Is PLM living up to its potential in consumer packaged goods? Is it ready to support today’s digital transformation strategies? What is the status quo for PLM in CPG? We surveyed over 150 companies to find out.
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Table of Contents
- The Digital Transformation Imperative
- PLM Plays a Vital Role in Digital Transformation
- PLM Provides Multi-Faceted Business Value
- The Untapped Value of PLM
- Extending PLM Value Requires Vision
- PLM Implementations Must be Made Future Ready
- Identifying Top Performing CPG Product Developers
- Adopt More Digital Product Design Approaches
- Be More Strategic About PLM
- Utilize PLM More Broadly
- Take Advanced Approaches to Product Definition
- Leverage Advanced Product Formulation Techniques
- The State of PLM Implementations
- Move to the Cloud
- Conclusions
- About the Research
- Acknowledgments
Is PLM Meeting Its Potential?
PLM: Innovation Platform of Product Governance Utility?
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) promises enhanced product innovation and faster time to market, leading to higher market share and increased profitability. Who doesn’t want these strategic, top-line benefits?
PLM implementations, however, typically focus on increasing control, compliance, governance, quality, and product development efficiency. Those are valuable benefits, but are they enough? Is PLM living up to its potential? And is PLM ready to support today’s digital transformation strategies?
PLM Plays a Vital Role in Digital Transformation
Support Digital Transformation
PLM is the backbone of the digital enterprise. Respondents rated the importance of PLM to the strategic initiatives discussed above. A full 85% of companies see PLM as critical or important to digital transformation, and one-quarter say it is critical. On the other hand, only 3% see it as not important or relevant to supporting this strategic business imperative.
Support Digital Threads, Twins
The conclusion that PLM plays a vital role in digital transformation is supported by its importance for digital thread and digital twin initiatives. Over one-half of CPG companies say that PLM is important or critical to supporting the digital thread. Respondents report very similar views on the importance of PLM to support digital twin initiatives. The findings confirm our experience that PLM is an important part of digital transformation in the CPG industry.
The Untapped Value of PLM
Achieve Top-Line Benefits
CPG companies surveyed for this study were asked what goals they have achieved from PLM. The top two benefits, faster product development and improved product innovation, can lead to higher market share and greater revenue. Increased quality may also help improve sales and the top line. About half of the CPG companies polled report they receive each of these benefits. They also reported cost savings and operational benefits.
Extend PLM
CPG companies can achieve greater benefits if they extend their PLM systems to more people, greater functionality, and additional processes. The most commonly reported driver of significant new value for CPG companies is extending PLM to more people. In many cases, this may be possible with their existing PLM solutions. The same is likely true for extending PLM to more processes. For some, they may also be able to implement capabilities in their existing system that are currently going unused.
Improve Integration
In addition to extending PLM, or perhaps supporting it, is better PLM integration. Between one-third and one-half say that better integration with design tools would add significant value. Integration increases efficiency, collaboration, and the ability to iterate design options. This integration may include formulation, packaging, label design, and CAD tools. Beyond tool integration, many companies report they would gain higher value with better / more integration with business systems, which likely includes ERP and potentially others like CRM and MES.
Conclusions
Top Performers Show That PLM Systems Can Deliver More Value
PLM provides significant top-line, bottom-line, and operational value for CPG companies. Surveyed companies report multiple business benefits ranging from time-to-market improvements to increased compliance and traceability.
Even with the high level of value realized, there is more to be achieved by extending PLM further. Top Performers set the stage to show how Others can get the most out of their current PLM investments. Top Performers, more than Others:
- View PLM as a strategic platform for product innovation
- Recognize the value of PLM internally and in the value chain
- Extend PLM to more departments
- Digitalize data and processes
- Use more (and more advanced) PLM capabilities
- Use more advanced data modeling and simulation capabilities
PLM Systems Must Evolve to Support Digital Transformation
The majority of CPG companies believe their existing PLM systems are adequate for their current needs. But they also recognize that PLM is vital
to achieving their highly strategic, digital transformation initiatives. The current status quo of using multiple systems, which are typically customized and not fully integrated into the ecosystem, is an inhibitor to achieving digital transformation and extended value. Not surprisingly, the majority of surveyed participants don’t believe their current PLM system will meet their company’s future needs.
Top Performers point the way toward the future of PLM. They adopt PLM as a platform for the enterprise and supply chain that is more integrated, more advanced, more widely adopted, and kept more current. It’s important to note that the systems have typically been heavily customized, and not everyone can afford the tradeoffs between customization, cost, and keeping implementations up to date. But they are rewarded with better innovation, product development, and compliance – all of which help drive higher profitability.
The Future is Bright, But There is Work to be Done
PLM is already driving a lot of value, but the status quo finds most CPG companies unprepared for the future. PLM needs are changing, and PLM must adapt and evolve. CPG companies that want to retain or improve their product innovation performance must continue to improve their PLM implementations and capabilities.
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