Making the value of technology clear
Successful BOM communication across Engineering, Purchasing and Manufacturing:
Spreadsheets are the de facto Standard
The easiest way to sum up the BOM process status quo in most manufacturers is with a single word – spreadsheets. BOM processes frequently involve very complex spreadsheets. They are hard to interpret, lead to duplicating data, don’t manage data relationships, and often contain errors. As our BOM Management Buyer’s Guide shares, many companies manage BOMs in ways that don’t adequately support the business, including documents or embedding BOMs into CAD drawings in addition to spreadsheets.
Sharing BOMs via Email Creates Risk
Spreadsheets are not good for data management, and they are even more problematic when they’re shared through email. As soon as a BOM is attached to an email it creates a risk that somebody will access it after it is no longer valid. These informal methods are also challenging because data in a spreadsheet can’t easily be integrated with downstream people, processes, and systems. Because of this, unmanaged methods fall apart quickly for all but the simplest of companies.
Why Accept the Current Status Quo?
Why do manufacturers put up with this? Perhaps because it’s the way they’ve always done it. Perhaps they don’t recognize how many of their issues have poor BOM processes as the root cause. In many cases, they are just believe that fixing the problem is going to be complicated, time-consuming, and require expensive solutions.
They think that putting the basics of BOM management in place is going to slow them down, and that they’re not ready for a PLM or ERP system. This is particularly true for smaller companies. But big companies often run with immature BOM management processes as well. How can manufacturers upgrade the status quo without adding additional cost and overhead?
Lower the Barriers and Increase Collaboration with a Targeted Cloud Solution
One option is using a targeted cloud solution built to address the five BOM Process Fundamentals. Many companies are considering cloud software because it lowers the barriers to adopting new technology. The cloud also helps ensure that everyone access the latest data, and that data is digitally accessible instead of locked up in files or on drawings. As David Anderson of Verdetech Products shares, “We’re trying to do everything on the web so we have universal data access.”
Provide Accurate Data Downstream
Manufacturers rely on their BOM to let downstream operations know what they need to execute on. Clearly, accurate information is important or the wrong parts could be ordered or an incorrect revision could be produced.
Get Data from the Source
How can companies make sure their information is accurate? First, existing data should be gathered directly from the source whenever possible instead of manually reentered. For BOM information, this means pulling product structures and metadata from CAD in order to capture the engineer’s intent. Beyond initially collecting this data, it must be kept in sync as designs change.
Allow Visibility and Collaboration
Secondly, the information should be available and visible to people across different roles, including those in the supply chain. They should have the ability to review and provide input based on their perspective and expertise.
Avoid Duplicate BOM and Item Information
Finally, information should have a single master source. This means that part information shouldn’t be input on a BOM by BOM basis. Part data should come from an item master that can be kept up to date centrally. Then, that data should be dynamically supplied to the BOM. This keeps information up to date, helps encourage accuracy, reduces duplication, and allows companies to determine where parts are used.
Unfortunately, our research shows that about two-thirds of companies find data inconsistencies between systems at least on a weekly basis. Part data duplication on each BOM will, by its nature, become inaccurate. This doesn’t have to be the case. “We have a parts catalog for parts used over and over in different projects to create a single version of truth,” says Michael White of Digitalcarbon. “I just edit my catalog and bring part data into my BOMs.”
Keep BOMs Up to Date
Outdated data has lost its value, regardless of how accurate it may have been. BOM data needs to be up to date, and manufacturers have to be confident that they can access the current version when they need it. How can manufacturers ensure they keep their BOMs current? In addition, how they can know what their BOM looked like at a certain point in time if they have to go back to resolve issues?
Put BOMs Under Change Control
BOM data has to be kept under a managed change process. Change management is critical to tracking revisions and history. It ensures that people accessing the BOM to do their job can be assured that they are working on the latest design. As Verdetech Products’ David Anderson shares, “When someone asks what the product costs, I don’t have to worry if it’s current or not.”
Avoid Duplicating BOM Data in Emails
Of course, data currency is highly dependent on how the data is shared and accessed. Information sent in a spreadsheet or document via email is immediately outdated. As soon as BOM data is attached to an email, it is no longer under control and creates a risk that someone will access outdated information to guide their work, leading to errors. “Once you copy a BOM and send it out by email you lose control if you make an adjustment or a change,” explains Michael White of Digitalcarbon.
Keep Data Centralized and Accessible
Email is a helpful tool for alerts and notifications, but not as a place to store data. Email alerts should point to common data. In many cases, companies are turning to the cloud because it’s accessible inside and outside of the business and everyone will always get the same.
Create Complete Product Definitions
Manufacturers rely on their BOMs to communicate the complete product composition, and do it in the right context. A BOM isn’t just a collection of parts or a CAD structure. While CAD integration is important, it doesn’t tell the whole story. As David Anderson of Verdetech Products explains, the BOM can communicate a rich amount of product data. “There’s a mass of information that’s all interrelated, it’s important to encapsulate that knowledge instead of going back through emails and trying to recreate it,” he says.
Manage BOM Relationships to Prevent Data Duplication
This information can include technical specifications like materials or commercial information like preferred suppliers. As mentioned earlier, it’s important not to duplicate information from the item master. In the same way, vendor information should come from a vendor database so the information can be validated, there’s no duplication, and Purchasing can find all references where the vendor is used.
Organize BOM Data by Role
BOM structures don’t always fit the right format for execution, and have to be modified to provide the right information. For example, companies may want to add non-modeled parts, consumables, tooling, or other information. Also, people have different perspectives and need different data to play their role. For example, a designer might model an assembly with all of its underlying parts, but Purchasing my view it as a single item from a supplier. In a similar way, third parties like suppliers may only require access rights to a subset of information. Data has to be organized for the intended user and match their execution needs.
