Arena PLM and QMS

Score8.8 out of 10

360 Reviews and Ratings

What is Arena PLM and QMS?

Arena by PTC is a cloud-based PLM and QMS platform. Arena helps product companies that rely on distributed teams and global supply chains to develop products, ensure regulatory compliance, and respond to customer demands.

Categories & Use Cases

Media

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.

Screenshot of Arena Analytics, Arena's business intelligence (BI) tool

Screenshot of Arena Supply Chain Intelligence (SCI). Proactively monitor the health of your BOM and electronic component risk.

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Screenshot of Arena Bill of Materials (BOM) Management. Indented BOM displaying "in production" item status.

Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using Arena PLM and QMS.

Based on HG Insights installation data

View all Reviews

#1 most frequent

Manufacturing

44.0%

368 installations of 836

#2 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

12.6%

105 installations of 836

#3 most frequent

Information

9.7%

81 installations of 836

Verified User

Employee in Quality Assurance (51-200 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

My organization use Arena PLM to manage all purchased items, engineer drawings, work instructions, engineer change orders, RMAs, and more that on my employee status level requires. Other colleagues might have more access or limited access due to their role in the organization.

Pros

Has everything all in one place
Ease of navigating through the dashboard

Cons

So far it has been relatively easy to use and been using it for the past 7 years since I work with this organization. I haven't had any other experience with other PLMs to see what else there is to offer.

Return on Investment

Reduced engineering change cycle time
Improved information/drawings sharing with suppliers
Reduced product information errors

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Adobe Acrobat, SOLIDWORKS

Shri Kota

Project Manager in Product Management at Gener8 LLC (201-500 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Hi, I use it for browsing
Technical specifications data, engineering dwgs,
Creating ECOs, NCRs, PNs, Training
Adding suppliers information,
Reviewing quality data, etc.
Overall I use almost each and every tab its in Arena.

Problems:
Sometimes if we upload images of product it cannot be uploaded and a few times it doesn't. In efficient process.
Lack of automation in the workflow nor processes
Lack of full visibility for customers

Scope of use case:
Customer relationship to share documentation
Procuring off the shelf parts based on data sheets
Manufacturing traceability
Personnel SOPs access
Personnel training
Capturing non conformances as needed
Doing project related gate 4 based on project phase

Pros

Training updates and expiration dates
Tasks to finish
Having bookmarks
Downloads data to access easily
New homepage is really helps to track many things in one go
Integrations are good to keep track off

Cons

Increasing size or capacity of uploading the documents/image to at least 25 gigs
Good to have a display of abandoned items in new homepage
By adding a microscopic view if people want to switch to due to eye issues, or using tiny monitors or working in 10 inch laptop by itself

Return on Investment

Structuring BOM ease procurement decisions
Reduced product related errors
Recording non conformances
Keep product related documents up to date which in turns ease supply chain partners
Recording training data overall

Alternatives Considered

SAP PLM and PTC Windchill

Other Software Used

Miro, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Convert PDFs

Nancy Truong

Component Engineer in Engineering at ASML (10,001+ employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Arena PLM and QMS to check EOL (end of life) of component in BOM (bill of materials).

Pros

Under Notes, I know exactly the status of a Manufacturing Part Number such as EOL, Obsolte , NRND, etc...

Cons

need Item Name in Search 's dropdown menu
need a format or dropdown menu for Item Name for passive components such as Capacitor, Resistor, etc...or Active components like IC, or mechanical part like Screw, Bracket, etc...

Return on Investment

reduced engineering change cycle time by 80 percent
improved information sharing with supply chain partners by 90 percent
reduced compliance risk by 90 percent
reduced product information errors by 95 percent

Other Software Used

Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Edge, Kofax AP Essentials

David Pascoe View profile

Sr Design Engineer in Engineering at Zonar (201-500 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Revision control of all parts, items, prints, drawings, etc.

Finished goods, plastics, electronics mostly

Pros

I guess it is a positive that things don't just disappear out of Arena PLM and QMS
At a high level it 'works' to manage item revisions

Cons

In my opinion, the user interface is absolutely useless for doing anything with the data/info that is in Arena PLM and QMS.
There are no ways to sort or organize anything. In my opinion, current search bar is the worst I have ever used in any tool.
EVERYTHING has to be one externally in Excel etc. To me, just plain horrible.
No way to view/compare two items.
No way to view a BoM and the drawing for that item concurrently
No way to copy a BoM to a different item
UI will not scale to screen size. TONS of unused space on the screen, but since I HAVE to open two browsers to look at two items, that means I HAVE to shrink browser windows...but NOTHING re-sizes. Buttons, info, menus, all end up off the screen.
I think it is REALLY bad!
I think importing and exporting is really bad. VERY simple things will import OK (with multiple gotchas), but substitutes, alternates, reference designators, etc. ESSENTIAL items for electrical (or any complex) BoMs are not supported, and the resulting imports need TONS of manual corrections. In my experience, this entire process is RIFE for mistakes (exactly what a PLM is supposed to prevent and avoid).
In my opinion, Arena PLM and QMS folks don't care at all about addressing the core functional and usability problems.
In my experience, you will only get excuse after excuse from product managers, and customer care folks for the lacking features, and told to 'Use Excel' (Arena PLM and QMS is a database... being told to use excel to manipulate data in a database... tells us all how ridiculous this is).
When updates happen, they only add some obscure feature that 1% of users might ever use (or color changes, or moving menus to confuse the user)... but, in my opinion, never any constructive or useful updates.
See the (now closed) Arena PLM and QMS influencer's page. Arena PLM and QMS tried to make this about 'favorite x-mas songs', whereas users wanted to ask questions, try to find bug work-arounds, and ask for help from Arena (that never came). Result = page was shuttered because, in my opinion, it was not reflecting well.

Return on Investment

Change cycle time has increased for us. Mostly because Arena PLM and QMS makes it extremely difficult to compare items. BoM to BoM, BoM to print, etc. In my experience, it is all as obscure and difficult as possible.
Sharing with supply chain partners is not benefited at all via Arena PLM and QMS. In my opinion, export options and formats are poor (get PDX out of here!!). There is no way to track 'Effective' to 'Completed'. In fact they are completely meaningless 'states' in Arena PLM and QMS.
Integration with suppliers means nothing when suppliers don't want or care to use yet another program to get/view/import simple database information.

Alternatives Considered

Oracle Fusion Cloud PLM

Other Software Used

Atlassian Confluence, Atlassian Jira, Altium Designer

Usability

Verified User

Analyst in Quality Assurance (201-500 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We utilize Arena for processes such as nonconforming material review, procedures, work instructions, and part drawings. Arena makes controlling non conforming parts much more easier than what we had before. Before everything was done by paper but with Arena its electronic and much more convient. Work instructions and procedures are reviewed and approved by Quality personnel before it gets released to production. Part drawings get updated by engineering before it hits design.

Pros

No more paper. Everything is electronic and easy to track.
Very straightforward and easy to use.

Cons

The layout can be updated to make it more user-friendly.

Return on Investment

We identify which parts are aging the fastest, what needs attention, and who is responsible for their care.
We identify which parts are the most problematic and which suppliers have the highest material return rates. This helps us decide which vendors to use and which not to use.