Issue in Focus: CAD Standardization Strategies – Considerations for Multi-CAD versus Standardization – discusses considerations for operating in a multi-CAD environment versus standardizing on a single solution. Helps companies develop a “CAD Standardization Strategy” based on a thorough understanding of the business drivers, constraints, and tradeoffs impacting their decision. Please enjoy the summary below, or…
- Introducing the Issue
- Considering the Business Drivers
- Making Tradeoffs
- Developing a Strategy
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Introducing the Issue
There are benefits to having a standard CAD package, as reported in the recently published research paper Tech-Clarity Insight: Consolidating CAD. These business benefits range from tactical cost savings to strategic advantages such as corporate flexibility. As that paper mentioned, however, “Not all businesses have the opportunity to unify their CAD solutions due to customer and supplier constraints, but there are multiple advantages for those that can.” This paper is intended to help companies develop a “CAD Standardization Strategy” based on a thorough understanding of the business drivers, constraints, and tradeoffs impacting their decision. This strategy can help determine the appropriate level of standardization to best meet the needs of the business. The paper offers a suggested list of business drivers to be used as a starting point for an industry and company tailored CAD strategy. [post_title] => CAD Standardization Strategies [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => cad-standardization [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:30 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:30 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2738 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 1 [filter] => raw ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2720 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2010-09-24 14:16:57 [post_date_gmt] => 2010-09-24 18:16:57 [post_content] =>
Issue in Focus: Product Portfolio Management in a PLM Strategy - Closing the Loop on Product Planning explores how engineering-centric businesses can take a more closed-loop approach between Product Portfolio Management (PPM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to extend the value of PPM. Discusses the benefits of closing the loop between theoretical plans and actual progress and results.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Introducing the Issue
- First Things First – Get the Portfolio Right
- Make it Feasible – Resource Planning
- Make it Happen – Project Execution
- Make it worth the Investment – Assess and Monitor Value
- Close the Loop between Planning and Reality
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Introducing the Issue
As reported in Tech-Clarity’s Issue in Focus: The ROI of Product Portfolio Management, effective portfolio management can improve both top-line performance and bottom-line profitability. For this reason, manufacturers are increasingly adopting Product Portfolio Management (PPM) solutions to help improve portfolio management and new product development (NPD) execution. A well developed PPM program consists of four primary processes:- Select and Maximize Product Portfolio
- Resource and Enable Pipeline
- Execute and Manage Project
- Determine and Monitor Product Value
Issue in Focus: Product Compliance – The Hidden Tax on Innovation: Enhancing Innovation in Formula-Based Companies through Real-time, Automated Compliance Monitoring discusses the need for early product compliance checking for formula- and recipe-based products. Explains how manual processes for compliance checking and documentation limit product innovation, and how PLM with compliance checking built in can help relieve this burden.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Introducing the Issue
- Real-Time Compliance Monitoring
- Digitizing Product Compliance Requirements
- Developing a Material Knowledge Base
- Know your Product and Formulas (at a Fundamental Level!)
- Design for Compliance: Pulling it all Together
- Automate Compliance Documentation and Registration
- Summary
- Recommendations
- About the Research
- About the Author
Introducing the Issue
Companies need to develop innovative products – the products that consumers “have to have” – and bring them to market quickly. This is the key to profitability in today’s challenging, global consumer markets. Those in highly-regulated industries not only have to innovate rapidly, but do so despite complex product compliance demands from around the world. Companies developing personal care, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and food products must meet challenging demands from global regulatory bodies concerned only with regulatory compliance – with no thought on how the new regulations will impact product performance, customer appeal or time to market. The implications of noncompliance can be severe – ranging from being blocked from releasing a product in a country or region, to products being pulled from shelves, fines, and significant damage to the brand. In this environment, the successful innovator has to design for both the consumer and to satisfy the various regulatory bodies. World-class product development companies begin to address compliance “day one” of the product development cycle by defining requirements based on global distribution plans. Companies have found that the further into the new product development (NPD) cycle they wait to check compliance, the greater the negative impact that identified issues have on time to market, product performance, cost, internal efficiency, and their ability to roll the product out in multiple markets globally. Leading companies are combating this by opting to “design compliance in” to get the product “right the first time.” Without checking compliance early in the lifecycle, products can get through stability and clinical testing before someone discovers they aren’t compliant, and designers have to go back to the beginning of the process, losing time and wasting money on testing that must be repeated once the formula is brought into compliance. Even more costly to the business, late compliance issues can put the product launch date in jeopardy. Early compliance checking helps identify compliance problems earlier, preventing late changes due to undiscovered compliance problems. Unfortunately, the critical resources that are the source of innovation – chemists, formulators, flavorists, food scientists, process engineers, etc. – are the same people being asked to “design for compliance.” By shifting these resources to ensure compliance through brute force, many companies have simply diverted critical resources away from product innovation by placing inefficient and time-consuming compliance demands on their key product innovators. This solves one problem (early compliance), but replaces it with another problem (inability for designers to focus on innovation). In essence, this serves as a “hidden tax” on their innovation resources. Instead of improving product development performance, a poorly implemented, manual compliance strategy reduces development efficiency and innovation capacity – and often results in the development of uninspiring, “me too” products. [post_title] => Product Compliance – The Hidden Tax on Innovation [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => compliance-tax [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:26 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:26 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2612 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [3] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2580 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2010-09-11 18:56:19 [post_date_gmt] => 2010-09-11 22:56:19 [post_content] =>
Insight: The Five Dimensions of Product Complexity - Managing Complexity across the Product Lifecycle highlights the trend toward increased product complexity and how it has made developing profitable products more difficult. Details the five dimensions and discusses how PLM software helps manage the complexity on an enterprise scale, helping manufacturers achieve greater efficiency and better products.
Please enjoy the Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- The Curse of Complexity
- 1st Dimension: Mechanics
- 2nd Dimension: Mechatronics
- 3rd Dimension: Global Markets
- 4th Dimension: Global Design and Manufacturing
- 5th Dimension: Lifecycle Profitability
- Managing the Complexity - PLM
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Overview
The simple reality is that today’s products are complex. They are complex to design, complex to produce, and complex to support. Across the manufacturing industries, the trend over the last ten years has been increased complexity. This challenge, whether it is inherent to the product itself or the difficult manufacturing landscape of the twenty-first century, has made the job of developing and delivering profitable products more difficult. One company facing increased complexity is Mercury Marine, a leading manufacturer of recreational marine propulsion engines. As Fred Bellio, Director or Processes, Systems and Global R&D for Mercury Marine explains, “People don’t recognize how much impact product complexity has on their cost and their business.” Effectively managing product complexity, in all of its forms, is an important business issue. This report examines how manufacturers address the five critical dimensions of product complexity to achieve maximum profitability, including:- Mechanical Complexity
- Mechatronics
- Global Markets
- Global Design and Manufacturing
- Lifecycle Profitability
Tech-Clarity Perspective: Product Environmental Compliance - Sustainable Processes to Reduce Compliance Cost and Risk discusses the key elements of a sustainable approach to developing and maintaining products that comply with environmental regulations such as RoHS and REACH while reducing compliance risk and cost. Draws conclusions from over 300 responses to a web-based survey and several in-depth interviews with leading manufacturers.
