Clarity on PLM

A quick peek into some research on … the impact of the economic downturn and the fledgeling recovery on the market for CAD, CAE, PLM, and other software for engineers and product developers. In 2009, I conducted a survey jointly  with Cyon Research, and Design Insight. We presented the results at the annual “Congress for the Future of Engineering Software, COFES, which generated some lively discussion. We are repeating the survey this year, and looking forward to understanding the views of the market this year as compared to last.

The Research Findings – 2010 (please take the survey)

Before getting into the results for 2009, I ask you please contribute by taking 5-10 minutes of your time to answer about a dozen short questions on this year’s survey:   COFES 2010 Survey.  Please participate, and I will make sure we share our findings and insights back with you.

The Research Findings – 2009

As I stated last year, the research was not intended to be an economic forecast, but instead an indication of the sentiment of the industry. The study was designed to guage respondents’ opinions about the market, and should be take as such.

I shared some results last year in Research Rap: Impact of Economy on Smaller PLM Vendors. I found it interesting that most smaller vendors felt that they would struggle but survive. As the calendar has turned, we will close the loop on this prediction and see how it turned out. I would dare say that the shakeout was not as bad as some expected it to be. But the big question was when did the people in the industry expect to see a return of the engineering software market to its prior strength. 

The question was: “What is your best estimate of when the engineering software market will recover (to approximately 2005-2007 levels)?” Here was the view from last year:

What we noticed, though, was that the executives at the software vendors were more optimistic about the timing of the recovery than the executives at their customers:

Who was right? Has their opinion changed? Please take the survey so we have a good comparison of this year’s market sentiment to last: COFES 2010 Survey. I promise to “mythbust” my own predictions as well as the markets.

So that was a quick peek into some recent research on the engineering software market recovery, I hope you found it interesting. Does the research reflect your experiences? Do you see it differently? Let us know what it looks like from your perspective. Take the survey, and share your thoughts with all of us and the participants at COFES.

Please feel free to review more free research and white papers about PLM and other enterprise software for manufacturers from Tech-Clarity.

I had the chance to talk with … several ENOVIA SmarTeam customers during my recent research. I talked with them for my paper on how mid-sized manufacturers have leveraged product innovation and PLM to get through challenging economic times and come out better during the recovery. See my Research Rap: Small to Midsize Manufacturer in an Economic Downturn? Innovate! for an overview of the findings from the study (along with a link to the study if you are interested). The customers offered some very good perspective on the use of PLM by small to medium-sized business (SMB), which drives home a point that often gets lost in the grander discussion of enterprise PLM. Smaller companies need the basics of PLM, without the overhead of a large “enterprise transformation” sized implementation project.

What do they Offer?

I wrote about SmarTeam in my blog on Manufacturing Business Technology earlier this year, so I won’t reiterate the basics of their offerings. Instead, I would like to focus on the needs of smaller companies and what I learned from the manufacturers I spoke to for the study. It actually matches up nicely with a recent blog conversation on PLMtwine on PLM Action Plan for Dummies.

What does an SMB Look for in PLM? Controlling Data

In short, the companies I spoke with were looking to gain control of their product data. In the PLMtwine blog, Oleg lists that as step number 1.  The driver for each of the manufacturers interviewed was different, but the need to find a way to quickly get their product data in control was key. For one lighting manufacturer, the business driver was a significantly depressed local economy and the need to move to a new market (both geographically, but also with a more sophisticated product set). For a manufacturer of ladders, the challenge was a significant financial setback in their business, the need to run very lean, and the extension of their business into a multi-site, global operation as they moved production to Mexico. Despite the driver, the need was a way to control the complexities of their product data in an easy way, and share product data across their organization.

What does an SMB Look for in PLM? Controlling Change

The next core capability that smaller companies were addressing was tightly aligned with controlling data, controlling engineering changes. I would normally say controlling “processes,” but in this case it was clear that engineering change (followed by release to manufacturing) was the big pain they were addressing with PLM (as opposed generic “process control.” Engineering change is a messy process in many businesses, and one that leads to manufacturing confusion and errors. Although I have been in recent conversations on the priority of developing a strong process versus applying technology to solve the problem, the truth is that both are very valuable. The companies interviewed all discussed the importance of the engineering change processes, and pointed to significant improvements through the use of PLM technology (ENOVIA SmarTeam in this case).

SMB Wish List for PLM

Smaller manufacturers have many of the same PLM needs as larger companies, but far  fewer resources to achieve them. So what does an SMB look for in PLM? Based on my interview with the SmarTeam customers, they were looking for:

• Rapid Implementation
• Ease of Use
• Pre-populated Best Practices
• Pre-defined Templates and Data Models
• The Ability to Start Small (and add new capabilities when they are ready for them, what I call a “PLM Program” approach)
• Stability and Ease of Technical Implementation
• Integration with Product Designs (CAD, for the most part)
• Easy Integration to ERP

So that’s what I hear from SmarTeam’s customers, I hope you found it useful. What do you think? What else should I have asked them?