I work in the lighting industry- pedestrian scale light fixtures- and the majority of our manufactured parts are die and sand cast. Before I came to this company the process was to design the parts in 3d CAD, create a technical drawing with only critical fit and function dimensions (mostly for inspection purposes) and only qualify vendors who would make the part from the model. The main reason for this is each part will only have maybe 10-15 critical dimensions, but a considerable amount of cosmetic surfaces that are difficult and timely to dimension.
Now, however, because of quality issues, we are starting to go back to full dimensioning so that we have back-up when the vendor produces a sub-par part. I think that having a written clause in the purchase order and well as a note on the drawing stating "Part must meet critical dimensions and match 3d model within acceptable tolerances" should be enough.
Question: How does your company deal with this process? Are there any good solutions you have come up with? Do we really just have to go back to the days of full dimensioning?
thank-you!
** If there's a better place to post this question let me know, I love solidworks so i'm posting here =)