What do manufacturers need to do to succeed and get results from their Industry 4.0 efforts? In this webcast, Julie Fraser revealed a few significant findings of research of over 300 companies on the topic of manufacturing data management. It’s a multi-faceted challenge in which people, processes, and technology all matter. This webcast explains the…
- Vision for Business Breakthroughs
- Keys to Industry 4.0 Success
- Manufacturing Data Management Activity
- Vertical Integration
- Challenges in the Current State
- Defining Plant Operations Success
- Top Performers Make Progress
- Organizational Issues
- Staffing for Manufacturing Data Programs
- Viewpoints on Skills
- Manufacturing Data Management Initiatives
- What Does It Take?
- Technology: Feeding Success?
- Manufacturing Data Approaches
- Business Impact
- Conclusions
- Recommendations
- About the Research
- Acknowledgments
Executive Overview
Prioritizing Manufacturing Data Management What have manufacturers been struggling with for years that Industry 4.0 insists they solve now? Manufacturing data management. Combining data from information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) is essential to analysis and insights. Thus, coherent and consistent plant data is a foundation for achieving the agility and business value companies want. Yet it is anything but straightforward. And it’s not the only thing companies need to meet the challenge of manufacturing data. Research Reveals
This research aims to learn about current challenges, strategies, and programs for manufacturing data management. Over 300 responded, from manufacturers in various industry segments and of all sizes, working with data from plants in every corner of the world. We uncovered a significant and nearly universal outstanding need: better ways to integrate IT and OT data. We also discovered that there are paths that appear to lead to greater success for those who travel them most aggressively.
Top Performers have made mindset, organization, and staffing changes. They are also far more likely to be using commercial software solutions and adopting modern approaches to accelerate their ability to manage manufacturing data effectively. As a result, a larger percentage of these Top Performers have already made dramatic improvements in business performance. They are in a position to make more gains.
Vision for Business Breakthroughs
The Status Quo is Risky Many companies are now pursuing digital transformation for a new and dramatically different future. With tremendous amounts of data at every level, but especially in production plants, manufacturers know they must do a better job using that data for business decisions. And manufacturing data poses special issues. Most Are on a Path to Industry 4.0 This vision of manufacturing transformation based on digital approaches is often called Industry 4.0. Most manufacturers in every industry and size range indicate that they have multiple Industry 4.0 projects underway. Traditional and Innovative Goals The goals are for agility and performance improvements on business-critical key performance indicators (KPIs). Some companies are also running a data-driven business to make more revenue from services or find other ways to add value.Recommendations for Manufacturing Data Management
The Path Forward Manufacturers must take action to compete with or stay a Top Performer. Formulating a clear strategy with business benefits for Industry 4.0 is a foundation. We recommend that manufacturers follow the lead of Top Performers:- Prioritize manufacturing data management and invest in both the staffing and the programs to succeed.
- Adopt proven commercial technologies such as MES, PLM, and APS where possible first. They will free up precious time and resources and provide a solid foundation for advanced approaches and analytics.
- Structure a program with projects that feed business needs, then proceed logically, in order of the process. For example, ensure data collection and enrichment are in place before investing in analytics projects.
- Create an environment where collaboration among disciplines feels natural, and the shared vision is more compelling than the inherent differences.
Even for Top Performers, challenges remain. These include data and systems integration, putting IT and OT data into a common context, agreeing on "sources of truth," and identifying data owners.
Note also that this is early days for coherent manufacturing data management. Yes, several times as many of the Top Performers have a program, staff members, capabilities, or dramatic gains on KPIs. Yet they are still only a minority.
There is more to do for every manufacturer. Faster decisions have always made a difference. However, doing things as we've done them may no longer suffice.
Seek New Approaches to Manufacturing Data Management
So, beyond doing what has been possible, we also encourage companies to seek new approaches. Solution providers are advancing their offerings. Some have integrated more functionality into plant systems. New offerings are becoming available to support manufacturing data management now and in the near future.
Be ready to explore new approaches. Validate their fit and ability to help meet your manufacturing data management challenges. Leverage both new and existing technologies and approaches to progress toward your Industry 4.0 vision.
CAD tools have evolved significantly over the last several decades, which has coincided with several platform shifts. With the advancements in tablets combined with evolutions in CAD, we may be at the dawn of the latest shift. Together, CAD on a tablet can offer many benefits. The combination can expand the use of CAD with greater accessibility and flexibility, improved productivity, and better customer service. This blog post discusses why that is and reveals several examples of how CAD on a tablet can benefit a company, especially smaller companies and start-ups.
Read the full guest post on the Shapr3D blog.
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How are companies adjusting their strategies to survive COVID-19 disruption without losing sight of long-term business sustainability? Read our survey of over 190 companies to find out how they are prioritizing limited resources to maintain focus on success factors including:
- Addressing changing business models
- Adopting new technology
- Protecting the environment
Table of Contents
- Global Disruptions Compound Business Risk
- Disruption Impacts Company Strategies
- Strategies Understandably Reflect Disconnects
- COVID has Multi-Faceted Impacts
- Recognizing What's Important to Long-Term Success
- Factors Influencing Strategy are Relatively Consistent
- Companies Simply Can't Do Everything
- Business Transformation Leads Sustainability Needs
- Workforce Development Importance Has Increased
- Conclusions and Next Steps
- About the Research
- Acknowledgments
Global Disruptions Compound Business Risk
Recognizing Turbulent Times
Business Transformation Leads Sustainability Needs
Being Aware that Economics are Still the Largest Drivers of SuccessConclusions and Next Steps
Companies are in Crisis due to COVID
ware capabilities will help you improve how you integrate mechanical, electronics, and electrical designs?
