Medical Devices, 1-10 employees
Less than a year
“Arena PLM”
Pros
The configuration possibilities and compliance with CFR for electronic signatures are quite impressive.
Cons
I find it disappointing that Bill of Materials versions management lacks the ability to display images of old revisions.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
7
Value for money
8
Customer Support
10
Functionality
8
Military, 51-100 employees
Less than a year
“Straightforward, easy to use PLM”
Pros
It's easy to use, allows a decent amount of customization and simplifies BOM/Parts and documentation revision/tracking.
Cons
Some options/fields do not align well with our current tools which creates a need for customer support when it comes to customization in certain cases.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
8
Value for money
8
Customer Support
8
Functionality
8
Not Specified, 500+ employees
More than a year
“Great for design managment”
Pros
I really like the confidence that comes from knowing that all teams are working with the same documents and revisions which eliminates the risk of misalignments.
Cons
It would be beneficial if DCOs and ECOs had pre-defined macros, especially in terms of approval matrices. Additionally, it is a shame that Arena does not integrate with SolidWorks, as it forces us to manually create files each time, resulting in a significant time-consuming process.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
10
Value for money
10
Customer Support
10
Functionality
8
Not Specified, 101-500 employees
Less than a year
“User friendly”
Pros
Very easy to use and is also to also easy to implement in a manufacturing environment.
Cons
The interface could have been more intuitive and user-friendly.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
8
Value for money
8
Customer Support
6
Functionality
8
Medical Devices, 11-50 employees
Less than a year
“Review of EQMS Useage”
Pros
I particularly like the Engineering Change function and the option to attach files to various functions.
Cons
I am not fond of the fact that certain features required for quality functions have to be accessed through the Quality World and involve multiple clicks for approvals and completion. At present, to set up annual procedure reviews, we have to create a project to ensure notifications are sent out one year from the last revision. One of the most troublesome aspects for me is that if a value is revised in one document, the system does not provide a list of all documents where the value is found, unlike some other systems. While it serves Engineering purposes well, I feel there are areas lacking when it comes to the necessary quality actions. Additionally, I haven't been able to locate an escalation process.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
8
Value for money
10
Customer Support
10
Functionality
6
Pharmaceuticals, 51-100 employees
More than a year
“Daily User”
Pros
The ease of use is remarkable which makes user training a pretty simple task.
Cons
The searchability feature is a bit problematic which causes a lot of confusion among users.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
10
Value for money
9
Customer Support
10
Functionality
10
Automotive, 500+ employees
More than a year
“Arena is a very intuitive and easy tool to manage.”
Pros
Arena is user-friendly and provides a comprehensive breakdown of our BOMs, smoothly tracking change management.
Cons
Although there are some features that can be improved upon, they primarily connect to to the admin side rather than the user experience. Overall, it is still a very good tool.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
10
Value for money
6
Customer Support
10
Functionality
10
Automotive, 11-50 employees
Less than a year
“Worth considering”
Pros
Integrating it into our business was not too challenging for us.
Cons
Initially, setting up the views when dealing with multiple projects can be challenging.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
8
Value for money
8
Customer Support
8
Functionality
8
Medical Devices, 51-100 employees
More than a year
“A Great PLM for Medical Device Manufacturers.”
Pros
It offers ease of use, customization and integration with Arena QMS, CADTALK, Rimsys and FlowEQ.
Cons
It would be helpful if the Help Pages included visuals instead of being text-only, as they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
10
Value for money
10
Customer Support
10
Functionality
10
Hospital & Health Care, 500+ employees
Less than 6 months
“it's great!”
Pros
It's very user-friendly and seamlessly integrates into our current business programs and models.
Cons
Honestly, there isn't anything that I disliked about it.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
10
Value for money
10
Customer Support
10
Functionality
10
Research, 500+ employees
Less than a year
“A Base User's Look at Arena PLM”
Pros
It is relatively easy to handle the required trainings and review current and prior versions of documents.
