Abstract
Computer Aided Design (CAD) packages are
normally bought off-the-shelf for a wide range of engineering
disciplines. However, a single system cannot possibly meet
requirements of different users as these packages are
normally provided with basic primitives but no blocks for
quick generations. A case study carried out at a power
enterprise in Zimbabwe revealed delays in attending to faults
and installations at their substations partly because of delays
in the provision of working drawings. Although the company
migrated from manual to CAD drawings, the techniques they
employed resulted in duplications and delays. An in-house
software development strategy was employed in this research
to customize their AutoCAD software through an industrial
engineering approach aimed at lowering man-hours by
generating and storing symbols of their equipment for
retrieval and use in future drawings, resulting in lead time
reductions and integration with their maintenance
management system to avoid duplication of tasks and
information.