Please enjoy the Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- The Changing Regulatory Landscape
- Barriers and Challenges
- Designing for Compliance
- Documenting and Communicating Compliance
- Collecting and Managing Supplier Data
- Enabling Sustainable Compliance
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Overview
Manufacturers today are under pressure to comply with an increasingly complex array of product-focused regulations. After exerting tremendous effort to comply with the European Union’s RoHS mandate, they now face additional environmental compliance requirements to address REACH, WEEE, numerous local versions of RoHS, customer-specific requirements, company “green” policies, and more. Manufacturers need to comply with this tangle of legislation to ensure business continuity and reduce risk. This helps the environment, but it’s also just good business because it protects revenue streams and mitigates potential losses from stopped shipments, fines, or brand damage. Manufacturers have to comply to keep their market share, but to maintain profitability they also have to do it in a cost effective way, particularly in current economic conditions. Previous compliance benchmarks uncovered wide ranges in the total cost for companies to comply with regulatory demands. To better understand how some companies are able to achieve compliance at a significantly lower cost than others, Tech-Clarity surveyed product environmental compliance leaders from over 300 companies and interviewed several leading manufacturers. The study found developing and supporting compliant products using sustainable processes and enterprise solutions significantly reduces the cost of compliance. RoHS has now been joined by REACH as the most commonly reported environmental regulation impacting products (79%). While some manufacturers took a project-based approach to RoHS, others chose a programmatic approach to address compliance across regulations. Those that took a project focus versus a process-oriented approach have learned that addressing regulations one by one consumes scarce resources that could be better put to use developing new, innovative products. Particularly today, as companies have to do more with less, leading companies are taking a more systematic approach to product compliance. Brute force is not the answer, particularly in obtaining supplier data which appears as the most common challenge in achieving product compliance (52%). The research concludes that the key elements of a sustainable approach include:- Compiling a common set of product environmental performance requirement
- Gaining a better understanding of the substances that make up components
- Automating the analysis and monitoring of product structures and composition against requirements
- Documenting proof of compliance electronically
reviews manufacturers' experiences in using Quality Risk Management (QRM) to proactively reduce risk in the Life Sciences industries. Explains how QRM software can be used to efficiently manage risk by sharing quality knowledge across the enterprise and closing the loop on product quality.
Please enjoy the Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- Mitigating Risk
- From Compliance to Quality Risk Management
- Sharing Quality Knowledge
- Closing the Loop on Quality
- Enabling QRM
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Overview
It is an undeniable truth that defects are inherent to manufacturing processes. Manufacturing is a risky business, and issues come up that can lead to product failure. In the Life Sciences industry, these failures can put patient health at stake. It is the responsibility of the manufacturers of these products to ensure product quality, and the implications are serious for both corporate executives and for patients. “Even the most harmless of medical devices can be fatal,” explains Andy Jobson, GM of Medical Operations for contract manufacturer Moll Industries. “People can end up in jail.” Life Sciences executives recognize the importance of quality, and that they are responsible and liable for ensuring safety. While patient health is the primary concern for all, product quality also has significant cost implications. Recalls and retrofits can be exceedingly expensive and drastically cut into profits. “Nobody wants to be responsible for a defect that results in a recall,” Mr. Jobson explains, “A device failure can put a lot of smaller companies out of business, one recall can wipe you out.” Due to the risk to patient and corporate health, manufacturers of all sizes need to be vigilant in preventing defects, but more importantly preventing the resulting impact a defect can result in. Because of the potential consequences, Life Sciences companies must aggressively pursue quality. The good news is that there are best practices available, including FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) and CAPA (Corrective Action and Preventative Action). Many companies, unfortunately, fail to leverage these tools to their fullest extent because they view these practices as compliance “checklists” instead of embracing a more proactive Quality Risk Management (QRM) approach. Wallace Torres is the Global Head of the Integrated Risk Management program for Pharma Technical Operations for global healthcare company F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. Mr. Torres explains the essence of QRM, “You must start thinking proactively to identify what can go wrong.” By systematically identifying what can go wrong, manufacturers can prevent issues from occurring in the first place. The first place to start for most companies should be leveraging the knowledge they have across their own organization. Most manufacturers can gain a lot of insight simply by “closing the loop” by communicating knowledge in Manufacturing, Quality, and other departments back to Engineering to design quality into products up front. In the same way, the information should be fed to Quality and Manufacturing to develop control plans to prevent issues from occurring in the first place. For this reason, QRM processes require sharing knowledge across the enterprise. Making information easy to search and reuse is critical to prevent defects and repetitive errors. Unfortunately, quality processes are often manual or rely on spreadsheets and are both poor at sharing information across the enterprise and inefficient. Increasing the efficiency of quality processes through an enterprise QRM infrastructure helps reduce cost, and can also allow Quality, Engineering, and Manufacturing personnel to focus on mitigating risk instead of filling out forms. More importantly, it can also prevent recalls. Most importantly, though, it can help fulfill the mission of protecting patient health and quality of life. As Moll Industries’ Jobson summarizes, “If you aren’t highly focused on risk management, you have no business being in this industry.” QRM, also known as Quality Lifecycle Management (QLM), is a systematic approach to proactively reduce risk and protect patient health. It is also a significant part of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) that is missing in many companies, as clearly quality and risk management are lifecycle issues. As Roche’s Mr. Torres states, “We are using QRM to evaluate the risk in the whole lifecycle of the molecule starting from clinical trials.” [post_title] => Quality Risk Management in Life Sciences [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => qrm-lifesciences [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:25 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:25 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2488 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [6] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 1366 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2009-10-09 12:07:36 [post_date_gmt] => 2009-10-09 16:07:36 [post_content] => A quick peek into some research on ... the use of digital prototyping techniques and technologies to design (and redesign) efficient manufacturing plants.
Most of the times I discuss "digital prototyping" it regards products. But the same concepts apply when using digital prototyping in the plant - namely using digital models to increase design efficiency and get designs right the first time. Today I am happy to share my new report with you, Digital Prototyping in the Plant: Improving Manufacturing Agility with the Digital Factory.
Why Digital Prototyping Now?
