Making the value of technology clear
The Business Impact
While it may be easy to accept these time wasters as the way work is done, they come at a significant business cost. For example, an overwhelming 96% of equipment manufacturers report that lost engineering productivity negatively impacts the business. All that wasted time is spent on something other than engineering heavy equipment, putting deadlines at risk. If engineers could get even some of that time back, they would be better positioned to stay on schedule and on budget. Also, considering how challenging it can be to find and recruit engineering talent, retaining and maximizing your engineering talent is critical. Empowering them to focus on the work they want to do, rather than wasting time on tedious activities increases job satisfaction, so they will likely stay longer.
Longer development times mean higher costs, risking going over budget. Plus, engineers have less time to verify requirements and optimize their designs for fuel efficiency, performance, and cost. Together, these impacts hurt profitability, making it harder to meet goals to improve margins.
Heavy Equipment Implications
To remain competitive and optimize revenue potential, heavy equipment companies must be able to meet unique needs to empower their customers to work in new ways to improve their competitiveness. To achieve this, heavy equipment engineers need the bandwidth to fulfill specialized needs, understand regional standards and regulations, and collaborate across disciplines to support new technologies, such as electrification and digitalization. Wasting their time on non-value-added work take away from these efforts while adding development cost. Therefore, a strategic focus on reducing wasted time will have a significant positive business impact.
How Companies Use PLM
How you use PLM can determine how much value you will realize from it. While equipment manufacturers experience much value from PLM, learning from those most satisfied with PLM can reveal even more opportunities for additional benefit. For example, those most satisfied with PLM use it not only to store and manage files, but also to manage engineering changes, requirements, and design release processes (see upper graphic).
The most satisfied PLM users also use it to share design data with a broader audience (see lower graph). Not only does this unlock the value of engineering data to an extended group, but it also means fewer interruptions for engineers so they can stay focused on their engineering work. This also eliminates time wasters, like working with outdated or conflicting information. This could be especially useful for heavy equipment companies considering the number of roles involved in development.
Continuous improvement and AI: Do they go together? Is AI a way for manufacturers to ensure they get maximum value from their continuous improvement (CI) projects? Can it help select CI projects with the highest value? Companies are making better decisions these days wIth analytics and AI.
Tune in to this webinar to see Julie Fraser discuss this with PTC’s Jordan Coffman. The core of continuous improvement is the ability to analyze data to pinpoint problems and their root causes, as well as possible impacts of process changes. Sounds like an opportunity for AI and advanced analytics. Listen to this conversation about what our analyst and PTC’s Global Director of IoT Sales and Strategic Initiatives see in the market today.
This webinar focuses on making continuous improvement a true enterprise way of life. It touches on stakeholders, mindsets, and technology to support gathering, enriching, and analyzing data from all levels. Julie and Jordan get into what vendors and systems need to do to leverage real-time manufacturing data to create enterprise-wide value and accurate comparisons to decide where to invest.
They address the question of whether, with all of the systems manufacturers have at every level, they have what they need to make good decisions and get full value from continuous improvement programs. Learn more about CI and AI. Download a replay now.
This is a companion to our recent Buyer's Guide, Confidently Prioritize Manufacturing Improvement Opportunities.
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How can aerospace and defense engineers improve productivity?
The aerospace and defense industry continues to develop some of the world's most complex products while adhering to stringent regulations and rigorous certification standards. Moreover, technological advancements have created exciting opportunities for innovation, such as greater sustainability and automation. However, this also drives requirements for even more integrated systems of mechanical components, electronics, and software. This adds exponential levels of complexity as the thousands of components now have tens of thousands of interfaces. Consequently, engineers must manage, verify, and validate, all of this, which consuming valuable time. Unfortunately, engineers regularly lose productivity to non-value-add tasks that rob them of their ability to innovate and focus on these unique issues, threatening their company's ability to compete, differentiate, and grow. Imagine the potential of identifying and removing the most common non-value-add activities engineers face and empowering them to focus on more critical tasks.
This research examines how engineers at aerospace and defense companies spend their time, where they lose productivity, and the impact on the business. It then identifies solutions and approaches to reduce time wasters.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Siemens (registration required).
For related research, read The Business Value of Reducing Engineering Time Wasters for a look at this research across all industries.
To received personalized recommendations for how your company could improve engineering productivity, take our 5-minute online assessment.
Engineers Impact Business Success
Success at aerospace and defense companies relies on exceptional engineering. Engineers are crucial to ensuring integrated systems function as intended and will pass certification. Their design decisions directly impact sustainability goals, cost targets, and regulatory and safety requirements. Therefore, empowering engineers is key to the successful execution of business strategies.