Tech-Clarity’s buyer’s guide, How to Select the Ideal Solution for Today’s Smart Products: Buyer’s Guide for Electrical Design, explores this question. As companies strive to make modern products smarter, innovative and more affordable, the integration of mechanical, electrical and electronic systems has become critical. Unfortunately mechanical and electrical engineers speak different languages, use separate tools, follow different design approaches and have inherent knowledge silos. Companies that have solutions to overcome these challenges will have a significant advantage in the global economy.
Please enjoy the summary* below. Please visit our sponsor, Siemens, for the full research (registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- The Growing Importance of Electrical Design in Product Development
- Address the Challenges of Electrical Design
- Define the Electrical Distribution System
- Engineer Wiring and Harness Design in the Context of the Complete Product
- Plan Electrical Routing
- Prepare for Manufacturing
- Service Requirements
- Vendor Requirements
- Identify Unique Company Needs
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
- Acknowledgments
Executive Overview
Today’s modern products are rarely purely mechanical. Companies rely on electrical and electronic systems more than ever to make products smarter, add innovation, and lower cost. As such, electrical design has become increasingly critical to product development. However, to be successful, mechanical and electrical designs must seamlessly integrate. The problem is that mechanical and electrical engineers speak different languages, use separate tools, and follow unique development approaches.
To make matters worse, there are inherent knowledge silos across the two domains. Ignoring these challenges and not finding solutions to break down barriers and bring the teams closer can come at a significant cost to the company. Tech-Clarity research [1] finds collaboration challenges results in:
- Higher cost
- Market delays
- Missed customer expectations
- Lost revenue opportunities
- Poor quality
About This Guide
This buyer’s guide explores the capabilities needed in a complete electrical design solution. It consists of four major sections covering software tool functionality, service requirements, vendor attributes, and unique company considerations for a complete solution to support electrical design, especially in the context of developing the entire product (Figure 1). Each section includes a checklist of key requirements to consider when selecting a solution.
This guide is not an all-encompassing requirements list. It provides a high-level overview. PCB Design is also an important component of electrical and electronic systems design, but for the purposes of this guide, it was considered out of scope. For more information on a complete integrated product development suite beyond electrical design, read the Tech-Clarity report, “Buyer’s Guide for Engineers: How to Select Essential Tools for Product Design.”
Recommendations
Based on industry experience and research for this report, Tech-Clarity offers the following recommendations:- Create a digital thread across your development process with an end-to-end integrated product development suite that includes electrical design.
- Consider solutions that support defining the electrical distribution system, wiring and harness design, electrical routing, and preparing for
manufacturing. - Support collaboration across mechanical and electrical engineers. Wiring and harness design should be done in the context of the entire product and exchanging ECAD / MCAD data should be automated.
- Ensure you have traceability and changes automatically update across the entire product, including the electrical design.
- Use an electrical design solution that will support the development of a single high-fidelity model to support your digitalization strategy and create a single source of truth.
- Ensure your solution will have the support behind it to make it a success at your company.
- Select a vendor who will be a good partner.
What does effective storytelling have to do with succeeding with Industry 4.0? Plenty.
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How can schools best prepare today's STEM students to close the engineering skills gap so that new graduates are ready for the real world?
Tech-Clarity’s research report, “How Academia Can Close the Engineering Skills Gap in the Age of Digitalization” explores this question. This research shares a global perspective on what colleges and universities are doing to develop the engineering talent needed in the age of digitalization. It also examines the impact COVID-19 has had on instructions and offers lessons learned that can be used to improve the educational experience in the Fall, as well as in the future.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor, Siemens (registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Meet Industry Needs
- Embrace Digitalization
- Prepare for the New Corporate Culture
- Opportunities for Improvement
- Adapt to the Needs of the 2020s
- 1. Offer Long Term, Realistic Projects
- 2. Reshape the Curriculum
- 3. Leverage Software
- 4. Enhance Learning with Digital Twins
- 5. Enrich Learning with Technology
- 6. Develop Collaboration Skills
- 7. Prepare for Cross-Functional Horizontal Teams
- 8. Build Resumes and Offer Career Insight
- 9. Partner with Industry for Technology Thought Leadership
- Conclusions
- Recommendations
- Acknowledgments
Executive Summary
Requirements for New Engineers
Industry needs more engineering graduates. New engineers must be comfortable with cross discipline projects, a range of technology including digitalization, and horizontal organizations. Along with this deep skillset, industry wants engineers to be strong problem solvers with the aptitude to apply technology to solve problems. Previous Tech-Clarity research finds that industry believes schools could do better to meet these requirements.
Requirements for Learning Approaches
Much of this is due to the traditional lecture-based approach to education. By reshaping the curriculum to focus on project-based learning and partnering with industry thought leaders, there is tremendous opportunity to improve students’ education.