Create New Knowledge
BOM data can be used to calculate new details, including cost rollups, weights, ordered quantities, and more. These calculations are very hard to accomplish in spreadsheets due to the way they are organized. BOM data can also provide a rich source of insight by applying business intelligence and machine learning. The key consideration, though, is that all of this information should be kept in context.
Focus on Clarity of Communication
A BOM isn’t valuable unless it can be easily understood by the people that need product information to do their jobs. Remember, it’s a communication tool. Too frequently, BOMs are large lists of numbers that mean very little to most people. How can companies ensure their BOMs are usable by others?
Create Personalized Data Views
First, different people need different views to make the BOM clear. It’s import to provide information that’s role and task appropriate. For example, people in the supply chain don’t know your part numbers and you probably only want to share a subset of information with them.
Present BOMs in a Visual Context
Second, information should be presented in a visual, intuitive way. Thumbnails of parts, particularly if they are 3D, are much more approachable than long lists of numbers. Multilevel views that allow you to expand, contract, flatten, and drill down to get more information or access CAD files are more valuable than complex colors and indentations in spreadsheets.
Make BOM Data Accessible Downstream Digitally
Lastly, data needs to be interpreted by other systems as well as people. BOM data should be accessible in a database, not locked up in a spreadsheet or CAD file.
Put BOMs to Use
Information is important, but has to be put to use to provide value. How can manufacturers ensure that their data can be used to drive higher efficiency and reduce errors?
Extend BOM Knowledge to Support Downstream Processes
Effective BOM execution combines data with BOM processes. It creates an integrated process that connects design intent from Engineering with what’s needed to fulfill it downstream. BOM quantities aren’t for reference only, they should be accessible for procurement requirements and manufacturing quantity calculations. They should also be available for rollups like costs or material quantities to make decisions.
Leverage BOM Explosions for Procurement and Production Planning
A BOM solution should also allow BOM explosions to help plan production and communicate demand to suppliers. It should share that information with an ERP system if available.
Consider Simpler Solutions
Some solutions are blurring the lines between BOM definition and execution by supporting additional BOM-related tasks like orders and. These solutions are worth a look, can provide value with fewer barriers to adoption, and can serve as a foundation to grow from at the point the company is ready for more formal systems like PDM, PLM, and/or ERP.
Take Advantage of Performance Improvements
Effective BOM management creates a cohesive process that connects everything from design to purchase orders to production. It goes further to provide the right information, including historical data, to resolve service issues. An effective process leverages a wealth of information in context, including CAD, items, and vendors, without duplicating data or allowing it to be shared without control.
Get Started
For many companies, implementing traditional systems may feel too cumbersome. But that doesn’t mean they can’t improve. Manufacturers can focus on the five identified opportunities to improve BOM processes and improve performance by using lighter weight, targeted cloud solutions. Cloud software fosters collaboration and comes with lower barriers to adoption. These systems can help manufacturers take a big step in the right direction and provide room to grow in the future. It’s time to get started, start small, and incrementally improve BOM processes to reduce errors and improve performance.
Imagine what you could do if you could get almost a third of your time back? In a guest post on the Sodius Willert blog, Michelle Boucher shares research on how much engineering time is wasted on non-value added work and explains what you can do.
Research from Tech-Clarity’s Reducing Non-Value Added Work in Engineering reveals that engineers waste a startling 32% on non-value added work. That’s a lot of lost opportunity. Imagine what you could do if you could get almost a third of your time back? Much of this non-value added work is related to the many manual tasks associated with managing, sharing, and finding data. Data tends to be stored in multiple places, so there is no single source of truth.
Without a single source of truth, there is no traceability across the data. It then becomes practically impossible to identify the impact of an update to requirements, new design work, or changes to other parts of the design. Without traceability, changes can not automatically propagate across all product data. Instead, changes and updates become a very manual, if not impossible, process to identify everything that is impacted and update it. This is further complicated if the same data is located in multiple places. The situation creates a significant risk for outdated and conflicting data. Unfortunately, this costs the company in numerous ways, which we will explore further.
How do you navigate complex, omnichannel environments and manage multiple sources of data to make the best decisions? Can predictive analytics help?
Tech-Clarity’s Retail Analytics Buyer's Guide explains how predictive analytics provide better visibility across your retail business so that you can make better decisions to become more competitive. As the retail industry faces significant disruption, new approaches are required to survive. With volatile markets and fierce competition, the right decisions are critical to survival. Unfortunately, complex omnichannel environments, global supply chains, and dynamic development teams make it practically impossible to get timely visibility into the business. Even if you can, will you have confidence in your decisions? With the right predicative analytics solution, you can overcome these challenges, but only if you select the right technology. The research identifies eight capabilities to look for in a predicative analytics solution. These capabilities will help you make better decisions about your retail business.
Click here for the full eBook, thank you to our sponsor PTC.
In the retail industry, you need to support a complex, global, omnichannel environment, while navigating a dynamic market filled with economic volatility. It is not easy, especially as consumers have become more empowered and demanding through social media and online resources. To be successful, you need to make fast decisions, identify opportunities, respond to changing trends, react to competitors, adjust to shifts in the supply chain, and more. It’s complex. In many cases, margins are so thin that missing a trend, failing to spot an opportunity, or making the wrong decision can significantly hurt profitability. A few weak seasons can be disastrous for a brand.
Making things even harder, the barriers to entry have dropped. It’s no longer enough to compete by becoming the biggest brand and leveraging scale. Online marketplaces have expanded the reach of start-ups and small companies. In many cases, the playing field has been leveled as resources that were only available to the largest companies are now available to everyone. This situation has further intensified the competition. Retail companies who can respond to market changes before their competitors will have the advantage.