Too Many Time Wasters
Unfortunately, engineers report spending too much time on non-value-added work with too many interruptions, taking them away from critical innovation work. Furthermore, 85% of surveyed aerospace and defense companies say this loss in engineering productivity comes at a significant business cost due to missed deadlines, higher costs, less innovation, and poor quality. One way to overcome productivity losses is to manage product data better and make it accessible to those who need it, when they need it.
Reclaiming Wasted Time
This report identifies substantial engineering time wasters in the aerospace and defense industry. It explores how companies of all sizes, including OEMs and suppliers, reclaim lost time by examining the use and value of PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) solutions to centralize data across multiple domains, manage processes, and collaborate better. Incidentally, PLM users reported fewer changes due to outdated information and errors, significantly reducing non-value-added work and shortening development times. This report also examines how companies select and use PLM solutions, including cloud-based implementations.
Conclusions
How can heavily regulated pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturers keep up with changes? By being flexible and paperless. Yet that’s not as easy as it may sound. Finding the appropriate manufacturing execution systems (MES) is a foundation for success.
This eBook outlines why being flexible and paperless are now imperative. It goes on to point out the challenges of doing either of those. It explains MES, and why it’s crucial in supporting pharmaceutical companies’ journey to being flexible and paperless. Finally, it points to some specific advanced capabilities that this industry requires from MES for success today and in the future.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Siemens (registration required).
For related research, read our insight to find out if the next steps of IT/OT convergence are at hand, hear how life sciences manufacturers can accelerate their innovation in this recorded webinar, and read our eBook to find out what manufacturers need in MES to be competitive today and in the future.
MES to Meet Pressures and Imperatives
All companies in the pharmaceutical industry are under pressure for time, quality, compliance, and innovation. These pressures create imperatives to be both paperless and flexible to protect profitability. The stresses and imperatives apply to small-molecule pharmaceuticals, active ingredients (API), contract drug manufacturers (CDMOs), large-molecule biotechnology, and gene and cell therapy makers.
Fortunately, a manufacturing execution system (MES) proven in these pharmaceutical segments can support many aspects of these imperatives. By choosing MES wisely, such a system can support success now and into the future.
“We have a program for digital transformation in manufacturing particularly, also in Quality and other areas. The key is implementation of eBR.” Nina Mikadze, Digital Transformation Leader, PHARMA INDUSTRY
A Healthy BioPharma Future
How can manufacturers meet growing sustainability demands without compromising manufacturing performance, quality, and availability? How does a data-driven, systematic approach leveraging the digital thread in PLM allow them to operationalize sustainability to meet ESG demands?
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Aras (registration required).
“CO2 is one thing, but not the only thing. We have a push for more circularity, how we get raw materials from the supply chain, and how to ensure the steel we get is sustainable.” – Technical Director, Fluid Transfer Systems Manufacturer.
In a similar way to the GHG scopes, there are many different facets to how manufacturers can improve their sustainability. They could focus on one or a combination of:
Jeff Stroh, Sr. Director Digital & Information Systems Management for McDermott International, explained the rationale for his business. “We are in a very carbon-intensive industry. We did a study of a liquid natural gas (LNG) facility on scopes 1,2, and 3. We found that the biggest impact we can have, even though we can do a lot different things, is in the first year our customer operates the plant.”That gives them a focus area to improve that will make a tangible difference. Take a Systems View First, manufacturers need to instill a company culture that rewards sustainability. Then, it can take a systems view to navigate the complexity, interrelationships, and tradeoffs required to make meaningful sustainability improvements. They must take into account all of the demands they face, both internal and external, and identify where they can couple doing the right thing with tangible business benefits like cost reduction. At that point, they can set requirements and goals for each. With that, they can take a holistic view to understand how potential actions will impact the targets and other implications they may have across the business so they can evaluate tradeoffs. Then, companies must monitor and track the plans across the business to fulfill the requirements and achieve their sustainability goals. This eBook shares five different ways manufacturers can improve ESG by taking a systems engineering approach.
According to Jeff Stroh of McDermott, “ESG is increasingly becoming a pre-requisite for bid eligibility, with more customers screening contractors such as McDermott for ESG criteria.”Manufacturers need to develop a culture that values sustainability across the enterprise. Then, they should take a holistic, systems approach, setting specific sustainability goals, breaking their strategic plans down into achievable systems requirements, and defining associated measurements and responsibilities. Support the Effort Driving sustainability improvements requires a systems-level approach. It requires manufacturers to move from a document-driven to a data-driven approach, leveraging robust digital threads and digital twins that incorporate data from a variety of sources. The data gathering, collaboration, and decision-making tools to drive new levels of sustainability – whether they focus on products, manufacturing, or operations – must be both comprehensive and agile. There is no “killer app” for sustainability, it requires an integrated ecosystem of collaborators, internal data, external databases, enterprise solutions, and tools throughout the product lifecycle. For example, solutions like LCA can be helpful, but they are often employed too late. Leverage PLM for Sustainability
Data is the primary foundation for sustainability. Data must be digital, accessible, unified, and centralized. Manufacturers must know their business goals and their product, including cohesive, trusted digital threads and digital twins by variant and configuration. This information must be put into the hands of designers and other decision-makers early to provide decision support, support simulation, and manage tradeoffs so designers can understand the impacts of their decisions at local and holistic levels.