This Research
This research builds upon past Tech-Clarity research, Close the Engineering Skills Gap when over two hundred companies were surveyed to identify specific skills industry wants to see in graduating engineers. For this new research, educators from around the world were interviewed to understand what schools are doing to better prepare their students. This report details different perspectives and shares advice to evolve the curriculum to meet today’s needs. COVID-19 The research explores how some schools have embraced digitalization, incorporated the latest technology trends, and leveraged industry partnerships. It also shares lessons learned as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Schools should:
- Offer long term realistic projects
- Reshape the curriculum
- Leverage software
- Enhance learning with digital twins
- Enrich learning with technology
- Develop collaboration skills
- Prepare for horizontal cross-functional teams
- Build resumes and offer career insight
- Partner with industry for technology thought leadership
Recommendations
Next Steps
Based on this research and our experience, Tech-Clarity offers the following recommendations:
-
Restructure academic programs to maximize project-based learning opportunities. This can be done as part of the regular curriculum or as extracurricular actives.
-
Recognize the numerous benefits of project-based learning for both students and industry. Design programs to ensure that participants realize these benefits.
-
Involve industry to provide real-world problems as well as mentorships and internships to ensure students have the opportunity to learn from their experiences and expertise.
-
Projects need to develop problem-solving and collaboration skills, while exposing engineers to multi-discipline work
-
Reshape the curriculum and remove content that is less valuable for today’s engineers.
-
Bring in industry thought leaders and subject matter experts into the classroom.
What should supply chain-centric innovators consider when looking for PLM? How has the PLM landscape changed over the last several years, and how does SaaS fit into that picture?
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor, Upchain (registration required).
Table of Contents
- The State of Cloud PLM
- Why Cloud SaaS is so Compelling
- Current Times Increase Cloud Appeal
- Choosing the Right PLM
- The Shifting Cloud versus Capabilities Tradeoff
- Recommendations and Next Steps
- Acknowledgments
The State of Cloud PLM
Significant Benefits of the Cloud
"Cloud PLM" is not a Cookie Cutter Decision
Recommendations and Next Steps
Investigate SaaS Solutions
Choose the Right SaaS PLM Solution
Where should mold makers focus to boost business profitability?
With significant business pressures and the technical complexity of injection molding, mold making is a challenging business. While tool makers face many obstacles, those surveyed identified five top challenges that make it harder to maintain a successful business. This blog post reveals these top five challenges, and the strategies to deal with them.
Read the full guest post on the Siemens NX Design Blog.
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How can manufacturers most effectively design, develop, and launch custom-engineered products that must be engineered to customer specifications? Tech-Clarity's eBook, Bringing Custom-Engineered Products to Market, shares survey data from over 200 companies to offer insights and best practices.
Please enjoy the summary* below. Click here for the full report, thank you to our sponsor Propel (registration required).
Table of Contents
- Custom-Engineered Products are Compelling
- What Does Profitable Customization Look Like?
- Developing Engineered Products is Difficult
- Benchmarking Engineered Product Performance
- Top Performers Collaborate more Readily
- Top Performers Integrate Data and Processes
- Top Performers Integrate Systems
- Conclusions and Next Steps
- About the Research
- Acknowledgments
Custom-Engineered Products are Compelling
Custom-Engineering Increases the Top Line
Product customization has increased in recent years and is expected to continue to grow "significantly" for most companies over the next several years. What's driving this expansion? The benefits reported by our survey respondents help explain why.
Customization Improves the Bottom Line
Driving higher sales is no guarantee of greater profitability. If custom-engineering results in selling products too cheaply or allowing costs to get out of control, the company can still lose money. Fortunately, 44% of respondents also share the custom-engineered products help them achieve higher sales margins. Whatever the cause, higher margins help ensure that the top-line benefits of custom-engineered products fall to the bottom line.
What Does Profitable Customization Look Like?
Custom Markets Require NPDI Speed
Speed without control, however, can be counterproductive. It could lead to errors or delays if companies don’t design quality into their designs upfront. These problems can have a significant impact considering that respondents say most of their engineering customization happens during customer inquiry / investigation phase and/or during quote / proposal stage – when time is at a premium.
Developing Engineered Products is Difficult
NPDI and Engineering Challenges Impact Performance
The challenges highlighted create serious consequences. Survey respondents indicate that these challenges lead to low margins, inefficiency, unhappy customers, rework/scrap, lost orders, missed market opportunities, and more. These are the negative business consequences of speed without control.
Conclusions and Next Steps
Custom-Engineered Products Deliver Benefits Offering custom-engineered products drives significant business benefits including increased top and bottom-line results. The Top Performers, the 23% with the highest performance in critical market success criteria, are even more likely to enjoy these benefits. They are also more likely to report benefits that aren’t achieved as frequently by Others. For example, about one-half of Top Performers report employee productivity as a benefit of offering custom-engineered products, which is are more than twice as frequently as Others. It’s likely that their better practices allow them not only to achieve great benefits but also to do so in a more streamlined and efficient way. Next Steps Product customization is growing. For those companies that are already taking advantage of this opportunity, the best practices identified by this research can serve as a guide for continuous improvement. For others that are embarking on adopting a custom-engineered product strategy, the practices of the Top Performers can be used to gauge your company’s readiness to deliver the speed and control required to succeed. *This summary is an abbreviated version of the research and does not contain the full content. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Propel (registration required). If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us. [post_title] => Bringing Custom-Engineered Products to Market (survey results) [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => custom-engineered-products [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2025-01-31 11:40:12 [post_modified_gmt] => 2025-01-31 16:40:12 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=9332 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [10] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 9403 [post_author] => 2574 [post_date] => 2020-07-02 21:31:47 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-07-03 01:31:47 [post_content] =>
Are your production approaches as smart as they are sophisticated? Before you answer, consider whether all the information about each aspect of the fab is readily available. Imagine the benefits in flexibility, quality, costs, agility, speed, confidence... this is the vision of smart manufacturing. To capture today’s myriad opportunities, these improvements are essential. The good news is, it’s possible today. Please visit our sponsor Siemens for the full webcast (registration required).