Clearly, the economy has been tough on manufacturers across the globe. Today, manufacturers are facing a series of demands to survive today and thrive during the economic recovery. I researched engineering's role in a survive and thrive strategy from a product perspective earlier this year, noting that Engineering can make short-term impacts on both the top and bottom lines in the near term while innovating to prepare for the future. But what impact does the economic downturn have on manufacturing and plant engineers? In the plant right now, you are probably facing:
- The need to cut cost
- The demand to improve efficiency
- The requirement to adjust to plant or line consolidations, volume/mix changes, and potentially new products
- Lean resources to accomplish all of the above
Tech-Clarity Insight: Innovating Through an Economic Downturn - A PLM Action Plan for Small to Mid-Size Manufacturers Facing Difficult Times describes how manufacturers can weather the current, global economic downturn. This paper is intended to help manufacturers develop a strategy to make it through tough times and come out ready to take advantage of the eventual recovery by innovating products and processes along with the inevitable drive to reduce cost.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Balancing Short and Long Term Innovation Needs
- Reductive Innovation (decreasing cost)
- Product Innovation
- Process Innovation
- Enabling Innovation
- Getting to PLM
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Summary
Manufacturers today are facing significantly stalled markets as a result of the current, global economic downturn. Many companies are experiencing weak demand and lower sales, and reacting with budget cuts and other efforts to reduce cost. This can have a particularly large impact on small to mid-size manufacturers that have to make difficult trade-offs between product innovation and cost control. During this time, it is important to recognize that despite the reality of reduced budgets, companies that continue to invest in innovation will fare better during the economic downturn and beyond. This paper is aimed at helping companies develop an action plan that both recognizes the difficult reality that most manufacturers face today, and allows them to continue to invest in the future. Keeping these two priorities in mind will help these smaller manufacturers weather the current economic storm but also be prepared to capitalize on emerging markets during the eventual recovery. Manufacturers with limited budgets and resources have turned to product innovation, product development and engineering process improvement to support this dual strategy and get the most out of existing resources. These leading companies have adopted a strategy that includes a combination of elements, including:- Product (and Market) Innovation
- Reductive Innovation (innovation to reduce cost)
- Process Innovation
Issue in Focus: Product Collaboration 2.0 - Using Social Computing Techniques to Create Corporate Social Networks explores the use of social computing and "Web 2.0" techniques to improve product collaboration. Explains how social computing in PLM allows manufacturers to discover new intellectual property and capture existing know-how for the future, increasing corporate product knowledge.
Please enjoy the Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Introducing the Issue
- The Future of Product Collaboration
- Turning Collaboration into Knowledge
- Collaboration beyond Engineering
- Enabling Corporate Social Networks
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Introducing the Issue
Product innovation has become a high priority for manufacturers today, topping the list of many corporate agendas over the last five years. While early innovation strategies gave top priority to driving growth, focus has turned to surviving the down economy and preparing to capitalize on the eventual recovery. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has been an important tool to help companies innovate, enhancing the top line at the same time as they reduce cost to maintain the bottom line. This has caused significant growth in the use of PLM, and the extension of PLM by early adopters. In this same timeframe, the use of social networking has exploded. People are using social networking and social media in their personal lives, adding a new dimension to the way that people interact within their network of friends. Now, companies are starting to embrace social computing and “Web 2.0” capabilities to take advantage of these collaborative techniques for business purposes, creating “corporate social networks” that tie together communities around a common business goal. The goal of each of these trends – PLM and social computing –is connecting people and providing a way to share content. How can manufacturers leverage these trends to improve product profitability? Clearly it is not signing the Engineering department up on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace. Instead, companies are applying the concepts and lessons learned from social networking to connect people and enhance business interaction. This shift towards corporate social networks promises significant business value, particularly as social computing technologies are applied to PLM. [post_title] => Product Collaboration 2.0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => collab-2dot0 [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:26 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:26 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2549 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [9] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2774 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2008-10-02 10:23:29 [post_date_gmt] => 2008-10-02 14:23:29 [post_content] =>
SLM for HVAC and Controls: Competition Heats up for Service Contracts discusses how convergence of the HVAC and Controls service markets has changed the rules of competition, highlighting the need for SLM to compete.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
NOTE: This paper is from the Tech-Clarity archives, it was originally published in 2004 but still has relevance today.
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- When Service Markets Collide
- Servicing the Facility
- Service Complexity
- Competition Demands Better Service
- Better Service – Without Losing Sight of Cost
- Never Ignore a Call for Help
- Reduce Waste in the Call Center and Office
- Avoid the Service Call (or at Least Reduce the Urgency)
- Make the Right Calls First
- Close the Call the First Time
- Keep Technicians Productive, not Just Busy
- Turn the Service Call into an Opportunity
- Turn Service into Cash – Rapidly
- Stop Revenue Leaks
- Enhance the Customer Relationship
- Grow Revenue by Restarting the Service Lifecycle
- Turn to Proactive Management
- Recommendations
- Summary
- About the Author
Executive Overview
The battle continues for service contracts in the HVAC and Controls markets. The rules of competition have changed for companies servicing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and related control systems over the last several years. The clean separation between installing and maintaining the mechanical components of the equipment—such as air handlers and chillers—and the control systems has dissolved. The customer now has more options for service. Mechanical contractors are competing with controls providers, controls technicians are competing with mechanical contractors, and increasingly everyone is competing with manufacturers who are beginning to capitalize on their product lines to offer service for their own equipment—and for equipment from others. The rules of competition have changed for companies servicing heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) and related control systems Increased competition is good for service customers, particularly for industrial customers and large chains. These larger customers can now benefit by consolidating their service spending to a smaller number of suppliers. By working with fewer suppliers, they can gain economies of scale and contract negotiating leverage. Beyond cost advantages, the customer can now expect to gain a more consolidated view of their operations and service needs by looking at service trends, spending and performance across multiple sites and types of equipment. These market changes can also be good for service organizations that are prepared to capitalize on the change. These companies can achieve greater revenue from each customer by servicing a broader range of equipment and leveraging technician visits to perform work on multiple types of hardware. To keep up with the changes—or better yet to profit from them—means adapting to a more complex, more competitive service environment. Service organizations—whether historically focused on mechanical service or controls—need to compete with equipment manufacturers by better sharing equipment knowledge and leveraging their independent status to service multi-vendor environments. Manufacturers need to continue to improve service organizations and processes as they transition service from an overhead operation to a profit center. All service companies need to address increased competition and complexity of the new service landscape by simultaneously providing higher levels of customer service while decreasing service costs. Service Lifecycle Management (SLM), coined by industry analyst firm AMR Research, is an approach that allows service organizations to better manage their servicerelated processes—resulting in both better service and reduced costs that are critical to profitable service in the changing HVAC and Controls industry. [post_title] => Service Lifecycle Management for HVAC and Controls [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => slm-hvac [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:31 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:31 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2774 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [10] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2763 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2008-10-02 10:12:51 [post_date_gmt] => 2008-10-02 14:12:51 [post_content] =>
SLM for Medical Devices: The Strategic Role of Service highlights the strategic role that service plays in the medical devices industry in ensuring customer satisfaction to enable future sales, while maintaining optimal costs to protect profitability.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
NOTE: This paper is from the Tech-Clarity archives, it was originally published in 2004 but still has relevance today.
