“What’s in a name? That which we call a web page by any other name would smell as sweet”

The well-known musings of Shakespeare’s Juliet suggest that the names we ascribe to objects entail an element of arbitrariness.  She implies that the name given to an object is a mere matter of convention.  A name – Juliet explains – does not change or describe an object or its qualities…  A rose is a rose because we agree to call it so, and if we agreed to call it by any other name, all that makes a rose will continue; albeit under a different name.

Well what is a web page?  The Wikipedia page starts with a detailed technical description of a web page, but reading further you discover a web page is document that describes something and like any document that describes something it is written by someone that values the content and read by those that also value the content.  Therefore a web page “represents” something, a topic, a deliverable or content that a group cares about.  Following this idea of ”represent”  and thinking about product development and PLM it makes sense to have a web page for each component in a product.  And thinking about social you could say the web page is the start of a people centric PLM solution or that the page could enable social product development.

“Representation” is a core concept in www.Vuuch.com.  In Vuuch, web pages are created for things a team is trying to deliver.  For example a product development team is working on a CAD file and they want to track what is happening with this file.  To do this they would Vuuch the file, which creates a web page that represents it and tracks everything and everyone involved.  In Vuuch a page “represents” something important to the team.  At the most generic level a page is just a page, “representing” a group or collection important to the team, a simple list.  Moving beyond the Vuuch generic web page are file pages, which are web pages that “represent” the files the team is working on as part of a project.  These could be CAD files, specifications in Word, budgets in Excel or presentations in PowerPoint, to name just a few.  Vuuch does not stop with files.  A Vuuch page can represent anything, meaning the team could use Vuuch to represent data in an ERP or CRM system.  Imagine the case where a compliant has been logged in CRM that a group of people must track and resolve.  Or the case where a PO in ERP has a handful issues that need resolution…  In both cases using Vuuch a group of people can come together and resolve the situation.  In the first case the team would use a “customer complaint” page and in the second case they might use a “PO” page type.  And hey how about an “ECO” page?

A page by any other name would smell so sweet…  Well you asked for it and it is now available.  New in Vuuch is the ability to create user defined page types.  OK you might be thinking well what would I do with these?  How about a page that “represents” your part or a page that “represents” an assembly task or assembly station http://www.vuuch.com/plm/assmebly-instructions-in-excel/2010/08/19.  Or maybe you would like a page that “represents” a factory and has related pages for each assembly line.  Sit back and think about all the things you and your team are working to deliver and you will have a nice list of custom Vuuch page types.  Looking at this list I expect you are then thinking well how would I manage and organize all these?  Well how about a BOM?  Yes a BOM.  And don’t worry I am not going to tell you that you need a single central BOM http://beyondplm.com/2010/09/02/not-linear-bom-perspectives/, or that you need a CAD or Engineering BOM http://www.razorleaf.com/2010/08/bom-an-enovia-v6-perspective/.  In Vuuch you organize pages the way you organize folders on your PC, you decide.