Smart Manufacturing in Semiconductor Manufacturing and Fabrication
Join as Julie Fraser discusses a paper on Smart Manufacturing for Semiconductor she wrote before joining the Tech-Clarity team. Key Takeaways:- What is in MES beyond track and trace
- How to tie supply chain and manufacturing operations together
- How big data analytics differs from the analysis of large quantities of data
- How a digital twin boosts performance
- How smart manufacturing solutions weave a connected threat for a more agile enterprise.
What is needed for manufacturers to improve the maturity of BOM-related processes to help to manage complexity, improve efficiency, prevent mistakes, and enhance collaboration across departments and the supply chain? Read our buyer's guide to find out.
Please enjoy the summary below. Click here for the full report, thank you to our sponsor PTC.
Table of Contents
- Introducing the Buyer's Guide
- Diagnosing BOM Management Issues
- The BOM Management Status Quo
- The BOM Management Business Case
- Analyze BOM Management Solution Capabilities
- Assess Service Requirements
- Consider Vendor Requirements
- Special Considerations
- Prepare for the Digital Enterprise
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
- About the Research
- Acknowledgments
Introducing the Buyer's Guide
BOM Fundamentals Managing Bills of Material (BOMs) is a fundamental need for any manufacturer. Without effective control of product structures, companies struggle with inefficiency and errors. On the other hand, improving the maturity of BOM-related processes helps manage complexity, improve efficiency, prevent mistakes, and enhance collaboration across departments and the supply chain. Improving the maturity of BOM-related processes helps manage complexity, improve efficiency, prevent mistakes, and enhance collaboration across departments and the supply chain. The resulting benefits can be strategic, leading to increased agility and faster time to market that impact top-line financial performance. This Buyer's Guide is a reference tool for manufacturers selecting a system to improve the maturity of their BOM. It also shares that digital BOM management is critical to support digital transformation initiatives including the digital twin, the Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR).
Diagnosing BOM Management Issues
- Errors in manufacturing
- Poor first pass yield
- Ordering the wrong parts
- Delays due to part shortages
- Inability to confidently adopt engineering changes
- Slow time to full volume production
- Late identification of manufacturability or serviceability flaws
- Poor traceability
- Compliance issues or excess effort to comply
- Scrap and rework
- Slow review and approval processes
- Develop Product Structures
- Manage Revisions, Configurations, Change
- Visualize Products
- Associate Information
- Transform BOMs
- Report / Analyze / Document
It’s important to recognize that these requirements are in addition to the basic needs of managing product data, as most companies will extend their PDM or PLM environment to manage BOMs. These solutions provide platform capabilities such as access control and IP protection that serve as a critical foundation for effective BOM management.
Conclusion
Recommendations
Based on industry experience and research on this report, Tech-Clarity offers the following recommendations:- Think big, but remain agile and take BOM management improvements in steps
- Recognize the importance of accurate, complete, timely, and accessible product structures
- Know your needs
- Understand the value
- Look for functionality, but extend requirements to vendor and service
- Consider any special needs for your business, industry, or geography
- Build the foundation for the digital enterprise, recognizing that BOM management is a key enabler
- Get started
What do manufacturers need to know when they select a cloud Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution?
Although manufacturers have started to adopt cloud solutions for many aspects of their business, PLM has lagged behind. Our research shows that over one-half of manufacturers are considering cloud and about one-quarter already leverage the cloud support product innovation and manufacturing. Given the increased interest and adoption, we developed selection criteria to help companies navigate the options and choose the best-suited PLM cloud option for their business.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor PTC (registration required).Table of Contents
- Cloud PLM Adoption Increasing
- PLM Benefits and Business Value
- Increased Value/ROI of Cloud PLM
- Buyer's Considerations
- Choosing the Right PLM
- Considerations for Product Developers
- Considerations for IT
- Considerations for Adoption
- Review Deployment Options
- Evaluate Pricing Options
- Choose the Right Partner
- Special Considerations
- Conclusions and Recommendations
- Acknowledgments
Cloud PLM Adoption Increasing
A Solution First Approach
Cloud solutions are becoming more popular, yet PLM adoption in the cloud has been slower than other applications. The transition, however, is picking up pace. In fact, more companies are now asking, "why not the cloud?" instead of "why consider cloud?". We commend that companies pick their solution first and then choose their deployment option. This is effectively a "solution first" approach as opposed to a "cloud first" approach. We find that companies are just not willing to shortchange functionality in this crucial area. They recognize it's important to evaluate the functional capabilities of a PLM system to ensure they'll gain the significant top- and bottom-line benefits that PLM delivers.