Cons
I find the dashboard to be unintuitive at times, and there are instances where activities seem to linger longer than expected which causes me to second-guess whether I have completed a training or not.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
7
Value for money
7
Customer Support
7
Functionality
7
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51-100 employees
More than a year
“Arena PLM an excellent tool for managing product data”
Pros
I really love the continuous effort made by the team to add more features and provide customer support to tailor our PLM environment to our company's needs.
Cons
The only difficulty I face is when attempting to easily edit multiple lines if all the parts are transitioning to the same status, but that's a minor issue.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
10
Value for money
10
Customer Support
10
Functionality
10
Consumer Electronics, 101-500 employees
More than a year
“Arena For Product Develpment”
Pros
Arena provides a centralized source for truth for parts, assemblies and related documentation. It offers a quick view of part status, history and release state, and allows easy sharing with external suppliers. The ability to link files between multiple parts and track them throughout the development cycle is highly valuable.
Cons
Setting up, migrating and training proved to be challenging. Certain tasks still require manual interaction on a daily basis, such as marking primary files. Sadly, there are no integrations with external software like Jira and SolidWorks, and creating and maintaining custom integrations is necessary. Workflows need to be manually configured to align with workflows in other systems.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
7
Value for money
8
Customer Support
10
Functionality
8
Entertainment, 500+ employees
More than a year
“Great tool.”
Pros
Arena offers a wide range of great tools, and I feel like I have only scratched the surface.
Cons
Trying to learn everything can be a bit too much.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
6
Value for money
10
Customer Support
10
Functionality
10
Military, 51-100 employees
Less than 6 months
“Great - Could use more development”
Pros
The BOM building process is excellent, changes are well-handled, part management is good and the search functions are great too.
Cons
The navigation feels repetitive and outdated, with information scattered across numerous landing pages. Some features should function similarly, but one is simple and useful while the other is quite opposite. Adding items to the Bill of Materials should be as seamless as adding affected items to quality processes, but they differ. Copying one part's BOM to another works well, except the quantities do not transfer. These issues can be resolved through continuous improvements from the developers.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
8
Value for money
10
Customer Support
10
Functionality
8
Renewables & Environment, 51-100 employees
Less than a year
“Great PLM tool”
Pros
It's easy to use with an intuitive frontend. Also it's highly customizable and adaptable to our business needs.
Cons
The cost is high considering the available features, and new features also require additional purchases with upgraded licenses.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
10
Value for money
9
Customer Support
10
Functionality
9
Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 500+ employees
More than a year
“Arena PLM - How can it be improved?”
Pros
The system follows the fundamental principles of a basic PLM system.
Cons
Searching for items in Arena is very challenging, and even when found, the full picture cannot be seen. There is a lack of connectivity and work order functionality. When requesting a BOM in Excel, the file opens in an older version of Microsoft Excel. Is it possible to update this? Arena is not synchronized with SAP and the OrCAD CIS database is not synchronized with Arena.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
6
Value for money
6
Customer Support
6
Functionality
6
Computer Software, 101-500 employees
Less than a year
“Great tool for control revision and change management. Easy to manage.”
Pros
Arena Exchange allows seamless data sharing with contract manufacturers and suppliers.
Cons
We require a workflow staging task for implementation which I don't like.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
8
Value for money
8
Customer Support
8
Functionality
6
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 101-500 employees
Less than a year
“Great system for a small company”
Pros
I liked how easily I could visualize the connections between each part and product across various Bill of Materials and revisions.
Cons
It is frustrating that we cannot overwrite a revision in Design.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
10
Value for money
10
Customer Support
10
Functionality
8
Consumer Electronics, 51-100 employees
More than a year
“Best PLM Tool in the Business!”
Pros
The ease of use and implementation of Arena is remarkable, and configuring it to meet my company's specific needs is easy and pretty concise.
Cons
Upgrades alter the appearance and user experience which impacts my daily usage.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
10
Value for money
10
Customer Support
10
Functionality
10