Jim Brown contributed his thoughts on Accelerating CPG Innovation with an Innovation Platform to the Dassault Systèmes 3D Perspectives Blog. He shares his views on the innovation imperative in CPG and how consumer goods companies can take innovation to the next level using a modern Product Innovation Platform (PIP). The post explains how an effective…
- Make innovation as systematic as possible
- Have a repeatable innovation capability
- Drive the right organizational behavior
- Achieve more reliable and predictable outcomes
- Improve innovation performance over time
Table of Contents
- Why Measure Innovation?
- Measuring by Outcomes
- Measuring Innovation Capability
- Measuring Innovation Contributions
- Measuring the Strategic Portfolio
- Measuring Calculated Risk Taking
- Measuring Time and Space to Innovate
- Measuring NPDI Control
- What’s Needed to Measure Innovation?
- Conclusion
- About the Author
Conclusion
Innovation is clearly important to company success, and what gets measured gets improved. This makes measuring innovation an important goal. It’s also a challenging one. There are a number of ways that companies can measure innovation performance by outcomes, such as the percentage of revenue from new products, but this information typically comes too late to make in-course adjustments and improvements. Another approach is to introduce measures that ensure the environment is conducive to innovation. Companies can put in place measurements that help ensure the organization is contributing to innovation and product portfolios contain enough innovation of the right variety. Organizations can survey whether employees feel they have the ability to take calculated risks and whether they have the time and space required to innovate. Metrics can also ensure that their processes and tools allow them to profit from innovation through effective NPDI.

- The right data and a mechanism to gather it efficiently
- Accurate, visual reporting tools and dashboards that they can drill down from
- Honest information and the ability to capture knowledge – especially failures – to drive future innovation


- Software requirements
- Implementation
- Integration
- User adoption
- Support
- Vendor characteristics / attributes
- Industry or unique business needs
Executive Overview
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 to 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. Beyond improving today’s performance, driving better BOM management creates the foundation for even greater improvements as a step toward the digital enterprise.

Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- 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
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Conclusion
BOM management helps manage complexity and streamlines operations. It provides an important, foundational element that serves as the backbone for all engineering, manufacturing, and service activity. An accessible, trusted source of product structure information is valuable and improves traceability and control. “Our objective was to create a single, standardized global product structure and we’ve achieved that. Any designer at any time can collaborate and participate with a common dataset,” says Mark Mitchell of Jabil. “People have the information they need, and nobody needs to call me during an audit – that’s the best metric!” he concludes. Effective BOM management provides enterprise-level benefits, improving business performance and alleviating disconnects across the business. “PLM is not about optimizing within silos, it’s about connecting across silos. BOM management helps us streamline and prevent errors across the product lifecycle,” offers a PLM Architect. The net result is efficiency and cost gains combined with revenue improvement from better collaboration and faster time to market, making BOM management and important operational tool and a key driver of improved profitability. Supporting BOM management at the enterprise level requires the right solution. It’s important to evaluate key solution characteristics, but also to go beyond. Companies should develop a requirements list that helps encourage a holistic decision encompassing software functionality, service-related needs, vendor requirements, and any special considerations based on their industry, size, and product strategy. Finally, the plan should look beyond current needs to support the digital future where digital twins, AR, VR, and IoT rely on sound BOM information.Recommendations
Based on industry experience and research for 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 the BOM management is a key enabler
- Get started




- Software Requirements (functionality)
- Service Needs (including adoption and training)
- Vendor Attributes
- Special Considerations


Listen to Christopher Rösner, General Requirements Manager at e.GO mobile AG, Tech-Clarity's Michelle Boucher, and Che Curnew, Senior Technical Sales Specialist at PTC discuss the benefits of a better approach to requirements management. This event is an interactive interview to share different perspectives and experiences on requirements management. The discussion includes topics such as:
- How a Requirements Management solution can help your business
- How to identify specific requirements needs
- How to select the right solution for your organization


Listen to Airbus Helicopters’ Nicolas De Mauroy, PTC's Service Practice Lead Keith Garguilo, and Tech-Clarity's Michelle Boucher, discuss how to improve the quality of the information made to service technicians by using the engineering BOM to produce the service BOM. By watching this event, you will learn about:
- The capabilities needed to transform EBOMs into SBOMs.
- Service BOMs’ impact on field service productivity and service supply chain effectiveness.
- How Airbus used SBOMs to apply full-circle product lifecycle management across its H160 program.




