STEP and Product Data Management

Data exchange and data sharing between different PDM systems can be efficient only if both systems support the same data model or their data models have the same level of richness. The ISO's Standard for the Exchange of Product data (STEP) aims at providing methods for storing and exchanging product configurations, bills of materials, engineering-change orders, and organizational and personnel data throughout the product-development cycle.

An important and difficult area in PDM is the interaction between a PDM system and the applications that create and change product data. STEP addresses this issue with a data-management layer between applications and the STEP repository. This approach offers two key advantages: Data is independent of the application that generates it, and applications that use STEP's Standard Data Access In terface (SDAI) can communicate with all other compatible applications. In addition, a universal data-management layer reduces storage space because only one version of an entity needs to be stored.

Large industrial projects in the aerospace, automotive, and energy sectors are increasingly demanding STEP-compatible applications. Says Patrick Piekolek, Matra Datavision's PDM product manager, "We chose STEP because it lets us communicate with, for example, manufacturing-resource-planning systems."

Although STEP's consistent data model offers some obvious advantages, critics argue that it's stil l not in place today. They see the current ISO draft, AP 214, as an outgrowth of the European and Toyota automobile initiative. Crucial subsets of the standard, such as those for product structuring, versioning, and parts ownership, are not fully defined yet. "STEP is not ready. The data model is changing almost daily," says Norbert Reimann, director of SDRC's PDM business unit for central Europe.

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Application Integration with STEP

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The Standard Data Access Interface (SDAI) enables PDM systems to communicate with other enterprise applications.