PLM Benefits and Business Value
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) spans multiple levels, offering value in multiple ways. PLM basics help manage products, parts, collaboration and release processes which leads to important benefits including increased productivity, preventing errors, reduced cost, improved quality, enhanced reliability, and more.
Enterprise PLM expands that value by further helping companies develop, manufacture, and support their products. Our PLM Beyond Managing CAD study finds that expanded PLM use improves business performance, and that higher performing companies have more departments and third parties using PLM.
Get the Right PLM to Provide the Value
PLM drives tangible business value. This value is evolving and expanding quickly as companies pursue digital enterprise initiatives and expand the benefits to new business models capabilities. This value is available, but requires the right PLM system.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The Cloud Offers Compelling Benefits The cloud makes the significant business value of PLM more accessible and reduces TCO for manufacturers. It offers new opportunities to enhance global reach and collaboration. But there are important things to consider when selecting a cloud PLM system, ranging from deployment options to considerations for certain industries and geographies.
Recommendations for Cloud PLM Selection
To help companies research and analyze potential solutions based on company needs, including needs that help deliver benefits well into the future, Tech-Clarity offers the following recommendations:
- Evaluate functional solution capabilities first, unless company standards mandate a deployment approach.
- After selecting the right functional solution, evaluate and select optimal deployment and pricing models that give your business the most benefit considering cost, risk, and time to achieve value.
- Consider the strategic value of cloud solutions for global deployments to support “design anywhere, build anywhere” strategies.
- Make sure to consider the future, including the transition to the digital enterprise. We believe that manufacturers that don’t digitalize will be at a competitive disadvantage.
- Narrow down solutions based on these high level criteria to create a smaller list of solutions to evaluate.
- Recognize that any solution selection process will require tradeoffs and understand which types of requirements are the most important to your company’s success and profitability
Is structural analysis enough or should design engineers use CFD too?
This guest post on the Siemens Solid Edge Blog explores this question. With product complexity increasing, it is harder than ever for engineers to make the right decision decisions. Complexity comes from the ever increasing amount of components, configurations, and electronics. Consequently, greater complexity has also increased the importance of understanding additional physics. For example, it's critical to understand the interactions of airflow around electronics so that they do not overheat. This is where Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) fits in.
CFD helps analyze airflow, among other fluids, and can help you uncover common problems that lead to failure, beyond what only structural analysis does. With this in mind, how else can it help design decisions?
This guest post discusses the many ways Computational Fluid Dynamics can help engineers design better products.
To learn more, view the related webinar.
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What step are many companies missing to ensure their Industry 4.0 initiatives succeed? Why Strategy Matters to Industry 4.0 Success discusses the importance of enterprise strategy. The right strategy makes even pilot projects more likely to live up to their potential. This eBook talks about how thinking big for enterprise transformation makes initiatives more pragmatic.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor, Critical Manufacturing (registration required).
Table of Contents
- Making Industry 4.0 Pragmatic
- Industry 4.0 Transformative Benefits
- Making Industry 4.0 Approachable
- Why Disconnected Efforts are Insufficient
- Mindsets for Success
- Continuous Improvement for Industry 4.0
- Enterprise Needs
- Enterprise Technology
- Making it Scalable and Repeatable
- Build an Enterprise Industry 4.0 Approach
- Strategy to Accelerate Progress
Making Industry 4.0 Pragmatic
Small Steps Need Firm Ground in Strategy How can manufacturers take realistic steps to pursue Industry 4.0? The obvious answer is: get started with small projects. Yet, that may not be the best answer. Research shows that half of industrial internet of things (IIoT) projects are failing. It appears something is missing. According to research, that missing step is often setting an enterprise strategy for the transformation. Industry 4.0 is far broader than the manufacturing plant’s operations and processes. Every department plus the ecosystem of suppliers, distributors, and partners are involved. Only with an enterprise-level transformational strategy can manufacturers design, prioritize, and execute projects with assurance that they will build toward Industry 4.0. Companies must rely on what’s working, but also expand their view into the realm of what might be possible, even if it has not been to date.Strategy to Accelerate Progress
Foundation for the Future
Strategy matters to Industry 4.0 success in several ways. Projects that have a clear context in strategy can deliver benefits not only locally, but roll out more widely and deliver enterprise benefits. Continuous Improvement (CI) progress can be smoother and more assured. With that clear strategic foundation, Industry 4.0 enables manufacturers to deliver higher value to their customers and markets now and into the future.
In short, Strategy Matters to Industry 4.0!
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the research and does not contain the full content. A link to download the full report is available here.
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the report, please contact us.
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How can you choose the right PDM system for your business to make sure you achieve your productivity, product success, and profitability goals? The product data management (PDM) Buyer’s Guide is a reference tool to provide direction on what to look for when selecting a PDM system for your company. This guide is composed of four sections covering software functionality, service requirements, vendor attributes, and special company considerations.
Please enjoy the summary* below. Please visit our sponsor PTC for the full research (registration required).