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- Compliance is Critical
- Enabling Compliance with Automation
- Service is Strategic to Customer Satisfaction – and Future Sales
- Making Best Service Practices Standard Operating Procedure
- The Good and Bad of Servicing a Captive Audience
- SLM Drives Superior Service at Optimal Cost
- Never Ignore a Call for Help
- Reduce Waste in the Call Center and Office
- Avoid the Service Call (or at Least Reduce the Urgency
- Make the Right Calls First
- Close the Call the First Time
- Keep Technicians Productive, not Just Busy
- Turn the Service Call into an Opportunity
- Turn Service into Cash – Rapidly
- Stop Revenue Leaks
- Enhance the Customer Relationship
- Grow Revenue by Restarting the Service Lifecycle
- Turn to Proactive Management
- Summary
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Executive Overview
Ask an outsider about what makes servicing medical devices challenging. They will probably tell you that—beyond all of the regular challenges in servicing equipment—you probably have to face a lot of extra red tape and regulatory complications. Of course, they will have guessed right. But outsiders don’t service medical devices, and managing regulatory requirements is not the whole story about servicing medical equipment. Servicing medical devices is not the same as servicing a consumer item like a television, a computer, or an entertainment system. Manufacturers in consumer industries can sell their products and then move on to the next piece of business. This is also true for industrial equipment, although often to a lesser extent. Manufacturers in those industries can draw a hard line between manufacturing and service, or even choose to leave service to third parties that they have no relationship with. Although many of these companies are trying to capture the revenue potential available from servicing their own equipment, it is generally a decision that is based on growing the top line. Service in the medical devices industry, however, is not optional. Service is integral to the relationship with the customer and very tightly tied with the success or failure of the company. In the medical devices industry, services are strategic and manufacturers of equipment used in the medical field are held to a higher level of responsibility by their customers. There are advantages and disadvantages of the closer relationship between medical device vendors and customers. On one hand, companies typically don’t have to compete for service contracts with competitors. Because of the complexity of their products and the highly regulated environment, it is often very difficult for uninvited third parties to maintain a manufacturer’s equipment. Our outsider might guess that the lack of competition for the service contract means that the cost of maintaining equipment is not an important issue. On the contrary, it means that managing the cost of servicing equipment is frequently more important to the bottom line than in other industries. This contradiction is a result of the lack of competition, and the buyers’ knowledge that they don’t have flexibility to shop around a service contract. To compensate, the buyers may negotiate the service costs well in advance, often as a part of the equipment purchase. In these cases, service revenue is fixed. Therefore, services profitability can only be impacted by attacking the other side of the profitability equation— cost. Service Lifecycle Management (SLM), coined by industry analyst firm AMR Research, is an approach that allows service organizations to better manage their service-related processes. SLM results in both better service and reduced costs. For medical device companies, it is critical to take advantage of the opportunities that SLM offers to simultaneously enhance the relationship with the customer and keep service costs in control. And yes, compliance is critical to all aspects of the business and shouldn’t be minimized in the least. [post_title] => Service Lifecycle Management for Medical Devices [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => slm-med-device [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:31 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:31 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2763 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [11] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2759 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2008-10-02 09:50:40 [post_date_gmt] => 2008-10-02 13:50:40 [post_content] =>
SLM for IT Equipment: Tackling the Profitability Crunch explores tackling the profitability crunch in the IT equipment services market as service becomes more difficult, competition gets stiffer and margins keep shrinking.
Click here to read the full report, thank you to our sponsor Astea.
NOTE: This paper is from the Tech-Clarity archives, it was originally published in 2004 but still has relevance today.
Table of Contents
- Executive Overview
- The Job’s not Getting any Easier
- Competition Demands Superior Service
- Where did all the Margin Go
- Superior Service—But Not at all Costs
- Never Ignore a Call for Help
- Reduce Waste in the Call Center and Office
- Avoid the Service Call (or at Least Reduce the Urgency
- Make the Right Calls First
- Close the Call the First Time
- Keep Technicians Productive, not Just Busy
- Turn the Service Call into an Opportunity
- Turn Service into Cash – Rapidly
- Stop Revenue Leaks
- Enhance the Customer Relationship
- Grow Revenue by Restarting the Service Lifecycle
- Turn to Proactive Management
- Carrying Inventory—No Longer Practical
- SLM Means Smarter Service
- Recommendations
- Summary
- About the Author
Executive Overview
Your customer contacts the call center. Their equipment is down. Your service representative begins to document and diagnose the problem. A trouble ticket is generated and a service technician is dispatched to resolve the problem. This scenario is repeated countless times a day, it is routine for your service organization. But from the customer’s perspective—this is not routine at all. It may be a central piece of equipment such as a server that is down or it may just be an individual PC or printer. No matter what the situation is, it is stopping your customer from running their business. Somebody is not working—or not working in a fully effective way—and they are relying on you to get them back in business. This is your chance to prove your value and re-earn your service contract. Managing service processes effectively allows service companies to continually prove the value of their offerings. Effectively running any services organization can be greatly enhanced by following the tenets of Service Lifecycle Management (SLM). SLM, coined by industry analyst firm AMR Research, is a strategic approach to improving customer service while simultaneously reducing service costs. Leading service organizations are increasingly reaping the benefits of adopting SLM principals. Companies that focus on servicing Information Technology (IT) related equipment, in particular, are turning towards SLM to address the increasingly challenging IT Services market. Three things are clear about servicing IT assets in the current climate:- The job is not getting any easier
- Competition is getting stiffer
- Profit margins are getting smaller
SLM for Point of Sales: Servicing the Service Industry reviews the need for strong support processes when servicing equipment for retail and hospitality companies, both to satisfy the customer and to generate profits.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
NOTE: This paper is from the Tech-Clarity archives, it was originally published in 2004 but still has relevance today.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Impact of Point of Sales Downtime
- Customer Service is Your Customer’s Business – Make it Yours
- Profiting from Point of Sales System Service
- Profitability and Good Service Rely on Good Information
- SLM Drives Superior Service at Optimal Cost
- Never Ignore a Call for Help
- Reduce Waste in the Call Center and Office
- Avoid the Service Call (or at Least Reduce the Urgency)
- Make the Right Calls First
- Close the Call the First Time
- Keep Technicians Productive, not Just Busy
- Turn the Service Call into an Opportunity
- Turn Service into Cash – Rapidly
- Stop Revenue Leaks
- Enhance the Customer Relationship
- Grow Revenue by Restarting the Service Lifecycle
- Turn to Proactive Management
- Recommendations
- Summary
- About the Author
Introduction
