State of play: PLMBy John Stark, John Stark Associates There’s good news and bad news about the state of the PLM industry. The
good news is that based on figures from market research firms such as CIMdata,
the market size this year will be about US$20 billion, and it is growing at something
between six percent and 10 percent per year. The bad news is that the industry
is still in its early days. There’s little agreement about the definition
of PLM, and not many companies will be able to build their PLM solution with the
products and services of just one vendor. More likely, they’ll have to figure
out just what PLM means for them, how to build a solution with products and services
from multiple vendors, how to interface them, and how to get most benefit from
PLM.
Article continues below  What is PLM?
PLM is the activity of managing a product throughout its lifecycle, ‘from
cradle to grave’, making sure that everything works well with the product
and making sure the product makes good money for the company. This means managing
the product in every phase of the product lifecycle: idea, definition, realization,
support and use, retirement and disposal. The objectives of PLM are to increase
product revenues, reduce product-related costs, and maximize the value of the
product portfolio.
The focus of PLM
PLM is focused on ‘the product’ and applies to a range of industries
– such as discrete manufacturing, financial, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals
– that make and support products. The focus on the company’s products
distinguishes PLM from activities such as supply chain management (SCM), customer
relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). Whereas
SCM is focused on the supply chain, CRM is focused on the customer, and ERP
is focused on achieving best use of enterprise resources. PLM is focused on
maximizing the value of current and future products.
Companies have always, in some way, managed their products throughout the lifecycle,
but the way they did this didn’t result from a clear, deliberate, documented
plan, but from the way the company organized other activities. Companies didn’t
have a PLM to manage a product continuously and coherently throughout the lifecycle.
They managed the product in different ways at different times with different
approaches, different processes and different applications. Products were managed
in one way in early stages of life, then in a different way during their development.
Often the company didn’t manage the product during its use. Sometimes
the company managed the product again when it was due for disposal, sometimes
it didn’t. Various elements of PLM were being addressed departmentally,
but they weren’t joined up to make a cohesive whole.
With PLM, the product is managed in a coherent, joined-up way all across the
lifecycle. PLM joins up previously separate and independent processes, functions
and applications – each of which, though addressing the same product,
had its own vocabulary and rules. PLM has a holistic approach to management
of a product. It addresses applications, processes, people, data and work methods.
As companies didn’t manage their products across the lifecycle in a clearly
defined way, their suppliers didn’t offer lifecycle solutions and services.
Instead, their offer corresponded to the departmental way that companies worked.
For example, for a department focused on product design, suppliers proposed
Computer Aided Design (CAD) and product data management (PDM) applications,
Stage and Gate development methodologies, product change processes, etc. For
the quality department, suppliers proposed computer aided quality applications,
product change processes, product failure reporting processes, product warranty
management, etc. For marketing, they proposed product portfolio management (PPM)
solutions, requirement management applications, product data sheet templates,
etc. All these solutions address ‘the product’, but there’s
usually little cohesion between them.
When companies now look for a solution to manage products across the lifecycle
they find literally hundreds of potential suppliers of solutions and services.
Among these are many vendors, such as Autodesk, Dassault, PTC and UGS, which
have a CAD background and are strong in the early phases of the product lifecycle.
Other vendors such as Oracle, SSA and SAP, have long had an enterprise focus
but do not propose a CAD application. Vendors such as ACS Software, Agile Software,
Cyco, PROCAD, SofTech, and Synergis Technologies come from a background of engineering
data management or product data management. Some vendors, such as Centric Software,
CoCreate and Proficiency, focus on design collaboration, others, such as EPM
Technology, on data exchange. Some vendors have solutions for particular industries,
e.g. QUMAS (pharmaceutical), AVEVA and Intergraph (oil and gas). Others, such
as Artemis, IDe, Sopheon, and Stage and Gate Inc., offer solutions in specific
areas such as development project methodology and PPM.
With such a wide range of vendors and solutions, many companies will look for
assistance with the development and implementation of PLM. And many system integrators
and consultants are active in the PLM market.
For more information please visit: www.johnstark.com Back
|
Companies in this issue
|