To survive, retail companies must be nimble enough to react quickly, but they can only do that with the right insights. Information and knowledge are now competitive weapons and technology can be key to unleashing its potential. That knowledge comes from every aspect of the organization from business operations, product trends, supplier information, and more. This buyer’s guide reveals how retail companies can capitalize on their knowledge and uncovers eight capabilities that will help put the right technology in place to support them.
The top challenges uncovered by research conducted by BOF and McKinsey reveal the importance of getting instant insights. The economic uncertainty related to events such as Brexit, a rise in protectionist policies in the US, a volatile stock market, and more can erode consumer confidence and make it even harder to predict buying trends. Key insights will help overcome some of this uncertainty. With online shopping and social media, consumers are more informed than ever, creating a need for retailers to know how they can best influence buying behavior. The right data, in context, will help. Merchandise needs to be at the right place at the right time while avoiding excess inventory. Retailers need to offer consumers the experiences that will keep them coming back, with the right products that reflect the latest trends. Again, analytics will guide those decisions.
By selecting the right software, you should get timely insights to help you bring the right products to market, optimize the management of supply chains, influence buying behavior and more. These needed insights will help you make smarter decisions which should lead to better operating margins
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the eBook and does not contain the full content. A link to download the full eBook is available above.
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us using the “Contact” link below.
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As our changing world impacts product design, how should CAD evolve? How can CAD support your efforts to adopt some of the latest technologies?
During the PTC on-demand virtual session, “The Renaissance of CAD: What's New, What's Now & What You Can Do With It” you will hear about some of the latest advancements in product design and how CAD has evolved to support them. Sessions include topics on IoT, generative design, simulation, additive manufacturing, and augmented reality.
During the simulation session, Tech-Clarity’s Michelle Boucher shares highlights from her recent research on simulation and how CAE can be a valuable tool for design engineers. Watch Michelle's session here. To read more about Michelle's research on simulation click here.
Watch all the sessions here.
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[post_content] => How can food and beverage companies use digitalization to dramatically increase flexibility, enhance consumer responsiveness, and improve productivity? This episode of Tech-Clarity TV, Revolutionizing Food and Beverage Production with the Industrial IoT and the Digital Twin, shares how food producers can leverage digital twins and the IoT to improve performance.
https://youtu.be/kGb6utklQwk
How can you get the quickest return on your investments in technology?
As we look ahead to the coming decade, technology will become increasingly critical for your company to stay competitive. New technology can include CAD, CAE, PLM, 3D printing, IoT, and more. However, for that technology to work for your business, your implementation must be successful. With a new technology, often it is the cultural changes that can derail the project. Starting with a plan to overcome challenges like this can be the most important part of a successful implementation. Tech-Clarity’s Ten Practices to Successfully Implement Technology shares 10 best practices to support the implementation and adoption of new technology so that you can get the expected return on your technology investments as quickly as possible.
Please enjoy the summary* below.
For the full eBook, please visit our sponsor SOLIDWORKS (free of charge, registration required).
Staying competitive in today’s global market means developing exceptional products that are innovative, high quality, and cost-effective. With so much to consider, how can you get ahead? For many, technology, including software tools, is the answer. Technology investments can help you grow your business, expand your customer base, and extend your services. With great software tools, you can accomplish more than you thought possible. Unfortunately, ignoring opportunities for improvement can stagnate the business, which can eventually lead to lost market share.
The key is selecting the right technology solution and successfully adopting it. This eBook identifies best practices for successful technology adoption to position your company for success for the next decade.
Outsource vs. Internal Development?
Innovation often requires new skills. Many find they lack the internal expertise to take advantage of new materials, use the latest manufacturing techniques, support connectivity, or benefit from other industry advancements. When faced with this challenge, you can outsource or try to develop the skills internally. Regardless of which option you choose, technology will make it easier.
Support Outsourcing with Technology
For some, outsourcing can be a great option as a way to tap into expertise that you lack. When outsourcing, technology can ensure good collaboration, support communication, keep design data in sync, and protect intellectual property. As an example, cloud solutions can offer a platform to share data with third parties in a secure manner.
Technology Lowers Internal Development Cost
For other companies, especially smaller businesses, the overhead associated with outsourcing may be too much. It takes time to familiarize a third party with your product lines, manage quality, and coordinate changes, especially for highly engineered products. In these cases, it may be easier to do everything in-house. Again, technology can make that easier with software tools that have embedded intelligence to guide the design or manufacturing process.
Technology can have a significantly impact on your business in a positive way. It can be the key to help you expand, grow, and evolve your business. However, as good as the technology may be, it will only help your company if you take the right steps to ensure the adoption is successful.
The following checklist will help you achieve success:
By following these ten recommendations, your company will be better positioned to successfully adopt technology and realize the expected ROI even faster.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the eBook and does not contain the full content. A link to download the full eBook is available above.
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us using the “Contact” link below.
[post_title] => Ten Practices to Successfully Implement Technology (eBook) [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => ten-practices-to-successfully-implement-technology-ebook [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:28:16 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:28:16 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://tech-clarity.com/?p=7580 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [6] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7670 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2019-04-01 09:44:21 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-04-01 13:44:21 [post_content] => How have manufacturers' opinions on using the cloud to support product innovation, product development, and engineering changed? How does that impact cloud adoption? Read the guest post in full in the Digital Transformation section of the Siemens PLM Community blog. Jim Brown recently shared a guest post on the Siemens' blog offering our experience on cloud adoption and starts a discussion about the variety of benefits that engineering software on the cloud offers. The post includes information from our prior research on using cloud for PLM, including this flowchart for companies to use when considering their cloud strategy.
