Five dimensions of productivity
1. Throughput
More designs, drawings and orders completed per engineer per week.
2. Quality
Fewer errors, review returns and engineering change orders.
3. Lead time
Shorter time from enquiry to quote and from order to release.
4. Capacity
Ability to take on more work or new products without hiring in proportion.
5. Knowledge retention
Product rules captured in software stay with the company when people move on.
Metrics to track
| Metric | How to measure |
|---|---|
| Engineering hours per order | Timesheets by job type |
| Drawings released per week | PDM / PLM reports |
| Review return rate | Share of drawings sent back for correction |
| Shop-floor queries | Queries or NCRs linked to design errors |
| Quote turnaround | Days from enquiry to quotation |
| Tool usage | Usage logs from the automation itself |
Adoption is the multiplier
A tool that saves 80% of the time but is used by 20% of the team delivers less than a simpler tool everyone uses. To maximise adoption:
- Involve engineers from the start and design around their workflow.
- Make tools fast, reliable and easy to find in the ribbon.
- Provide short videos and a named internal champion.
- Fix feedback quickly in the first weeks.
Productivity gains come from tools people actually use, not from tools that merely exist.
The human side
Automation removes tasks engineers dislike and lets them spend more time on problem solving, innovation and customer work. That improves job satisfaction and makes it easier to attract and keep talent.
Compounding benefits
Each automation builds on the last: clean properties enable BOM automation, which enables ERP integration, which enables configurators. Productivity gains compound over time.
Improve your team's productivity
ENGIMANDI helps engineering teams plan and deliver automation roadmaps across AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Inventor, Revit and more.