A call comes into the call center. The early rush is over, and a key point of sales device at one of your customer’s sites went down during peak time. The manager asked his team to work around the problem until things settled down, but now he wants your team to service the equipment and get it back up and running before the next busy period. Your company may only have a few precious hours to get to the customer, diagnose the problem, correct it and be out of the way when activity start to pick up again. Providing service to the service industries—whether it is a retail shop like a drug store, auto parts store, grocer, or big-box retailer or a hospitality company like a restaurant, hotel or even a sports arena—requires top-notch customer service. When Point of Sales (POS) equipment goes down, it impacts the ability for your customer to provide service to their customers. Customer service is critical to the retail and hospitality industries, and therefore the service that keeps the POS equipment running is critical as well. Servicing these industries, however, is not an easy task. Service is required at all hours of the day or night, and point of sales activity can’t be delayed until the system comes back up. The customers are coming whether the equipment is working or not. Retailers rely on technology today, however, for more than providing customer service. Retailers now frequently rely on automation for control and accounting purposes. With the increasing use of POS data to drive inventory replenishment and programs like scan based trading, accurate sales data has become much more important. The manual systems of previous generations have been replaced with modern technology that keeps operations running smoothly. Today, retailers with systems problems may be more than inconvenienced—they may be out of control. Strong support processes are critical to maintaining good customer relationships when equipment problems occur. Maintaining equipment for retailers and hospitality companies requires sharp focus on customer service, but doing so profitably also requires a high level of control within the service organization itself. Costs must be kept in check, and the service company must be able to prove that they are providing good service to renew contracts. In addition, most companies are trying to improve margins by providing more value-added services in addition to simple break/fix support. Not surprisingly, technology plays a role in this as well. Service Lifecycle Management (SLM), coined by industry analyst firm AMR Research, is an approach that allows service organizations to better manage their service related processes. SLM results in both better service delivery and reduced costs. This paper provides insight gained from recent conversations with some leading service companies to discover how SLM principles are being used to provide world-class customer service to the retail and hospitality industries, while simultaneously reducing costs to improve profitability. [post_title] => Service Lifecycle Management for Point of Sales [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => slm-pos [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:30 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:30 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2752 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [13] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 1749 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2008-03-22 22:58:42 [post_date_gmt] => 2008-03-23 02:58:42 [post_content] =>
More Value for Your Service Dollar: Better Service at Lower Cost Through Service Lifecycle Management reviews a strategic way for companies to ensure that capital equipment is making a profitable return for their business through better service. Please enjoy the free Introduction below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Introduction
An IT infrastructure and the capital equipment that serves as its foundation must generate a profitable return for the business that owns it. For the most part, there is no reason for a business to own or lease a piece of IT equipment unless it somehow helps to generate revenue. Although the connection between this equipment and the revenue it contributes
may not be absolutely clear — equipment must make money or demonstrate value beyond the cost to purchase and maintain it. Whether the equipment is a vending machine or self-service kiosk that directly pulls in revenue, a personal computer supporting the back office functions of the business, or production equipment helping to produce the products that will be delivered to customers, capital equipment that is out of service or not functioning properly can not make money.
Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) is a strategic way for organizations to ensure that capital equipment is making a profitable return for their business. Making a profitable return is based on two things — ensuring uptime and proper performance for the equipment, and doing so at an optimal cost to keep expenses down. SLM is a business
strategy, first introduced by industry analyst AMR Research, aimed at increasing the amount of time that a machine is up and running and concurrently reducing the total cost of ownership. By attacking both ends of the value equation, revenue and cost, SLM promises to provide a significant return for companies that depend on capital equipment. SLM provides increased service value by employing a philosophy that moves businesses away from reactive service and towards predictive, proactive, preventive service. By identifying and addressing potential problems before they are noticeable problems, companies that adopt an SLM approach avoid the more significant expenses of unplanned repairs and the revenue loss from unnecessary equipment unavailability. The result of this proactive approach is better service at a lower overall cost. Leading companies today are adopting SLM as a business strategy by adopting the SLM concepts into their own service departments, or increasingly, by transferring the service headache over to a service company that delivers SLM capabilities as a part of their service offering.
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Hello and welcome to Tech-Clarity. We are in the process of converting to our new website which provides greater access to our research. As we are reposting our content in the new format, we want to make sure you can access our existing materials. The list below represents almost ten years worth of research. Enjoy!
Note: If you find a bad or missing link, the easiest way to find what you are looking for is through the search box. Please let us know if you can't find anything and we will be glad to help.
| Perspective: Developing Software-Intensive Products: Addressing the Innovation-Complexity Conundrum - Presents survey data and analysis to help manufacturers understand the benefits and challenges of developing products that derive a significant amount of their capabilities from software. Describes how they can take advantage of the benefits and use organization structure, business processes, and structured systems like ALM and PLM to address the signifcant challenges and business impacts resulting from added development complexity.. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Better Service from Better Product Information: Evolving to Visual, Product-Centric Service Communication - Discusses the importance of having accurate, timely product information at hand in order to profit from service and satisfy customers in the service lifecycle. Highlights the importance of detailed, visual service information such as 3D graphics and animations to communicate product details, and explains how companies are leveraging PLM assets to improve service performance. (See Overview) |
| Issue in Focus: Social Business Collaboration and the Product Lifecycle: Combining the Collaborative Power of Social Media with PLM - Explores the possibility that companies could adopt a social business collaboration platform to improve product development processes and add proven PLM capabilities as needed to establish a socially capable PLM system. (See Overview) |
| Issue in Focus: Product Data Accessiblity: Getting Value from All of Your Proudct Data - Explains the importance for manufacturers to be able to access and share product data, regardless of whether it is centralized in a system like PDM or not. Explains that accessing product data and centralizing it are not absolutely linked, and describes emerging technologies that can help. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Improving Portfolio Decision-Making: Marrying PPM Best Practice Processes and Technology to Drive ROI - Describes the ability for Product Portfolio Management (PPM) initiatives to improve portfolio decision-making and ultimately company profitability. Explains that companies can take a practical approach to achieve the value of PPM by utilizing readily available best practice processes and metrics, leveraging the right software technology, and starting small to provide rapid value without a large, academic exercise. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Systems and Software Driven Innovation: Complexity and Opportunity in the Mechatronic Era - Describes the fundamental shift to increased software and electronics in traditionally mechanical products, sometimes known as "mechatronics." Explains the need to manage the resulting design complexity and how to take advantage of the opportunities offered by systems and software based products. (See Overview) |
| Tech-Clarity Perspective: Understanding Product Development Trade-offs: Designing Products for Compliance, Cost, and Sustainability - Presents results from a survey on how companies design their products to meet environmental regulatory compliance, product sustainability, and product cost targets. Shares survey data and perspectives from two leading manufacturers . (See Overview) |
| Issue in Focus: Optimizing Product Portfolios with Advanced PPM: Applying Value Optimization to Portfolio Decision Making - Explains how companies can gain greater levels of product portfolio profitability by using value optimization techniques to make portfolio decisions. Describes how the basic best practices of PPM can be extended by Advanced PPM concepts. . (See Overview) |
| Issue in Focus: PLM Goes Mobile - Reducing Barriers to Engineering Decision-Making and Innovation - Explains how mobile devices like the iPad have set the stage to extend the opportunity for engineers and others in the product lifecycle to contribute, decide, act, and innovate with PLM. (See Overview) |