Times have changed. We've seen a shift from companies questioning if they should use the cloud to asking "why not?" use the cloud. Many viewed slower cloud adoption for PLM and other engineering solutions as a reluctance to put IP in the cloud, but our research and experience point to another reason. The solutions available on the cloud versus more traditional deployments simply did not offer equivalent capabilities. Now, we're seeing a different mindset.
Our conclusion is that the appetite for cloud solutions is increasing. At the same time, options are expanding to include more traditional solutions, along with their deep functionality, in a cloud offering. It’s time for more companies to take a look.
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How do you empower engineers to design the best products possible?
Research from Tech-Clarity’s Revolutionizing Simulation For Design Engineers research report finds that design engineers lack confidence in design decisions 28% of the time. The research identifies the most common ways engineers deal with this uncertainty, its impact, and how to improve confidence. This research study, based on a survey of 195 companies, examines the design process and identifies top challenges that hold engineers back. The report reveals how to empower engineers with insight to improve product quality, lower cost, and accelerate time-to-market, all while developing more innovative products and the role that CAE can play.
Please enjoy the summary* below.
For the full research report, please visit our sponsor PTC (free of charge, registration required).
How do you empower engineers to design the best products possible?
Engineers want to design great products. Unfortunately, factors like increasing product complexity, competing design criteria, and knowing how design decisions impact other parts of the design make it hard. On top of this, ever-shrinking timelines mean engineers have their work cut out for them. Yet, exceptional engineering has become critical to success in today’s competitive global market.
Product Quality
As companies face mounting pressure from global competitors, engineering criteria have become essential to competitively differentiate products. In fact, 80% of survey respondents believe that product quality is the most important product attribute to keep products competitive (see graph). Reliability and cost come next. This indicates customers have high expectations for quality and durability but don’t want to overpay. To be successful, companies should balance these criteria.
Engineering Decisions Are Critical – and Not Easy
Requirements for quality, reliability, and cost often conflict so balancing them is no small feat. Unfortunately, product complexity makes it hard for engineers to know the full impact of each design decision. Indeed, 76% of survey respondents rate design decisions that impact product competitiveness as ‘somewhat hard’ to ‘extremely difficult.’ This leads many engineers to overengineer, which unfortunately drives up cost.
Companies who can make this decision process easier will have an advantage.
To help improve engineering decisions, Tech-Clarity offers the following recommendations:
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the report and does not contain the full content. A link to download the full report is available above.
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us using the “Contact” link below.
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What should Life Sciences companies look for in a solution to help them simultaneously improve profitability and patient outcomes using remote device monitoring via the IoT?
Our new Improving Service Performance and Patient Outcomes with Remote Monitoring Buyer's Guide helps Life Sciences companies understand the business and social value of monitoring equipment with the IoT. It then offers evaluation criteria for companies to use as requirements to select a solution to achieve that value. The research also shares the experience of Varian Medical Systems and how they've used the IoT to drive improved service and customer relationships.
Please enjoy the summary below. For the full report, please visit our sponsor PTC (no charge, registration required).
Digitalization is changing the way innovative medical device, biotech, and related companies provide value and drive profitability. Research shows that one of the most compelling digital transformation opportunities is to revolutionize service, specifically:
Industries are Digitally Transforming
Life Sciences companies have a tremendous opportunity to improve service operations and outcomes. At the same time, many are investigating how to benefit from the Internet of Things (IoT). Remotely monitoring medical equipment is a great way to accomplish both.
As our related Improving Service with Remote Monitoring Buyer’s Guide explains, a remote monitoring initiative allows companies to quickly achieve IoT value. In fact, the most common way that companies gain tangible ROI from IoT is through improved service. At the same time, it also paves the way for even more substantial benefits from initiatives like healthcare analytics.
Equipment Monitoring Has Proven Value
The IoT lets companies transform service to generate more – and more profitable – service revenue. They do this by moving from reactive to proactive to predictive service, and leveraging advanced technologies like AI, machine learning, and big data analytics. They can also adopt new service delivery processes like remote service. But the most common first step is reducing cost of service through remote monitoring.
Get Started
Leveraging the IoT can help companies improve service for themselves and their customers by reducing cost and transitioning to proactive and predictive service. Remote monitoring allows companies to identify and resolve issues remotely, providing faster service and increased uptime while reducing the cost of truck rolls and putting service technicians on site.
It can go beyond cost savings to create a new source of revenue from paid upgrades or remotely enhancing equipment capabilities or permissions by “unlocking” enhanced capabilities via a subscription. It also offers Life Sciences companies an opportunity to help ensure devices are available and operating optimally to serve patient needs.
Improve Service and Patient Outcomes
Medical device, biotech and other life science innovators embarking on a remote monitoring initiative to improve service should look for the capabilities outlined in the sections of this guide to help ensure they get the value they seek. In addition, they can use the following checklist as high-level criteria to compare offerings.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the report and does not contain the full content. A link to download the full report is available above.
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the report, please contact us using the "Contact" link below.
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Are you ready for the EU MDR?
Tech-Clarity's Preparing for EU MDR explains the impact of the EU MDR on your product data. While complying to the EU MDR may require an investment, taking the steps now to prepare your product data will not only support EU MDR compliance, but will position your company to support future regulatory requirements. In addition, these investment will also lead to greater efficiencies that will enable you to have more bandwidth to focus on innovation and quality. This report provides recommended steps to help you prepare and how software technology will make it easier.
Please enjoy the summary* below.
For the full eBook, please visit our sponsor PTC (free of charge, registration required).
In May 2017, the EU published the new European Union Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR). The new regulation replaces the MDD (Medical Device Directive) and went into force on May 25, 2017. Medical devices have three years to comply while in vitro diagnostics have five years.
