Guidelines for your suppliers:
Uniform electrical documentation made simple and clear
What do you expect from your suppliers as a plant operator? EPLAN is happy to help you in defining clear specifications and standards for your supplier guidelines. This will help make your project documentation a dependable data source for the maintenance and servicing of your machines and plant systems.
Where is your plant operations heading?
Let’s take the journey together!
Confusing documentation from your suppliers? It doesn’t have to be this way!
Perhaps this sounds familiar? Various suppliers work on the design, delivery and commissioning of machines and systems for our production lines. Overall we’re satisfied with this set up – if only the approvals wouldn’t be so chaotic.
Every supplier delivers its documentation in a different data format, while some only supply printed materials. With thousands of pages of schematics, we can’t even keep track of whether the contents are complete and error-free – it only becomes apparent when something isn’t working properly and we cannot trace it back to the cause.
Electrical documentation – uniform guidelines for suppliers
Clear guidelines for suppliers ensure that you have access to uniform plant system documentation at all times. Even if you work with many different service providers, you can still be sure that acceptance procedures will run smoothly and important information is available in uniform data formats.
Recommended specifications for project documentation
- Define the version of EPLAN
- Define norms and standards
- Define the functional representation for the schematics
- Provide template projects
- Define structuring systems and terminology
- Provide approval lists for materials
Advantages of uniform supplier guidelines
- Uniform data for describing and documenting your automation systems
- Simple verification and quality assurance for the documentation
- Fast procurement of spare parts thanks to clear material guidelines
- Standardised working foundation for your service technicians
- Clear communication and optimal collaboration with suppliers
Four tips for your supplier guidelines in electrical design
Use our tips and tricks to create standardised specifications for your suppliers for the electrotechnical documentation for your machines and plant systems.
Supplier guidelines facilitate design approval
TJ Morris has quickly begun to reap the benefits. Suppliers must now present EPLAN standard drawings, which means they are laid out identically – making design approval quicker and easier.
EPLAN also generates and transfers all required information for purchasing as well as production, and automatically generates reports including bills of materials, cable schedules and parts lists.
Supplier guidelines facilitate design approval
TJ Morris has quickly begun to reap the benefits. Suppliers must now present EPLAN standard drawings, which means they are laid out identically – making design approval quicker and easier.
EPLAN also generates and transfers all required information for purchasing as well as production, and automatically generates reports including bills of materials, cable schedules and parts lists.
How EPLAN helps you define your supplier guidelines
With our services we help you in defining clear guidelines for your suppliers.
Use an EPLAN project template for the basis of your own guidelines
Did you know that EPLAN offers you a practical collection of standardisation templates and application examples for your projects? For example, template projects are available that you can use as the basis for your supplier guidelines. Simply register and use them at no additional cost!*
*Technical requirement is the creation of an EPLAN ID connected to a company organisation
Create approved lists for components and devices
Use the EPLAN Data Portal to create your own device database that you can forward to your suppliers and service providers. This allows you to quickly and easily define which components can be installed in your systems.
Individualised consulting for defining your supplier guidelines
Would you like to put together a comprehensive set of rules and guidelines for your suppliers and need support on the topic of electrical designs? Our experienced EPLAN consultants are happy to provide you with advice and support.
Training courses for suppliers of plant operators for the automotive industry
EPLAN offers suppliers of plant operators such as Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz their own training programme specifically dealing with the currently applicable guidelines. If you would also like support in the systematic training of your suppliers, we’re happy to help.