Executive Overview
As globalization trends make it that much harder to stand out in today’s competitive environment, companies must rely even more on innovation to engineer winning products that will stand out, capture market share, and secure future revenue streams. Unfortunately, shortages in engineering talent with the right skills make this a challenge. A majority of companies (69%) project their engineering department will need to grow over the next five to ten years. Complicating this further, many of the engineers in the largest segment of the engineering workforce, those with over 20 years of experience, will approach retirement soon. As they leave the workforce, it will put even more pressure on hiring strategies to recruit new engineers. Tech-Clarity research finds that an overwhelming 80% of companies indicate that hiring the right engineers will be either highly or very critical to the future success of their business. Underscoring why it is so critical, 98% of companies report there will be a negative business impact if they can not find and hire the right engineers. These impacts range from loss of competitiveness, poor innovation, higher costs, to lost revenue. Unfortunately, the top challenge of managing the engineering workforce is finding engineering staff with the right skills. Part of the problem is due to the gap between the skills new engineering graduates have and what industry needs. This situation creates a sense of urgency to improve how engineers are prepared during their schooling so that we can close the skills gap. To identify these gaps, Tech-Clarity conducted a global survey of 201 companies. Respondents represented companies of different sizes, across a wide variety of industries, and multiple geographic regions. The results show that manufacturers have a clear preference for how to prepare engineering students for the real-world. They favor students with in-depth project experience involving multiple roles, complete lifecycle stages, and simulate a corporate environment. Schools that incorporate this type of experience into their engineering curriculum will have an advantage as there should be more demand for their graduates in the workforce. Industry would like to see new graduates better prepared to use several skills. Engineering software is very prevalent on this list. This is largely because most companies (75%) want students to be able to apply the technology to solve problems, not just know the “picks and clicks” of the software. The research also finds that industry needs to be more involved in academia to close the skills gap. Interestingly, companies report they are not as engaged as they expect others to be. To close the skills gap, engineering companies should at least double their current involvement with academia. This report identifies the top skills that create the engineering skills gap. The report further explores the types of academic programs and experiences that provide students with the right skills they need to be successful in industry.Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- State of the Engineering Department
- Impact of the Engineering Shortage
- Identifying the Top Performers
- Look for the Right Engineering Skills
- Consider Programs that Offer Real World Experience
- Develop a Good Hiring Strategy
- Get Involved in the Engineering Curriculum
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
- About the Research
- Copyright Notice
Recommendations
Based on industry experience and research for this report, Tech-Clarity offers the following recommendations:- Invest in your engineering staff to support growth and ensure you can recover from the loss of experienced staff to retirement
- Ensure you have the right mix of engineering talent to support the development of products that involve multiple engineering disciplines
- Hire from engineering programs that go beyond just learning theory and software menu picks, but provide opportunities to apply technology to solve problems
- Work with engineering schools to help them develop the curriculum that will develop the skills you would like to see in new hires
- Look at programs that offer students the opportunities to work on team-based projects, similar to the type of work they will do when employed
- Get involved in engineering programs to ensure enough industry exposure during schooling and develop an exceptional pool of talent to hire from


- Kavi Parupally, Senior Director of Business Apps, Rockwell Collins
- Javier Glatt, CEO, CADMakers, Inc.
- Jeff Walters, VP Engineering, Globe Trailers






