Item: Arena PLM and QMS
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Arena

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Arena for change management (ECOs) in Operations for internal facing documentation as well as for all of our hardware engineering products, storing drawings, specifications, component information such as RoHS statements and datasheets, and any other product information that is stored. We also create ECRs to evaluate suppliers, and when there are product issues that arise or experiments that need to be run, we track those in Arena using Deviations to create temporary changes. Additionally, Arena is the "source of truth" for SKUs across the company. All SKUs start in Arena and then are populated into SAP.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Arena handles change management extremely well. I'm able to create both temporary and permanent changes, meaning that I can create experiments using temporary changes and track those as well as doing permanent change orders.
Creating parts in Arena is very easy, and can be done by anyone. The steps are straight forward and easy to understand.
We have customized the program to include, on the front item summary page, manufacturer part numbers, vendor part numbers, traceability requirements, and information such as which product an item is used on and which version of the product an item is used on. This enhances searchability for users, making it easier to sort and filter for their needs.

Cons

If I could change one thing about the program, I would probably make it so that I can create routings on the fly. I do that now, but in a way that kind of goes round about and is not really in sync with how we regularly use the program, but we had so many "custom" routings that we needed that I decided to run a 6 month deviation and see if I could come up with a more standard set of routings.

Return on Investment

Our metrics for change approvals is less than 2.5 days over the last 4 years. Prior to implementing Arena, it was 7 to 10 days.

Likelihood to Recommend

I find this program to be user-friendly, rich in functionality, and pretty robust. There are things we don't use, but the features we DO use are really wonderful! Additionally, the technical support Arena provides is absolutely top notch. I always get help, even when my questions seem a little crazy, and the support guys, like Dennis Coronel and Cole Agustin, are always respectful and professional. I love knowing that I have great support at my fingertips if I need it. Their implementation guy, Guru Page, is a true guru! He has taught me so many ins and outs of the program that I will be forever grateful, and he does it with patience and kindness.

Comments

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Great Product, Beats Expectations, Always new features coming!