Clarity on PLM

A quick peek into some research on … the technology behind PLM applications, and what today’s CIO needs to know to support it. The research from Tech-Clarity, Enabling Product Lifecycle Management: The CIO’s Guide to Supporting a PLM Initiative,  points out unique implementation and support challenges the CIO and their team must be aware of in order to get the most business value out of PLM.

The Research Findings

The CIO’s organization is getting more involved in PLM implementations. While many Engineering IT teams have managed CAD and other engineering software and supporting infrastructure, PLM is getting more attention from the enterprise IT team because it has become – (wait for it) – an enterprise application. I know, it only makes sense. Implementing enterprise class applications has different considerations than installing design tools, and enterprise IT typically has more experience with systems that span the organization and the supply chain.

Having said that, PLM is not ERP. Nor is it CRM, SCM, or any host of other business-oriented enterprise applications. PLM, by the nature of the processes and data it addresses, comes with some unique information technology challenges. Here are some of the considerations discussed in the report:

• Protecting IP – PLM data is concurrently highly confidential, and much more valuable when shared broadly. Intellectual property is more likely to be shared as collaboration expands, and a lot of that collaboration is outside of the control of the corporate firewall.
• Huge Files – Engineering and product development data is different than large volumes of transactional data. There are some potentially significant issues arising from managing and collaborating on large files in order to support PLM.
• Scalability – PLM is expanding to more people, a broader view of the product, to more of the product lifecycle, and supports more processes. Implementations needs to plan for expansion along multiple dimensions, which could potentially create an exponential demand on IT infrastructure.
• Architecture - PLM vendors are moving to enterprise architecture, providing support for the challenges above but also introducing new challenges. The good news, though, is that these challenges are ones that the many corporate IT groups have already addressed.

PLM also brings about integration challenges. Companies have to be ready to support frequent, bi-directional, real-time integration between PLM. If not in the first phase, potentially sooner than they think. See more on ERP-PLM integration in the Evolving Roles of ERP and PLM report and Mythbusting ERP-PLM Integration post. PLM integration with ERP and the rest of the manufacturing systems ecosystem is becoming more important and more prevalent.

Implications for Manufacturers

The good news? The PLM industry has learned from large scale PLM deployments, and has developed technology and best practices to address these issues. IT professionals today are not blazing the trail when they implement PLM. PLM is becoming much more mainstream. But it is also evolving to more of an enterprise application than just product data management (PDM), and moving into the enterprise realm. There is help available, from peer manufacturers that have undergone the transiiton and experienced consultants alike.

So that was a quick peek into some recent research on getting PLM technology right, 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.

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

A quick peek into some research on … how companies are meeting environmental regulations for their products, and doing so in a way that is sustainable to the business from a cost and risk perspective. As manufacturers face increasing pressure from regulations such as REACH and evolving regulations like the many flavors of RoHS, it is becoming more important to develop a platform and a capability to address compliance systematically as opposed to viewing it as a series of one-off projects by regulation. This study, Tech-Clarity Perspective: Product Environmental Compliance, combines interviews with three leading manufacturers with survey results from over 300 companies to help manufacturers understand environmental product compliance challenges and how companies are addressing them.

The Research Findings

This study was unique for Tech-Clarity because it involved both survey data and interviews with compliance leaders in several manufacturing companies. The report provides two perspectives. The first is a broad perspective on the approaches that companies are taking to address their product compliance challenges. The second is a more detailed look at how three leading companies – Motorola, APC, and Seagate – are addressing these challenges.

The results are very interesting. There are some interesting figures on how regulations are impacting manufacturers and where they are focusing. One finding that I thought was interesting is that REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals ) is now impacting products in manufacturers as frequently as RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances). Both regulations were reported by 79% of respondents as impacting their products. As always, I suggest that you read the research for more information.

Beyond those results, however, the report also makes certain conclusions about how companies can address compliance challenges in a sustainable way. In summary, these recommendations are:

• Compiling a common set of product environmental performance requirements
• Gaining a better understanding of the substances that make up components
• Automating the analysis and monitoring of product structures and composition against requirements
• Documenting proof of compliance electronically

Implications for Manufacturers

Many manufacturers are struggling with choosing which regulations to address, how thoroughly to address them, and how to approach the problem. The study paints a clear picture of three manufacturers that have looked at the problem holistically, and developed a systematic approach to deal with the multitude of regulations. Manufacturers can’t afford the risk of stopped shipments, poor market perception of environmental stewardship, or losing access to markets. On the other hand, dealing with each regulation on a project basis will grind business to a halt and dramatically spike the cost of environmental compliance. The environmental product compliance challenge is here to stay, it will only get more difficult as customer requirements and regulations like REACH and RoHS expand and evolve, and will continue to drive unacceptable market risk and high compliance costs.

Manufacturers that develop a repeatable, systematic approach to address regulations will simultaneously reduce compliance risk and control total cost of compliance. As the examples in the report show, companies are leveraging enterprise software including PLM and specialized product compliance capabilities to meet these needs.

So that was a quick peek into some recent research on developing environmentally sustainable products in a commercially sustainable way, 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. Please feel free to review more free research and white papers about compliance, PLM and other enterprise software for manufacturers from Tech-Clarity.

Note: The link provides access to a free copy of a report summary or to the full report which is made available by PTC (registration required).