It’s time to take a systematic, data-driven approach and operationalize sustainability to drive strategic ESG improvements. Although there is no single solution for sustainability, the right PLM solution is essential to support this approach. PLM provides crucial product data and integration with design tools where decisions are made. It allows companies to optimize, validate, implement, and trace sustainability decisions using core systems engineering, requirements management, lifecycle management, change control, supplier collaboration, and configuration management capabilities. The PLM solution will need to be open and flexible, however, to go beyond these core capabilities to manage new sustainability data and ESG-related processes and reporting. An open, flexible PLM solution, along with the right company culture and strategy, can help manufacturers reach their sustainability objectives and build a foundation for future improvements.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the research and does not contain the full content. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Aras (registration required).
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the report, please contact us.
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In this time of uncertainty and new technologies, is it time to re-evaluate how we explore and fine-tune our supply chain forecasts, schedules, and plans? For decades, optimization and what-if planning have been in place in manufacturing supply chains. We’ll discuss new possible approaches and what we have seen working.
Making plant floor software more straightforward to use, rollout, maintain, and sustain is a worthy endeavor. The fourth annual release of the GE Digital Proficy portfolio as an integrated release was packed! Updates range from expanding industry fit to architecture for enterprise rollout, cloud everywhere, composability, consistency for connected workers, sustainability functionality, and pre-built analytics for common needs.
Jim Brown and Julie Fraser had a chance to catch up with the GE Digital product management team for a preview of the Proficy 2024 unified launch. Unified is a relatively new capability for Proficy, with cloud or hybrid hosting, a common user experience (UX), and common administration. That’s rare, since this suite includes not only comprehensive MES and plant applications, but also historian, automation software and Sustainability software.
Some of the highlights are:
Coherent, flexible architecture: Historian and MES are entirely rewritten to be containerized on the same unified namespace (UNS). Other components of this model are a data model, support for a range of databusses including MQTT, OPS-UA and more, and a directory service. We see this as a solid approach for the software to stay useful at enterprise scale over the long term.
Connected worker consistency: IT are not the only ones with new capabilities. Operations Hub supports operators, supervisors, technicians, and other connected workers. It lets the customers compose applications as they wish behind a single UI. Applications from HMI, dashboards, engineering analytics, and MES all use containers and Operations Hub to appear in a consistent way. It aims to work even beyond the Proficy suite.
Enterprise scale: Cloud, on-prem, or hybrid hosting is working into most of this suite. Customers can now pipe data into data lakes and an array of analytics tools. The file storage approach means sending even millions of data points per second from OT tags across multiple plants is possible. Configuration Hub is central to the ability of a center of expertise (CoE) to manage all of these applications seamlessly. GE reports that one automotive customer is automatically building tag databases for their many plants retooling for EV production, and it’s taking only weeks to build HMI/SCADA databases. Licensing by tags also enables customer flexibility to deploy as needed.
Expanded discrete industry support: GE Digital is working with GE Aviation to support complex low-volume discrete industries such as A&D (Proficy has long had a strong base in automotive). This industry has only a few successful MES who offer what they need in engineering change and dispatching, so this market entry is welcome.
Expanded analytics: More of the applications now have embedded issue-specific analytics already included. The suite also offers customers the ability to build their own analytics models. Sustainability is one such area, based on Vernova’s focus. PID loop health is another. Alarm management in the automation suite has been upgraded to reduce distribution during alarm floors, and new capabilities for troubleshooting alarms are included also.
All of these new capabilities are in a coherent yet open suite of products. Customers can benefit across OT, IT, sustainability, and plant operations. We see how this would put GE Digital in a strong position as the spin-off of GE Vernova approaches.
Thank you, Steve Pavlovsky, Prasad Pai, Joe Gerstl, and Ben Whiteman, for an excellent overview of the new possibilities in Proficy. Thanks, Carter Conway and Spenser Murray, for setting up the briefing for us. We will look forward to more news as Proficy continues to leverage technology advances and meet market shifts.
For related content, read our previous insights on how GE Aims to Operationalize Sustainability and how they plan to Enhance MES for TCO and Flexibility.
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Denodo Data Virtualization Capabilities[/caption]
Julie Fraser and I were introduced to Denodo through a connection made in the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) International Smart Manufacturing Community. Denodo is a large, fast-growing data management company with capabilities supporting enterprise data fabric and data integration. We spent some time with the Denodo team, learning about their solution for data virtualization to create “integration without integration.”