The reasons for the new regulation are admirable. As stated, "This Regulation aims to ensure the smooth functioning of the internal market…[it] sets high standards of quality and safety for medical devices in order to meet common safety concerns..." Essentially, the EU wants to ensure that medical devices are safe, high quality, meet stated expectations, and improve patient health. The EU also wants to take advantage of the technological and scientific progress made over the last 20 years.
Better Devices, but There’s Work to Do
While taking advantage of technology advancements will lead to greater efficiencies for medical device companies, becoming compliant will require work. The EU MDR wiki states, "The new EU Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR) is not radically different from the current Medical Device Directive (MDD). That's not to underestimate the amount of work that will be required to switch from the current MDD to the new EU MDR.”1 The new regulation is largely an extension of the existing regulation, but it requires far more data. In many ways, the new regulations require processes that medical device companies should be following anyway, but have been a challenge to implement, especially without the right technology.
The Opportunity
Considering that every medical device company that wants to do business in Europe will be undergoing efforts to comply, this transition period represents an excellent opportunity to restructure processes in ways that are more efficient, but will also lead to more innovative and higher quality devices. The transition may be challenging, but those who are most successful will likely enjoy a competitive advantage.
While the scope of the new regulation is quite broad, its implications are especially significant for product teams who will – either directly or behind the scenes – participate in the product submissions process.
This eBook shares advice to prepare product data for regulatory submissions through a programmatic and extensible approach. In this view, EU-MDR compliance serves as a catalyst for implementing sound product design, change and configuration control best practices across your product development lifecycle.
To establish a foundation to comply with the EU MDR, medical device companies should look to adopt a product-centric approach. Based on this research and our experience, we recommend that medical device companies do the following to support the EU MDR and a product-centric approach:
To adopt a product-centric approach, consider the following steps:
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the eBook and does not contain the full content. A link to download the full eBook is available above.
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us using the “Contact” link below.
How can manufacturers tell when they've outgrown their Product Data Management system? What should they look for to replace it? Join Tech-Clarity's Jim Brown and PTC's Mark Lobo as they help companies navigate this all-too-common scenario. The interactive presentation will share what's missing in most basic PDM / Engineering Document Management (EDM) systems and what to look for in a more advanced PDM solution that does more than manage CAD, what some might call cPDM. The presentation shares Jim and Mark's experience as well as findings from a recent Buyer's Guide that shares functional requirements, implementation needs, vendor considerations, and other special concerns such as preparing for the future.
Watch the PTC sponsored webcast replay now (registration required).
For more information, please see our related Buyer's Guide, below:
https://tech-clarity.com/outgrown-pdm/7356
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What should Life Sciences Companies look for in a solution to transform service using IoT remote monitoring? Tech-Clarity's Jim Brown and PTC's Anthony Moffa will share recent research and industry experience on this Medical Design & Outsourcing webcast, How to Select a Remote Monitoring Solution to Transform Your Service Model. The webcast will cover how to improve service maturity to better service medical equipment, leading to both higher profitability and better patient outcomes. We'll also share how this initiative can set the foundation for even broader IoT and digitalization benefits.
Register for the Medical Design & Sourcing webinar today (no charge, registration required).
Is your CAD tool ready for the 2020s? Does it have the features you need to keep your company competitive?
Tech-Clarity's How to Futureproof Your Product Design: 5 Technologies Your CAD Tool Must Support describes the key technologies that will impact design in the 2020s. Based on a survey of over 200 manufacturers, respondents identified the top technologies that will change how they design products. This report describes how these technologies will impact design and how a CAD tool should help you.
Please enjoy the summary* below.
For the full eBook, please visit our sponsor SOLIDWORKS (free of charge, registration required).
You Will Need the Right Software Tools
While the right strategy around cutting-edge technologies is critical to avoid these negative impacts, you must also empower your teams with proper processes and technology. Consequently, you also need capabilities to manage the resulting complexity. This research reveals what successful companies do to help them succeed and stay ahead of the competition while they prepare for the next decade.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the eBook and does not contain the full content. A link to download the full eBook is available above.
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us using the “Contact” link below.
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How are innovative automotive companies leveraging immersive, real-time 3D to improve innovation? How can they use highly realistic, interactive, virtual experiences to enhance design, engineering, manufacturing engineering, sales, marketing, training, and more? This eBook shares industry insights and experiences from Ford, Audi, Teague, Team One / Saatchi & Saatchi, and other manufacturers to shed light on the opportunity.
The Value of Immersive 3D Automotive Experiences eBook shares interviews with leading manufacturing, design, and marketing firms to offer insight into how auto companies can create compelling visual representations that excite buyers, inform engineers, optimize design decisions, and improve training. The research shares how companies are using tools from the gaming industry in combination with their CAD models to lower the barriers to creating these powerful, virtual capabilities. The eBook shares a variety of approaches manufacturers are adopting along with the business benefits they're achieving.
Please enjoy the summary below. For the full report, please visit our sponsor Unity (no charge, registration required).
A car represents a unique blend of advanced technology and consumer desires, and automotive marketing campaigns are tailored to evoke both rational and emotional responses from customers. Auto companies and advertising agencies have become highly adept at showing lifelike driving experiences. Today’s customers have the opportunity to experience a car in a spectacular setting, even before a single unit has been produced.
The innovators are doing even more, gaining value by sharing interactive, real-time 3D experiences across the enterprise and the supply chain. They can create buyer excitement with fully immersive configurators that customers can interactively explore in 3D. They can collaborate on interior designs in global, virtual reality design reviews to innovate and catch errors early. They can analyze the impact of manufacturing engineering decisions on perceived quality by viewing fit and finish in real-time under a variety of lighting conditions. They can even interactively experience airflow simulation results by stepping inside a virtual smoke stream. Or, they can train operators to assemble engines in augmented reality before the line is built and without expensive mockups.
