What is the real story about PDM? Tell me what you think by taking this Design Data Management  survey and then I’ll send you the full report when we publish the results. No strings attached, no follow up marketing calls, I just want to know what is really happening out there with data management. Fair enough?

Oh, and if my free report isn’t enough to entice you (it should be, it will be very fascinating!), Siemens PLM has offered up two iPad 2 for a random drawing of the respondents and you could win one! *

Please take our data management survey now!

* *Two (2) respondents who complete the survey and provide contact information will be selected at random to receive an Apple Inc. iPad 2 from Siemens PLM Software. The drawing will take place on November 16, 2011, and the lucky participants will be contacted directly by e-mail. Click here for complete rules.

Hear Jim Brown share his views on … efficiently and effectively meeting product environmental compliance demands using PLM software. This episode shares some interesting findings from Tech-Clarity’s Understanding Product Development Tradeoffs: Designing Products for Sustainability, Cost, and Compliance.

This is the latest edition of Tech-Clarity TV, let us know what you think.

The topics included in this episode include:

• Continued regulatory pressure from multiple sources
• Top 10 environmental regulations faced by global manufacturer
• Common negative business impacts from difficulty designing products for compliance, cost, and sustainability (including time to market and missed shipments)
• Increasing frequency (trend data) of these damaging business impacts
• Framework for environmental product compliance that shows the steps and capabilities required to design for compliance
• Discussion of how PLM meets the Tech-Clarity Compliance Framework

Let us know what you think. Do you agree? Disagree? Have a great example to share? Please see the related post, download the report, or review more free research and white papers about PDM, PLM and other enterprise software for manufacturers from Tech-Clarity.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This is an invitation to speak your mind on the use of social computing in product innovation, product development, and engineering. I have the honor of helping one of my favorite innovation and PLM consulting firms, Kalypso, with some new research. Please take our survey on using social media for product innovation now.

My Thoughts

I have been a clear proponent of the use of social computing to improve innovation, for some history see:

• Mythbusting “Facebook and Business Don’t Necessarily Mix”
• Social Software and PLM – Gap Filler or Intelligent Network?
• Why does Facebook Fail for Product Development? (and how to fix it)
• Connecting Social Interaction with Product Information (Interview)

My Predictions

One of my favorite things to do is “mythbust” analyst and research predictions. It’s great fun to go back and see what people predict and compare it to what actually happened. I particularly like to poke fun at myself when I was wrong (and maybe brag a little on the occasion that I am right). Of course I cheat and use research to fuel my predictions, so I stack the deck a little bit. So here is what I posted in 2011 – The Year Social Computing Explodes in NPD and PLM?:

• Collaboration – “will happen sooner rather than later“
• Discovery – “is coming“
• Product Knowledge – “will take a little longer“

Your Chance to Make it Real

Way more important than my thoughts and predictions are what companies (like yours) are actually doing. Am I spot on? Did I blow it? This is where you come in.

Please take the survey now!

(It shouldn’t take more than about 10 minutes or so. And if you like, we will send you a copy of the results.)

So that’s what I believe is happening in the world of social computing and product innovation, I hope you found it interesting. More importantly, tell us what you think by taking the survey! One last time, the link is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CQ37WKP

A quick peek into some research on … designing products for environmental compliance from our 2009 report. And maybe more importantly, here is the link to participate in the 2011 study on designing for compliance, cost, and sustainability. This year, I am expanding the research to recognize the trade-offs sometimes required between cost and compliance. Please share the link with your friends in engineering and manufacturing.

Note: For my blogging friends and those in the press, let me know if you are interested in helping gather responses, I will return the favor with some contributed content.

Research Findings – 2011

OK, it is a trick heading. There are no findings yet, take the survey and help me gather a broad perspective on the issue. If you are a consultant or a vendor, please feel free to pass along the link to an engineer or manufacturer. I will share some of the data back on this blog in return.

Research Findings – 2009

One of the most interesting findings from the last report was the broadening view of sustainability. The focus on environmental compliance information was getting the most attention in data collection from suppliers (no surprise) but the growth in focus on a broader view of sustainability was much higher (including carbon footprint, energy usage, waste/recycling). We are looking into that question again in the current survey, it will be interesting to see what has changed in the last year or so. See more of the report findings in my post on making environmental product compliance sustainable.

Cost and Sustainability

I have written about compliance before, and the need to reduce the compliance tax on product innovation. While the prior survey focused primarily on environmental product compliance, the research shows a growing interest in sustainability. But the business reality is that compliance and sustainability can’t always command a higher price, so companies have to continue to focus on controlling product cost to be commercially sustainable. You may have heard my views on designing for product cost and product cost management (PCM) before, it is something I am passionate about. So now is the opportunity to look at these issues in a holistic way.

So that was a quick peek into some recent research on compliance and a request for help in learning more, I hope you found it interesting. 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 … 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.

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).