QMS in a way that is intelligently linked to other parts of the system.
  • Additional training tutorials for users to better understand and utilize everything Arena offers.
My usage with Arena so far has been brief (2.5 months) but in that time it has served the needs for our QMS in ways others systems I have used in the past did but not as efficiently or intelligently.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Arena is used company-wide for ECOs, ECRs, purchasing, and inventory
  • Easy to use
  • Provides excellent Help data and videos
  • Search features makes looking up existing changes easy
  • ECOs - cannot Edit fields after Submitting for routing.
  • Connecting NCRs, ECRs and ECOs is difficult.
  • Doesn't allow for up front coolaboration
Well suited for basic changes for a small company. Needs to have NCRs/ECOs/ECCRs dependent on each other. If NCRs and ECRs are connected to ECO, should not be able to close them without ECO being released
November 13, 2021

Arena Review

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Itis being used by the whole company to manage our change management system. It allows us to have complete control of our concept and design system.
  • Allows good control of files.
  • Allows good control of items.
  • Allows good sourcing.
  • Needs improved search engine.
  • Needs better report setup.
  • Needs better report options.
Best suited for working with DWG maint. Worst suited for creating data searches.
November 12, 2021

Arena review

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Used mostly to release BOM and ECO release. Use by both operation and engineering teams. Vendors also use Arena to access our BOMs and design files to fabricate the parts. Also being used to submit deviation for manufacturing. Our products are very complex and Arena helps to manage all BOMs and engineering drawings.
  • BOM management
  • File attachment
  • ECO release
  • Allow simple file swap without ECO if no vendor download the file yet
  • Allow ECO release of BOM even if some of the items are not in released stage
I believe Arena PLM is a very easy-to-use and well-designed product. It works very well for a company of our size.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it primarily for the bill of materials associated with exploded diagrams of our products. It is implemented for use starting with our front line agents communicating with customers to our quality, engineering, and supply line teams.
  • BOMs are organized
  • Exploded diagrams are easy to add and read
  • Search functionality could be improved
  • The page refreshes between tabs and nested items should be removed
Overall, Arena is a great product to use and has value for all employees (front line with customers, engineering, quality, supply chain management, technical writers, etc.). There is room for improvement with just minor items, like being forced to load a new page when viewing nested items and switching between tabs (such as the specs and BOM tabs).
November 05, 2021

Works for us!

Zachary Meyer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It helps with BOMs and change orders. Keeps everything nice and organized. I am able to easily reference quality documents and processes, link part numbers and suppliers, train to updated procedures and work instructions, and create easy to navigate change requests and change orders. It really helps to use this product when lots of projects are ongoing simultaneously.
  • It is easy to update BOMS in Arena
  • It is easy to write NCR's and tie them into any other item or process in Arena
  • Makes it easy to track level 1 training.
  • The Deviation feature is difficult to use. If there is a deviated document, it should be available to grab from the pulldown menu the same way regular revisions are.
  • Sometimes the pages reload over and over again
  • Sometimes, when I have multiple quality process windows open at once, the page refreshes to display the content of a different NCR than the one I submitted just now.
It allowed us to stay in business while while we had issues with the servers. It makes organization easy! It makes communication with team members a breeze. the audit trail is a nice feature which allows you to assess the history of a document and or process. Easy to assign training.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it for document control and sharing PDF/CAD models with non-CAD Users
  • Website loads fast
  • Website is readily available across various platforms (computer, phone, tablet)
  • Files download/upload fast
  • More customization of interface
  • Ability to return to location you last left site at
  • Improving search capability of recently searched items
Arena PLM is great for a mixed environment of CAD and non-CAD users across multiple sites. It is not great for an environment where you have infrequent users that require their own login.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Some departments use it, others do not. We use this system to work towards ISO 13485 compliance, tracking lots, P/Ns, Design Documents, etc. It helps us to get information out to the entire team so that it is readily available. It also helps to reduce overall required resources for maintaining documentation processes.
  • Provide a platform for design documents
  • Allow for communication between departments on quality documents
  • Email reminder system
  • Consistency of GUI across different portions of the system
  • The system is a bit slow at transitions while navigating
  • In some cases, the system feels more expansive than is needed
Arena is well suited for a company trying to not dedicate a team towards PLM, Document control coordination, etc. Arena is an excellent platform for getting information between individuals and teams. It appears appropriate for NCR, CAPA, etc., and tracking as well. I'm unsure of less appropriate situations, as our 6 months of using PLM is insufficient to determine this.
November 01, 2021