The opportunities are extensive. This eBook examines the benefits along multiple dimensions, including the following:
The eBook shares valuable insights from interviews with industry leaders Ford and Teague, and highlights from a recent industry conference with speakers from Audi, EDAG, and Team One. It concludes with some valuable insights to help auto companies better understand the opportunities and enabling technologies available to help them take advantage of real-time, interactive, immersive 3D.
The value of using real-time, immersive 3D in the automotive industry is compelling. The leaders will continue to innovate and expand on their lead. More importantly, lowered barriers to entry mean more companies will be able to take advantage of real-time 3D benefits, including startups that are embracing digitalization in order to displace industry veterans. Immersive, real-time 3D is quickly becoming a critical part of the modern technical toolkit for the automotive industry. We believe the innovators will continue to push forward, while those that don’t adopt immersive 3D technologies will fall further behind.
It’s time for companies to find an opportunity or a problem and address it. Companies should start small with a proof of concept (POC) as a first step. The POC, however, should provide value and not just serve as a learning exercise. Create value, learn, and build on that knowledge with next steps. Companies can choose a project similar to the ones described here, leveraging the experience of the pioneers, or unlock the creativity of their own organization by, for example, holding a “hackathon.”
If your company has been waiting to get involved with real-time 3D, now is the time. The costs have dropped tremendously. The time required to build valuable solutions in 3D is much lower. Specialized development resources are now ready to go. Computing power is available onsite or via the cloud. Real-time, immersive 3D use cases have never been more in reach. Companies that adopt real-time 3D can still gain an advantage, while automotive companies can reap significant benefits in multiple dimensions of their business:
During this on-demand webinar, Tech-Clarity's Michelle Boucher and Anshuman Prakash from Siemens share perspectives on better requirements management. They also provide advice to make the process easier. During the webinar, you will learn:
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[post_content] => Did you know that 9.9% of every dollar spent on projects is wasted due to poor project performance?
This startling statistic comes from research done by the Project Management Institute (PMI), published in their 2018 Pulse of the Profession® report. In a guest post on the Siemens Solid Edge blog, Michelle Boucher outlines some key reasons why a requirements management solution can help improve the performance of product development projects so that you can minimize or even avoid some of the challenges that contribute to wasted budget.
What challenges do manufacturers encounter when working with contract manufacturers? What should they do to reduce the frustration and streamline the relationship?
Jim Brown introduces five questions you may find yourself asking if you're working with a CMO, CDMO, or other supply chain partners and then offers recommendations based on our experience and research in this guest post on the upchain blog. Read the CM Conundrum post on the upchain site now (no charge, no registration required).
What should manufacturers look for when it’s time to replace their outgrown PDM system? Our research shows a high correlation between elevated business performance and strong product data management capabilities. Unfortunately, we find many manufacturers have already stretched the limits of what their basic Product Data Management (PDM) system can do. In most cases, it meets fundamental CAD management or engineering document management needs, but falls short beyond keeping data in control. What should they look for in a replacement PDM solution?
This eBook shares the Top Ten signs you've outgrown your PDM system and then shares requirements to use as the basis for selecting an extended PDM solution to Control, Access, and Share product data. Like our other Buyer's Guides, we look beyond software requirements to the other elements that help companies get value from their solutions, including criteria to consider for implementation, adoption, service, and vendor selection. This guide also covers special needs including advice for smaller and larger manufacturers and shares considerations for addressing some specific industry needs and supporting the transition to the digital enterprise.
Click here for our full Buyer's guide, thank you to our sponsor PTC.
Please also see our Upgrading to PLM when PDM Falls Short buyer's guide.
Understanding the Buyer’s Guide Structure
Like our other buyer’s guides, we go beyond functional requirements to address implementation, adoption, vendor partner, and special considerations. We also touch on another recommendation from our PDM guide, specifically how manufacturers can make sure they don’t hit another dead end with their new system as they evolve to become a more digital enterprise.
Manufacturing is going through a significant, digital transformation that's disrupting the industry status quo. Companies are investing in digital transformation, smart manufacturing, Industry 4.0, Internet of Things (IoT), and other related initiatives. What are they prioritizing? And, what are they actually taking action on? Tech-Clarity surveyed over 130 manufacturers to find out. The report analyzes companies strategic priorities including Industry 4.0, IoT, IIoT, Digital Twin, Digital Thread, Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR). It also investigates how they're executing against them as an enterprise including:
PLM’s Role in Supporting Digital Transformation
The survey also investigates how Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) supports these strategic manufacturing initiatives. The study finds that PLM not only provides strategic value to existing operations, but also maps well to the manufacturers’ strategic initiatives. This reflects PLM’s importance as the backbone of the digital manufacturing enterprise.
Uncertainty Surrounds Digital Twin and Digital Thread
Manufacturers appear to be unclear about the value of Digital Twin and Digital Thread initiatives. For each, more than one-quarter of respondents claim that they don’t know how important these initiatives are to their business. These are both newer concepts, or at least more prevalently discussed today. Manufacturers should educate themselves on the potential of these important initiatives and explore the value. Lastly, responses to AR / VR value likely reflect that they are more enablers than strategies by themselves.
Budget
Digital Transformation is more likely than the other initiatives to have a formal budget. Other initiatives with budgets in one-half or more of responding companies include Industry 4.0 and IoT.
Sponsorship
The CEO / Board are more focused on Digitalization than other programs. There is more focus a level down at the VP / C-Level on additional items including Industry 4.0 and IoT. Most initiatives, however, are more likely to be sponsored by mid-level managers / directors.