Table of Contents
- Introducing the PDM Buyer’s Guide
- The Product Data Management Imperative
- Analyze PDM Capabilities
- Assess Service Requirements
- Consider Vendor Requirements
- Identify Unique Company Needs
- Prepare for the Digital Enterprise
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Introducing the Product Data Management Buyer’s Guide
Product Data Management (PDM) is an important tool to help manufacturers overcome the complexities of designing, developing, producing, and supporting today’s products and product development processes. Manual and ad-hoc approaches such as shared folders, Dropbox, and hard drives are simply not good solutions to manage critical, complex product information. These approaches may work for very small organizations, but quickly falter as organizations grow and must share information beyond a few core engineers. These techniques also fail to manage data relationships and complex file structures common to 3D CAD systems. PDM systems are purpose-built to address these issues. PDM is a structured, collaborative solution that helps manufacturers control, access, and share crucial product data. Selecting the right PDM system for your business has a large impact on productivity, product success, and profitability.- Getting files under control so people can find the right revision with confidence
- Making sure concurrent updates don’t overwrite each other to avoid “the last save wins” syndrome
- Making information easily accessible and consumable to teams outside of Engineering for reviews and downstream processes
- Safely sharing information with customers, partners, and the supply chain
- Ensuring intellectual property (IP) is captured and securely accessible regardless of who stored it
- Getting away from complicated shared drive structures that lead to errors
- Making sure people don’t manufacture or purchase against the wrong drawing
- Providing “one version of the truth” versus multiple copies of designs
Beyond these basics, there are special considerations for smaller companies and for the largest of enterprises. There are also special considerations for some industries. The guide addresses these and then goes beyond software functionality to focus on the entire experience of owning and operating the solution. The guide and associated checklists include product, infrastructure, implementation, service, and business requirements – all of which impact the benefits received and total cost of ownership (TCO) of PDM. The PDM Buyer’s Guide is not intended to provide an all-encompassing requirements list. Instead it covers the high points that manufacturers should look for in a PDM system. Think of this as a “PDM litmus test” to see if a solution is a good high-level fit for your business before spending significant time and effort analyzing detailed features and functions.
Although the checklists focus only on PDM requirements, it’s important to consider more than your current needs when choosing a system. Many companies eventually want to grow beyond basic PDM to a more complete PDM system. These more advanced capabilities are covered in our Expanding Beyond Your Outgrown PDM System Buyer’s Guide.
Other companies may start with PDM and evolve through a maturity process to a more complete Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) environment. PLM extends the core PDM foundation to support more product development and engineering processes, manage a richer view of products, include more people in product development, and support processes further upstream and downstream from Engineering in the product lifecycle.
In addition, PDM is becoming the core 3D foundation for the digital enterprise, supporting advanced initiatives like the Internet of Things (IoT), model-based design (MBD), and three dimensional augmented / virtual reality. Modern PDM / PLM systems should enable a product digital twin that can serve as the central foundation on which to consolidate (or view) a variety of product-related data captured in systems across the enterprise. It’s important to consider these needs when selecting your software and ensure that your solution has the capability to expand with your growing needs.
Conclusion
PDM helps manufacturers address market complexity and improve business performance. As Tech-Clarity’s Managing Engineering Data concludes, “Product data management is the fundamental building block of any engineering software strategy and helps companies get the most out of their precious engineering resources.” When evaluating PDM, manufacturers need to take into account:- Product requirements
- Implementation, adoption, and support requirements
- Vendor / business requirements
- Special requirements based on company size (particularly for very small or very large organizations)
- Special considerations to meet industry needs
- Future requirements as business continues to digitalize
Recommendations
Based on industry experience and research for this report, Tech-Clarity offers the following recommendations:- Identify and weigh PDM requirements based on company needs, company size, industry, and any unique company needs
- Use high level requirements such as the ones in this guide to evaluate solutions based on business fit before engaging in detailed evaluations
- Consider using more simple, commodity technical solutions like cloud or managed services solutions for smaller companies, companies that wish to move quickly, or those with limited IT resources
- Take user adoption into account, including simplified access and increased visualization for non-engineering resources
- Consider using more full-featured, scalable solutions for larger organizations that have more demanding process and scalability needs and can afford the IT resources required to support capabilities such as site synchronization
- Take into account long-term business and process growth needs including digitalization and IoT initiatives
- Consider the potential to expand to a more capable extended PDM or PLM system, but start small and get value along the way during implementation
Key take-aways
Many new applications for semiconductors in the smart, connected world also lead to exceptional pressures on both fabs and backend operations. Julie will discuss a few of the concepts that many semiconductor companies have not yet leveraged to full advantage. In this session, you will hear how digital twin, modern comprehensive MES with integrated scheduling and quality, and advanced analytics can accelerate operations’ improvement efforts. [post_title] => Its Time for Semiconductor to Smarten Up! (presentation) [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => semiconductor-smarten-up-srl [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:26:26 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:26:26 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=8976 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [17] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 8945 [post_author] => 2572 [post_date] => 2020-05-15 13:33:41 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-05-15 17:33:41 [post_content] =>
In the second part of this two-part blog series, Michelle Boucher continues to explore the question, should you consider an agile methodology to support new product development, beyond just software?