Denodo helps companies create a single view of distributed data to drive analytics. As one would expect, the offering provides data integration, management, quality, and governance. But Denodo’s solution does not aggregate and replicate large volumes of data, instead creating a form of data mesh by sourcing and storing metadata while leaving data in place, but accessible. They then use the metadata to create a data catalog that allows self-service data discovery and data preparation on a logical abstraction of a variety of data stores. Although Denodo takes a “logical first” approach, leading with virtualization, they can also support ETL, ESBs, or APIs with over 200 adapters for complete data management and delivery.
Our research shows that manufacturers typically invest significant time and effort in creating and maintaining integrated data to drive decisions and support AI. In particular, they struggle to put IT and OT data in context. Denodo’s abstraction layer and services could play a significant role in simplifying this and deliver significant benefits.
[caption id="attachment_19829" align="aligncenter" width="824"]
Denodo Platform Functionality[/caption]
The real value comes by putting the data into action. Denodo provides connectivity to data analysis tools like Tableau or PowerBI to turn that data into actionable insights. In this way, their data virtualization approach can help create intelligence from fragmented and proliferated data in real time without waiting for traditional extract, transformation, and load (ETL) processes.
We’ve seen some case studies and we’re impressed, but we also have more to learn. We believe that Denodo can offer significant value to support manufacturing and supply chain analytics and AI with their data fabric approach. Thank you, Dave Nixon, for making the connection, and Saptarshi Sengupta and Deborah Wiltshire for introducing us to Denodo’s capabilities. We look forward to continuing our learning and watching their progress in manufacturing industries.
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I caught up with an old friend who has an exciting new role as Executive Board Member and Co-Owner of PDTec, a company that I am excited to get to know better. The company offers a series of composable apps based on their data management platform, ice. NET. I love their tagline “innovation through integration” and their focus spanning data, process, and systems integration. Their solutions, based on a scalable component architecture, are designed to help engineers be more effective and efficient in product development, including:
In addition to these preconfigured standard offerings, PDTec can leverage their component-based platform to develop unique solutions on a consultative basis driven by their deep industry expertise.
PDTec is not a flashy software company, instead focusing on serving their customers who include majorlinke complex, discrete manufacturers with significant adoption in the automotive industry. In fact, they publicly list many German automotive OEMs as their customers, including Porsche AG, AUDI AG, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz AG, and Daimler Truck. Their customers also include tier 1 automotive suppliers such as Brose Group, Japanese automotive OEMs Mitsubishi Corporation and Nissan Motor Corporation.
PDTec is a company I look forward to learning more about. Thank you Michael Murgai for the overview.
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Tech-Clarity Analysts Jim Brown and Michelle Boucher at Autodesk University[/caption]
2023 is in the rearview mirror and I’m reflecting on a few things that Michelle Boucher and I learned and what they mean for our industry. Here are some takeaways from Autodesk University 2023, including AI and PLM strategy updates, that will have a big impact on the industry. This is only a small portion of what we learned from multiple presentations and conversations, it’s always hard to decide what to report on from these large conferences!
It's important to point out that Autodesk is not new to AI. We’ve been in conversations with Autodesk about AI for a long time. Autodesk was one of the first large engineering software vendors to focus heavily in generative design and has been at it for some time. They are continuing their investment in generative AI to augment human innovation, for example they announced an acquisition of Blank.AI to rapidly develop design concepts for the automotive industry.
Autodesk has invested a lot of brainpower into how AI can make a difference for their customers. They’ve also invested a lot of expensive computing power to develop AI models from the vast amount of data they have access to. They have learned a lot and we expect to see continued AI capabilities rolled out at all levels of Autodesk products. To support this, Autodesk announced Autodesk AI to provide intelligent assistance and generative capabilities across their software portfolio as a part of the Autodesk Platform.
Autodesk VP Vikram Dutt further shared their vision for AI, “The cloud has connected our customers’ data, and it's enabling AI to unlock new ways of working. We really believe we're on the cusp of a new era, one where AI will fundamentally change the way our customers do business, unleashing both their agility as well as creativity. And we believe our customers really need an entirely new way of working.” It’s a bold objective that offers significant potential. We’re keeping our eyes on the progress.
Autodesk University PLM Summit[/caption]
Fusion 360 Manage is a flexible, workflow-oriented system. Fusion 360 Manage complements Autodesk’s extended PDM solution, Vault. They also offer their still relatively newly acquired Upchain solution that supports what they described as “fully cloud PDM with some PLM capabilities,” which is well suited for design-centric, multi-CAD environments.
Although there is some overlap in the offerings, Autodesk is investing in integrating all of these solutions with Fusion, their industry cloud for manufacturing. In a presentation on Autodesk Fusion Data Management, Jeremy Lambert explained that their goal is a single, unified industry cloud with capabilities from Prodsmart, Fusion 360 Manage, Fusion 360, Vault, and Upchain.