Execution Responsibility
Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0 are the most likely to be executed by cross-functional teams. Other initiatives are more likely to be executed at a departmental level.
PLM is seen as a major contributor to achieving digital transformation. PLM can provide the digital backbone, providing product context for data. It’s also a contributor to the two less strategically viewed (and understood) initiatives, the Digital Twin and the Digital Thread. PLM can help track product development history, tie data together from step to step, and provide the product details needed to enable a complete digital twin, including revisions and configurations.
PLM Important to Support Industry 4.0
PLM is also a significant contributor to another big priority, Industry 4.0, although it’s identified as more “significant” than “critical.” This is likely because Industry 4.0 requires an ecosystem of solutions including MES (Manufacturing Executing Systems).
IoT and IIoT Leverage PLM as Part of an Ecosystem
IoT and IIoT are very broad initiatives, where PLM can play an important role by providing product information in a much larger context. The data, and experience, shows that IoT requires more than PLM. Supporting these initiatives requires analytics, dashboards, equipment communication, edge computing, ties to other enterprise systems, and more. Many leading PLM vendors have expanded their suites beyond traditional PLM for this reason.
How can manufacturers extend their PLM investments to gain higher levels of business value? The new 5 Ways to Get More Business Value from Your PLM System offers practical approaches for companies to leverage their existing Product Lifecycle Management investment to improve top-line and bottom-line performance, including tips gained from two leading manufacturers.
Please enjoy the summary below. For the full report, please visit our sponsor Razorleaf (no charge, registration required).
Even if your company has already gone beyond the basics, it’s likely that changes in your business have opened up opportunities that weren’t considered earlier. Beyond that, the manufacturing industry’s shift to the digital enterprise offers compelling new opportunities that can expand PLM value including IoT, Digital Twin, Augmented Reality (AR), and more. There are proven ways to do it. Let’s explore how your company can leverage what you have to do more.
Ineffective BOM Processes Cause Disruption
BOM management is critical to connecting design, purchasing, and production across a manufacturing business. Ineffective BOM processes, though, lead to low productivity and costly errors.
With that in mind, why do so many manufacturers rely on substandard BOM management approaches like spreadsheets and email? Is there a better way for companies to support BOM-related processes?
Successful BOM communication across Engineering, Purchasing and Manufacturing:
Spreadsheets are the de facto Standard
The easiest way to sum up the BOM process status quo in most manufacturers is with a single word – spreadsheets. BOM processes frequently involve very complex spreadsheets. They are hard to interpret, lead to duplicating data, don’t manage data relationships, and often contain errors. As our BOM Management Buyer’s Guide shares, many companies manage BOMs in ways that don’t adequately support the business, including documents or embedding BOMs into CAD drawings in addition to spreadsheets.
Sharing BOMs via Email Creates Risk
Spreadsheets are not good for data management, and they are even more problematic when they’re shared through email. As soon as a BOM is attached to an email it creates a risk that somebody will access it after it is no longer valid. These informal methods are also challenging because data in a spreadsheet can’t easily be integrated with downstream people, processes, and systems. Because of this, unmanaged methods fall apart quickly for all but the simplest of companies.
Why Accept the Current Status Quo?
Why do manufacturers put up with this? Perhaps because it’s the way they’ve always done it. Perhaps they don’t recognize how many of their issues have poor BOM processes as the root cause. In many cases, they are just believe that fixing the problem is going to be complicated, time-consuming, and require expensive solutions.
They think that putting the basics of BOM management in place is going to slow them down, and that they’re not ready for a PLM or ERP system. This is particularly true for smaller companies. But big companies often run with immature BOM management processes as well. How can manufacturers upgrade the status quo without adding additional cost and overhead?
Lower the Barriers and Increase Collaboration with a Targeted Cloud Solution
One option is using a targeted cloud solution built to address the five BOM Process Fundamentals. Many companies are considering cloud software because it lowers the barriers to adopting new technology. The cloud also helps ensure that everyone access the latest data, and that data is digitally accessible instead of locked up in files or on drawings. As David Anderson of Verdetech Products shares, “We’re trying to do everything on the web so we have universal data access.”
Provide Accurate Data Downstream
Manufacturers rely on their BOM to let downstream operations know what they need to execute on. Clearly, accurate information is important or the wrong parts could be ordered or an incorrect revision could be produced.
Get Data from the Source
How can companies make sure their information is accurate? First, existing data should be gathered directly from the source whenever possible instead of manually reentered. For BOM information, this means pulling product structures and metadata from CAD in order to capture the engineer’s intent. Beyond initially collecting this data, it must be kept in sync as designs change.
Allow Visibility and Collaboration
Secondly, the information should be available and visible to people across different roles, including those in the supply chain. They should have the ability to review and provide input based on their perspective and expertise.
Avoid Duplicate BOM and Item Information
Finally, information should have a single master source. This means that part information shouldn’t be input on a BOM by BOM basis. Part data should come from an item master that can be kept up to date centrally. Then, that data should be dynamically supplied to the BOM. This keeps information up to date, helps encourage accuracy, reduces duplication, and allows companies to determine where parts are used.
Unfortunately, our research shows that about two-thirds of companies find data inconsistencies between systems at least on a weekly basis. Part data duplication on each BOM will, by its nature, become inaccurate. This doesn’t have to be the case. “We have a parts catalog for parts used over and over in different projects to create a single version of truth,” says Michael White of Digitalcarbon. “I just edit my catalog and bring part data into my BOMs.”