| Product and Program Management Goes Mobile - Compressing Project Cycle Time and Time to Market with Mobile PLM - Describes how mobile workers can decide, approve, and contribute to their projects and programs in real-time using PLM in a mobile scenario. (See Overview) |
| Enabling Mobile PLM - IT Considerations for Leveraging Mobility to Extend PLM Value - Points out some very practical considerations that IT leaders must take into account when taking PLM mobile. (See Overview) |
| Insight: The Business Value of Product Data Management - Achieving Rapid and Extendable Benefits - Explains how manufacturers use PDM to control their product data, improve their ability to find information, and better share knowledge with other departments. Shares the experiences of three manufacturers that took a more "out of the box" approach to reach these benefits quickly. (See Overview) |
| Insight: The Business of 3D Technical Communications: Evolving Strategies to Document Products - Explains how companies are changing their views on technical documentation to a more strategic approach, including the use of 3D to go beyond flat, static documents to incorporate richer, interactive, more realistic representation of products. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Integrating PLM and MES - Realizing the Digital Factory - Expands the discussion on the roles that ERP and PLM play in manufacturing to include the role of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). (See Overview) |
| Insight: The Business Value of Simulation - Saving Time and Money, and Getting Products Right the First Time - Reviews how manufacturers can leverage simulation processes and technology to save time, reduce cost, drive efficiency, improve quality, and increase innovation. Discusses the economic value available from early design analysis and validation. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Managing Engineering Data - The Role of PDM in Improving Engineering Efficiency - Shares the benefits of controlling engineering data and collaborating with Product Data Management. Discusses extending PDM with product-related processes and expanding implementations beyond engineering data. (See Overview) |
| Insight: The Five Dimensions of Product Complexity - Highlights the trend toward increased product complexity and how it has made developing profitable products more difficult. Details the five dimensions and discusses how PLM software helps manage the complexity on an enterprise scale, helping manufacturers achieve greater efficiency and better products. (See Overview) |
| Issue in Focus: CAD Standardization Strategies - Considerations for Multi-CAD versus Standardization - Helps companies develop a “CAD Standardization Strategy” based on a thorough understanding of the business drivers, constraints, and tradeoffs impacting their decision to operate in a multi-CAD environment or standardize on a single solution. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Product Portfolio Management in a PLM Strategy - Closing the Loop on Product Planning - Explores how engineering-centric businesses can take a more closed-loop approach between Product Portfolio Management (PPM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to extend the value of PPM. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Consolidating CAD - Benefits of a Unified CAD Strategy - Examines the strategic and tactical value of standardizing on a single CAD package. Provides a framework for determining the cost savings available from consolidating tools. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Quality Risk Management in Life Sciences: Preventing Failures, Protecting Patient Health - Reviews manufacturers' experiences in using Quality Risk Management (QRM) to proactively reduce risk in the Life Sciences industries. Explains how QRM software can be used to efficiently manage risk by sharing quality knowledge across the enterprise and closing the loop on product quality. (See Overview) |
| Issue in Focus: Product Compliance – The Hidden Tax on Innovation - Discusses the need for early product compliance checking for formula- and recipe-based products. Explains how manual processes for compliance checking and documentation limit product innovation, and how PLM with compliance checking built in can help relieve this burden. (See Overview) |
| Business in Focus: Burner Systems International - Improving Collaboration with Product Data Management (PDM) - Highlights a conversation with a global component and assembly manufacturer supplying the gas appliance industry. Discusses their adoption of Product Data Management (PDM) to improve engineering and new product development performance. (See Overview) |
| Issue in Focus: Product Collaboration 2.0 - Explores the use of social computing and "Web 2.0" techniques to improve product collaboration. Explains how social computing in PLM allows manufacturers to discover new intellectual property and capture existing know-how for the future - increasing corporate product knowledge. (See Overview) |
| Perspective: Product Environmental Compliance - Discusses the key elements of a sustainable approach to developing and maintaining products that comply with environmental regulations such as RoHS and REACH while reducing compliance risk and cost. Draws conclusions from over 300 responses to a web-based survey and several in-depth interviews with leading manufacturers. (See Overview) |
| Issue in Focus: Business Intelligence Extending PLM Value - Points out the significant value that has accumulated in PLM systems as implementations and usage have matured, and how manufacturers can tap into that value with business intelligence (BI) solutions. (See Overview) |
| Issue in Focus: Digital Prototyping in the Plant - Discusses how digital prototyping solutions help manufacturers achieve greater agility by leveraging a digital factory approach. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Leveraging the Digital Factory: Enhancing Productivity from Operator to Enterprise - Provides visibility to the way manufacturers utilize Manufacturing Process Management (MPM) processes and solutions to help reduce cost, speed time to market, and improve product quality. MPM, also known as Digital Manufacturing, is an important element of any PLM strategy. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Going Social with Product Development - Explores how manufacturers are taking advantage of social computing and "Web 2.0" technologies to raise the bar on product development performance. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Engineering Reference Information in a PLM Strategy - Highlights the importance of efficiently providing engineering reference information to engineers in order to increase productivity. Describes how engineering information offers another tool in the PLM toolkit to improve design efficiency so engineers can spend more time on product innovation. (See Overview) |
| The PLM Program - An Incremental Approach to the Strategic Value of PLM - Introduces a pragmatic approach to implementing Product Lifecycle Management in a way that drives towards a strategic vision by taking incremental steps with tangible returns on investment. (View PDF) |
| Issue in Focus: The ROI of Product Portfolio Management - Companies are frequently challenged when they are required to develop a credible, supportable financial model to determine the benefits of PPM initiatives. This “Issue in Focus” is intended to help guide companies in developing a realistic ROI based on a conservative financial model. (View PDF) |
| Mass Customization of Highly Configurable Products - Discusses the challenges that mass customization places on manufacturing companies. Describes how customization makes seemingly "simple" products complex to design, sell and produce (View PDF). See related article in Mechanical Engineering Magazine. (View PDF) |
| Insight: Innovating Through an Economic Downturn - Guides small to midsize manufacturers to develop an action plan that both recognizes the difficult financial reality that most manufacturers face today and allows them to leverage PLM to innovate for the future. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Engineering's Role in Surviving a Down Economy - Discusses strategies that Engineering can adopt to help their companies navigate difficult financial times. (See Overview) |
| Insight: The Integrated ERP-PLM Strategy: Closing the Loop on Product Innovation - Reviews the importance of an integrated ERP-PLM strategy to provide a rapid, confident flow of innovation to and from Manufacturing. Discusses a strategy to close the loop between Engineering and Manufacturing to get the most business value from innovation in all its forms. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Enabling Product Lifecycle Management: The CIO's Guide to Supporting a PLM Initiative - Provides PLM technology insight and understanding to prepare today's CIO to support Product Lifecycle Management. Points out unique implementation and support challenges the CIO and their team must be aware of in order to get the most business value out of PLM. (See Overview) |
| The Evolving Roles of ERP and PLM - Extending past research on the roles of ERP and PLM, describes the evolution of ERP-PLM integration beyond the basics to a more mature, bi-directional interaction. Reviews how companies can close the loop between product innovation and managing the business of manufacturing. (See Overview) |
| Issue in Focus: A Risk-Based Approach to Component and Supplier Management - Discusses the importance of a structured risk management process to mitigate supply risk and the importance of having the right supply chain information to support the process. (See Overview) |