Executive Overview
Composites have become increasingly important to the Aerospace and Defense (A&D) industry. In fact, Tech-Clarity’s Composite State of the Market study, found that A&D companies overwhelmingly turn to composites to help with light weighting so that they can improve performance and realize better fuel economy. The study also found that while composites offer significant benefits, the expense of the material means companies should look at ways to get better insight. This way they can make better decisions during design to produce better composite parts. This is especially important to the A&D industry, which is under significant pressure to manage costs. To further examine the use of composites in the A&D industry, Tech-Clarity surveyed 181 A&D manufacturers. The study examines two areas that can be a source for bottlenecks when working with composites: springback and manufacturing planning. Springback can cause significant issues for A&D companies. Springback is a manufacturing defect that can occur while the composite part is curing. Due to shrinkage, the material can deviate from the original molded shape. When this happens, the part is out of tolerance. Depending on how severe the distortion is, manufacturers have to spend extra time correcting the part to get it within tolerance so that they can assemble it. In a worst case scenario, they may even have to scrap the part. This results in a lot of wasted time and excess cost. The good news is that companies who have adopted best practices for composites are much less likely to experience springback. One of those best practices includes using design guidelines. Another best practice involves communicating ply level design information by providing direct access to the composite data in the engineering model. Manufacturing planning is another important part of producing quality composite parts. With composites, it is especially crucial to produce parts exactly as designed. Even a slight deviation in fiber orientation significantly impacts part strength. By following manufacturing planning best practices you are more likely to produce composite parts as-designed. Best practices involve leveraging an accurate engineering model. In addition, manufacturers should look at ways to automate changes to avoid wasted time manually reworking manufacturing plans. This report examines design and manufacturing trends in the use of composites in the A&D industry. It also offers advice to overcome common problems to help A&D companies lower costTable of Contents
- Executive Overview
- Understanding Springback
- Corrective Actions for Springback
- Identifying the Top Performers
- Avoiding Springback
- Planning for Manufacturing
- Don’t Overlook the Time Impact of Changes
- Considering Programming Trends
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
- About the Research
- Copyright Notice
Conclusion
Many A&D companies have turned to composites to help them improve performance and realize better fuel economy. However, the A&D industry is also under significant pressure to lower costs. Addressing manufacturing defects such as springback as well as better manufacturing planning can help A&D companies take advantage of the benefits of composites while improving design and production efficiency and lowering costs. Springback can be a considerable source of excess cost and waste. Typically, springback causes parts to be out of tolerance so manufactures have to waste time correcting parts, or worse, scrapping them. By adopting best practices, such as using design guidelines, A&D manufacturers can avoid springback. Adopting best practices for manufacturing planning is another area where A&D manufacturers can improve quality. It is crucial that composite parts are manufactured as designed to ensure performance. By adopting practices such as leveraging the engineering composite model for manufacturing planning and automating changes, A&D manufacturers will be better positioned to produce parts as designed without quality issues.Recommendations
Based on industry experience and research for this report, Tech-Clarity offers the following recommendations:- To avoid springback, focus of identify potential occurrences during design
- Take advantage of design guidelines to help avoid springback.
- Consider solutions that offer embedded intelligence to provide guidance and support better decision to reduce the occurrence of springback.
- Communicate ply level design data to manufacturing via the engineering model