Keep BOMs Up to Date
Outdated data has lost its value, regardless of how accurate it may have been. BOM data needs to be up to date, and manufacturers have to be confident that they can access the current version when they need it. How can manufacturers ensure they keep their BOMs current? In addition, how they can know what their BOM looked like at a certain point in time if they have to go back to resolve issues?
Put BOMs Under Change Control
BOM data has to be kept under a managed change process. Change management is critical to tracking revisions and history. It ensures that people accessing the BOM to do their job can be assured that they are working on the latest design. As Verdetech Products’ David Anderson shares, “When someone asks what the product costs, I don’t have to worry if it’s current or not.”
Avoid Duplicating BOM Data in Emails
Of course, data currency is highly dependent on how the data is shared and accessed. Information sent in a spreadsheet or document via email is immediately outdated. As soon as BOM data is attached to an email, it is no longer under control and creates a risk that someone will access outdated information to guide their work, leading to errors. “Once you copy a BOM and send it out by email you lose control if you make an adjustment or a change,” explains Michael White of Digitalcarbon.
Keep Data Centralized and Accessible
Email is a helpful tool for alerts and notifications, but not as a place to store data. Email alerts should point to common data. In many cases, companies are turning to the cloud because it’s accessible inside and outside of the business and everyone will always get the same.
Create Complete Product Definitions
Manufacturers rely on their BOMs to communicate the complete product composition, and do it in the right context. A BOM isn’t just a collection of parts or a CAD structure. While CAD integration is important, it doesn’t tell the whole story. As David Anderson of Verdetech Products explains, the BOM can communicate a rich amount of product data. “There’s a mass of information that’s all interrelated, it’s important to encapsulate that knowledge instead of going back through emails and trying to recreate it,” he says.
Manage BOM Relationships to Prevent Data Duplication
This information can include technical specifications like materials or commercial information like preferred suppliers. As mentioned earlier, it’s important not to duplicate information from the item master. In the same way, vendor information should come from a vendor database so the information can be validated, there’s no duplication, and Purchasing can find all references where the vendor is used.
Organize BOM Data by Role
BOM structures don’t always fit the right format for execution, and have to be modified to provide the right information. For example, companies may want to add non-modeled parts, consumables, tooling, or other information. Also, people have different perspectives and need different data to play their role. For example, a designer might model an assembly with all of its underlying parts, but Purchasing my view it as a single item from a supplier. In a similar way, third parties like suppliers may only require access rights to a subset of information. Data has to be organized for the intended user and match their execution needs.
Create New Knowledge
BOM data can be used to calculate new details, including cost rollups, weights, ordered quantities, and more. These calculations are very hard to accomplish in spreadsheets due to the way they are organized. BOM data can also provide a rich source of insight by applying business intelligence and machine learning. The key consideration, though, is that all of this information should be kept in context.
Focus on Clarity of Communication
A BOM isn’t valuable unless it can be easily understood by the people that need product information to do their jobs. Remember, it’s a communication tool. Too frequently, BOMs are large lists of numbers that mean very little to most people. How can companies ensure their BOMs are usable by others?
Create Personalized Data Views
First, different people need different views to make the BOM clear. It’s import to provide information that’s role and task appropriate. For example, people in the supply chain don’t know your part numbers and you probably only want to share a subset of information with them.
Present BOMs in a Visual Context
Second, information should be presented in a visual, intuitive way. Thumbnails of parts, particularly if they are 3D, are much more approachable than long lists of numbers. Multilevel views that allow you to expand, contract, flatten, and drill down to get more information or access CAD files are more valuable than complex colors and indentations in spreadsheets.
Make BOM Data Accessible Downstream Digitally
Lastly, data needs to be interpreted by other systems as well as people. BOM data should be accessible in a database, not locked up in a spreadsheet or CAD file.
Put BOMs to Use
Information is important, but has to be put to use to provide value. How can manufacturers ensure that their data can be used to drive higher efficiency and reduce errors?
Extend BOM Knowledge to Support Downstream Processes
Effective BOM execution combines data with BOM processes. It creates an integrated process that connects design intent from Engineering with what’s needed to fulfill it downstream. BOM quantities aren’t for reference only, they should be accessible for procurement requirements and manufacturing quantity calculations. They should also be available for rollups like costs or material quantities to make decisions.
Leverage BOM Explosions for Procurement and Production Planning
A BOM solution should also allow BOM explosions to help plan production and communicate demand to suppliers. It should share that information with an ERP system if available.
Consider Simpler Solutions
Some solutions are blurring the lines between BOM definition and execution by supporting additional BOM-related tasks like orders and. These solutions are worth a look, can provide value with fewer barriers to adoption, and can serve as a foundation to grow from at the point the company is ready for more formal systems like PDM, PLM, and/or ERP.
Take Advantage of Performance Improvements
Effective BOM management creates a cohesive process that connects everything from design to purchase orders to production. It goes further to provide the right information, including historical data, to resolve service issues. An effective process leverages a wealth of information in context, including CAD, items, and vendors, without duplicating data or allowing it to be shared without control.
Get Started
For many companies, implementing traditional systems may feel too cumbersome. But that doesn’t mean they can’t improve. Manufacturers can focus on the five identified opportunities to improve BOM processes and improve performance by using lighter weight, targeted cloud solutions. Cloud software fosters collaboration and comes with lower barriers to adoption. These systems can help manufacturers take a big step in the right direction and provide room to grow in the future. It’s time to get started, start small, and incrementally improve BOM processes to reduce errors and improve performance.
BOM Processes Rely on Inadequate Solutions Ineffective BOM Processes Cause Disruption BOM management is critical to connecting design, purchasing, and production across a manufacturing business. Ineffective BOM processes, though, lead to low productivity and costly errors. With that in mind, why do so many manufacturers rely on substandard BOM management approaches like spreadsheets and email?…
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