[caption id="attachment_19628" align="aligncenter" width="961"]
Autodesk Fusion Data Management[/caption]
Fusion is clearly Autodesk’s long-term strategy for the manufacturing industry. Fusion is a pure platform built from the ground up and goes well beyond PLM. As described by VP Cloud Data and PLM Derrek Cooper, Fusion is CAD, CAM, PLM, and MES data in a graph database, decoupled from logic, run through APIs. It leverages a common data model across applications, which is the target for integrating Autodesk’s PDM and PLM offerings.
AU Design & Manufacturing Executive Panel[/caption]
Autodesk University AEC Panel[/caption]
Autodesk has a leading position in AEC and there is much more to share, but I’m going to limit my commentary to one more exciting update related to the the intersection of D&M and AEC, industrialized construction. There was a very interesting presentation and exhibit from Factory OS sharing how they use Forma for sustainable modular construction, working collaboratively in the cloud , around a common language and drawings. The parallels with Fusion are noticeable, and both supported by Autodesk Platform.
What is holding companies back from Industry 4.0 project and initiative success? A few things: integration for data flows, speed to deploy software consistently to multiple sites for scalability, disconnects between corporate IT mandates and in-the-plant needs, and projects that don’t fit the budget of smaller plants and companies. Recently, Jim Brown and Julie Fraser learned how IndustryApps aims to alleviate those issues and democratize access to best-in-class Industry 4.0 approaches.
How? By building an industrial dataspace using industry standards, and inviting software application providers to use this platform to expand their reach and speed time-to-value for their projects. Manufacturers subscribe to the apps they need at any time. The OpEx approach lowers the barrier to entry and the cloud-based hosting speeds implementation.
How can you get on the journey to a model-based enterprise? What are we learning that you can put into action today? Mark your calendars for January 17th at 11AM PT/2PM ET to join us for an engaging webinar covering topics such as:
Semiconductor makers must evolve and innovate, so how can MES keep delivering value? Specialty chips can be great niches, but they don’t necessarily improve linearly or predictably. So, semiconductor companies must become more effective innovators rather than only seeking stability or increased product processing speed. Changing products, processes, and customers can boost win rates. No matter what, research and development (R&D) is a crucial foundation for business success.
Yet historically, innovation, changes, and R&D created significant challenges for legacy MES. As a result, these older systems have lost value over time. Semiconductor companies need MES that is reliable and flexible to keep up with innovation and evolving business and production processes.
Meeting new applications that build on the company’s current capabilities is a winning strategy. Specialty chips often work where virtual meets real. The intersection of virtual and real is also where MES models and capabilities meet actual fabrication, assembly, and test of chips.
In the face of constant innovation, the MES must be able to process multiple experiments at the same time as standard runs. The MES should be able to support fabs in running experimental lots with little to no disruption to commercial production. The MES ideally fully records and reports all the runs, small, large, or one-off experiments.
For reliability at the same time as flexibility, it’s ideal to have an MES that includes not only dispatching of special and commercial lots, but also maintenance, quality, materials, and more. The value comes from support for all aspects of change and innovation.
Fortunately, there are semiconductor MES available that have all of that and support greater agility with less manual effort than ever before. These modern systems enable semiconductor companies to set and meet their goals for evolving and innovating into new market opportunities. Choosing the right semiconductor MES to evolve and innovate is crucial.
Read this third in a blog series about semiconductor MES issues by Julie Fraser for a deeper look into what you might need and why. Thank you to Eyelit for supporting our efforts to educate the market to the business value of technology.
For related content, please read the previous senmconductor blog posts by Julie Fraser on Eyelit, including Redefining Semiconductor MES and the Semiconductor Risk Conundrum.
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When can an early technology decision create a risk conundrum? When you’re a semiconductor company that implemented MES a decade ago or more. You now face the decision of whether to stick with an outdated legacy system or migrate to current MES. Julie Fraser explores this risk conundrum in her second of three guest blog posts for the semiconductor industry.
Semiconductor company risks are high, and those for production are as well. While keeping with the old familiar system may seem the safer choice, it poses enormous risk. Particularly as the semiconductor industry continues to power forward with new products, applications, and markets. The uncertainty in demand is only increasing, and fabs and backend sites must keep up by becoming more agile and higher-mix.
The overall business risks are high in this time of change. The risks of technical debt from heavily customized, no-longer-supported MES include disconnected data, inability to confidently run test lots, support burdens, IT, and staffing challenges.
This article also points out that while the risks of migrating to a new MES in a current facility are substantial, they are lower than in the past. These risks are short-term and only possible, while risks of staying with the status quo older MES are long-term, persistent, guaranteed risks that current workforce shortages exacerbate.
Read the blog to learn what to look for in a new MES to ease the migration and minimize the risk. Thank you to Eyelit for the opportunity to share our views.