| Complementary Roles of ERP and PLM - Provides an overview of the roles that ERP and PLM can play in maximizing product profitability, describing recent implementations and key considerations to help manufacturers determine the right application approach for their business. (View PDF) |
| Business Processes Cross Application Boundaries - Analyzes the impact of point solutions that must be integrated in order to support a business process that typically crosses the artificial boundaries common in today's enterprise applications. Part of the "What's Wrong with Enterprise Applications?" series. (View PDF) |
| Insight: Equipment Service Management - Suggests two fundamentals that service organizations must master to rise above the competition - operational control of service operations and equipment intelligence, and introduces an Equipment Service Management Framework. (See Overview) |
| Insight: Servicing Medical Equipment - Extends prior research on world class service management to the medical device industry. Discusses leveraging lessons learned from other service-oriented industries, but points out distinct differences in the healthcare industry. (See Overview) |
| The Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) Approach - Overviews an approach to improve the profitability of services businesses by concurrently increasing service and lowering costs. (View PDF) |
| The PLM Program - An Incremental Approach to the Strategic Value of PLM - Introduces a pragmatic approach to implementing Product Lifecycle Management in a way that drives towards a strategic vision by taking incremental steps with tangible returns on investment. (View PDF) |
| Regulatory Compliance Across the Product Lifecycle - Examines the importance that regulatory compliance and product related EH&S play in protecting the value available from PLM across the product lifecycle. (View PDF) |
| Digital Manufacturing - Discusses the use of technology—including 3D CAD and simulation—within a PLM strategy to help manufacturers develop more profitable products by optimizing the planning, development and deployment of better manufacturing processes. (View PDF) |
| Computer Aided Design for Formula-Based Industries - Outlines the business value achieved by Revlon, Shiseido / Zotos, Pfizer and other leading companies utilizing CAD software for formula-based product development, and provides guidance for similar manufacturers. (View PDF) |
| Successful PLM Programs - Reviews the characteristics of a phased approach for manufacturers to meet their PLM objectives, highlighting some relevant, successful PLM Programs. (View PDF) See German translation. (View PDF) |
| Selecting a PLM System to Improve Product Development Performance for Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Businesses - Jim Brown of Tech-Clarity and Ray Kurland of TechniCom offer a framework for smaller manufacturers to evaluate, select, and implement a PLM system based on a structured plan and objective requirements. (See Overview) |
| Complementary Roles of PIM and PLM - Explores how Product Information Management (PIM) can extend the value of PLM implementations by providing complementary tools and capabilities. (View PDF) |
| The Many Faces of PLM - Overviews the various, inter-related software solutions that contribute to achieving the PLM value proposition, and where they fit in the PLM software suite. (View PDF) |
| Rules-driven Product Management - Highlights the manufacturing strategy of customizing products to exact customer specifications to combat commoditization, globalization, margin shrink and increased competition, and how Rules-driven Product Management can help. (View PDF) |
| Moving Innovation Closer to the Customer (Order) - Explores the question "Can innovation be moved closer to the customer in order to meet their needs, and if so, how far towards the customer’s point of order can innovation still be included?" (View PDF) |
| Mass Customization of Highly Configurable Products - Discusses the challenges that mass customization places on manufacturing companies. Describes how customization makes seemingly "simple" products complex to design, sell and produce (View PDF). See related article in Mechanical Engineering Magazine. (View PDF) |
| PLM Proving Value at Heinz - Reviews the strategic value achieved by Heinz from implementing Product Lifecycle Management processed and software in their global business. (View PDF) |
| Maximizing Product Development Value - Highlights key insights on realizing value from new products based on discussions with product development leaders. Analyzes a new approach to portfolio management that focuses on achieving the economic value available from new products. (View PDF) |
| Regulatory Compliance Across the Product Lifecycle - Examines the importance that regulatory compliance and product related EH&S play in protecting the value available from PLM across the product lifecycle. (View PDF) |
| Agile, IBM, Others Take PLM in a Green Direction - Reviews increasing manufacturers’ responsibilities for product-related environmental impacts based on recent regulations such as WEEE and RoHS and how PLM vendors are stepping in to help. (View PDF) |
| PLM Is An Industry Affair - Or Is It? - Discusses the counterintuitive fact that some PLM solutions must be highly focused on vertical industry needs, while others can be applied in a more industry-neutral approach. (View PDF) |
| Can ERP Speak PLM? - Analyzes the trade-offs between advanced PLM functionality and pre-built integration that is offered by ERP vendors. Specifically discusses the challenge of semantics. (View PDF) |
| Dynamics of Electronic Components (Component Event Management) - Discusses the inherent challenge of managing product lifecycles for products that contain electronic components, given that the components often have shorter lifecycles than the parent products. (View PDF) |
| The Role of PIM and PLM in the Product Information Supply Chain - Summarizes the need for managing and synchronizing commercial product information, discussed Product Information Management (PIM) and increased demand for PLM vendors to provide supporting tools. (View PDF) |
| Selecting PLM Software - Describes the challenges of selecting enterprise application suites. Offers advice for selecting PLM based on lessons learned from more mature application suites. (View PDF) |
| Customization Drives Complexity - Introduces the complexity that product customization places on the process of selling, designing and producing custom products and suggestions on how to streamline the process of incorporating customer specifications into orders. (View PDF) |
| Supply Chain Decisions - Understand the Dollars and Sense - Overviews an approach to incorporate detailed, activity-based costs into supply chain decision making and optimization. (View PDF) |
| Optimizing Capacity Deployment and Reducing Capital Investment - Discusses ways to go beyond simple supply-chain and manufacturing planning for the process industries and highlights the results of one large process company that has implemented a different approach. (View PDF) |
| Business Processes Cross Application Boundaries - Analyzes the impact of point solutions that must be integrated in order to support a business process that typically crosses the artificial boundaries common in today's enterprise applications. Part of the "What's Wrong with Enterprise Applications?" series. (View PDF) |
| What's Wrong With Application Software - A Possible Solution? - A discussion of how model based architectures offer potential benefit to companies by more naturally assembling solutions into business processes. (View PDF) |
| Service Lifecycle Management - Discussed ways that the services industry can improve their service processes in order to tap into the value of the product aftermarket. (View PDF) |
| SLM Goes Mobile - A guide to furthering the value of Service Lifecycle Management through the pragmatic implementation of mobile technology. (View PDF) |
| SLM for Point of Sales - Reviews the need for strong support processes when servicing equipment for retail and hospitality companies, both to satisfy the customer and to generate profits . (View PDF) |
| SLM for IT Equipment - Explores tackling the profitability crunch in the IT equipment services market as service becomes more difficult, competition gets stiffer and margins keep shrinking. (View PDF) |
| SLM for Medical Devices - Highlights the strategic role that service plays in the medical devices industry in ensuring customer satisfaction to enable future sales, while maintaining optimal costs to protect profitability. (View PDF) |
| SLM for HVAC and Controls - Discusses how convergence of the HVAC and Controls service markets has changed the rules of competition, highlighting the need for SLM to compete. (View PDF) |
| More Value for Your Service Dollar - Reviews a strategic way for companies to ensure that capital equipment is marking a profitable return for their business through better service. (View PDF) |
| The Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) Approach - Overviews an approach to improve the profitability of services businesses by concurrently increasing service and lowering costs. (View PDF) |
Issue in Focus: CAD Standardization Strategies - Considerations for Multi-CAD versus Standardization - discusses considerations for operating in a multi-CAD environment versus standardizing on a single solution. Helps companies develop a “CAD Standardization Strategy” based on a thorough understanding of the business drivers, constraints, and tradeoffs impacting their decision.
Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Table of Contents
- Introducing the Issue
- Considering the Business Drivers
- Making Tradeoffs
- Developing a Strategy
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- About the Author
Introducing the Issue
There are benefits to having a standard CAD package, as reported in the recently published research paper Tech-Clarity Insight: Consolidating CAD. These business benefits range from tactical cost savings to strategic advantages such as corporate flexibility. As that paper mentioned, however, “Not all businesses have the opportunity to unify their CAD solutions due to customer and supplier constraints, but there are multiple advantages for those that can.” This paper is intended to help companies develop a “CAD Standardization Strategy” based on a thorough understanding of the business drivers, constraints, and tradeoffs impacting their decision. This strategy can help determine the appropriate level of standardization to best meet the needs of the business. The paper offers a suggested list of business drivers to be used as a starting point for an industry and company tailored CAD strategy. [post_title] => CAD Standardization Strategies [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => cad-standardization [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2022-11-14 22:27:30 [post_modified_gmt] => 2022-11-15 03:27:30 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://tech-clarity.com/?p=2738 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 1 [filter] => raw ) [comment_count] => 0 [current_comment] => -1 [found_posts] => 695 [max_num_pages] => 35 [max_num_comment_pages] => 0 [is_single] => [is_preview] => [is_page] => [is_archive] => [is_date] => [is_year] => [is_month] => [is_day] => [is_time] => [is_author] => [is_category] => [is_tag] => [is_tax] => [is_search] => [is_feed] => [is_comment_feed] => [is_trackback] => [is_home] => 1 [is_privacy_policy] => [is_404] => [is_embed] => [is_paged] => [is_admin] => [is_attachment] => [is_singular] => [is_robots] => [is_favicon] => [is_posts_page] => [is_post_type_archive] => [query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => a944255f8086f83af72a7f0806e65690 [query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] => 1 [thumbnails_cached] => [stopwords:WP_Query:private] => [compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => query_vars_hash [1] => query_vars_changed ) [compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => init_query_flags [1] => parse_tax_query ) )All Results for "All"
Product Portfolio Management in a PLM Strategy
Issue in Focus: Product Portfolio Management in a PLM Strategy – Closing the Loop on Product Planning explores how engineering-centric businesses can take a more closed-loop approach between Product Portfolio Management (PPM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to extend the value of PPM. Discusses the benefits of closing the loop between theoretical plans and actual…
Product Compliance – The Hidden Tax on Innovation
Issue in Focus: Product Compliance – The Hidden Tax on Innovation: Enhancing Innovation in Formula-Based Companies through Real-time, Automated Compliance Monitoring discusses the need for early product compliance checking for formula- and recipe-based products. Explains how manual processes for compliance checking and documentation limit product innovation, and how PLM with compliance checking built in can…
The Five Dimensions of Product Complexity
Insight: The Five Dimensions of Product Complexity – Managing Complexity across the Product Lifecycle highlights the trend toward increased product complexity and how it has made developing profitable products more difficult. Details the five dimensions and discusses how PLM software helps manage the complexity on an enterprise scale, helping manufacturers achieve greater efficiency and better…
Product Environmental Compliance Survey
Tech-Clarity Perspective: Product Environmental Compliance – Sustainable Processes to Reduce Compliance Cost and Risk discusses the key elements of a sustainable approach to developing and maintaining products that comply with environmental regulations such as RoHS and REACH while reducing compliance risk and cost. Draws conclusions from over 300 responses to a web-based survey and several…
Quality Risk Management in Life Sciences
Tech-Clarity’s new report Quality Risk Management in Life Sciences: Preventing Failures, Protecting Patient Health reviews manufacturers’ experiences in using Quality Risk Management (QRM) to proactively reduce risk in the Life Sciences industries. Explains how QRM software can be used to efficiently manage risk by sharing quality knowledge across the enterprise and closing the loop on product…
Digital Prototypes – Yes. But for a Manufacturing Plant?
A quick peek into some research on … the use of digital prototyping techniques and technologies to design (and redesign) efficient manufacturing plants. Most of the times I discuss “digital prototyping” it regards products. But the same concepts apply when using digital prototyping in the plant – namely using digital models to increase design efficiency and get designs right the first time. Today I am happy to share my new report with you, Digital Prototyping in the Plant: Improving Manufacturing Agility with the Digital Factory.
Innovating Through an Economic Downturn
Tech-Clarity Insight: Innovating Through an Economic Downturn – A PLM Action Plan for Small to Mid-Size Manufacturers Facing Difficult Times describes how manufacturers can weather the current, global economic downturn. This paper is intended to help manufacturers develop a strategy to make it through tough times and come out ready to take advantage of the…
Product Collaboration 2.0
Issue in Focus: Product Collaboration 2.0 – Using Social Computing Techniques to Create Corporate Social Networks explores the use of social computing and “Web 2.0” techniques to improve product collaboration. Explains how social computing in PLM allows manufacturers to discover new intellectual property and capture existing know-how for the future, increasing corporate product knowledge. Please enjoy…
Service Lifecycle Management for HVAC and Controls
SLM for HVAC and Controls: Competition Heats up for Service Contracts discusses how convergence of the HVAC and Controls service markets has changed the rules of competition, highlighting the need for SLM to compete. Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration…
Service Lifecycle Management for Medical Devices
SLM for Medical Devices: The Strategic Role of Service highlights the strategic role that service plays in the medical devices industry in ensuring customer satisfaction to enable future sales, while maintaining optimal costs to protect profitability. Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge,…
Service Lifecycle Management for IT Equipment
SLM for IT Equipment: Tackling the Profitability Crunch explores tackling the profitability crunch in the IT equipment services market as service becomes more difficult, competition gets stiffer and margins keep shrinking. Click here to read the full report, thank you to our sponsor Astea. NOTE: This paper is from the Tech-Clarity archives, it was originally…
Service Lifecycle Management for Point of Sales
SLM for Point of Sales: Servicing the Service Industry reviews the need for strong support processes when servicing equipment for retail and hospitality companies, both to satisfy the customer and to generate profits. Please enjoy the summary below, or click the report or title to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required)….
More Value for Your Service Dollar
More Value for Your Service Dollar: Better Service at Lower Cost Through Service Lifecycle Management reviews a strategic way for companies to ensure that capital equipment is making a profitable return for their business through better service. Please enjoy the free Introduction below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free…
Tech-Clarity Research Archive Live
Hello and welcome to Tech-Clarity. We are in the process of converting to our new website which provides greater access to our research. As we are reposting our content in the new format, we want to make sure you can access our existing materials. The list below represents almost ten years worth of research. Enjoy!…