Arena PLM Review

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used by the whole organization to ensure document control is tracked for FDA reviews. Specifically, any document that is generated in the process of medical device development must be archived, with a clear paper trail of approvers. Any revisions to such documents must also be archived. Arena serves these purposes well.
  • Document tracking
  • Approver tracking
  • Revision tracking
  • Adding approvers when there is a large number of users is difficult.
  • We should be able to set autofill of document names.
  • Association of change requests to items require a very manual process.
Scenario where Arena is well suited: Any application where all documents must be kept track in exhaustive detail, including the establishment of approvers, revision control, and providing a paper trail.
Scenario where Arena is not suited: Any documents that require an extremely rapid turnaround or approval will likely not benefit from a cumbersome process of requiring change administrators to go through multiple approvals and careful formatting management.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[It is] used to track BOMs, suppliers, and ECOs. [It is] used across the R&D, manufacturing, and supply chain groups. The contract manufacturer has access to view ECOs, build documents, and all other necessary information. Arena PLM is especially useful in handling part and component supply chain issues by easily allowing us to add alternate suppliers.
  • Handle supply chain issues
  • Track "where used" for any part
  • Clear revision history
  • Complicated UI, lots of buttons
  • Not a very natural search function
[it is] useful for tracking and managing builds across departments and organizations (lifecycle, BOMs, build documents, supply chain, etc.).
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The whole business uses Arena [PLM and QMS]. It is the platform for all of our schematics and documentation.
  • Documents are online, which is far superior to retrieving them by going to look for them physically, you could also retrieve older documents, which for some other companies can be a challenge.
  • Often times it is challenging to find the documents. [In my experience,] I am certain that very frequent users have no issues. [However, in my opinion,] newbies ARE going to find the process cumbersome, clunky, and counter-intuitive.
  • Most places use files or part numbers or title descriptions for finding items. While Arena [PLM and QMS] 'seems' to be able to do this, it is not a quick method [in my opinion]. [In my experience,] I always have to jump through 3 hoops of struggle to get where I want. Please, Please, PLEASE make this more user-friendly!
October 19, 2021

The standard for QMS

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Standard QMS for med device in production and in development. The top-level problem it addresses is document traceability. In detail, it helps with various nuances in up rev of docs, getting approval/auto reminders to approvers, etc. Version control is also good.
  • Current status of doc
  • Auto reminders for approvers
  • Reminders on training tasks
  • No built-in doc viewer
  • Difficult to compare current revs with previous revs at a glance
  • Difficult to find files if doc number is unknown
Well suited: Reviewing test procedure. It references CAD models and other use documents with Arena numbers. The current/approved versions of the files can be easily pulled up and referenced.

Less appropriate: New coworker is being introduced to project. Arena is not a good tool to generally learn about projects despite storing many docs that would be useful.
October 18, 2021

