Arena Review
March 04, 2020
Arena Review
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Arena
Our company currently uses Arena for BOM management. Prior to Arena, we were using Excel sheets which quickly got out of hand especially as our product got more complicated and we had more frequent changes early on in the design phase. Arena was able to make sure everyone on the team was on the same page via the online revision control and clear BOM management.
- Part Revision Control - It can manage it in a clear way where multiple users including CM can be notified when there are Change Orders or other changes made.
- Detailed Revision History - It can keep not only part revision history but also for the files/drawings and other attachments with notes as to why those files were changed.
- Ease of sharing info with CM - Your CM can have a supplier access account that allows them to always know what the latest BOM is and the ability to access anytime online
- Free BOM export feature - They have a file exchange platform to allow sharing of BOM online with people who don't have access to Arena.
- Lack of customization for certain areas on the BOM item fields.
- Cost control of part may be a bit cumbersome as some fields are linked with revision number thus require a BOM release or change release for it to get updated.
- Licenses are needed for anyone on the platform which may get expensive for a smaller company as to fully utilize Arena, the more people are on the platform, the more useful it gets.
- Time to release BOMs - That has been shortened as we have less back and forth on figuring out the changes to the BOM.
- Control over released parts - Reduced issues with wrong part revisions or drawings released to CMs.
- Smoother NPI process as we have much clearer and whole info located on Arena that reduces uncertainty and the CM has access to the latest BOM via their account.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
It was primarily on the features it provided in comparison with Excel. Looking at the list of features apart from it being cloud-based, Arena is a whole package targeted especially at PLM. We have only touched on a small part of the product and it has enough depth to support us as we grow.
Arena reps helped us set-up the initial template and even imported our BOM in the first couple of weeks. There is a test environment that was setup where we could familiarize ourselves with the features without worrying of messing up our real BOM. We managed to set it up on time and also were satisfied.
We were primarily looking at shifting to Google Sheets as it is also cloud-based and we could collaborate on it for free. It also allows for real-time sharing with edit limits with some people. We didn't go with Google Sheets as it lacked the automatic and detailed control of part revisions.