- Transitioning from 2D CAD to 3D CAD
- Migrating from 3D CAD to a new 3D CAD
- Adopting model-based definition (MBD)
Why Consider Model-Based Definition?
With fierce global competition, today's manufacturers have to work harder than ever to stay competitive. While time-to-market used to be the dominant pressure, Tech-Clarity's research shows that now cost and quality are equally pressing, with innovation and performance not far behind. With so many different pressures, engineers have their work cut out for them. Constant time-to-market pressures make it hard to look for ways to cut cost while improving quality. They desperately need to improve efficiency so that they have the bandwidth to accomplish all of this. Tech-Clarity discovered that 33 percent of design time is spent on drawings. Considering this mostly involves documenting what is already in the 3D model, that is a lot of time wasted on non-value-added efforts. Opportunities for improvement are significant. This is where model-based definition (MBD) comes in.What Is Driving MBD Adoption?
Initially, companies were most likely to adopt MBD to improve communication with manufacturing and suppliers. Compared to a 2D drawing, a 3D model makes it easier to visualize the final product. Plus, there is far less room for misinterpretation for things like assembly procedures. Also, in an effort to adopt more environmentally friendly policies as well as reduce costs, many companies turned to MBD as a way to reduce paper. These are still important drivers, but companies who are currently considering adopting MBD are looking at it more as a way to make better use of engineering time. By reducing all that time spent creating 2D drawings, engineers can focus more effort on value-added tasks that will improve the design and result in products that are more competitive.