Highly recommeneded

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Arena [PLM and QMS] as our document management system and as a place to store our Bill of materials, supplier information, sourcing information, etc. We also use Arena [PLM and QMS] for our nonconformance and CAPA system. It does a wonderful job [of managing] the change orders that are implemented in the system every day and allows for flexibility when it comes to updating the process flows.
  • Change order
  • Hosting
  • CAPA
  • Risk management
  • Metrology
It is very useful as a PLM system to host our supplier and part info. It does a very good job of maintaining our Bill of materials for each product line. When it comes to change order management, it makes it very easy to execute it as its streamlines and allows for simple changes in the process flows.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Arena [PLM and QMS] is being used as QMS across the whole organization. We utilize it for document control, training, and managing quality processes such as complaints and field actions. It addresses many business problems that were present in our previous manual system and has allowed not only greater control but also increased visibility for all users throughout the entire process in question.
  • Visibility/transparency throughout processes
  • History/tracking
  • Relative simplicity of user interface
  • More display options/settings
At our company, we use Arena [PLM and QMS] for things like document control, training, complaints, and field actions. For these purposes, Arena [PLM and QMS] has worked quite well in our business setting. I don't actually know of any scenarios at this time where Arena [PLM and QMS] would be less appropriate - at least none that our company currently uses.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Across the whole organization as a form of document control to support the QMS of the company. Used by R&D, Quality, Manufacturing, Sales, and Executive Team.
  • Change Order organization, bringing together crossfunctional people
  • Live status updates of changes
  • Graphical user interface
  • Uniformity in adding files - it is different in a "Item" versus a "change"
  • Change Order interface creates long pages, but edit buttons only at top and bottom
  • Searching between Items, Changes, Training, etc. is difficult for a new user. Involves knowing what files belong to each type.
Appropriate for creating items that require multiple people to do an analysis per their SME, sign off on changes, and document changes. Trackability could be improved, and it feels less appropriate for collaboration, which has to happen offline. There are no tools for synchronous document editing or suggesting.
Rafi Weinstein | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Arena around the clock to keep track of many items, requirements, documents, etc. What would we do without it? It is also super helpful to use as part of a large team, using scribe to contact other team members across the company about specific items. I love how there are many ways to customize how you view and edit data.
  • Requirement managements
  • Reworks and NCRs
  • Tracking changes
  • Integration with other sites
  • More APIs
  • Cheaper accounts for companies with many employees
Arena is a great way to keep track of information. Items, requests, changes, suppliers, files, projects, quality, requirements, tickets, and more. Also great for working with a team. Easy sign-in. Helpful dashboard. User-friendly interface - easy to use for new users. Customizable search. Way to split site by different workspaces - according to your needs.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our organization uses Arena all across different departments, from Design & Engineering to purchasing, manufacturing, and quality.
  • Very robust in creating and maintaining Bills of Materials (BOM).
  • Intuitive and easy to use ECO & ECR functions.
  • Can keep all the necessary files for an item, including drawings, purchase specs, quotes, etc. in one place.
  • The new version is slow in some browsers (I have tested in Opera, and the speed has decreased with the new update).
  • There could be an option to review a 3D model inside Arena, instead of having to save a 3D model files and open it in CAD software.
  • The interface could be more modern.
Arena is an intuitive and easy to use software for keeping track of the Product Life Cycle and documenting all the necessary information in one place.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Arena is being used across our entire organization to manage and track product-related documentation including drawings, BOMs, and change orders. The ease of use and accessibility it offers has given our company the ability to make innovative changes to our product quickly and efficiently over our various offices around the world.
  • Engineering change orders.
  • Bill of materials.
  • Deviations.
  • Help functions aren't the best.
  • Difficult to track change requests.
  • Exporting BOMs is un-intuitive.
Arena is a great tool for any company looking for a software upgrade for its existing product management software.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use many different functions of Arena. Primarily as our main PLM to manage BOMs and ECOs and components. We also use the Quality Module for RMA and Failure Analysis tracking. The primary departments that use it are Operations, Engineering, Purchasing, Product Management, and Finance - so a good chunk of the organization. In addition to our group, we have proposed to use Arena in other groups among ABB as well. The business problems that it addresses are that it easily puts all the information in a centralized location for users from different groups to gain access. The management of BOMs, ECOs, parts and the revision control really helps to keep things in line.
  • Revision Control - keeps things in check to ensure that right files are always being used.