Proceeding from the first part, which explained what agile is and two reasons for using the agile methodology, the second part provides three more reasons to consider an agile methodology:
- Find Problems Sooner
- Tap into the Expertise of the Complete Team
- It Doesn’t Mean There Are No Requirements
Tech-Clarity's eBook, Designing Smart Products Smartly: Increase the Maturity of Your Development Processes, explores this question. The combination of mechanics, electronics and software into today’s smart products have made them more responsive, adaptable, interconnected and portable than ever before. Incidentally, with customers expecting this type of technology in their products, the growth of smart products will not abate. Though smart products can create opportunities, they also introduce new challenges and complexity. To overcome these challenges, companies need to mature their development processes. This eBook reveals the steps manufacturers can take to mature their processes for designing smart products.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Dassault Systèmes (registration required).
Table of Contents
- Improve Smart Product Development Maturity
- Define the Target
- Plan the Product
- Validate Early and Often
- Design by Discipline and Validate to Interfaces
- Effectively Manage Change
- Enable an Integrated Lifecycle View
- Conclusions and Recommendations
- Acknowledgment
Improve Smart Product Development Maturity
The Opportunities for Smart Products Customers in nearly every industry find smart products compelling. It’s hard to compete with a car that drives and parks itself or a clothes washer that senses and adjusts to water conditions, fabric types, and dirt levels and schedules service when needed. Likewise, a medical device that monitors patient health and notifies a doctor when needed offers significant value. Benefits will increase even further as smart products become more aware and communicative as companies adopt strategies to support the Internet of Things (IoT) and technologies like 5G create even more opportunity for connectivity.
But There Are Challenges
However, the advantages of smart products come at a cost. Developing complex, intelligent products brings inherent complexity. Multiple design disciplines must synchronize their work across different design life cycles. Multiple configuration options add even more complexity. Tech-Clarity research identifies several challenges created by increased complexity, but more importantly shows there can be significant, negative business impact (see graph). [1]
To overcome these challenges, companies need to raise the maturity of how they develop smart products. Fortunately, our research shows that better processes and enabling technology improve results through the use of a platform for integration, visibility, and traceability for smart product development. Digital transformation is a large piece of making these practices a success and enabling technologies such as the cloud, platforms, and modern design tools can make adoption easier. This paper outlines a number of tangible steps to improve the development of smart products with proven best practices, technology, and digital transformation.
Conclusions
Create a Competitive Advantage To beat competitors with smart innovations, companies must raise the maturity of their development processes and tools. This report suggests best practices for requirements management, systems design, simulation, interface management, and change management. There are others as well, but these processes are proven and can provide significant value today.
In addition to best practices, companies should implement a lifecycle-oriented platform to enable a cohesive, transparent product development process across disciplines. These solutions allow companies to implement best practices to take advantage of the compelling benefits of smart products without suffering from costly, negative impacts to quality and time-to-market.
Recommendations
Based on industry experience and research for this report, Tech-Clarity offers the following recommendations:- Follow proven best practices for developing smart products:
- Create a single source of truth for requirements
- Plan the product starting with architecture and develop a system model
- Use multi-physics simulation early and often at both the system and component level to optimize and validate the design
- Develop a common product definition with interfaces
- Manage change by starting with an impact analysis across all disciplines
- Leverage product innovation platforms to create an integrated lifecycle view
- Implement the right tools to enable design, including simulation and systems design tools
- Leverage lifecycle-oriented systems to integrate the various processes, people, and deliverables required to efficiently develop high quality, smart products.
The introductory blog post of this two part series, defines the "waterfall" and "agile" methodologies. The post them reveals two of the five reasons to consider an agile methodology for your product development process:
- Support Evolving Requirements
- Meet Customer Needs
What do manufacturers need to do to succeed and get results from their Industry 4.0 efforts?
In this webcast, Julie Fraser revealed a few significant findings of research of over 300 companies on the topic of manufacturing data management. It’s a multi-faceted challenge in which people, processes, and technology all matter.
This webcast explains the new Tech-Clarity research report’s findings, The Manufacturing Data Challenge: Lessons from Top Performers. Attend to learn what Top Performers are doing differently than others to improve dramatically on both operational and business key performance indicators (KPIs).
Register now to hear about this ground-breaking research, sponsored by Critical Manufacturing (registration required).
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All Results for "All"
The Manufacturing Data Challenge (survey results)
How do companies make progress toward Industry 4.0? Based on our research, those who invest in people, processes, and technology for manufacturing data management have made more strides in Industry 4.0. Manufacturing Data Management: Lessons from Top Performers explores the many challenges of bringing together all the data production facilities need. Please enjoy the summary*…
How does CAD on mobile devices help?
Are mobile devices ready for CAD? Is CAD ready for mobile devices? When should you consider use cases for CAD on a tablet? CAD tools have evolved significantly over the last several decades, which has coincided with several platform shifts. With the advancements in tablets combined with evolutions in CAD, we may be at the…
Business Sustainability and Survival 2020 (survey results)
How are companies adjusting their strategies to survive COVID-19 disruption without losing sight of long-term business sustainability? Read our survey of over 190 companies to find out how they are prioritizing limited resources to maintain focus on success factors including: Addressing changing business models Adopting new technology Protecting the environment Please enjoy the summary* below….