All Results for "All"
Top 5 Ways to Measure Product Innovation (white paper)
Top 5 Ways to Measure Product Innovation, Choosing Metrics to Drive Innovation Performance shares the importance of measuring innovation to improve innovation capability and outcomes. Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report to download a PDF overview (free of charge, no registration required). For the full report, please visit our sponsor, Planview (free…
BOM Management Buyer’s Guide
Tech-Clarity’s BOM Management Buyer’s Guide – Boost Performance with Digital BOMs provides criteria for manufacturers to evaluate software solutions to support their Bill of Material and product structure data and processes. Tech-Clarity’s Buyer’s Guides go beyond software functionality to provide a framework of requirements that impact implementation success and long-term ROI, including: Software requirements Implementation Integration User…
Digitalizing the Chemical Lab (webcast)
How do chemical companies apply digital to the chem lab? Digitalization is streamlining the way companies innovate and bring products to market. Tech-Clarity’s Jim Brown will share findings from his research on how chemical companies leverage the digital enterprise to improve efficiency and reduce cost while dealing with mounting regulatory and sustainability pressure. Register for…
Digitalization in the Food and Beverage Industry (Animation)
This Tech-Clarity TV animation explains how companies can combat industry disruption from new, innovative companies and business models in the food and beverage industry by adopting the digital enterprise. It’s no secret that companies like Amazon, Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and more are changing the way consumers and consumer packaged goods companies relate. This video shares how…
Top 5 Metrics to Stop Measuring Innovation in the Rearview Mirror (webcast)
Join Tech-Clarity’s Jim Brown in a lively discussion with Planview NPD Evangelist Carrie Nauyalis discussing how to effectively measure product innovation. The duo will discuss the pitfalls of measuring innovation based on prior performance, the top five measures companies can use to measure innovation capability, and what’s needed to get started measuring innovation to improve outcomes….
Select the Right PLM Solution for BOM Management (webcast)
Jim Brown will moderate this IEEE webcast featuring Gentherm Director of Engineering Systems Marinko Lazanja and PTC’s Senior Director of Product Management Graham Birch. The webcast will share the importance of managing Bills of Material and product structures to avoid common inefficiencies and errors, but also to serve as the digital product backbone for the…
Selecting the Right Requirements Management Solution (webcast)
Listen to Christopher Rösner, General Requirements Manager at e.GO mobile AG, Tech-Clarity’s Michelle Boucher, and Che Curnew, Senior Technical Sales Specialist at PTC discuss the benefits of a better approach to requirements management. This event is an interactive interview to share different perspectives and experiences on requirements management. The discussion includes topics such as: How a Requirements Management solution can help…
BOM Transformation: How to Bring Service in to the Product Lifecycle (webcast)
Listen to Airbus Helicopters’ Nicolas De Mauroy, PTC’s Service Practice Lead Keith Garguilo, and Tech-Clarity’s Michelle Boucher, discuss how to improve the quality of the information made to service technicians by using the engineering BOM to produce the service BOM. By watching this event, you will learn about: The capabilities needed to transform EBOMs into SBOMs….
Close the Engineering Skills Gap (survey findings)
Close the Engineering Skills Gap:Prepare New Graduates to Be Real-World Ready shares new research on the gap between the skills graduating engineers have and skills companies would like to see. The research examines the evolving needs of the engineering department. The results reveal that engineering departments expect to grow so we will need more engineers. On top of that,…
How to Beat Your Competition in Product Development (infographic)
This infographic shares our research on how Top Performing companies achieve better NPDI performance than their competitors, excelling at revenue growth, margin expansion, and delivering innovative products. The infographic starts by providing a graphical view of the unfortunate truth about new product development, companies miss their quality, cost, requirements, regulatory compliance, project budget, and time…
Accelerating your Business & Reducing Complexity with the Cloud (panel discussion)
Tech-Clarity’s Jim Brown hosted a panel discussion at the recent Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE Forum in Florida. The participants shared their perspectives on the cloud and their experience moving PLM to the cloud using the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. Participants include: Kavi Parupally, Senior Director of Business Apps, Rockwell Collins Javier Glatt, CEO, CADMakers, Inc. Jeff Walters, VP…
Selecting a Solution to Manage Service Information (guest post)
In this PTC guest post, How to Select a Service Information Management Solution Michelle Boucher introduces some of the business advantages achieved by investing in service. The post outlines what is driving investments in service for 2017/18. It also looks at the top initiatives Top Performing companies use to support their goals for 2017/18. The post also touches on…
Analytics for Food and Beverage in the Digital Age (guest post)
Jim Brown provided a guest post to the Siemens PLM Community blog discussing how analytics can unlock new value for CPG and Food & Beverage companies. The post shares how big data analytics can uncover hidden relationships and create valuable insights from the vast amounts of data available to today’s food companies. It offers examples…
Composite Trends in the A&D Industry (survey findings)
Composite Trends in the A&D Industry: Identifying Opportunities to Save Cost and Time reveals survey findings on design and manufacturing trends for composites in the Aerospace & Defense industry. The research examines two areas that can be a source for bottlenecks when working with composites: springback and manufacturing planning. The report details best practices to…
Medical Devices in a Digital World (podcast)
Listen to Michelle Boucher discuss trends in the Medical Device Industry in this 17 minute podcast, Medical Devices in a Digital World. This podcast is episode 8 of The Connected Engineer series with Gavin Quinlan. In this episode, Michelle explains some of the top challenges facing medical device companies. She also shares advice on how to overcome them….
The How-to Guide for Adopting Model Based Definition (MBD)
The How-to Guide for Adopting Model Based Definition (MBD) reveals advice and best practices for implementing MBD. The guide explains why 89% of companies are happy they made the transition and benefits they enjoy as a result. The hardest part of adopting MBD is overcoming the cultural resistance to change. The guide identifies what other companies have…
Producing Food and Beverages in the Digital Age (guest post)
Jim Brown contributed a guest post to the Siemens PLM Community blog discussing how digitalization impacts the production of consumer packaged goods such as food and beverages. Digital enterprise in the food and beverage industry opens up a number of opportunities to improve manufacturing productivity and agility, all while maintaining or improving cost and quality….
Choosing Cost versus Quality in CPG (infographic)
This infographic shares survey results about quality and cost management in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry. It visually communicates the results of our research that shows how Top Performing CPG companies are able to achieve better quality and better cost of quality, without trading one for the other. The research shares the methods these leading…
Innovation Platforms are the Operating Systems for the Digital Enterprise (guest post)
Jim Brown contributed a guest post, Innovation Platforms – the Operating System for the Digital Enterprise, on the value of innovation platforms published in the Dassault Systèmes’ Navigate the Future blog. The post shares the value an integrated platform of solutions provides to engineers, the enterprise, and toward achieving digital transformation. The post also covers…