  • Easy User Interface - anyone can use it, even from a non-technical background.
  • User Access control - easy to segregate between types of users to allow access to certain things.
  • Workflow - would be nice to have an automated workflow to remind people to approve things or enter decisions (e.g. in ECOs and Requests)
  • More customization - some templates are locked down and have to use certain fields, without the ability to change or remove them when making templates (e.g. in the Quality world when making a RMA template)
I think Arena is very well suited for Document control in a manufacturing environment and easily integrates with ERP tools such as SAP. The change management (ECO) portion is also very excellent, and is easy to follow and understand for everyone involved with the change. One scenario where it is not as well suited is in cases of project management, which would be a great new way to integrate everything in one place for a NPI manager such as myself.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Arena for quality control and is used across the whole organization. It helps us maintain our revision control and change control for effective backtracking of root cause and design verification and validation. It also helps us to keep check of equipment calibration and keep track of decisions pending approvals and helps maintain change control flow.
  • Ease of customization and to establish a Quality system
  • Excellent customer support
  • Easy formatting
  • Auto-generate numbers in a pattern
  • Templates for BOM creation
  • Integration with companies with different Quality system
As described in the cons section, the organization of the system can be more organized and made more intuitive to fix. Arena is well suited for small organizations to quickly implement quality control and develop flowcharts.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Arena is currently only being used by one of the operating companies within my greater organization. It is used in the Quality Assurance department to manage Quality Systems including the document control process. Arena is a controlled database and does a great job of enforcing specific privileges when creating or editing electronic records. Quality records and documents often contain sensitive information that only specific personnel should access to read or edit, and Arena aids in solving that administrative problem with relative ease and usability.
  • Enforcing functional approval to permanent changes to Quality System controlled documents. All affected personnel need to give timely notification and approval for document changes.
  • Expediting the progression of a Change Order to a process document change. In the healthcare industry, it is imperative for the time between decisions and changes to be minimized, and Arena accomplishes this well.
  • Requiring electronic signatures for submitting and approving changes. Tracking of user changes is important for both the internal record and external auditing purposes.
  • The use of multiple workspaces can be more seamless. Sometimes related documents are in different workspaces, and so one must toggle between workspaces to cross-reference documents.
  • Navigation of a Change Order can be difficult when saturated with information in Summary, Item, Files, Approvals>Decisions, and History>Status view. A single view can be dense with information and attribute options.
  • By default, Notices at the top are enabled and can be distracting or unnecessary after one gets accustomed to the software. Perhaps a simplified view layout could be an option to more experienced users.
Arena has great functionality and is fairly intuitive in use. It is best suited for an organization including multiple users of varying access privileges who need to access and edit several electronic documents. It is also ideal for processing change orders quickly and gathering all appropriate approvals prior to implementing document changes.
Arena isn't as well suited in organizations of advanced/experienced users with equivalent privileges cooperating on document maintenance and changes, as the multiple views and density of information could be cumbersome and unnecessary to some users.
November 19, 2020

Arena Review

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Arena is primarily being used by our entire company as a way to manage BOMs, parts, assemblies, and product sourcing. For us, it allows us to better track components and assemblies throughout the life of a project. It also allows us to manage our sourcing for purchased components.
  • BOM management
  • File legacy and revision management
  • Product sourcing
  • Costing
  • More streamlined copying of BOMs.
  • Improved linking of sourced components.
Arena is amazingly well suited for BOM control/managemen and for part creation/part number generation.
I believe it could handle things like costing in a better manner.
November 14, 2020

An AREnA with no conflict

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used across the whole organization (Marketing, Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance, Manufacturing, Sales, Finance, and Quality Control) as a document management system. It addresses the use of using outdated standard operating procedures and labels.
  • T process of creating items and change orders, it is easy to use and very clear.
  • Training Videos are very helpful, the help tab is very useful.
  • The interface is very clean and easy on the eyes.
  • Advanced search is very helpful.
  • Drag-and-drop files directly into items.
  • When I try to upload a file into an item and press cancel, then try again to add a different file in that same box and press done, the upload is not successful...I would need to delete that box in order for a the upload to work.
It is well suited for any situation involving tracking inventory, any procedures, any quality records, training, suppliers, and cost.
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