Buyer’s Guide for Electrical Design
What software capabilities will help you improve how you integrate mechanical, electronics, and electrical designs? Tech-Clarity’s buyer’s guide, How to Select the Ideal Solution for Today’s Smart Products: Buyer’s Guide for Electrical Design, explores this question. As companies strive to make modern products smarter, innovative and more affordable, the integration of mechanical, electrical and electronic…
Succeeding with Industry 4.0: Understanding the Whole Elephant (article)
What does effective storytelling have to do with succeeding with Industry 4.0? Plenty. With the right narrative by level and function, the whole company can engage with Industry 4.0 strategy. At that point, everyone, whether top-level management or shop-floor workers, can buy-in. Once they do, they can participate effectively in setting the standards required to…
Engineering Skills Gap in the Age of Digitalization
How can schools best prepare today’s STEM students to close the engineering skills gap so that new graduates are ready for the real world? Tech-Clarity’s research report, “How Academia Can Close the Engineering Skills Gap in the Age of Digitalization” explores this question. This research shares a global perspective on what colleges and universities are…
Supply Chain-Centric Cloud PLM (eBook)
What should supply chain-centric innovators consider when looking for PLM? How has the PLM landscape changed over the last several years, and how does SaaS fit into that picture? Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor, Upchain (registration required). Table of Contents The State of Cloud PLM Why Cloud SaaS is…
How Mold Makers Can Improve Their Business
Where should mold makers focus to boost business profitability? With significant business pressures and the technical complexity of injection molding, mold making is a challenging business. While tool makers face many obstacles, those surveyed identified five top challenges that make it harder to maintain a successful business. This blog post reveals these top five challenges,…
Bringing Custom-Engineered Products to Market (survey results)
How can manufacturers most effectively design, develop, and launch custom-engineered products that must be engineered to customer specifications? Tech-Clarity’s eBook, Bringing Custom-Engineered Products to Market, shares survey data from over 200 companies to offer insights and best practices. Please enjoy the summary* below. Click here for the full report, thank you to our sponsor Propel (registration…
Digital Twin and Smart Manufacturing for Semiconductor (webcast)
Are your production approaches as smart as they are sophisticated? Before you answer, consider whether all the information about each aspect of the fab is readily available. Imagine the benefits in flexibility, quality, costs, agility, speed, confidence… this is the vision of smart manufacturing. To capture today’s myriad opportunities, these improvements are essential. The good…
BOM Management Buyer’s Guide (white paper)
What is needed for manufacturers to improve the maturity of BOM-related processes to help to manage complexity, improve efficiency, prevent mistakes, and enhance collaboration across departments and the supply chain? Read our buyer’s guide to find out. Please enjoy the summary below. Click here for the full report, thank you to our sponsor PTC. …
Choosing the Right Cloud PLM (buyer’s guide)
What do manufacturers need to know when they select a cloud Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution? Although manufacturers have started to adopt cloud solutions for many aspects of their business, PLM has lagged behind. Our research shows that over one-half of manufacturers are considering cloud and about one-quarter already leverage the cloud support product innovation…
Why Should You Use CFD?
Is structural analysis enough or should design engineers use CFD too? This guest post on the Siemens Solid Edge Blog explores this question. With product complexity increasing, it is harder than ever for engineers to make the right decision decisions. Complexity comes from the ever increasing amount of components, configurations, and electronics. Consequently, greater complexity…
Why Strategy Matters to Industry 4.0 Success (eBook)
What step are many companies missing to ensure their Industry 4.0 initiatives succeed? Why Strategy Matters to Industry 4.0 Success discusses the importance of enterprise strategy. The right strategy makes even pilot projects more likely to live up to their potential. This eBook talks about how thinking big for enterprise transformation makes initiatives more pragmatic….
Product Data Management Buyer’s Guide (buyer’s guide)
How can you choose the right PDM system for your business to make sure you achieve your productivity, product success, and profitability goals? The product data management (PDM) Buyer’s Guide is a reference tool to provide direction on what to look for when selecting a PDM system for your company. This guide is composed of…
Its Time for Semiconductor to Smarten Up! (presentation)
Can the most sophisticated manufacturing in the world get smarter? Join Julie Fraser in this session to challenge yourself. Consider what you don’t already know in this session at Siemens Industry Software’s Realize Live virtual user conference. It is based on the paper Smart Manufacturing for Semiconductor she authored prior to joining Tech-Clarity. This session…
5 Ways Agile Improves New Product Development – Part 2
In the second part of this two-part blog series, Michelle Boucher continues to explore the question, should you consider an agile methodology to support new product development, beyond just software? Proceeding from the first part, which explained what agile is and two reasons for using the agile methodology, the second part provides three more reasons…
Designing Smart Products Smartly: Increase the Maturity of Your Development Processes
How can companies mature their processes for designing smart products? Tech-Clarity’s eBook, Designing Smart Products Smartly: Increase the Maturity of Your Development Processes, explores this question. The combination of mechanics, electronics and software into today’s smart products have made them more responsive, adaptable, interconnected and portable than ever before. Incidentally, with customers expecting this type…
5 Ways Agile Improves New Product Development – Part 1
Can agile product development work beyond software? Agile has provided significant benefits to software development teams. Can those benefits be realized for other engineering disciplines too? In a guest post on the Siemens Solid Edge Blog, Michelle Boucher delves into these questions and the reasons you may want to consider using it to your product…
How do companies make progress toward Industry 4.0? Based on our research, those who invest in people, processes, and technology for manufacturing data management have made more strides in Industry 4.0. Manufacturing Data Management: Lessons from Top Performers explores the many challenges of bringing together all the data production facilities need.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the 
