For related content, read Julie Fraser's guest blog post on Eyelit to learn why redefining semiconductor MES is essential to support the next 30 years of semiconductor progress. 
PPM Leader Starting Fresh
I was excited to catch up with Bryan Seyfarth after learning that he started a new company in the portfolio management space. I’ve known Bryan for years as an executive at Sopheon, that he helped become a leader in product portfolio management (PPM) solutions for consumer-oriented companies like food, beverage, and consumer packaged goods (CPG). BrightFire follows in the footsteps of other PPM solutions to help companies better capitalize on their product innovation portfolios to get the most out of their R&D and new product development (NPD) efforts.
Managing Portfolios from Innovation Through Execution
One of the things that struck me about Bryan’s vision for BrightFire is the comprehensive, yet right-sized scope. One of the key areas that many PPM solutions lack is the ability to put innovation decisions into action in the execution phase. As Bryan says, the goal is to support companies “from strategy, to prioritization, to execution.” To do this, Brightfire offers capabilities to help with:
A lot has happened since I last wrote about Propel and their Product Value Management strategy. Several significant updates are their continued progress toward their vision, very successful Propulsion and Dreamforce conferences, and a carefully executed shift in executive leadership.
Delivering on PVM
Let’s start with vision. The goal of PVM, in a nutshell, is to better connect product development with product commercialization. It sounds obvious, and those from outside of the engineering software community would probably assume PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) would inherently create digital continuity across design and commercial people and processes. Instead, most PLM solutions don’t address go-to-market or incorporate the customer experience. Interestingly, perhaps, some are starting to focus on the service lifecycle of the product following commercialization, but that’s a different post. Propel is relatively unique in their focus on PVM to close the “Product Value Gap” between product and commercial teams.
Since our last post, Propel formally announced their PIM (Product Information Management) solution to complement their existing PLM and QMS (quality management) capabilities. They also released significant additional capabilities to support new product development and go-to-market. This is evidence of significant investment to achieve their PVM strategy and we expect to see more over time.
It's important to mention, though, that they’ve also continued to further their PLM capabilities, for example with recent enhancements to further support design collaboration and visualization and integration with Altium to support ECAD (electronic CAD) alongside mechanical designs and RenderDraw for converting CAD files to interactive 2D and 3D viewables. They’ve also extended their capabilities to better support design for supply to help manufacturers develop products that are better optimized for their supply chain with a SiliconExpert integration.
Leadership Change
Founder Ray Hein has paved the path to rethink how a software category supports an industry more than once, and proved his abilities again with Propel. He surrounded himself with a strong team and listened to his customers more than most CEOs I’ve met. He and the team continued to evolve their vision by learning from customer goals and experiences. They also leveraged their strong, inherent relationship with CRM and platform provider Salesforce to streamline and integrate across the digital thread from product inception to commercial offering. The result, their PVM strategy, is both valuable and differentiating.
Ray is stepping away from Propel’s day-to-day operations, but he’s leaving after a calculated and thoughtful transition. He passes control to Ross Meyercord, who has already been Propel CEO and worked on product planning and strategy for a year while Ray focused on the broader company vision as Chief Strategy Officer. Ray will retain a role on the Propel Board and continue to offer guidance. But Ross comes with strong experience in enterprise software for the manufacturing industry and appears to be taking the same customer-centric role that Ray did. He also inherited a strong team with great credentials. See the press release here.
We’re excited to see how Propel and their PVM vision continue to grow and create a continuous digital thread across the product lifecycle, as many would agree is the ultimate goal of PLM.
Thank you Ray Hein, Ross Meyercord, and Tom Shoemaker for continuing to keep us abreast of Propel’s progress.
Our related eBook teaches companies how to adapt people, processes, and technology to improve revenue and customer experiences by connecting the product digital thread. Watch the on-demand webinar with Jim Brown, Mark Boles (Propel), and Tom Shoemaker (Propel) to learn how to solve the product information disconnect, improve NPDI, and drive product profitability.
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[post_content] => How do you build a business case for PLM that puts business value first and recognizes the role that product lifecycle management (PLM) technology plays in achieving it? Watch the replay of our President of Digital Innovation Research, Jim Brown, and Trace One PLM expert, Jobi Varghese, to learn organizational and industry drivers that you can leverage to build a solid business case around the value of a single source of truth PLM platform for the CPG and retail industries.
Watch the webinar replay to:
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[post_content] => Can a “dot-release” of SaaS software deliver even more value to the industry? If it expands the footprint, yes. The Apprentice press release announcing Tempo Manufacturing Cloud Version 7.2 appeared November 8, and quotes Tech-Clarity’s Julie Fraser.
This SaaS product aimed at biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers includes MES, but is much more. Per the quote in the press release, “[Apprentice’s] Tempo suite is a fresh approach that marries the latest enterprise mobile and SaaS technologies with composable applications for pressing industry issues," said Fraser. "Yes, there’s a SaaS MES – but there is more for the plant, quality lab, enterprise, and manufacturing network. It serves the product lifecycle, starting with preclinical and clinical."
Apprentice has entered a crowded market for pharmaceutical-focused software with great success. The relationship between plant, quality, and enterprise is a foundation. Now the extension to trading partners such as CDMOs makes the solution even stronger. We have been researching the role of cloud-based applications in manufacturing, and reaching across siloes is one advantage.
We continue to watch the progress of the Apprentice Tempo Manufacturing Cloud. The vision of meeting the changes in the industry with a new type of software to support regulated operations clearly resonates. Thank you, Kristen Kucks and team for the opportunity to share our views in this Apprentice press release.
For related content, read an Insight from Julie Fraser's briefing with Apprentice back in June 2023 on Tempo.
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One of our most recent guides, Seven Keys to Improving Service with the IoT, focuses on helping manufacturers and service companies get the most out of machine monitoring. The guide offers seven considerations for companies to consider when they target service transformation.
As we published the guide, I wondered if writing about “how” to improve service and the system capabilities it requires is enough. Are most companies aware of “why” they should be doing it in the first place, and how it can positively impact their business? If so, why isn’t everyone doing it successfully now that barriers to implementing machine monitoring through the industrial IoT (IIoT) have dropped?
Share your thoughts on my guest blog post on the PTC blog (registration required).
For related content, read our buyer's guide, Seven Keys to Improving Service with the IoT, to learn practical steps for companies to improve service through IoT condition-based monitoring.
You can also hear Jim Brown share insights from this buyer's guide and share his thoughts about improving field service by leveraging the IoT in episode 20 of PTC’s Speaking of Service Podcast with PTC’s VP of Strategic Partnerships, Christine Wolff,
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How can heavy equipment manufacturers improve engineering productivity?
Heavy equipment has become increasingly complex as the amount of mechanical components, electronics, and software grows. Customer needs for customization, electrification, autonomous operations, connectivity, lower emissions, and better efficiency have driven this complexity further. Engineers are critical to successfully meet these requirements while ensuring compliance with local regulations and standards for global customers. It is a lot to manage; yet, engineers regularly lose productivity to non-value-added tasks that rob them of their ability to meet requirements. Margins are too thin to get it wrong, while poor quality or missed delivery dates threaten brand reputation, hurting the company's ability to compete, differentiate, and grow. Imagine the potential of identifying and removing the most common non-value-added activities engineers face and empowering them to focus on designing better equipment.
This research examines how engineers at heavy equipment manufacturers spend their time, where they lose productivity, and the impact on the business. It then identifies solutions and approaches to reduce time wasters.
Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Siemens (registration required).
For related research, read Aerospace & Defense: Reducing Engineering Time Wasters to learn how aerospace & defense manufacturers can improve engineering productivity and The Business Value of Reducing Engineering Time Wasters for a look at this research across all industries.
To received personalized recommendations for how your company could improve engineering productivity, take our 5-minute online assessment.
The Business Impact
While it may be easy to accept these time wasters as the way work is done, they come at a significant business cost. For example, an overwhelming 96% of equipment manufacturers report that lost engineering productivity negatively impacts the business. All that wasted time is spent on something other than engineering heavy equipment, putting deadlines at risk. If engineers could get even some of that time back, they would be better positioned to stay on schedule and on budget. Also, considering how challenging it can be to find and recruit engineering talent, retaining and maximizing your engineering talent is critical. Empowering them to focus on the work they want to do, rather than wasting time on tedious activities increases job satisfaction, so they will likely stay longer.
Longer development times mean higher costs, risking going over budget. Plus, engineers have less time to verify requirements and optimize their designs for fuel efficiency, performance, and cost. Together, these impacts hurt profitability, making it harder to meet goals to improve margins.
Heavy Equipment Implications
To remain competitive and optimize revenue potential, heavy equipment companies must be able to meet unique needs to empower their customers to work in new ways to improve their competitiveness. To achieve this, heavy equipment engineers need the bandwidth to fulfill specialized needs, understand regional standards and regulations, and collaborate across disciplines to support new technologies, such as electrification and digitalization. Wasting their time on non-value-added work take away from these efforts while adding development cost. Therefore, a strategic focus on reducing wasted time will have a significant positive business impact.
How Companies Use PLM
How you use PLM can determine how much value you will realize from it. While equipment manufacturers experience much value from PLM, learning from those most satisfied with PLM can reveal even more opportunities for additional benefit. For example, those most satisfied with PLM use it not only to store and manage files, but also to manage engineering changes, requirements, and design release processes (see upper graphic).
The most satisfied PLM users also use it to share design data with a broader audience (see lower graph). Not only does this unlock the value of engineering data to an extended group, but it also means fewer interruptions for engineers so they can stay focused on their engineering work. This also eliminates time wasters, like working with outdated or conflicting information. This could be especially useful for heavy equipment companies considering the number of roles involved in development.
How can heavy equipment manufacturers improve engineering productivity? Heavy equipment has become increasingly complex as the amount of mechanical components, electronics, and software grows. Customer needs for customization, electrification, autonomous operations, connectivity, lower emissions, and better efficiency have driven this complexity further. Engineers are critical to successfully meet these requirements while ensuring compliance with local…
Continuous improvement and AI: Do they go together? Is AI a way for manufacturers to ensure they get maximum value from their continuous improvement (CI) projects? Can it help select CI projects with the highest value? Companies are making better decisions these days wIth analytics and AI. Tune in to this webinar to see Julie…
How can aerospace and defense engineers improve productivity? The aerospace and defense industry continues to develop some of the world’s most complex products while adhering to stringent regulations and rigorous certification standards. Moreover, technological advancements have created exciting opportunities for innovation, such as greater sustainability and automation. However, this also drives requirements for even more…
How can heavily regulated pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturers keep up with changes? By being flexible and paperless. Yet that’s not as easy as it may sound. Finding the appropriate manufacturing execution systems (MES) is a foundation for success. This eBook outlines why being flexible and paperless are now imperative. It goes on to point out…
How can manufacturers meet growing sustainability demands without compromising manufacturing performance, quality, and availability? How does a data-driven, systematic approach leveraging the digital thread in PLM allow them to operationalize sustainability to meet ESG demands? Please enjoy the summary* below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor Aras (registration required). Table of Contents Take…
In this time of uncertainty and new technologies, is it time to re-evaluate how we explore and fine-tune our supply chain forecasts, schedules, and plans? For decades, optimization and what-if planning have been in place in manufacturing supply chains. We’ll discuss new possible approaches and what we have seen working. Are traditional algorithmic and simulation…
Making plant floor software more straightforward to use, rollout, maintain, and sustain is a worthy endeavor. The fourth annual release of the GE Digital Proficy portfolio as an integrated release was packed! Updates range from expanding industry fit to architecture for enterprise rollout, cloud everywhere, composability, consistency for connected workers, sustainability functionality, and pre-built analytics…
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What is holding companies back from Industry 4.0 project and initiative success? A few things: integration for data flows, speed to deploy software consistently to multiple sites for scalability, disconnects between corporate IT mandates and in-the-plant needs, and projects that don’t fit the budget of smaller plants and companies. Recently, Jim Brown and Julie Fraser…
Introduction I had the opportunity to join two industry experts, Stephen Birtsas and Leo Moran of Kalypso, in an interactive panel discussion about the manufacturing digital twin. Our goal was to examine the business value of manufacturing digital twins in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry and review some tangible examples of successful implementations. There’s a…
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Semiconductor makers must evolve and innovate, so how can MES keep delivering value? Specialty chips can be great niches, but they don’t necessarily improve linearly or predictably. So, semiconductor companies must become more effective innovators rather than only seeking stability or increased product processing speed. Changing products, processes, and customers can boost win rates. No…
When can an early technology decision create a risk conundrum? When you’re a semiconductor company that implemented MES a decade ago or more. You now face the decision of whether to stick with an outdated legacy system or migrate to current MES. Julie Fraser explores this risk conundrum in her second of three guest blog…
What’s new and interesting in the product portfolio management (PPM) market? I caught up with Bryan Seyforth’s new company, BrightFire, to find out. What I learned is that he’s planning to make PPM more accessible for smaller companies. This is early, but something to watch. PPM Leader Starting Fresh I was excited to catch up…
A lot has happened since I last wrote about Propel and their Product Value Management strategy. Several significant updates are their continued progress toward their vision, very successful Propulsion and Dreamforce conferences, and a carefully executed shift in executive leadership. Delivering on PVM Let’s start with vision. The goal of PVM, in a nutshell, is to…
How do you build a business case for PLM that puts business value first and recognizes the role that product lifecycle management (PLM) technology plays in achieving it? Watch the replay of our President of Digital Innovation Research, Jim Brown, and Trace One PLM expert, Jobi Varghese, to learn organizational and industry drivers that you…
Can a “dot-release” of SaaS software deliver even more value to the industry? If it expands the footprint, yes. The Apprentice press release announcing Tempo Manufacturing Cloud Version 7.2 appeared November 8, and quotes Tech-Clarity’s Julie Fraser. This SaaS product aimed at biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers includes MES, but is much more. Per the quote…
One of our most recent guides, Seven Keys to Improving Service with the IoT, focuses on helping manufacturers and service companies get the most out of machine monitoring. The guide offers seven considerations for companies to consider when they target service transformation. As we published the guide, I wondered if writing about “how” to improve…